Remembering Lunghua

With fewer and fewer of the Greatest Generation, WWII commemorations and remembrances have become more and more meaningful.  Amidst this historical retrospective there are some aspects of the war that have been largely ignored, namely the Japanese internment of over 13,500 civilian men, women, and children in China. Case in point, Shanghai which was a bustling commercial metropolis with a large international population had no less than 12 internment camps.  Residents of the International Settlement, predominantly British, were colonial officials who enjoyed a privileged life of afternoon teas waited on by a bevy of servants, and exclusive activities like cricket and polo. This blissful existence effectively ended on 8 December 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Army entered and occupied the British settlement.  

European Shanghai residents were cut off, isolated, and faced an uncertain future.  They were forced to wear armbands to differentiate them, were evicted from their homes, and subject to mistreatment. The Japanese sent more than 1800 European citizens to be interned at the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center, a work camp on the outskirts of Shanghai. Conditions were severe with food and clothing in short supply. Lunghua was made famous by JG Ballard’s fictionalized version of his experiences, Empire of the Sun, followed by the Steven Spielberg film of the same name. Despite poor treatment and persistent lack of food the internees met these challenges and more. They organized themselves, ran the kitchen, dispensary and educated their children. In the face of adversity, they were a shining example of human resilience. One day in August 1945 the internment camp awoke to find that the ever present guards had abandoned their posts to never return. Today the main building of the camp has reverted to being a schoolhouse, its original function before the war.  My mother, her sister and parents were interned at Lunghua. As a measure of closure and in response to an intractable lack of contrition by the Japanese, the British compensated surviving internees and their widows with an ex gratia payment of ₤10,000. As Prime Minister Tony Blair speaking to survivors said at the time: “It is very hard for someone of my generation to understand what suffering people went through. You saw the very worst of human nature and yet I think you showed the very best of human nature.”