The Ient Family: Family History

Dad recalled the military situation in Hong Kong in the period leading up to the capture of the Fortress Hong Kong[1] by the Japanese as a vastly outnumbered army, holding an outpost in the Far East, keeping the Union Jack flying until the very last that it was possible.

This short summary is designed to complement the biography of my dad Albert Ient and can be read in conjunction with the other documents. For more links, see WWII - Far East.

Japanese Attack on Hong Kong

Dad fought in the Battle for Hong Kong when the Japanese attacked on 8 December 1941, following their earlier bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7 December. The Japanese swept down from the mainland and occupied the New Territories and bombarded the island itself. Dad was captured at Mount Austen in an area called 'The Peak'. He had been guarding the installations at the top of that mountain with a small platoon of men. They were told to lay down their arms and he had to surrender to a young Japanese soldier who looked, Dad later told me, only about 14 or 15 years old and whose revolver was shaking as the British soldiers came out of their bunker; this was Christmas Day 1941.^[2] He confided in me that this was the most frightening time of the war; it could have been then that he lost his life. Dad remembered at this time seeing many of the civilian population, the male civilians, knowing that they would be killed by the Japanese if they were not in uniform, donning uniforms, even of dead soldiers, in order to survive into capture, rather than be immediately killed by the Japanese.

Prisoner of War – Hong Kong and Japan

Following confinement in Victoria Barracks for one week after surrender, prisoners were then marched to a place called Shamshuipo, near Kowloon on the mainland, for internment.[3] From there, Dad was amongst the third draft of Allied soldiers to be transferred to Japan.^[4] Dad travelled onboard the Tatsuta Maru, an ex-cruise liner, for the three-day journey which included crossing the Inland Sea to Innoshima.[5] On 23 January 1943, he disembarked in the village of Mitsunosho and, along with 99 other prisoners (probably all HKDVC[6]), marched half a mile to Habu, the principal township on Innoshima Island, where the prisoner of war camp was located.[7] At the time of Dad's arrival, the camp was called Fukuoka 12. It was subsequently renamed Zentsuji 2 and later again remained Hiroshima 5. This information is verified by Terence Kelly in his book, 'By Hellship to Hiroshima' (p57) and a PoW internal form, completed by Japanese authorities, to monitor the movement of their prisoners. A transcription of this document provides the following information:

23 Jan 1943 - Fukuoka Prisoner Camp (name of camp changed to Section 12)

20 July 1943 - Transferred to Section 2, Zentsuji Prisoner Camp (1 December 1943

name changed to Dispatch Unit 2)

14 April 1945 - Transferred to Section 5 Hiroshima Camp

20 Sept 1945 - Handed over to RAF WO Pritchard Harold Alfred[8]

The Red Cross notified my mother (Toby Ient) on 14 July 1944 that her husband was a POW in Zentzuiji Camp (also spelt 'Zentsusi'). Dad had sent numerous pre-printed, formal cards provided by his captors, on which the prisoners could put words like, 'I am well' or 'I am being fed', which were not received until 1944!

On 15 September, a boat came and took the prisoners to Onomichi where they boarded a train to Osaka and HMS Ruler, a British aircraft carrier, which took them directly to Sydney, Australia:

HMS Ruler