Stanley Internment Camp
Imperial War Museum 'Ministry of Information Second World War Official Collection': IWM (K 8370) Military Internment Camp, formley called Stanley Internment Camp, taken in 1943. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205058353 [date accessed: 14 April 2025].
During the Japanese Occupation, all civilians of enemy nationalities were rounded up and put into internment camps. The nationalities included English, American, Dutch, Indian and mostly Eurasian. The Stanley Internment Camp was originally a large boys school called St Stephens College.
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Geoffrey Charles Emerson has done extensive research on the daily experience in the Stanley Internment camps through interviews with those in the camp, in which they say that:
‘British children were a minority as most of the children were Eurasian’ [ref 1]
If we recall back to the tab on British Citizenship, Eurasian children could be entitled to British citizenship if, for example, a Chinese woman married a British man. However, as studied in the evacuation tab, they were still excluded from the evacuation scheme because they were not of pure European descent. Which is why the majority of children in the internment camp were Eurasian. Let's explore the experience in Stanley iNternment camps to understand the daily life these children lived as a result of the evacuation and immigration policy.
Food and Health conditions
As seen before, there was shortage of food issue during the Japapnese occupation due to war constraints and the large population of Hong Kong. The shortage of food also occured inside the Stanely internment camp too.
In Hong Kong Surgeon, Dr Li Shu-Fan said that ‘they were inadeuqelty fed, poorly clothed, and sickness became frequent and serious’. [Ref 2] The Japanese also refused permission for representatives of the Red Cross to inspect internment camps. [Ref 3]
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As with the rest of the population in Hong Kong, the main basis of their food was rice ​
​'Usually two meals a day were served, at 11.00am and 5.00pm., proceeded by rice congee at 8.00 a.m. The meals usually consisted of rice and a stew poured on top, made from whatever meat (usually water-buffalo meat), fish and/or vegetables were provided’. [Ref 4]
‘Had internees been forced to exist for three and a half years on the food provided by the Japanese, almost undoubtedly there would have been many deaths directly attributable to starvation’
Geoffrey Charles Emerson, ‘Behind Japanese Barbed Wire: Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong 1942-1945’, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 17 (1977), 30-42 (p. 34).
Red Cross Parcels
Red Cross parcels were delivered on three occasions: November 1942, September 1944 and March 1945. Contained clothing, tinned food, sugar and coffee. [Ref 5]
Activity: Reading exercise
Have students read from 'A big thank you...' to '... their burning soles.'
Students should be able to derive information about the Red Cross parcels and the lack of resources such as shoes, which will help build their knowledge about the conditions of the Stanley Internment Camp.
Children
More than 400 children in the camp, and parents could not easily escape with their children. [Ref 6]
Children were largely resented by other internees. There were British, American and Dutch children in the camp who were not evacuated because their parents disobeyed the government's orders, which held a lot of resentment towards the parents from those in the camps as the children were promised food and space when they could have been safe elsewhere had their parents listened. [Ref 7]
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Whilst they were prioritised, the living conditions of children were still very poor, with a shortage of food many came out of the camps malnourished or even died from hunger (as seen in the source at the bottom of the page). In November 1943 a survey was conducted for repatriation, it was discovered that 150 children had no shoes of any kind. [Ref 8]
Object description from Imperial War Museum: Little Children internees at Stanley Internment Camp joyfully greet the first contingents of the Royal Navy. Although undernourished and showing signs of the ordeal of existence under the Japanese, these children were remarkably fit. Everyone in the camp had contributed to keep the children healthy. Baby Gerald Ward, 13 months old and born in the camp, is in the front of the group
IWM (A 30550) from At Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong. August and September 1945 Imperial War Museum
Education in the Camp
On the 3rd of February 1942, at a meeting of the Temporary Committee, Lancelot Forster, professor of education at the University of Hong Kong, read a memorandum regarding establishing a school in the camp. An education committee was formed with Forster as chairman and classes were held in St Stephens Hall. [Ref 9]
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​The mental impact Geoffrey Charles Emerson concluded that whilst the attempt in educating the children interess was a valiant effort, it did leave them behind their school age.
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‘both mentally and physically the children were handicapped compared to normal times’
and that
‘a report by the education department, hong kong in 1948, stated that the Stanley Camp children who were teenagers in 1948, were from one to three years behind the general standard and even more retarded in certain subjects like science, history and geography' [Ref 10]
Lacking knowledge on these topics aligns with the lack of resources. They would struggle to, for example, show a map, or conduct practical experiments in science. Being contained in the same building would also warp their concept on geography and natural terrain such as rivers and seas. ​​​
Activity: Primary source ripple pool diagram
Imperial War Museum, ‘Admiralty ABS Series’: IWM (ABS 882), British Pacific Fleet 1944-1945, https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205029363 [Date accessed 14 April 2025].
Object description from Imperial War Museum: Juan and Dennis Clark, little internees of Camp Stanley, Hong Kong, sit beside the grave of their baby brother Anthony, who was born on the 2nd of December 1942, in the camp, and died of malnutrition three weeks later. Father was a Eurasian Policeman in Hong Kong when the Japanese entered the city and interned them. Children had a special part of the cemetery adjoining the camp.
Have students place this source within a ripple pool diagram to help them develop skills of inference in primary sources. Ensure they have the 'Big Enquiry Question' in the forefront of their minds:
'What was the war experience of children like in Hong Kong?'
Using the knowledge they've gained from the private papers of Mrs D Joyce and the previous tabs about British citizenship and evacuation, see if students can understand how the events we have learnt about before lead to this photograph of Eurasian children at their sibling's grave after being left behind in Hong Kong due to the racist evacuation and immigration policys.
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You can read more about the importance of source inference and how to use ripple diagrams in this Historical Association article, 'Evidential understanding, period knowledge and the development of literacy: A practical approach to ‘layers of inference’ for Key Stage 3' by Claire Riley
Here's an example of responses your students could be leaning towards
References
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Geoffrey Charles Emerson, Hong Kong Internment 1942-1945: Life in the Japanese Civilian Camp at Stanley (Hong Kong University Press, 1974) p. 136.
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Dr Li Shu-Fan, Hong Kong Surgeon, (Victor Gollancz, 1964) p. 142.
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Ibid, p. 92.
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Geoffrey Charles Emerson, ‘Behind Japanese Barbed Wire: Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong 1942-1945’, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 17 (1977), 30-42 (p. 34).
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Ibid. p. 35.
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Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, p. 59.
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Ibid, p. 131.
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Ibid, p. 84
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Ibid, p. 131.
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p. 138.​​