Interned at Chinese hotels. (Mee Chow, Tung Fong, Luk Hoi Tung, New Asia, Stag, Nanking, Tai Koon).
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((The following text is undated:))
Rice for bkfst but before that Lt Sawamoto arrived with some med supplies and a lorry; he took a fatigue party to CBS for camp beds. I went along and had a look over the school. It was about ½ full of patients (soldiers) malaria dysentery and other medical cases. The Physics and Chem labs were in use as diagnostic labs. We loaded 47 camp beds and while the party was taking them back to Sham Shui Po I asked Lt Sawamoto to take me over to Argyle St. Con
((Second entry for this date))
Time passes on. I was up at the house yesterday - still all safe. Cressall had told me it had been completely looted. I'm going to try and move things down, but I'm not sure if anywhere else will be any safer. B.
Between 1000 and 1500 civilians gather at the Murray Parade Ground.
A number of people living in outlying areas are not present because news of the order never reached them, while others decide to risk ignoring it.
After chaotic scenes, most of those present are marched off to low quality hotels on the waterfront where they will be kept for more than two weeks. Historian Oliver Lindsay writes:
This 'accommodation' was chosen by the Japanese with a view to destroying what little remained of British 'face' or prestige.
January 5th the Japs posted notice in town that all enemy aliens were to register at the Murray Parade Grounds, but some people didn't think that there was any thing funny in the air and just went to see what they were supposed to do and got slapped into some of the Chinese hotels, with just what they had on for the internment. And their folks or friend that were living with them during the siege didn't know where they were unless they managed smuggling letters out most likely.
((David: Although Mrs Ziegler gives the date as the 6th, all other diaries give the date the British, Americans & Dutch were sent to the hotels as the 5th, so that's the date I've used.))
About 11:30 in the morning on January 6, the neighbor called us and told us he had just received notice that all British, Americans, and Dutch in the colony would have to be down to the park six blocks away, by noon to be interned. We were allowed to take what we could carry.
Today duty. H Block. Nothing of interest. Heard 13 Jap ships sunk.
Most of us in Tai Koon sent to Murray Parade Ground by the Japs to register intenees. The idea seemed to be to compile some sort of register under such headings as women, children, men, ages, nationality, occupation etc. We were sat out in the open at trestle tables, and chairs, and each given a different category to record on printed forms. We hadn't been there very long when we were told to stop, as the job would take too long.
Rained in the early hours of this a.m. Jap band turned up about 1000. Inspected Hospitals, 18 in isolation, 7 in our hosp, 12 in Indian.
Father Bernard Tohill and two others had waited around at the Murray Parade Ground yesterday but were told to go home in the late afternoon. He returns today with five others and they're eventually taken to the Nam Ping Hotel at 141 Des Voeux Road Central. They are given no food by the Japanese, but are fed by a group that had arrived on the fifth. The next day they are told they have to provide for themselves, so they set up a fund to which they contribute a dollar a day.
Walk to town, no transport of any sort offering. Dead body under truck at bottom of Morrison Hill still there. Near Naval Hospital a dud shell partly buried in roadway – edged away as heavy truck rushed past.
Queen's Road East lined from end to end with stalls selling all sorts of things. Much loot from abandoned homes. Then a stall that was different. A wooden bed supported on stools, and on it as though asleep an old woman, dead.
Clearing up debris slowly. Nothing happened noteworthy. Reviewed our day of action for the umpteenth time. Walked around the Gaol.
Watching over the verandah - our normal occupation - we saw the Food Control lot passing by on foot, among them Olive (my elder sister) prominent in her scarlet jacket the same as mind, and her fair long hair. We all waved and called, and every one seemed to be taking everything as a huge joke. They were put into the Nanking Hotel, not far away from us but on the other side of the road.
Up early and got Scriven moving about sanitation of the dysentery cases. Brit Hosp has 21 cases, Brit Isolation 36 cases, Indian 130 cases.
Rice for bkfst and what was left over fried with sardines and raisins for lunch. Jap Lt General came this a.m. but did not want to go near the hospitals. Apparently our General got nothing out of him at all. He simply said we must have patience.
Wenzell Brown and his fellows have the 'rules and regulations which were to govern us' read by two Japanese, who also lecture them about the bad treatment of Japanese nationals in the USA. But there's a happier development:
The first batch of food came in on the third day - rice and ducks. The ducks had come from the storage rooms of the Dairy Farm where the refrigeration system had broken down two weeks before. The meat had turned blue, and it gave forth a most unpleasant odor.
Bitterly cold night last night with a biting wind; very difficult to get any sleep at all; wired bags and strapped clothes over windows but still the cold blew in.
Still carrying on as well as we can. We are to be interned but I heard today - perhaps on the Peak in which case I shall go back to 152. I was there again today - still o.k. - I brought the small box we used to have at the matshed. There has been a plague of flies here so we all have H.K. "dog" - but I m getting over it. I am having a more or less foodless day and taking [??? Sodi? Sulphi?] - your Bournvita is a godsend. I'll tell you some day what a boon these iron rations have been to us - and your candles.