Tin Hats and Rice: A Diary of Life as a Hong Kong Prisoner of War, 1941-1945

Description

“I can’t visualise us getting out of this, but I want to TRY to believe in a future,” wrote 23-year-old Barbara in her diary on 8th December 1941, a few hours after Japan first attacked Hong Kong. Her 1941-1945 diaries (with post-war explanations where necessary) are an invaluable source of information on the civilian experience in British Hong Kong during the second world war.

The diaries record her thoughts and experiences through the fighting, the surrender, three-and-a-half years of internment, then liberation and adjustment to normal life. The diaries have been quoted by leading historians on the subject. Now they are available in print for the first time, making them available to a wider audience.

REVIEWS

“Barbara Anslow’s wartime diaries bring Stanley Civilian Camp to life with such detail – from deaths to dolls’ houses, disputes and dentistry. Not only do you feel that you are there, but almost that the camp and everyone in it still exists.” – Tony Banham, author of Not the Slightest Chance: the Defence of Hong Kong 1941

“Without doubt the best (unofficial) diary to come out of Stanley Camp.” – G. C. Emerson, author of Hong Kong Interment 1942-45, Life in the Japanese Civilian Camp at Stanley

“She leads us through the fighting and surrender, the uncertain time that followed, then the move to Stanley Camp. … Her diary records the dramatic incidents of internment like the bombing of the camp by American aircraft, but more often it details the daily activities and the ups and downs of life in cramped quarters. Struggles with roommates, hunger and sickness, and the worry that the Japanese wouldn’t let the internees leave the camp alive all play a part.” – David Bellis, Gwulo.com