In Japanese internment camp
US citizen in the Far East.
When it comes to rarities and exquisite examples relating to travel documents, this example here is surely a superb example that warrants an article to be written about.
For collectors and passionate historians, fine examples as this one here offer us a glimpse into the past and can shed light to historically important events of the time.
We are all familiar with the outbreak of World War Two and the turmoil that followed, lasting for 6 long horrific years, where too much blood has been shed and unspeakable suffering that has never been seen unleashed before by mankind.
But for others, in different parts of the world, the conflict was not limited to them years only, for others the struggle and suffering began much earlier, and according to some, and this is my point of view as well, the war started much earlier, even 8 years earlier, when Imperial Japan invaded Chinese territory back in 1931. What would start as a local initiative by the Japanese army in China would escalate to full occupation and the founding of the Manchurian empire shortly afterwards. The event took place near the Chinese city of Mukden (Shenyang 沈阳) on September 18th of 1931 (this date is commemorated today in China with long sirens heard throughout the cities up north) by rogue Japanese army units, led by Lt. Suemori Kawamoto, who tried to derail a train of its track, but failed. Yet, the Japanese blamed the incident on the Chinese and launched a full scale invasion. From 1931 to 1945 north-eastern China was under occupation.
Japanese aggression would continue the following years, with the 1932 conflict in Shanghai, escalating to full out war in 1937 and would be known as the Second Sino-Japanese War, eventually culminating to the full invasion and occupation of all international settlements in China.
The document in this article is a somber example of a foreigner’s position in a dire situation, being placed at the wrong place AND wrong time.
Charles Miller, aged 27 was living and working in Shanghai, and according to online records he was a stenographer working at the Texas Co. shipping section. He, apparently left for a brief short visit back home in May of 1941, as seen in the images inside his passport, he arrived at Hawaii, Honolulu on the 20th.
US consular passport number 1100 was issued to him on April 16th by consul-general Frank P. Lockhart (April 8, 1881 — August 25, 1949), an American Foreign service officer who by 1919 was already travelling to the Far East as an official in the State Department. Six years later he would be part of a delegation to Beijing, attending a conference on the Chinese Customs Tariff. Same year he would become the consul-general to Hankou, China, followed by a posting to Tianjing from 1931-35 and for the next five years at Beijing as counselor of legation and then embassy up to 1940, with his last post in China being at Shanghai, where he was able to find himself at a civilian Allied-Axis-Neutral exchange in 1942 off the African coast (his passport was again stamped at the consular section by Boies C. Hart Jr., who was an American politician, and before his posting to Shanghai was a consul up to 1939 at Stuttgart, followed by a posting in Algiers in 1944 and then in liberated Paris shortly afterwards).
The passport holder, apparently, returned back to Shanghai before the international section was overrun by the Japanese after December 8th, 1941: during the period of occupation, in more than 24 camps, over 13,500 Allied civilians were being held by the Japanese.
One of those to be interned was Charles Miller here, who was interned in January of 1943, after living in the city with the aid of international groups, among them the “Relief Organization for Americans” which gave financial assistance to Americans in the occupied city, the stamps appearing inside the passport in pages 15-18 can attest to the fact that he was in the city and at some point may have also been receiving aid or some protection from the Swiss consulate (the Swiss were also acting on behalf of British interests in China during the war) – he received the first aid from March 25th 1942 and it ended with the last stamp dating from January 27th 1943 (another sampled passport used during the war by an interned civilian can be seen via this link here).
Charles was interned at the infamous camp of Pootung, being released in 1945 and returning back home in 1946, after receiving, again, another US consular passport in 1946.
Have added images of this war-related treasure.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
