on TOPICA:

From Ron,

Weihsien inmates.
The list that I let you have and which you have put on your website of Weihsien was originally based on a list that is held by several of us namely a Census of the Camp as at 30Jun44. That list had missing the names beginning with the letter "S" after Str...and all after Wolfson. The copy of that list that I have has the rooms that inmates were in in pencil in the margin but there is no date as to when people were in those rooms except that it must have been after the escape as the Chefoo School were in Block 61 the Hospital. ( it could well have had the room numbers added after the war but I suspect that it was no later than September 1945.
Further sources that have confirmed or added to names on the web site list are the following:
A similar list dated 30 Sep 44 obtained from Tokyo Archives but this is complete ( ie no missing pages and includes the names of the Iatalians who had been moved in from Shanghai).
A US Army Signal Corps telegram despatch of freed inmates dated 30 August 1945 ( This has some names missing and is corrupt text in others also forenames are not given but initials spelt phonetically) NARA Washington.
A list of British subjects complied by the Swiss Consul Tsingtao in June 1943, obtained from Berne. Sadly this is the only one surviving in Swiss records those of other nationalities were destroyed in the 1980s - this one was overlooked.
A list of British subjects moved from Chefoo complied by the Swiss Consul Tsingtao in Sep1943.
A list of Belgian religious raised by Assistance aux Belges d'Asie Orientale dated 6 Feb44.
A census of British Subjects dated 31Jul 43 ( This is one page per family and gives passport and next of kin details) totalling 779 British.
A list of Religious Communities undated but believed to be July 1943 held at Cardinal Stritch University.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission list of notified deaths ( original is held in Westminster Abbey).
A plan of the graveyard in Weihsien with the names of the 24 interred there. Their date of death, age, nationalityand the doctor certifying death ( found in the UK national Archives) The last entry is A Marinellis 6th Aug 1945 ( there is no mention of the garves allegedly outside the walls).
Camp lists of the camps in the Shanghai regions some of which have annotations liked " moved from Weihsien" ( generally applies to children or families which had been separated at the start of the war and were moved together) variety of archives.
Shanghai Times list of allied nationals repatriated in August 1942.
Passenger lists of the Kamakura Maru, Conte Verde, Gripsholm, Teia Maru,
Shanghai Times list of allied nationals repatriated in September/October 1943.
New York Times list of 1236 US citizens exchanged in Gao on 14th October 1943 who will be arriving in New York on the Gripsholm.
List of Allied subjects( all nationalities) repatriated from China published by the Malayan Research Bureau Sydney NSW Australia dated Feb 1944.
Cambridge Univ.
Sundry contemporary personal diaries. variety of archives.
I have also crossed checked against all the names used in books written about Weihsien. Including Gilkey's "Shantuing Compound" where although he used pseudonyms in the book I have copy of Hugh Hubbard's typed de-code provided by Mary Stanley to my late mother. However this quotes a Ramsey but there was no one of that name in Weihsien.
In using the names contained in the Newspaper lists has necessitated some elimination antics to arrive at the Camp that they were in. The Shanghai papers give the area( do not forget that they include Japan, Indo-China Philippines Hongkong and Manchuria) and in some cases the actual place particularly in the 1942 exchange the 1943 exchange and the one that really affects Weihsien has area but the Shanghai Camp lists give the names of those leaving and these can be identified on the ships lists to arrive at those who were in Weihsien.
Weihsien camp operated from Feb 1943 until Oct 1944 thus in no way can John Hersy have been born in camp if he was born 1914. Do not however forget that Weihsien had been a Protestant School and his parents may have been at that establishment. Martha Smalley of Yale is quite definitive but has she consider that births were registered at the nearest consulate. My own father's birth certifcate says registered in Tientsin whereas he was born in Weichen ( A different place) in 1904.
The name John Hersey does not appear anywhere in the 29,000 names of allied nationals interned by the Japanese that I have accumulated as of the time of writing.
As general rule I am however very wary of lists in books that have been written later than the 1950s as the human memory plays tricks and some names are mispelt. Also I have seen cases of people who were babies during the war claiming to have been in a camp and naming the camp. Examination of all known records has shown that the father was in the camp claimed and that the wife and the young children( Under 5) were allowed to stay outside. This happened particularly in the Shanghai area and when the mother was not British or American by birth. There were also several cases in Tianjin (Tientsin) where the Japanese allowed people to stay out of camp to look after aged relatives, this also occurred to my knowledge in Beijing( Peking) nd there are anecdotal references to the same policy in Shanghai and Hongkong. In the latter many part Portuguese were not interned and in Malaya the internment of the Jewish community occurred in May 1944 and normally they do not seem to have interned all of those of mixed blood. I must stop or I will be writing a thesis.
bien amicalement
Ron

PS if anyone has or knows of any other source documents please let me know.