Japan
marched into Hong Kong at the outbreak of the Pacific War on December
8, 1941. On the same day, Graham Heywood was captured by the invading
Japanese near the border while carrying out duties for the Royal
Observatory. He was held at various places in the New Territories before
being transported to the military Prisoner-of-War camp in Sham Shui Po,
Kowloon. The Japanese refused to allow Heywood and his colleague
Leonard Starbuck to join the civilians at the Stanley internment camp.
Heywood’s
illustrated diary records his three-and-a-half years of internment,
telling a story of hardship, adversity, and survival of malnutrition and
disease; as well as repeated hopes of liberation and disappointment. As
he awaits the end of the war, his reflections upon freedom and
imprisonment bring realisations about life and how to live it.
“Accounts
of life in the internment camp differed widely. One friend, an
enthusiastic biologist, was full of his doings; he had grown champion
vegetables, had seen all sort of rare birds (including vultures, after
the corpses) and had run a successful yeast brewery. Altogether, he
said, it had been a great experience … a bit too long, perhaps, but not
bad fun at all. Another ended up her account by saying ‘Oh, Mr. Heywood,
it was hell on earth’. It all depended on their point of view.”
Available from:
Blacksmith Books (free sample chapter available at the Publishers website)
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