Uncovering Pootung- Part 6: A Merchant’s Tale—Henry Francis Parks’ Testimony

by Jenny Chan

The affidavits of John Van Almer, Albert Edward Alsop, James E. Aurell, Den W. Purns and Floyd Crowder, and John Robert de Lara have painted a vivid portrait of Pootung Assembly Camp’s hardships, from violence and starvation to public humiliation and military risks. Now, the testimony of Henry Francis Parks, a seasoned American businessman and owner of the Cathay-American Company, brings a chilling new dimension to this history. Recorded in San Francisco in 1946, Parks’ affidavit, sworn for the Judge Advocate General’s Department, details the camp’s vermin-infested, condemned warehouse, the meager rations that led to severe weight loss, and the relentless exposure to Allied bombing due to the camp’s unmarked status amidst Japanese military installations. His account also humanizes the internees’ struggle through anecdotes like the suspected greyhound carcass and the kindness of a shell-shocked Japanese guard nicknamed “Guadalcanal.” As we transition to Part 6, Parks’ narrative, shaped by his long residence in Shanghai, underscores the dire living conditions and life-threatening dangers faced by Pootung’s internees, reinforcing the imperative to preserve their stories.

Perpetuation of Testimony: Henry Francis Parks’ Affidavit
Sworn in San Francisco, California, in 1946, Henry Francis Parks’ affidavit, documented for the War Crimes Office of the Judge Advocate General’s Department, offers a harrowing account of life at Pootung Civilian Assembly Center. A U.S. citizen who ran a successful wholesale-retail and insurance business in Shanghai since 1933, Parks describes the overcrowded, rat-infested tobacco warehouse, the inadequate medical care that led to preventable deaths, and the starvation diet that reduced his weight from 176 to 122 pounds. His testimony vividly recounts the camp’s perilous location near Japanese naval headquarters and ammunition stores, exposing internees to constant bombing risks until white crosses were finally painted on the roofs in July 1945. Naming commandant Tsauchia (likely Tsuchiya) and the brutal Sergeant Ando (or Endo), Parks’ account, presented in full below, also highlights moments of humanity, such as the aid from a compassionate guard. This testimony deepens our understanding of Pootung’s inhumane conditions and strategic vulnerability.


9SC-WC-2749    
State of California
City and County of San Francisco

HENRY FRANCIS PARKS, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
I am a citizen of the United States, and since June of 1933, have been sole owner of Cathay-American Company, operating a wholesale-retail and insurance business and connected enterprises in Shanghai, China. After the outbreak of hostilities, the Japanese military seized control of Shanghai, and on 15 February 1943, I was interned in the Pootung Civilian Assembly Center at Pootung across the river from the International Settlement in Shanghai for the duration of the war, being released on or about 17 August 1945.

The place of my internment was in a “godown” or warehouse, formerly the property of the British-American Tobacco Company. This warehouse was situated in the center of a commercial and manufacturing area and at the time of our internment it had been abandoned after condemnation by the Chinese civil authorities as being unfit for use. It was a very old building, ridden with vermin, rats, lice and bedbugs. Twelve hundred people were interned there in the several rooms of the building. There were 127, all Americans, in the room which I occupied which was about 70 feet by 95 feet in dimension, allowing each internee approximately 4½ feet by 8 feet of space for living and sleeping. 

The Japanese assumed the responsibility for the feeding of the internees and it was not until the spring of 1945 that any bulk Red Cross food was allowed into the camp. Our basic food was rice. For extended periods of time the daily quantity of rice per internee was 4½ punches but sometimes we were served as high as 7 to 8 ounces of rice per internee daily. In addition to the rice, soup was served made of daikons, carrots, Chinese cabbage and other greens, usually one ladle per person per day, but sometimes as high as two ladles during the best period. Two or three times a week each internee received approximately one cubic inch of some sort of meat, generally Chinese buffalo or goat. There was one occasion when we read in the newspapers that the local dog racetrack had been closed and the dogs disposed of and about that time a carcass was brought in, supposedly a sheep, but it had a long thin tail and had every evidence of being a greyhound. We did not eat it. Occasionally, a rotten fish was supplied but was rarely eaten. About 80 per cent of the time a black bread, obviously made of sweepings which contained bits of wood and other debris was served. For the first two years tea was served to the internees but thereafter it stopped. During my internment I went from 176 pounds in weight to a low point of 122 pounds in July 1944. In July 1945 I weighed 126 pounds and that was approximately my weight at the time of our liberation.

Water was at all times adequate and good. We were able to arrange for our own purification system and never had any difficulty with it. 
Except for the first month and a half of our internment, there was never any heat of any character whatever in the internment camp. After the first month and a half, all stoves and heating appliances were removed and it any internees was caught with any hot plate or any other heating device he was subjected to severe punishment. Suffering was acute during the wintertime for lack of heat and there was no shortage or fuel in the area so far as I am aware. The principal reason, I assume, for the lack of heat was the dangerous character of the warehouse which, because of its condition, might very readily have caught fire. However, no arrangements were made in view of many protests to transfer to a place where adequate heating could have been arranged. 

Medical care was inadequate. At the outset of our internment there were two American physicians with us. One of them was a Doctor Thorngate, a Seventh Day Adventist missionary doctor. These doctors were able men and set up a clinic within the camp and rengered reasonably good care under the circumstances. However, they were restricted by a lack of medicines and supplies which the Japanese failed to provide. These two American physicians were repatriated in July 1942 and the British doctors remaining were not as forceful and courageous as the Americans had been in making demands on the Japanese. They, likewise, were limited in their activities because of lack of medical supplies and equipment. Beyond the few items which we had managed to bring into the camp or obtain in the early months, no new medical supplies were received at the camp until 1944, at which time a small amount of medicinals were received but I am unaware of the source of them. Doctor Graham, an Australian, has more adequate information concerning the medical situation. Suffering was encountered as a result of the Japanese refusal and delay to grant medical aid to various ill internees. When men became seriously ill the only solution was to transfer them to hospitals in Shanghai proper and the Japanese were reluctant to permit this. I recall one case in the winter of 1944 involving an internee whose identity is unknown to me wherein the patient died as a result of failure to get adequate medical attention in time. Doctor Graham worked for t hree and a half weeks, trying to get this man transferred to a hospital in Shanghai. He died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix as a direct consequence of this situation. It is my impression that there were two internees who died under quite similar circumstances as a result of the delay imposed by the Japanese in arranging for transfer of critical cases to outside hospitals.
Discipline in the camp was enforced by physical violence in some instances but, in general, by the imposition of petty restructions and invonceniences or the restrictions of the food allowances. There were some cases of slappings and I recall particularly a Korean guard, nicknamed “Baby Face,” whose true name is unknown to me, who was particularly notable for slapping the internees. I am unaware, however, of the identity of any specific internee who was beaten by him. For a period of eleven months, rain or shine, and regardless of the weather, whether 18 degrees above zero or 95 degrees, the occupants of my room were forbed to stand a formation in the open compound of the assembly center. The internees were obliged to stand at strict attention, oftentimes for as long as 50 minutes, while the roll was called or we were given orders or lectures. These formations occurred twice a day – at 8:00am and at 5:00pm. This treatment served two purposes: first, it was a form of punishment for the occupants of my room because the balance of the internees were only required to stand such formations for about 7 months and; secondly, it was a means of causing the internees to lose face with the Chinese as we stood these formations in a place where we were readily observed by the multitudes passing in the adjacent street. We were constantly harassed by roll calls suddenly ordered in the middle of the night, at midnight or at 2:00am, etc. These roll calls, however, were held within the building and served no useful purpose except to disturb our rest and make like as uncomfortable and disagreeable as possible.

The Pootung Civilian Assembly Center was under the administration of the Japanese Consulate General as distinguished from those internment installations in direct control of the military or of the Japanese police. The man primarily responsible for the conditions within the camp was one, “Tsauchia,” a consular official who was in charge of all prison and internment installations in the Shanghai area so far as the Consulate was concerned, but was primarily responsible for the Pootung camp. This man was thoroughly conversant with conditions in the camp because he visited it regularly and heard our complaints. I do not believe he could truly be held responsible for the beatings which occurred on some occasions because they were administered by military guards over whom he had only supervisory control, and I never knew or heard of him approving or authorizing any physical abuses. He was, However, responsible for our food, our medical care, and the general conditions of the camp. I met this man in Seattled in 1937 where he was a student at the University of Washington, and this may assist in more thoroughly identifying him. 

The sergeant of the guard who was responsible for the physical abuse of the prisoners was a sergeant named “Ando” or “Ondo.” He was of the military and I can give no further identifying particulars. There was a Japanese, a shellshocked veteran of Guadalcanal, who for a time was a guard in the place, He was very kind to the prisoners, warned them of dangers which they might anticipate, smuggled in necessary items at cost, and even fed coolies who were being deliberately starved after having been caught attempting to aid the internees. His nickname was “guadalcanal” and I know nothing more about him. Because of his kindness, he was transferred after a time and I know nothing of his later whereabouts. 

9SCWC-2748
State of California 
City and County of San Francisco

HENRY FRANCIS PARKS, being duly sworn, deposes, and says:

I am a citizen of the United States, and since June of 1933, have been sole owner of Cathay-American Company, operating a wholesale-retail and insurance business and connected enterprises in Shanghai, China. After the outbreak of hostilities, the Japanese military seized control of Shanghai, and o n 15 February 1943 I was interned in the Pootung Civilian Assembly Center at Pootung across the river from the International Settlement in Shanghai for the duration of the war, being released on or about 17 August 1945. 

The place of my internment was in a “godown” or warehouse, formerly the property of the British-American Tobacco Company. This warehouse was situated in the center of a commercial and manufacturing area, it had been abandoned after condemnation by the Chinese civil authorities as being unfit for use. The camp was not marked in any way to indicate that it was an internee installation. The first Allied bombing of the area occured in the month of June 1944 and thereafter consistently increased until it was intense in February and March 1945. The internees repeatedly begged permission to mark the buildings of the camp with white crosses or other means to identify it so that it would not be bombed as the Pootung area constituted a prime objective for Allied bombing. At first the Japanese flatly refused to permit such marking of the buildings and, although we soon got their consent to mark them, they practiced an evading tactic, making it impossible to get paint and other necessary materials to mark the buildings. It was not until 1 July 1945 that we succeeded in getting white crosses on the roofs of the buildings in the compound. These were first put on with whitewash which was prompt washed away by rain. Subsequently, we obtained paint. The buildings themselves were not directly bombed at any time. The Japanese, however, by their conduct, deliberately exposed the internees to the hazards of war. In the broadest sense, their refusal of our request, after it became apparent that Shanghai was to be subjected to bombing, to move us to another place where we would not be so exposed, was the main basis for our exposure. This warehouse was within a few hundred yards of Japanese Naval Headquarters and was surrounded by factories manufacturing machine gun parts, pistols and other military material. The main shipping area consisting of docks and anchorages, was within a half mile of our camp. The Lunchong godown, an even larger warehouse than our own, was situated to the east and southeast of the British-American Tobacco Company warehouse, across a 25-foot alley. In that warehouse, no more than 50 feet from where I was forced to live with 126 other American internees, the Japanese stored at least 2,000 53-gallon drums of gasoline and uncalculated truckloads of hand grenades, machine guns and parts and ammunition for small arms. These trucks loaded material into this warehouse day and night in the months of July and August 1945 while bombing was constantly going on. They quartered soldiers, 500 or more at a time, in the compound of Lunchong warehouse, assertedly using it as a “rest camp.” Within two blocks of the internment camp, six anti-aircraft guns were installed; one was within 15 feet of the room which I occupied; t he rest were in various positions surrounding the camp and within 100 yards. These gun positions were in plain sight of aerial attackers and attempts were made to bomb them out. In fact, one was bombed out during an air raid. At the north end of the building and about 30 feet away from our mess hall, the Japanese military dug a long trench, blocking off the highway, and set up explosive mines in it and replaced the surface. These mines were removed by the Japanese after the surrender. Within a half mile of the compound, moats and tank traps were set up. All of these efforts were done i n an anticipated defense of Pootung area which contained many installations vital to the Japanese. Strategically, it was obvious that any attack by the Allied on the Shanghai area would include an invasion which would necessarily bring the Allied troops into the Pootung area, in which event we would have been in the heat of the fighting for our camp stood among objectives which would necessarily have been destroyed by the Allied forces. Only the surrender saved us from probable annihilation in the fighting. 

The man primarily responsible for the exposure of the civilian internees to these dangers and anticipated dangers was one, Tsauchia, a Japanese consular official, who was in direct charge and authority of the Pootung Civilian Assembly Center. His was the responsibility for the refusal to mark the buildings and the failure to remove the internees to a place of safety when it became apparent that bombings of Pootung industrial area were imminent. Unknown Japanese military and naval authorities were responsible for the defenses deliberately set up, in the storage of war material, and in the quartering of troops, making our camp the heart of a prime target area. 

Source:
“War Crimes Files Pootung,” Pacific Asia War Archive, accessed June 11, 2025, https://pacificatrocitiesedu.reclaim.hosting/items/show/939.