The Internment of Western Civilians Under the Japanese 1941-1945

THE INTERNMENT OF WESTERN CIVILIANS UNDER THE JAPANESE 1941–1945 RoutledgeCurzon Studies in the Modern History of Asia 1 The Police in Occupation Japan Control, corruption and resistance to reform Christopher Aldous 2 Chinese Workers A new history Jackie Sheehan 3 The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya 4 The Australia-Japan Political Alignment 1952 to the present Alan Rix 5 Japan and Singapore in the World Economy Japan’s Economic Advance into Singapore, 1870–1965 Shimizu Hiroshi and Hirakawa Hitoshi 6 The Triads as Business Yiu Kong Chu 7 Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism A-chin Hsiau 8 Religion and Nationalism in India The Case of the Punjab Harnik Deol 9 Japanese Industrialisation Historical and Cultural Perspectives Ian Inkster 10 War and Nationalism in China 1925–1945 Hans J. van de Ven 11 Hong Kong in Transition One Country, Two Systems Edited by Robert Ash, Peter Ferdinand, Brian Hook and Robin Porter 12 Japan’s Postwar Economic Recovery and Anglo-Japanese Relations, 1948–1962 Noriko Yokoi 13 Japanese Army Stragglers and Memories of the War in Japan, 1950–1975 Beatrice Trefalt 14 Ending the Vietnam War The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective Ang Cheng Guan 15 The Development of the Japanese Nursing Profession Adopting and Adapting Western Influences Aya Takahashi 16 Women’s Suffrage in Asia Gender Nationalism and Democracy Louise Edwards and Mina Roces 17 The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922 Phillips Payson O’Brien 18 The United States and Cambodia, 1870–1969 From Curiosity to Confrontation Kenton Clymer 19 Capitalist Restructuring and the Pacific Rim Ravi Arvind Palat 20 The United States and Cambodia, 1969–2000 A Troubled Relationship Kenton Clymer 21 British Business in Post-Colonial Malaysia, 1957–70 ‘Neo-colonialism’ or ‘Disengagement’ Nicholas J. White 22 The Rise and Decline of Thai Absolutism Kullada Kesboonchoo Mead 23 Russian Views of Japan, 1792–1913 An Anthology of Travel Writing David N. Wells 24 The Internment of Western Civilians under the Japanese, 1941–1945 A Patchwork of Internment Bernice Archer THE INTERNMENT OF WESTERN CIVILIANS UNDER THE JAPANESE 1941–1945 A Patchwork of Internment BERNICE ARCHER First Published in 2004 in Great Britain by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4 4EE and in the United States of America by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 1001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 2004 Bernice Archer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-203-32587-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0 7146 5592 9 (cloth) ISBN 0 7146 8478 3 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Archer, Bernice, 1940– The internment of Western civilians under the Japanese 1941–1945: a patchwork of internment/Bernice Archer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7146-5592-9 1. World War, 1936–1945 – Prisoners and prisons, Japanese. 2. World War, 1938–1945 – Concentration camps – Orient. 3. Concentration camps – Orient. 4. Prisoners of war – Orient – Social conditions – 20th century. 8. Concentration camps – Orient – Psychological aspects – 20th century. I. Title. DS05.J3A65 2004 940.53’17’0952––dc22 2003062609 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book. Japan went to war with virtually no policy for the treatment of prisoners, especially enemy civilian internees. It could further be said that this problem was not even one of great concern for the Japanese Government. Japanese Historian, Utsumi Aiko, 1996 vii CONTENTS List of Illustrations x Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 Chapter One The Prelude to War 29 Chapter Two The Men’s Response to Internment 65 Chapter Three The Women’s Response to Internment 115 Chapter Four The Children’s Response to Internment 173 Chapter Five Conclusion 217 Epilogue 237 Appendix Notes on the Oral History: Method Interviews and Correspondents 246 References 253 Index 274 ILLUSTRATIONS 1 Dedication to Australian soldiers on the reverse of the Australian quilt xi 2 Patchwork square depicting Changi Prison, Singapore, taken from the Australian quilt 1 3 Patchwork square depicting the rising sun, taken from the Japanese quilt 29 4 Patchwork squares depicting George and the Dragon, a Scottish Piper, a cheerful Tommy and Sir Francis Drake, taken from the Australian quilt 65 5 Patchwork squares depicting two crinoline ladies, a 3-piece suite entitled ‘thoughts of home’ and an English country garden, taken from the British and Australian quilts 115 6 Patchwork squares depicting the Changi fairies, Dungie and Dungetta and three children, taken from the British and Australian quilts 173 7 ‘Homeward Bound’ patchwork square, taken from the Australian quilt 217 8 Dedication to Japanese soldiers on the reverse of the Japanese quilt 237 9 (map) Japanese Prisoner-of-War camps, taken from Total War: The Causes and Courses of the Second World War, rev. 2nd edn, Vol. II (London: Penguin, 1989). xiv–xv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks go first to the late Naomi Price whose memories of her internment in Stanley Camp, Hong Kong started me on the long journey to the completion of this book. The rest could not have been written without the recollections of many other ex-internees. My time spent with each interviewee was both enriching and humbling. I shall always be indebted to them for their hospitality, their friendship, their gen- erosity of spirit and for sharing and entrusting me with their personal memories of their internment experiences. My special thanks also go to those ex-internees, and in some cases their relatives, who allowed me access to their memoirs and diaries and gave me permission to quote from them. I owe all of them a particular debt of gratitude. Dr R. John Pritchard deserves a special mention for his encouragement and advice at the inception of this project. Scholarly advice came from Professor Steve Smith whose incisive criticisms were, as always, far outweighed by his support and encouragement. I am also grateful to Dr Mike Roper, Professor Penny Summerfield, Dr Harry Lubasz, Professor Jay Winter and Dr Jane Pearson, each of whom read and commented on the project at various stages. Thanks are also due to my colleagues at Essex University, in particular those members of the Social History and Graduate History groups who acted as sounding boards for ideas and forums for discussion. My research was made easier with the help of a number of archivists, especially Roderick Suddaby and Alan Jeffreys at the Imperial War Museum, London, Jane Peek at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, the librarians at Rhodes House Library, Oxford, and The Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Cambridge, as well as the staff at the Public Record Offices in Kew, Hong Kong and Singapore. I am especially grateful to Felicity McAvoy and Julia Archer for their assistance in locating various books and references. I would particularly like to thank the staff at the British Red Cross Museum and Canberra War Memorial for permission and help in photographing the Changi quilts, Michael Archer for photographing the British quilt and Simon Ferguson for producing the illustrations from the transparencies. Transcribing interview tapes is labour intensive and I am for ever grateful to Doreen Trowhill for her invaluable help with the tran- scriptions. The Association of British Civilian Internees Far Eastern Region (ABCIFER) assisted in locating ex-internees. Keith Martin, ex-chairman of ABCIFER, Ron Bridge, the present chairman, Gilbert M. Hair, Executive Director of the Centre for Internee Rights, Inc. (CFIR) and Derk HilleRisLambers were all particularly helpful in giving advice and information on the compensation issue. My thanks also go to my colleagues at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol who assisted with the mounting of the ‘Patchwork of Internment’ exhibition which stemmed from and fed into this work. Much of my research took me a long way from home and I am grateful for the generous hospitality of friends and family on my travels and the constant support from my family at home. Over the past few years this project has become almost as much a part of their lives as it has mine. Sapporo Asahigawa JAPANESE PRISONER-OF-WAR CAMPS Utashinia Otaru Bibai Temiya Anta Harbin Tomakomai Muroran Mitsuishi Pingfan 500 km Hakodate (2) 300 miles Kamiso Hakodate Aomori Sian-Saihan Kosaka Menchiangchung Ssupinkai Odate Kamito Kozan (Mogatong) Hanawa Futatsui Seishin Mukden Fushun Akita Morioka Wakasen Konan S e a o f Peking ChinHua Renpo Murakami Sendai J a p a n Fengtai Repho JAPAN Niigata Fukushima Tientsin Keljo (3) Nooetsu Yuwake Hiraoka Jinsen Tokyo Toyama Hitachi Motoyama Chefoo Ryuzan Kanazawa Utsunomiya Hitachi Oyama Shimodate Weihsien Matsushima Tsingtao Osaka Roku Roshi Tokyo (15) Kobe Yonago Gifu Pusan Himeji Tsuruga Kawasaki (3) Myoshi Nagoya (4) Yokohama (12) Koshuyu I. Omine Maibara Shimonoseki Tamano Kobe Yokkaichi Shizuoka Utaga Kure Osaka (9) Yawata Ube Niihama (12) Onoda (2) Wakayama Fukuoka Nadama Nagasaki Sasebo Beppu Zentsuji (2) Shingu Yangchow Kochi Nanking Koyagi Shima Futase Moj (2) Woosung Nagasaki (14) Kashima Kiangwan Shanghai Omuta Tinghai I. CHINA P’u-t’o Shan I. Kinhua Amami I. Myitkyina TengChung YUNNAN Bhamo Shangkaikai Chaiotoukai Huangsikan Keeling Lungling Mangshin PROVINCE Taihoku No. 1 Mawlaik Burma Road Kinkaseki Taihoku No. 6 Muksaq Amoy Tosei Kalewa Maymyo Pakkai Taichu Karenko Mandalay Canton (14) Swatow Shirakawa Akyab Chueng Pang Toroku Tamazato Kowloon Heito P a c i f i c O c e a n Gialam Airport Takao BURMA Hong Kong Hanoi Haiphong Calcutta Cheung Kong Pakshaw Shinhlushan Hoihow HAINAN I.

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