Methodology
I primarily used two books for my research: Geoffrey Emerson’s ‘Hong Kong Internment- 1942-45’, which was primarily about the Stanley civilian internment camp and Tony Banham’s ‘We Shall Suffer There: Hong Kong’s Defenders Imprisoned’, which was about the prisoner-of-war camps, allowing me to make a comparison between the two types of camp.
​
I also conducted an interview with Emerson, where we discussed his book, his personal opinions on the camps, and his own research and methodology. Notes on the interview can be found at the bottom of this page.
​
I also went to the Imperial War Museum (where my fascination in history began!) and conducted research in their Archive and Research Rooms for a day. I looked at private papers, pictures, letters, postcards and notes from 5 different figures in the war, some of whom were in the Stanley camp and some of whom were POWs in the various POW camps and then moved to labour camps in Japan.
​
​
Interview
About Book
How was the treatment of people in the internment camps different from those in the city?
Totally different- in internment camps, they were controlled under barbed wire, under Japanese civilian diplomats. People in Hong Kong were free but it was extremely dangerous and lots of restrictions.
Why do you think the treatment at internment camps under the Japanese differed so greatly from the treatment under the Nazis in Europe?
Internees were white people while Japanese were Asian- Japanese treated white people better. First couple of years in Stanley was much better than when the military took over. Civilian diplomats were more used to dealing with Westerners.
Japanese military were very anti-foreign- expected to be obeyed without question.
What reparations were made to the prisoners after the war, and do you think it was enough?
Was not enough- took years to get reparations and money, by that time, many of the people had died so they didn’t get anything. Americans didn’t get reparations from America, mostly British.
Ron Bridge- leader in Britain for the big fight in Parliament to give reparations to POWs- Parliament had refused for a long time to give reparations to civilians.
​
Research/Methods
How did you come across the research topic for Stanley Internment? And WWII in HK?
After living in Hong Kong for several years, and teaching at St. Paul, did a thesis in Chinese History at HKU with the idea of going back to America and teaching Chinese history.
So much has been done by Americans concerning Chinese history.
Author couldn’t speak Chinese, though, so a friend recommended Stanley camp- was a topic with research mostly done in English- not many people had done research on the topic yet in 1970s. Mostly personal memoirs but not many. Today there is much more.
His book is the only general history of the camp.
How did you find people to interview?
By luck. The first person he interviewed was a lady from Australia who was visiting Hong Kong and she had been written up in the newspaper.
She had written a book about her own experiences in Stanley and so met up with her.
She introduced him to other people- this was all done by word-of-mouth.
Almost all the interviewees were women, as most men had either died or were still working.
​
What was the research process like? Did you encounter anything that surprised you?
He went to the HKU library and found copies of the Hong Kong News (publication during the war)
He didn’t know anything about Stanley before starting research. Surprised that the Japanese allowed internees to run the camp.
​
Do you know of any contacts (from Stanley or who survived WWII in HK) that I could also interview?
Two people in Australia- man and a woman. They had both done research into their family history, but were only young children when interned.
Any advice on how to do effective historical/archival research? Recommend any sources for primary documents?
Did some research in London for a couple of days 30 years ago at the National Archives and at university libraries
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Personal Opinions
Do you think the white civilians in the Stanley Camps were treated better than the white prisoners of war in other camps?
Better than almost all other camps. However, in Guangzhou there was a small camp where the internees were allowed servants.
​
Indonesia was one of the worst camps. Emerson had to compare Stanley camps to others in Asia in his dissertation. Differences between Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Stanley. Internees in Stanley could run the camps themselves and families could stay together. However, families separated in Indonesia.
Dutch were brutal colonists compared to the British so the Dutch were hated by the local people and the Japanese.
Do you think the British Government should have done more to help the Chinese civilians who were caught between the crossfire?
Not much they could do, as the city was run by the Japanese.
​
​
For Mr. Emerson's website...
​
​
The link also includes detail about his book.