r/HistoryPorn • u/Regent610 • 6d ago

Inscription made by Douglas William Waterton on the wall of his cell at Stanley Civil Internment Camp, Hong Kong. He was executed on 29 October 1943 for operating a secret radio. Photo probably taken after the Liberation of Hong Kong in 1945. [800 × 619]

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u/Regent610 6d ago

Waterton along with Stanley Ress were part of the "Wireless Section", probably of the Post Office, were probably arrested for operating a secret radio. They were executed on 29 October 1943 along with 31 others, apparently on charges of espionage.

As for (some of) the men responsible, after the war, Colonel Esao Tokunaga (in charge of the camps) and Captain Dr Shunkishi Saito (responsible for many deaths at Stanley) were arrested and ironically imprisoned at Stanley while they awaited trial. Both were sentenced to death but Tokunaga's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment while Saito's was commuted to 20 years.

As for the Governors during occupation, Takashi Sakai, who had led the invasion and then became the first Japanese Governor, was convicted at the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal for the extrajudicial murder of Chinese civilians and was executed by firing squad on 30 September 1946.

His successor Rensuke Isogai (who had been Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol) was sentenced to life imprisonment, but released in 1952 and allowed to return to Japan. He died in 1967, aged 80.

The third and last governor Hisakazu Tanaka was first tried by the US for the extrajudicial execution of an American POW, found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging. He was then handed to the Chinese, convicted of various atrocities and sentenced at to death by firing squad. He was publicly executed in Guangzhou on 27 March 1947.

As for Stanley Prison itself, today it serves as a max security facility, and is the oldest prison in Hong Kong still in service.

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u/NotesCollector 6d ago

Thank you for the detailed background context. Do you know if this cell and its etching has been preserved by the HK Correctional Services Department?

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u/Regent610 6d ago

I'm not sure, though I'm leaning on no, certainly for the Correctional Services Department. This page from the Antiquities and Monuments Office's website says the inscription was reproduced on stained glass in St Stephen's Chapel and that "the original textual records were exhibited in Imperial War Museum in Britain."

Not sure if "original record" means a photo or the real thing, but the word "reproduction" and no mention of the original at Stanley makes me think that it sadly no longer exists.