Hello, I'm trying to work out the name of the camp this soldier was held at prior to his death on the Lisbon Maru. As a guess it looks like 17, but I don't know how to research a name and place for that.
17 is not the Camp it's part of the date in the Japanese Showa calendar. 17/1/7 = 7 Jan 42. He is listed on the site 'Hong Kong War Diary' Hong Kong War Diary as being in 40 Fortress Company RE, but it doesn't show the camp he was held in. Tim
I have read of other Royal Engineers being imprisoned in Shamshuipo Camp, which was the main military camp in Hong Kong, located in Kowloon, if I recall correctly. Edit: Interview with one such here: Harris, John Robert (Oral history)
Are you looking for the Camps Names. The records below, and with a little search, was Shamshuipo in Hong Kong. The Japanese printing in the first column with says “CAMP” is the cypher’s for HONG KONG The first record is his, and then because the Japanese stamp was hard to read, I took the “next man up” on the list, and his record was very clear……with google translator, HONG KONG……and then I found as many records with his name in them and posted them here, you may have them but thought it wouldn’t hurt Below is the other record I used to clarify the Japanese printing Japanese Translation, And all the other records I found Sources Lisbon Maru Escape from Hong Kong EDIT: this record indicates he was in HOLD 2 of the Lisbon Mary GHI Database Photo’s Shamshuipo in Hong Kong Photos of Site of former Sham Shui Po Camp and POW Camp [1926-????] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong
Thank ypu very much for that. I asumed that the pair of symbols stood for the name of a specific camp.
Regarding the card, the reverse should have the coordinates for the position where the "Lisbon Maru" sank. Had the man died in a camp the camp would be named. On the card the notes outside the border offer clues, except that the code "HM/11" is unknown to me! "LM/5" is a reference to a telegram listing casualties. LM/1 to LM/9 were sent in October and November, 1942, remarkably quickly for the Japanese. Casualty Prisoner of War in London renamed such telegrams with the code SB then a number. SB's dealt with both casualties and survivors. In Temujin's photos the second photo has several SB's listed. The red stamps just say, left to right, "Editing completed", "Telegram Sent", and "Deceased." The photos should be of documents at UK National Archives at Kew found in WO 361 which lists "former file references". However, the second to last photo has a former file reference which is not listed in the spreadsheet of WO 361 which can be had by searching for "WO 361" and downloading the 2200 plus line csv. This reference is :"SS/330/72 (Cas. P/W )" and is an unusual former file reference. As for camps, Shamshuipo was huge, and is most likely to be the camp. There were others at Bowen Road and Argyle Street. You can download the transcript of the case involving the ship's master of the Lisbon Maru. It is rather large, 174.1 MB, copied from microfilm, but mostly readable. See this link: Hong Kong's War Crimes Trials Collection
