Everything tagged: WW2: repatriated 1942 Asama Maru + Gripsholm

DoB from John Black's list.

Barbara Petro was working at the American Consulate at the time of the Japanese attack of December 8, 1941. With the rest of the American diplomats and staff, she was held in a house just outside the boundaries of Stanley until just before the June/July repatriation, which she joined. Her husband had already escaped from Hong Kong, and it's believed she joined him in the USA.

Source:

Emily Hahn, China to Me, 1987 ed., 293, 307, 368.

T. B. Wilson was head of the American President Lines Hong Kong office in 1941. One of the first indications that a Japanese attack was imminent came  at about midnight on December 6 at a Grand Fancy Dress Party, held at the Peninsula Hotel in aid of the British and Chinese war funds, when Wilson announced that anyone connected with a ship in the harbour should report for duty at once.

He was interned in Stanley and repatriated on the Asama Maru/Gripsholm.

American missionary and teacher. He, his wife Sally, and family were interned in Stanley and repatriated on the Asama Maru/Gripsholm.

Sally Refo was a Presbyterian missionary and teacher.

She was interned in Stanley and repatriated on the Asama Maru/Gripsholm with her husband Henry and four children.

In 1913 he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs, a service he remained with until the war.

During the December 1941 hostilities he was a volunteer driver taking first aid to both civilians and military. After the surrender, he continued as a driver for the uninterned medical and health workers so was never in Stanley.

He was repatriated on the Asama Maru/Gripsholm and resumed his work for the Chinese Nationalist authorities in Washington, D. C.

Sources and more information:

Wife of Herbert H Pommerenke.

Date of birth from the Biographical History at the Finding Aid to the Pommerenke family papers, online at:

http://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/findingaids/fa.cfm?record_id=1…

She gives a brief description of her experiences in Hong Kong on page four of the Perry Herald, Perry, NY on 13 Jan 1943: