Captives of Empire: The Japanese Internment of Allied Civilians in China, 1941–1945 (review)

In 1941 the Japanese not only erupted across the Pacific against American and British military forces, they also swept through colonial enclaves in China from Hong Kong to Harbin, where thousands of “enemy” civilian nationals suddenly found themselves “in the bag.” Over 13,000 men, women and children who had come to China as a part of the western pursuit of profits, souls, or adventure in the prewar years were interned in two dozen camps in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and north China, including Greg Leck’s British mother and grandfather, who worked for the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. Leck started this project to learn his own family history, but has ended up compiling a detailed, respectful collective memoir of the internment camp experience, told largely in the words of the internees themselves. He has interviewed or corresponded with scores of survivors and consulted memoirs, camp diaries, correspondence, and official reports available in the Imperial War Museum, the National Archives, and elsewhere.

Leck briefly surveys the “halcyon days” of prewar Shanghai and other foreign enclaves, and then describes how foreign communal agencies, such as the British Residents Association (BRA) helped their nationals navigate the uncertain period from the onset of war through actual internment, which occurred for most in 1942 through March 1943. Brief chapters survey different aspects of camp life, describing inadequate, cramped housing, food that was frequently spoiled or vermin-infested, and guards who were generally callous and inattentive to the needs of these thousands of non-combatants. Leck does not unduly demonize the Japanese authorities. But it is clear that in many camps, the captors co-opted and dominated supposedly independent elected camp councils. Some internees were indeed tortured or executed for real or imagined crimes. And the fear of such abuse hung over every confrontation about lousy food, communications with outsiders, and distribution of occasional Red Cross relief packages. A handful of internees did escape, but most languished in squalid conditions until liberation in August 1945. Leck captures the wide variety of residents, with former taipans, missionaries, beached sailors and itinerant entertainers scrabbling in trash heaps together looking for a few bits of unburned coal to use in their small, homemade stoves known as “chatties.” Generally, they tried to make the best of their circumstances. They schooled their children, maintained libraries, played sports, and entertained themselves as best they could. But there were also fights over food, graft, and camp love affairs. Leck’s overall thesis is that “In internment, they were an example of the strength of human endeavor in the face of adversity” (p. 26).

The account is profusely illustrated throughout with photographs, line sketches, and watercolors of internees, camps, and all aspects of their constrained lives. Leck also describes each of the twenty-five camps, including diagrams, pictures and 200 pages of camp rosters, compiled with help from former internee Desmond Power. Leck has amassed a wealth of material on the internment experience. Hopefully he will deposit copies of his interviews and correspondence with a good archival facility, such as The China Hands Oral History Project, at California State University, Fullerton.