Imprisonment on Hong Kong

After the Surrender

Whilst the formal surrender of the Hong Kong garrison by Governor Young and General Maltby took place on Christmas day in 1941 at 15:30, limited fighting continued into the early morning of the 26th December. The village of Stanley, held by the East Brigade, continued to fight on until they received confirmation of the surrender in writing; the surrender was signalled by Gunner Jack Etiemble sounding the retreat and last post before stamping on his bugle and trumpet. In addition, the Central Ordnance Munitions Depot, generally referred to as "Little Hong Kong", remained manned by around 60 soldiers until the 27th December until it was honourably surrendered by its commander Major Dewar; this was the last place to surrender in the battle for Hong Kong.

The Japanese forces began to round up the surrendered men and on the 29th December marched the two thousand or so men captured with the East Brigade in Stanley towards North Point on the island's north shore. For many of the men who were still recovering from the battle or, who could not keep up, this would be their last trip as they were brutally executed by the side of the road and their bodies joined the many that had fallen during the battle.

The POW Camps on Hong Kong

The survivors of the East Brigade were initially house in the former Chinese refugee camp at North Point which was very exposed to the elements often being struck by gales and bad weather.

The seven thousand or so survivors from the West Brigade who had been captured in the central and western parts of the island were gathered the following day at Victoria. In the afternoon they were transported by ferry across to Kowloon before being marched to Shamshuipo camp where they joined other men who had been captured in the earlier stages of the fighting. Shamshuipo had been a purpose built barracks where many of the men had been based before the invasion and thankfully was in better condition than the camp at North point, despite being one of the initial targets for the Japanese bombing and subjected to looting by the Chinese population.

The Indian units were sent to a separate camp at Ma Tau Chong with the surviving Hong Kong Police, who had fought as militia, being interned as civilians in Stanley Camp. Families of the fighting men who had not been evacuated were initially gathered in hotels on the Sai Ying Poon waterfront on the 4th January 1942 before being relocated on the 21st January to a permanent internment camp in Stanley. For families who had been evacuated they would not receive any news of their relatives for up to one month after the surrender which would often be just an official letter stating that their loved ones were posted as "missing".

On the 26th January 1942 the naval personnel imprisoned at Shamshuipo were assembled and taken back across to the island to join the Canadian solders located at North Point. By this point the Japanese had established three POW camps; the Canadians and naval personnel plus some Dutch submariners captured off Malaya at North Point, the Indians at Ma Tau Chung in Kowloon with the bulk of the regular British and Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC) at Shamshuipo.

Conditions in the POW Camps on Hong Kong

The biggest complaint that the POWs had throughout their internment would be the lack of food which generally consisted of rice with very little else. The lack of any real nutrition plus the poor sanitation meant that disease soon became rife with many soldiers succumbing to pneumonia, dysentery and dry beri beri from which many would sadly die. Boredom also became a factor during their incarceration with little to do beyond play cards or other sedentary pastimes.

In April 1942 the officers were relocated to another POW camp on Argyle street with the naval personnel being returned to Shamshuipo. The cold winter meant that the POWs did not leave their beds for days on end unless it was to collect their meals or attend the roll call

After seven months, families of the POWs began to receive notification from the War Office that their loved ones were still alive with letters from the POWs themselves arriving shortly after. By the beginning of August 1942, a total of 186 of those imprisoned in Hong Kong had died of wounds, disease or other causes since the surrender.

Transportation Begins

The rumours within the camp that the POWs were to be transported from Hong Kong had been going around for some time however, this became a reality when a hastily arranged transport ship, the Shi Maru, took 616 POWs aboard to work for the war industry in Japan and sailed on the 3rd September. Most of these prisoners were considered to be troublemakers who would not bow down to Japanese authority and were more commonly referred to as the 'hard men'.

Around this time, a serious outbreak of Diphtheria broke out amongst the POWs in Shamshuipo. Unsurprisingly this spread quickly around the prisoners due to their already weakened condition with up to five prisoners dying daily when the epidemic was at its peak.

At the same time, news of another transportation began to circulate with the Japanese demanding a list of 2,000 fit men to provide slave labour for the docks, mines, factories an ports of Japan. This transportation would reduce the numbers of POWs in Shamshuipo sufficiently to allow the closure of North Point camp by relocating POWs from there to Shamshuipo. The list also contained a number of officers who had been moved from Argyle Street some months previously and a few hundred Royal Naval personnel. Whilst the conditions in Hong Kong were far from ideal, the fact that the POWs would be moved to Japan meant that they would remain POWs until the war ended was not lost on those identified to be transported to Japan.

The Lisbon Maru

At four o'clock on the morning, all of those identified to be transported were woken, given breakfast and were issued with two sugarloaves as emergency rations. They then made their way to the Jubilee parade ground where they formed up into sections of fifty men. In true military fashion they then waited until being addressed by the commander of all the POW camps in Hong Kong who identified who would be commanding the vessel and that they would be guarded by twenty-five soldiers. The POWs then made their way down to Bamboo Pier where everyone was disinfected, before boarding one of the ferries shuttling them across to a rusting old freighter moored off Stonecutters Island, this would be their first sight of the Lisbon Maru.