Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham (best short novels of all time txt) 📗

they turned their attention to Manila, then Hong Kong, of which they took control within five days. They demanded the British surrender, but despite there being no hope of relief from outside the colony, Hong Kong’s military commander refused, choosing instead to depend upon the remaining, inexperienced soldiers to defend Hong Kong. That included C Force.

The December 11 ferry ride across the Lye Mun Passage was only three kilometres long, but it must have been a terrifying journey for the Royal Rifles and the 7th Rajput Regiment, one of two Indian infantry battalions also assigned to Hong Kong. When the Japanese attacked one week later, sending four boatloads of seasoned fighters through the dark night, the defending forces had no chance. Arnie and Max said they didn’t know how to throw a grenade, which echoed what many of the survivors later recorded. Despite their serious shortage of weapons, the undertrained Canadians fought back as hard as they could, but the Japanese inflicted heavy casualties right away, and they kept on pushing. After an impossible week of fighting in the brutal, unfamiliar mountains of Hong Kong Island, the Canadians finally withdrew to Stanley Fort, on the Stanley Peninsula. On Christmas Day, they fought it out at Stanley Village, where those who didn’t die were taken as prisoners.

While that was happening, two hundred Japanese soldiers carried out the atrocities at St. Stephen’s College hospital. I had Ian hold back some of the most gruesome details, but the horrifying truth is that the Japanese army killed sixty or so wounded men in their beds, dismembering many of them as they lay motionless, anesthetized in preparation for surgery, and then they gang-raped and murdered most of the nurses. Incredibly, there were survivors, and when I read their personal reports, I wept.

When it came time to write about the valiant soldiers in the ranks of C Force, I couldn’t leave out Gander the dog. In order to bring him into the story, I took a little creative license and transferred Max, David, Arnie, and Richie from the Royal Regiment in Toronto to the Royal Rifles and posted them to Gander, Newfoundland, in 1940. In reality, the Royal Rifles picked up men later, when they made their way west to Vancouver in 1941. At the time, Gander air base was the largest airport in the world, and when the Royal Rifles were stationed there, they were given a purebred Newfoundland dog, whom they named after the base. Before departing for Vancouver, they promoted Gander to the rank of sergeant so they wouldn’t have to leave him behind.

The Royal Rifles with their mascot, Gander, aboard HMCS Prince Robert en route to Hong Kong on November 15, 1941. Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-166999.

Sergeant Gander, with his fondness for cold showers, beer, and a good scratch, would prove to be a hero. Almost invisible in the dark of night, he charged at enemy soldiers who usually fled rather than face him. Later, when the men were taken as POWs, the Japanese interrogated some of them about the “Black Beast,” thinking the Allies were training vicious animals. Eventually, Sergeant Gander made the ultimate sacrifice, rushing in to retrieve a grenade, then carrying it away, saving the lives of seven Canadian soldiers.

When Ian and Molly interviewed Max, Ian mentioned that C Force had been accused of fleeing like cowards, and I felt Max’s indignation at that. I read personal accounts and listened to interviews in which survivors argued vehemently to the contrary. For eighteen days, the Canadians had been continuously bombarded by the Japanese’s heavy arsenal of artillery on land and in the skies. It is a testament to the Canadians’ bravery that they never surrendered, despite their own lack of reinforcements, food, water, rest, battle training, and adequate weapons.

In the Japanese Bushido code, it was considered better to endure death rather than live with the shame of surrender. So when the British surrendered to Japan on Christmas Day 1941, the Japanese automatically considered the Allied POWs to be worthless, contemptible cowards, and they were treated accordingly. There were occasional reports of some Japanese guards who treated the prisoners better, engaged in friendly conversation, even befriended them, but they did so at risk of their own lives—and those of their families.

The Geneva Convention is made up of four conventions. The first protects wounded and infirm prisoners of war as well as captured medical personnel. Without discrimination, it grants rights to proper medical treatment, and it prohibits torture, assault, and execution. Japan did sign the Geneva Convention; however, they never ratified it. While some countries showed an occasional lack of regard for the rules (as evidenced by the reason for the Battle of Bowmanville), the Japanese paid no attention to them at all. They committed horrible atrocities in the POW camps.

The descriptions shared with Molly by Sergeant Cox and Max about what the prisoners ate in the camps come directly from journals and interviews with POW survivors. A soldier or average male doing manual labour requires 3,500 calories per day. At North Point Camp on Hong Kong Island, each prisoner was reluctantly given 600–1,200 calories, which consisted almost entirely of rice and chrysanthemum tops. If men were sick, they were given half portions. In the German POW camps, Allied prisoners relied on the Red Cross parcels to help them survive their incarceration, but the Japanese rarely allowed any of the parcels to reach the prisoners. They were usually stolen by the guards, and often sold on the black market.

During my research, I came across a typed-up list of infractions the Japanese captors considered worthy of immediate execution. Sergeant Cox listed some of them off for Molly. Among the offences were: talking without permission and raising loud voices, walking and moving without order, and using more than two blankets. All were punishable by death.

The camps in Hong Kong were horrible, but those who were shipped to Japan on board hell ships fared even worse.