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1. Politics
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
- Additional Information
1 Politics Governing the Camp From the beginning of internment until January 1944, the Camp was under the control of the Japanese Foreign Affairs Department, a civilian administration, with offices in Hong Kong. On 1 January 1944, the Camp came under the control of the Japanese military, and its designation was changed from Civilian Internment Camp, Hong Kong, to Military Internment Camp, Hong Kong. (A list of Japanese who had contact with the Stanley internees is in Appendix IV.) During the occupation of Hong Kong, many difficulties occurred between the Japanese civilian and military departments. Hong Kong was controlled by the military, and the two Japanese governors, Lieutenant-Generals Isogai Rensuke (1942–45) and Tanaka Hisakasu (1945) were military men. The civilian administrators came, of course, under the control of the governor, i.e. the military. Hence the civilians, whenever they needed or wanted something, had to get military approval. For the internment camp, this meant that the Foreign Affairs Department officials had to get military approval for everything concerning the internees. The military did what they liked and took what they liked. The civilians were given whatever was left, if the military felt like giving it at all, for example, food supplies for the Camp. The first head of the Foreign Affairs Department was Mr. Oda Takeo. Described as ‘handsome and civilized’,1 he was credited by the internees with trying to improve the food situation, though with little success from the internees’viewpoint. In April 1943, he was transferred to Nanking as a consul.2 Mr. Oda’s replacement was Mr. Hattori Tsuneo. He had been interned himself in Australia, where he was Consul in Melbourne before the war, and had been repatriated to Japan. As he was used to foreigners because of his diplomatic experience, and because, the internees assumed, his internment in Australia had been far better than their internment in Stanley, hopes were high that conditions would improve. Mr. Hattori did appear to be seriously interested in improving things, and the internees presented him with a lengthy description of their needs. This was the ‘Hattori Memorandum’ (see Appendix V). Unfortunately, Mr. Hattori, for all his good intentions, was able to do very little to improve conditions, finding the military a formidable obstruction. 01(p.55-77).indd 55 1/11/08 2:05:04 PM 56 Hong Kong Internment, 1942 to 1945 In 1944, when the Camp came under military control, Mr. Hattori became Colonel Hattori. In July of the same year, his position as head of the Camp was given to one of the better known Japanese of the occupation, Colonel Tokunaga Isao. This man was well known as he was one of the cruelest Japanese in Hong Kong. He easily lost his temper and on occasions had prisoners beaten and/or executed. After the war, he was tried in Hong Kong at a war crimes trial held in Stanley Prison and sentenced to be hanged. Being corpulent, his nickname was ‘The Pig’. Before becoming head of Stanley Camp, he had been in charge of the military prisoners-of-war in Kowloon. He rarely visited Stanley, but he liked to play bridge, and some of the internees used to play with him.3 Resident in camp, at the Japanese headquarters buildings, was the Camp Commandant. The first one was a Chinese, Mr. Cheng Kwok-leung, who had worked for Thomas Cook & Sons, Ltd. in Hong Kong before the war and whose wife was Japanese. Mr. Cheng was an unpopular Commandant, partly because he had a reputation for taking ‘squeeze’ from things coming into the Camp and from individuals.4 Also, as he was a Hong Kong Chinese and not Japanese himself, most internees considered him a traitor. However, he did not remain in charge of the Camp for long, in fact less than two months. In mid-March 1942, he became ill and was replaced by two Japanese. Thereafter, until liberation in August 1945, the Commandants were always Japanese. Mr. Cheng’s successors were Mr. T. Yamashita and Mr. Nakazawa Chikanori nicknamed ‘Yam and Nak’ by the internees.5 Mr. Yamashita had been long resident in Hong Kong and before the war had been a barber in the Hong Kong Hotel, his name at that time being Suna.6 Before the war he spoke English but refused to do so in the Camp.7 One Christmas night he surreptitiously gave Mrs. Selwyn-Clarke a box of chocolates, a bottle of brandy and two balloons. She...