FORGIVEN but NOT FORGOTTEN Memoirs of A

FORGIVEN BUT NOT FORGOTTEN Memoirs of a Teenage Girl Prisoner of the Japanese in China First edition: Forgiven But Not Forgotten Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke) was born 1928 in China with British citizenship. Following the declaration of war by the Allies on Japan First published in 2000 by Joyce Bradbury, 100 Cox's after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in Road, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia 2113. Te- 1941, she was interned by the Japanese Army lephone + 61 2 9878 3694. at Wei-Hsien (now called Weifang) northern China with 2000 other Allied nationals for al- E-mail address: [email protected] Body most four years. typeset in Times 12 point. In this book she tells the amazing story Copyright Joyce Bradbury Australia 2000. All rights re- of her family's long involvement in China, her served. life growing up in China, the disturbing experi- The intellectual rights of Barry Tucker, Gianni Frinzi, ences of the Japanese internment camp, libera- Georgie Perry and Marie Mansbridge for their contribu- tion from the camp by the US military, post-war China, migration to Australia, and then employ- tions to this book are acknowledged by the copyright hol- ment with the Singaporean police. der. She describes her later life in Australia, Subject to statutory exception agreements, no part of her return to China to visit the former Japa- this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, trans- nese camp and reflects on the approach of the cribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated in any Japanese to the barbarities its wartime regime form without the written permission of the publisher. visited on the many peoples it subjugated. Cataloguing in Publication data As her story ends, she pays a moving tribute to an extraordinary Australian who was Bradbury, Joyce (1928- the hero of her Japanese prison camp. Autobiography. Cover design: Gianni Frinzi 1. China – Cooke family history and schoolgirl memories ISBN 0-646-39039-2 RRP $16.00 (1928-1946) of Joyce Cooke. 2. China – Joyce Cooke, in- Foreword This book has been a labour of love for the author who first came to Australia in 1947 shortly after being released from internment in a Chinese prison camp by the Japanese during World War II. She was interned because she was a British citizen. At the time of her internment she was 13. For almost 20 years, she and her husband, Bob, have spent time researching material for this book for her family, friends and people interested in her life and the intriguing lives of her antecedents. Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke) also tells how she progressed from her wartime childhood adversity to a full life after World War II. Despite internment by the Japanese she is not embittered. Today, she plays an active role in her adopted Australia where she is well-respected for her community service work, has successfully raised three sons, is a grand-mother, and keeps in touch with survivors of the Japanese camp who are now scattered around the world. From a reader's perspective, this is the story of an interesting woman, a fascinating family and a diverse group of persons who have peopled the author's life. The author also acknowledges many amazing people bool, Victoria, and Sydney, New South Wales, and the Preface Diocese of San Bernardino, California. Writing a book for the first time is a tough but satisfy- I thank survivors of the Japanese camp for their com- ing experience. It could not have been done without radeship, their help, comments and recollections. the help of other people and memories of the extraordinary people who have sustained me at different I hope readers will enjoy the book. times in my life. Finally, a note for readers. I have written this book because there have been Names of Chinese places in this book's text follow events in my life that should be documented. These are the names which were in common use by English sometimes sad, sometimes funny and often inspiring. speakers at the time of the events recorded. Where I wish to dedicate this book to my children, George, they first appear in the book they are followed by their Tom and Bill, who have constantly given me joy. I espe- present name, e.g. Peking (now known as Beijing). On cially would like to thank my husband Bob for his re- the map of China the contemporary place name is giv- search work over many years. en followed by the former name in brackets to assist users readers referring to modern atlases. The source Separately, I thank Barry Tucker who was the book's for the Chinese place names used in the map and the copy editor, Gianni Frinzi the book's graphic designer text is Philip's World Atlas ninth edition, published and picture editor, Georgie Perry for her cartography Great Britain 1999. Names of other places, e.g. Pearl and photographs, Sister Marie Mansbridge for her pho- Harbor, also follow their official local spelling of the tograph of her uncle, Michelle Bradbury for her recent time. family photograph, and my proofreaders, George Brad- bury, Rosemary Lynch, Diane Burns and the late Broth- Spellings in quoted documents follow that of the er Gregory Robinson FMS. documents. Other spellings follow that of The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, published by Ox- In compiling the book I was also helped by the Rever- ford University Press in the United States in 1989 in end Abbot David Tomlins of the Cistercian (Trappist) the first instance and then The Macquarie Dictionary, Tarrawarra Abbey at Yarra Glen, Victoria, members of published by Macquarie Library Pty. Ltd. in Australia in Father Patrick Scanlan's Australian family in Warrnam- 1981. Immediately after the US Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii was bombed by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 — and the subsequent declaration of war on Ja- pan by the World War II Allies — my family quickly CHAPTER —1— went from a comfortable life of good food, servants and a wonderful social life to a Japanese-controlled How I came to be in Australia nightmare. First, we faced restricted home confine- My name is Joyce Dorothy Bradbury. I was born Joyce ment, then a Japanese regime of imprisonment in a ho- Dorothy Cooke in Tsingtao (now called Quingdao), tel and finally imprisonment in a Japanese-run, vermin- North China, on June 13, 1928. I lived there until No- infested internment compound where we were forced vember 1946 when my mother, brother and I left China to undergo hardship, starvation, threats and intimida- for Sydney, Australia. tions for three-and-a-half years until liberated by US forces after the end of the war. We travelled first by cargo ship to Hong Kong and then by the SS Nellore, a cargo-passenger ship, from Mine is not the usual story of wholesale slaughter, cruelty on a large scale or other severe violations against humanity at the hands of the Japanese. My internment story is about their deliberate mistreatment of civilians. Although I was 13 at the time of our imprisonment and 17 at the time of liberation I have retained an excellent recollection of many events in the internment compound and will carry those recollections to my grave. I relate them as they happened based on my observations and knowledge. Upon our release after the © www.woodmanpointquarantinestation.com war we were returned to our home in Tsingtao where we picked up the pieces and started again. Throughout Hong Kong via Rabaul in Pa- 1946, Chinese Communist pua New Guinea and disem- military forces began taking barked in Sydney. It was sup- over control of the Chinese posed to be a holiday trip but Government in the area I was seasick the whole voy- where we lived. Anticipating age except when we entered their success and realising port. Even then, my stomach there was no future for us in turned in Rabaul where I saw China, my father in late 1946 huge sharks in the harbour sent my mother, brother and enjoying feeding frenzies me to Australia `for a holi- when-ever garbage was day'. Shortly after our arrival thrown over the ship's side. in Sydney he sent us a tele- I have been asked by family gram saying: "Remain in Aus- and friends to set down de- tralia, am joining you soon." tails of my experiences in Chi- Dad's holiday trip plan was na, particularly as a prisoner his way of getting us to leave China without the Chinese of the Japanese during World War II. This, I have done. authorities becoming aware of our intentions and then To make my story more complete I explain how my frustrating my father's plans of getting his assets out of family came to be in China and why we were interned China. His covert asset transfer hopes came to little. He by the Japanese as British subjects. Had we been Chi- had to abandon real estate and a considerable amount nese citizens we would not have been interned. of other property. I know he had shares in the Shanghai I also deal with our return to our home in China after water works and also Shanghai's electricity department the war and then having to leave that home to settle in as well as $US 10,000 dollars in a bank which he later Australia before the Communists took over govern- told us he had to leave there. ment in mainland China. Dad, or Pop as we called him in the family, was able to bring enough money to buy a house in Sydney's West Ryde and to maintain us for a while but inevitably we all had to find a job to have a normal lifestyle.

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