St. Stephen's College massacre

St. Stephen's College massacre
Part of World War II
Location	St. Stephen's College, Hong Kong
Date	25 December 1941
Target	Wounded British, Canadian and Indian soldiers and Nurses
Attack type	Massacre, Mutilation, Gang Rape
Deaths	100
Perpetrators	38 Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army

St. Stephen's College massacre
Traditional Chinese	聖士提反書院大屠殺
Simplified Chinese	圣士提反书院大屠杀
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shèng Shìtífǎn Shūyuàn Dàtúshā Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Sing sih tàih fáan syū yuhn daaih tòuh saat Jyutping Sing3 si6 tai4 faan2 syu1 jyun6*2 daai6 tou4 saat3

The St. Stephen's College massacre involved a series of war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army on 25 December 1941 at St Stephen's College during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

Incident

Several hours before the British surrendered on Christmas at the end of the Battle of Hong Kong, Japanese soldiers entered St. Stephen's College, which was being used as a hospital on the front line at the time.^[1][2] The Japanese were met by two doctors, Black and Witney, who were marched away, and were later found dead and mutilated.^[1][2] They then burst into the wards and bayoneted a number of British, Canadian and Indian wounded soldiers who were incapable of hiding.^[1] The survivors and their nurses were imprisoned in two rooms upstairs. Later, a second wave of Japanese troops arrived after the fighting had moved further south, away from the school. They removed two Canadians from one of the rooms, and mutilated and killed them outside. Many of the nurses next door were then dragged off to be gang raped, and later found mutilated.^[1][2][3] The following morning, after the surrender, the Japanese ordered that all these bodies should be cremated just outside the hall. Other soldiers who had died in the defence of Stanley were burned with those killed in the massacre, making well over 100 altogether.^[1]

Aftermath

When the college and the grounds of Stanley Prison became a civilian internment camp, the internees gathered up the burnt remains, shards of bones, buttons and charred effects from the cremation, and then buried them. A gravestone marks the spot where these items were interred at Stanley Cemetery.^[2]

Lieutenant General Takeo Itō (伊東 武夫), the commander of the 38 Infantry Division during the incident, was held responsible for the atrocities committed by the unit. He was found guilty on the Military Court for the Trial of War Criminals in 1948 and was sentenced to twelve years of imprisonment.^[4]

References

1. Roland, Charles G. (January 1997). "Massacre and Rape in Hong Kong: Two Case Studies Involving Medical Personnel and Patients". Journal of Contemporary History. 32 (1): 52–61. doi:10.1177/002200949703200104. JSTOR 261075. S2CID 159971599.
2. Lim, Patricia Pui Huen (2002). Discovering Hong Kong's Cultural Heritage: Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Oxford University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780195927238.
3. Dew, Josie. (2002). The Sun in My Eyes: Two-Wheeling East. Warner Books publishing. ISBN 0-7515-3018-2, ISBN 978-0-7515-3018-6. p 184.
4. Linton, Suzannah; HKU Libraries. "WO235/1107". Hong Kong’s War Crimes Trials Collection.

External links

• St Stephen's college trail Archived 14 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine
• (in Chinese) Confession of a Japanese soldier who participated in the cannibalism & rape of medical staff at St Stephen's , September 2012