Roosevelt speaks of bombing Japan & of a combined USA & British E.F. landing on the Continent.
33% Jap Navy & 60% convoys lost. 2 ½ ton bombs on Germany.
Rained.
Cookhouse routine more stringent re food.
Pages tagged:
Less to eat than ever: cooking (Married Q) dreadful; more kitchen squabbles there . Everyone fed up and starving. One foot seems going to sleep. Wet and blowy.
The 'Doolittle' raids take place today: American bombers launch attacks on targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and other major Japanese cities. Although not of great military significance, they are valuable for propaganda and morale-raising purposes, as they are the first time that the main islands of Japan have been hit.
News of the raids seems to have taken a few days to reach the internees. On April 22 R. E. Jones records 'Japan bombed?' and the next day he makes an inaccurate note of the damage done.
Bread bl. 4 & 5 only
Rotten weather.
Cookhouse all day.
Parcels arriving OK.
Death of Alexander Ogilvie, aged 66.
The American community hold their monthly meeting and discuss the loan (see April 13) and repatriation.
A few Norwegians and two American women are allowed to leave for town under the 'guaranteeing out' system.
Sources:
Death: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 271
Meeting, leaving camp: Maryknoll Diary, April 20
Rose / Spence.
Bread bl. 2 & 3 only
Ingledew ((sp?)) kitchen crew out
Death of Mr A Ogilvie (66)1942-04-19
Rain & wind. Quiet day.
Back at hospital office again. Good: feel tiredish but more energetic and ate quite an amount of rice, as also did Mum.
Jack Fancey died early this morning. ((He had spent his last days, cheerfully, on a bed near the verandah on first floor ward of the hospital, overlooking the sea.))
Death of Jack Fancey, aged 24.
A meeting of the British Communal Council notes the formation of the British Women's Group.
Sources:
Death: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 271
Group: John Stericker, Captive Colony, Chapter V, page 27
Note: Part of today's entry in the Maryknoll Diary reads, Another death, from tuberculosis, in the hospital.
My diary is getting behind hand and I must catch up. Many things seem to have happened since my last entry. Firstly the war news seems very depressing: Penang, Rangoon, The Dutch East Indies, most of the Philippines (including Luzon and Wake Islands) and apparently New Guinea and Borneo have fallen to the Japanese. The northern part of Australia – Port Darwin – has been bombed and so also have Colombo and Trincomale harbours in Ceylon.
More rain.
No news.
Put in request for Club funds $3,500.
Quiet walk around camp boundary with Steve. ((We think this was E. J. Stevens - see notes below))
Feeling grand, but Mum in pain and to see Dr Kirk tomorrow
Duck egg again.
Spring Offensive reported starting.
Maryknoll Sisters Mary Paul, Anne, Ann Mary and Maria Regis are released from camp because, although American, they've established Irish descent.
The London Daily Express publishes this article on page 4:
REMEMBER HONGKONG
Starvation threat to prisoners
Express Correspondent FRANCIS LEE
CHUNGKING, Monday.
3 Maryknoll Sisters left Camp
More news re Russian progress & Stalin’s affirmation of war ending in Autumn.
Fine but dull.
Kitchen staff pm short for rations.
Death of A. W. J. Simmons, aged 61.
Mr. Simmons was a Catholic and former resident of Erinville, near Stanley. He died of heart failure, and the doctors say it was brought on by malnutrition. He was buried at 6 p.m. 'in the local cemetery, where the row of new graves is steadily lengthening'. A funeral mass is held for him on the 23rd.
Death of Mr. A.W.J. Simmons (61) at S.S. College
Sir Arthur & Lady Blackburn left Camp. (Returned 2 days later)