Uncovering Pootung- Part 5: A Businessman’s Account—John Robert de Lara’s Testimony

by Jenny Chan

The narratives of John Van Almer, Albert Edward Alsop, James E. Aurell, Den W. Purns and Floyd Crowder have revealed the multifaceted struggles of Pootung Assembly Camp, from physical violence and starvation to public humiliation and internal divisions. Now, the testimony of John Robert de Lara, a highly educated American businessman, adds another layer to this complex history. Recorded by the Judge Advocate General’s Department in February 1946, de Lara’s affidavit details the camp’s deteriorating conditions, including freezing winters without heat, inadequate sanitation, and a diet so meager it left internees too weak to exercise. His account also exposes the camp’s perilous proximity to Japanese military targets, highlighting the constant threat of air raids. In Part 5, de Lara’s meticulous observations, shaped by his background in insurance and business administration, offer a sobering perspective on the systemic neglect and dangers faced by Pootung’s internees, further underscoring the urgency of preserving their stories.

Perpetuation of Testimony: John Robert de Lara’s Affidavit
Taken on February 15, 1946, in New York City, John Robert de Lara’s affidavit, documented by the Judge Advocate General’s Department for the War Crimes Office, provides a detailed account of the inhumane conditions at Pootung Internment Camp. A 38-year-old former assistant manager for the American Foreign Insurance Association in Shanghai, de Lara describes the condemned tobacco warehouses, the lack of basic provisions like bedding and clothing, and the drastic reduction in food rations that led to widespread weight loss and illness. His testimony also reveals the camp’s vulnerability to air attacks due to nearby Japanese military installations, a risk compounded by the commandant’s refusal to mark the camp as civilian until the war’s final days. Presented in full below, de Lara’s account, informed by his education at USC and Harvard, reinforces the systemic failures under commandant Tsuchiya and amplifies the call to honor the resilience of Pootung’s internees.


War Crimes Office
Judge Advocate General’s Department- War Department 
United States of America

In the matter of the imprisonment, under improper conditions, of civilian internees by the Japanese at the Pootung Internment Camp, Shanghai, China, between Feruary 15, 1943 and August 1945. 

Taken at: 1270 Avenue of the Americas, (Room 803A), New York 20, N.Y. 

Date: 15 February 1946. 

In the presence of: Arthur F Vedder, Special Agent, 1251 S.C.U., F.P.I. Sec., Intel. Br., Sec. and Intel. Div., Hq. 2nd S.C., 1270 Avenue of the Americas, New York 20, N.Y. 

Reporter: Arthur F. Vedder, Special Agent. 

Questions by: Arthur F. Vedder, Special Agent. 

Q. Please state your name, occupation, and permanent home address. 
A. John Robert de Lara. Prior to my internment by the Japanese I was Assistant Manager in Shanghai, China, for the American Foreign Insurance Association. I am now with the Standard Oil Company and expect to be assigned to the Netherlands West Indies. My permanent home address is- 2346 North El Molino Avenue, Altadena, California. 

Q. When and where were you born and what is your marital status?
A. I was born in Mexico City, 8 January 1907. I am a United States citizen, and I am unmarried. 

Q. What formal schooling have you had?
A. I received a B.S. in Business Administration at the University of Southern California in 1933, and an M.A. at the University of Southern California in 1936, and an M.B.A. at Harvard University in 1936. 

Q. Did you recently return to the United States from overseas?
A. I arrived at San Francisco, California, in the first part of November 1945 approximately, on the U.S.S. “Lavaca”.

Q. Were you a civilian internee of the Japanese?
A. Yes. I was taken in custody by the Japanese on 15 February 1943, and was incarcerated in what the Japanese called “Pootung Civil Assembly Center”, at Pootung, China, across the river from Shanghai. I was held there until liberated at the end of the war in August 1945. 

Q. What did you do prior to February 15, 1943 and since the beginning of the war between Japan and America?
A. We were all free to go and come in Shanghai, under various restrictions, except those against whom the Japanese had special grievances. 

Q. What quarters were furnished to you at the Pootung Internment Camp?
A. For living quarters we were assigned to what had formerly been tobacco warehouses, owned by the British-American Tobacco Company. These buildings had formerly been condemned by this company as inadequate and unsafe for the storage of tobacco. They were very old buildings. 

Q. Were the buildings outfitted by the Japanese for living quarters?
A. No, they were empty buildings when we moved in, and anything that we had there in the line of bedding and furniture was all brought in by us. We often had to bring the chairs in.

Q. What were the sanitary facilities at this camp?
A. We were not too badly off in that regard. For two rooms, in which were assigned about two hundred people, we had three toilets. This made a difficult situation as a great many people were ill from food poisoning and were afflicted with various forms of digestive disturbances. 

Q. What bathing facilities were furnished?
A. We had seven showers for approximately one thousand one hundred (1,100_internees and many times two or three of them would be out of condition. 

Q. Were the heating facilities adequate?
A. For the winters of 1944 and 1945 we had no heat whatsoever. The temperature went as low as 20 F in our camp. During our incarceration Shanghai had one of the hardest winters in fifty or sixty years. A reservoir within the compound froze solid. During the first weeks of our imprisonment, in the winter of 1943, we did have a stove. 

Q. Were complaints made to the Japanese authorities regarding this situation?
A. Yes. Our camp representatives made efforts to obtain heating facilities, but the Japanese commandant informed them that they were not available. 

Q. Did the Japanese guards have heating facilities?
A. Yes, they had coal stoves in their guard houses.

Q. Were the internees furnished with adequate clothing?
A. The Japanese provided no clothing. All we had was what we brought to the camp with us and what the American Red Cross sent in on two shipments. Many people could not afford clothing, because of the exorbitant prices. And did not have it when they went into the camp. There was a particular need for proper shoes and warm socks. 

Q. Will you describe the food rations furnished to the internees?
A. At first they furnished enough food to maintain the health of the internees, but they kept reducing the rations until at last we were getting one-fourth of what we were receiving at the beginning of our internment. They would run out of rice, which was the mainstay of our diet and all they would furnish us from time to time would be flour, from which we made biscuits. 

Q. Do you know whether the Japanese were able to obtain sufficient food for the internees?
A. The Japanese Army provided the food and they had it for themselves; they were able to comandeer it. 

Q. Will you describe what the ration was during the last year of your internment?
A. About a year before the war ended the ration was reduced below the standard necessary to maintain health. We received no breakfast. The other meals were inadequate and we were always hungry. I was fortunate in that I had a friend on the outside who sent me ten pound food packages once a month, but that would last me only four or five days. 

Q. Did you lose any weight as a result of this diet?
A. I lost about ten or fifteen pounds from a normal weight of about 158 pounds. I did not lose as much weight as many of the internees, as I have always been thin. I am 6’ tall. However, losing those ten or fifteen pounds put me in such condition that I was too weak to exercise. Some of the internees lost as much as sixty pounds. 

Q. Will you describe a typical meal at the camp?
A. In the last year for lunch we would receive about a coffee cupful of rice. This rice was not the clean white rice that we are accustomed to in this country, but apparently consisted of the sweeping and the rice contained much foreign material, such as dirt and grit, which it was impossible to separate from the edible portions. They would also give us bread which our doctors in the camp analyzed and found to be made from a soybean residue, which contained practically no food value. It would crumble as we tried to cut it and other times it would be sticky and of such glue-like consistency that we would be unable to eat it. Along with this they would give us a watery stew which could easily be contained on an ordinary dinner plate. An internee would be fortunate if there was a piece of water buffalo meat in that stew as big as the end of a man’s thumb. In the evening, for dinner, we would receive exactly the same menu, it never varied, unless they ran out of one of the ingredients I have mentioned; for almost a year they gave us no beverage at all. They doled out a month’s supply of sugar, each month, which amounted to about two and one-half table-spoonsful. 

Q. Did you have any way to supplement your diet, other than personal contributions from your friends?
A. At first we had a canteen in the camp which was pretty good, and we were allowed $8.00 United States money to purchase food at this canteen. As time went on the Japanese so manipulated the various currency exchange values involved, so that finally our $8,00 got us practically nothing at the canteen and, during the last year, we had no canteen. 

Q. Were the medical treatment and facilities furnished the internees adequate? 
A. We were fortunate in that we had four or five doctors of our own, but it was difficult for them to get medicines and equipment. All they had was what the American Red Cross had sent in. The Japanese furnished no medicine or supplies. After the first six months the only dentists we had in the camp were repatriated. After that occurred the Japanese dentist came to the camp once a week, but there were so many waiting for appointments that one would have to wait nine months to see this dentist. Finally this dentist stopped coming and t he only one we had to take care of the teeth was an oil engineer, who gained his knowledge solely from observing the Japanese dentist’s work. 

There was a hospital across the river from the camp, but I have been informed that it was operated under unsatisfactory conditions. I understand they had no nurses at the hospital and the patients were obliged to care for one another. 

Q. Who were your camp representatives? 
A. At first our American representative was Bill Ryan of the Chase National Bank. He was repatriated in 1943 and we were then represented by a Mr. Milton Bates, who was employed by the National City Bank. He was our representative until near the end of the imprisonment. The last representative was George Leacock, who had been acting treasurer of St. John’s University in Shanghai. 

Q. Who was the Japanese commandant of the camp?
A. His name was Tsuchiya. 
He was a representative of the Japanese Consulate and had been assigned to the branch of that office in Shanghai. He was in charge of that camp for about three-fourths of the time. I don’t think he was responsible for conditions in the camp. I don’t recall the name of the Japanese commandant who succeeded him. 

Q. Is there any other items of mistreatment of the internees that you care to comment on?
A. Yes. We were expose to possible air attack due to the fact that there were legitimate military objectives adjacent to the camp. They had troops quartered in a building next to us which I observed. About fifty feet down the road there was an entrance to a building, through which I observed Japanese carrying ammunition for storage. 
There were several anti-aircraft guns close to the camp and they could be seen from the camp. 
They also constructed concrete pillboxes and machine gun emplacement, designed to impedea possible invasion. One of those machine gun emplacement was not over ten feet from one of the internment camp buildings. 

On the other side of the compound they had cavalrymen and their horses stationed. 
The Japanese would not permit us to mark internment camp buildings, so that we would not be subject to raids until a week before the end of the war, when they permitted us to mark them with white crosses. They stated that such marks on the buildings would serve as a guide to the American airmen. 

Q. Is there anything else pertinent to this inquiry which you care to state?
A. No.