Stanley Internment Camp () was a civilian internment camp in Hong Kong during the Second World War. Located in Stanley, on the southern end of Hong Kong Island, it was used by the Japanese imperial forces to hold non-Chinese enemy nationals after their victory in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. About 2,800 men, women, and children were held at the non-segregated camp for 44 months from early January 1942 to August 1945 when Japanese forces surrendered. The camp area consisted of St Stephen's College and the grounds of Stanley Prison, excluding the prison itself.
Evacuation and arrival at camp
In 1939, the British government had drawn up evacuation plans for the British and other European residents of Hong Kong, which was a Crown colony of the United Kingdom (UK) at the time. The War Office thought the city would inevitably fall to Japanese forces in the event of an attack, so it should not be reinforced with more defensive forces. The presence of a large number of British women and children would have been an "embarrassment" for the government when the Japanese forces took Hong Kong, and additionally it was thought the internment of thousands of British civilians would cause unnecessary suffering and serve the Japanese as propaganda material. In July 1940, the colonial government of Hong Kong received orders from the UK to proceed with the evacuations. By 3 August, all service families and registered non-service British women and children were moved to the Philippines.Archer and Fedorowich; page 376 However, the hurried compulsory evacuations prompted criticism from many evacuees, their husbands, and their employees, who felt the evacuations were premature and unnecessary. According to historians Bernice Archer and Kent Fedorowich, the local Chinese population were angered by their exclusion from the evacuations and condemned the plans as racist. Additionally, the plans excluded British passport holders who were not of European ancestry. Amidst the criticism, the government subsequently made the evacuations non-compulsory. Existing evacuations already ordered were cancelled provided evacuees volunteered for auxiliary roles, such as nursing or administrative work.
On 8 December 1941 Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong, marking the start of the Battle of Hong Kong. Seventeen days later, on Christmas Day of 1941, which came to be known as "Black Christmas", the Hong Kong government surrendered, and Hong Kong came under Japanese occupation. On 4 January 1942, a notice appeared in an English-language newspaper that all "enemy nationals" were to assemble on Murray Parade Grounds. Many people did not see the notice, but about 1,000 people were eventually gathered on the grounds.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); page 30 In addition to those who gathered voluntarily, there were people forcibly removed from their homes.
The people assembled were marched to and initially interned in hotel-brothels on the waterfront near the present-day Macau Ferry Pier. The conditions there were dirty and overcrowded, and the food was poor. After 17 days, the internees were taken by boat to Stanley. The "enemy nationals" who failed to assemble on Murray Parade Grounds avoided internment at the hotel-brothels. However, by the end of January, most of the civilians to be interned were moved to Stanley. Upon arrival at camp, the internees discovered little was prepared for them there. There were no cooking facilities, no furniture, little crockery or cutlery. The toilet facilities were dirty, inadequate, and without water. The rooms were soon overcrowded with random assortments of people unrelated to each other, and with little attention paid to hygiene or public health.Archer and Fedorowich; page 379
Camp grounds
The Stanley site was chosen by the Japanese through consultation with two Hong Kong government officials – Dr. P. S. Selwyn-Clarke, Director of Medical Services, and F. C. Gimson, the Colonial Secretary. Located on Stanley Peninsula, which was about nine kilometres from the city at the time,Emerson (Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong, 1942–1945); page 8 the camp consisted of St. Stephen's College and the grounds of Stanley Prison, excluding the prison itself; the prison was used by the Japanese authorities to hold what they considered "criminals" from Hong Kong.Emerson (Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong, 1942–1945); page 16 Several hundred internees lived at St. Stephen's, while the majority of them lived on the prison grounds. Prior to Japanese occupation, St. Stephen's was a secondary school whose facilities, in addition to classrooms, included an assembly hall, bungalows for teachers, and science laboratories. Over twenty internees occupied each bungalow, which was built for one family, and more than that occupied each science laboratory, living between partitions of sacking and old blankets. Almost all the buildings in the camp were used for housing.Emerson (Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong, 1942–1945); page 10
Certain buildings and areas on the prison grounds had specific functions: The Prison Officers' Club was used for multiple functions, including as a canteen, a kindergarten, Catholic church, and recreation centre. Two main divisions of quarters existed – the Warders' Quarters and the Indian Quarters. Before the war, the Warders' Quarters housed European warders, with large flats designed for one family each, and the Indian Quarters housed Indian prison guards, built with smaller flats. An average of thirty internees lived in each Warders' Quarters flat, and an average of six internees lived in each Indian Quarters flat.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); pages 31–32 A building which had housed single Indian warders before the war was turned into a hospital called Tweed Bay Hospital.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); page 32 Two houses, originally used as homes for the prison superintendent and the prison doctor, were turned into the Japanese headquarters for the camp. The cemetery on the grounds became a popular spot for quiet relaxation as well as a place for intimate meetings between male and female internees.
Life at camp
The internees numbered at 2,800, of which an estimated 2,325 to 2,514 were British. The adult population numbered at 1,370 men and 858 women, and children 16 years of age or younger numbered at 286, with 99 of whom were below the age of 4. The camp was under the control of the Japanese Foreign Affairs Department,Emerson (Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong, 1942–1945); page 37 but according to historian Geoffrey Charles Emerson, the Japanese forces had not made plans for dealing with enemy civilians in Hong Kong. As such, the camp was provided with few necessities, and the internees were left to govern the camp themselves.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); page 33 Committees were formed for such matters as housing, food, and medical care. The national groups remained mostly independent of each other except for matters of welfare and medical care. Very few government servants were selected to serve on these committees, due to anti-government sentiment; most internees blamed the government for the quick surrender of Hong Kong.
The biggest concern was food; ensuring there was enough food occupied most of the internees' time. Little food was provided by the Japanese authorities, and it was of poor quality – frequently containing dust, mud, rat and cockroach excreta, cigarette ends, and sometimes dead rats.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); page 34 Every day, the internees were served rice congee at 8 am, and meals consisting of rice with stew at both 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Additionally, they relied on food mailed from friends or relatives in the city, Red Cross aid, garden-grown vegetables, and bought food from the canteen or the black market.
Another concern was the health and medical care of the internees. Although medical facilities were inadequate, the internees counted amongst them about 40 doctors, two dentists, six pharmacists, 100 trained nurses,Archer and Fedorowich; page 384 and a large number of volunteer auxiliary nurses.Archer and Fedorowich; page 381 Because of this, according to historian G. B. Endacott, no major epidemic occurred. The most common sickness amongst the internees were malaria, malnutrition and its associated diseases, beriberi, and pellagra. The shortage of medical supplies and equipment posed a challenge for those in charge of medical care, with the lack of soap and disinfectant being a particularly troublesome concern.
The women and children contributed to a sense of normality as their presence provided conventional social, family, and gender relations. The internees believed the children's presence made them less selfish, as it forced them to think of the latter's welfare. The women organised Christmas and birthday celebrations.Archer and Fedorowich; page 390 Other diversions such as musicals, plays, recitals, and variety shows were also staged.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); page 39 Although the camp lacked books and educational supplies, the teachers and educational administrators amongst the internees were able to provide lessons for the children at the primary and secondary levels. Additionally, extensive educational opportunities were available for the adults: language courses for Chinese, Malay, and French, and also lectures on photography, yachting, journalism, and poultry-keeping. In addition to the personal diaries kept by internees, many of them now held by the Imperial War Museum, a record of life in the camp was created using a double bed sheet. The Day Joyce Sheet was embroidered and appliquéd with 1100 names, signs and figures including a diary in code.Day Joyce. Ordinary People: The Sheet. Imperial War Museum. Department of Documents. ID number P324.
Deaths
Records show that 121 internees died in the camp, mostly due to illness, with half the deaths being of internees over the age of 50.Archer and Fedorowich; page 388 There were also a few accidental deaths. Two internees died from falls and one child drowned. The worst accident occurred during the large US Navy attack against Hong Kong on 16 January 1945, when a plane accidentally bombed Bungalow 5 at St. Stephen's College, killing 14 internees.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); page 38 These internees were buried at Stanley Military Cemetery.Emerson (Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong, 1942–1945); page 271
Another seven internees were executed by the Japanese authorities. These internees had possessed a radio set which they used to pass messages in and out of camp. The radio was discovered by the Japanese and the internees were arrested. The other internees were forced to watch their public torture. Military trials were subsequently held and on 29 October 1943, some of the internees were executed by being shot and at least one, John Fraser, was beheaded.Emerson (Behind Japanese Barbed Wire); page 37 Aside from this, the Japanese authorities had executed by decapitation three Chinese policemen for bringing cigarettes and tobacco to the camp's internees.
Escape attempts A number of factors made escape attempts daunting for the internees. They would have to navigate through Japanese-occupied territory, find food, and as few internees spoke Cantonese, they would also have to deal with the language barrier if they succeeded in escaping. Despite these difficulties, there were three major escape attempts, of which two in March 1942 were successful. One group of eight internees escaped on a small boat to neighbouring Macau. Another group, consisting of two internees, escaped through the New Territories and into mainland China. The third group, four policemen, in April 1942 managed to escape the camp grounds but were caught within a few miles of camp. They were subsequently imprisoned and released back to camp after a few weeks.
Early repatriation