Chester Bennett – ‘The American Hero of Hong Kong’

Note:

My main source for this post is the work of the American war reporter Hal Boyle. In December 1945 Boyle wrote an article on the Japanese public prosecutor Kazuo Kogi in which he outlined Bennett’s story. He went on to write a seven part article on Bennett, under the heading ‘The American Hero of Hong Kong’, which was syndicated in the period January-March 1946. All seven parts are available on the internet, in different formats and from different sources. I provide a transcript of the fourth article elsewhere on this blog.

 

Chester M. Bennett was born in San Francisco on February 12, 1892. [1] According to Hal Boyle, he arrived in Hong Kong in 1933 to look into the possibilities for animal pictures in the Far East.[2]  

However, barring an unlikely coincidence of name and profession, he was present in Hong Kong in 1928, attempting to set up a production company with a Chinese partner; this came to nothing, so he launched his own business.[3] Of course, it is possible that Bennett left Hong Kong and returned in 1933.

Bennett’s career in the movies went back to at least 1917, when he acted  in three short films and one longer one, The Lair of the Wolf.[4] It’s possible he was an aviator in WW1;[5] if so, he returned successfully to his original career, directing 18 films between 1919 and 1926.[6] The last of these, a 50 minute effort called Honesty is the Best Policy was co-written by Howard Hawks, who later went on to direct Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and other Hollywood classics.

 Whenever he actually arrived, Bennett liked Hong Kong and made his home there, gradually building up a restaurant and juke-box provision business. He fell in love too, with a Portuguese-Irish girl called Elsa Soares, whose father was a Justice of the Peace.[7]

After the fall of Hong Kong (Christmas Day, 1941), Bennett’s fate was the same as most of the rest of the Allied civilian community: at the end of January 1942 he was sent to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp to wait out the rest of the war. The rations sent in by the Japanese were neither calorific enough nor nutritious enough to maintain the health of the roughly 3000 internees, and it says a lot for Bennett’s standing in Hong Kong that, when the Japanese agreed that one person could return to the town to arrange the purchase of supplementary food with HK$300,000 that had been raised by the internees, it was Chester Bennett who was asked to carry out this important task. His knowledge of the food business was one reason, but he must also have been completely trusted by the British administration and accepted by the internees as a man of integrity.[8] He was, it is said, ‘the man everyone in Hong Kong knew in peacetime’. [9]

 Bennett used his relationship with his former barber to get himself kept out of Camp on parole – Yamashita, who’d cut his hair every week at the Hong Kong Hotel, was now a commandant of Stanley Camp (opinions differ as to whether Yamashita enjoyed a dramatic promotion or had always been a Japanese officer working in deep cover as a spy!) Again, it tells us something about Bennett that he had obviously won a degree of affection from a man whose nationality and line of work would hardly have commended him to most ‘white’ Hong Kong residents in the pre-war period, when hierarchies of race and class seemed so important.

On May 8, Bennett and Elsa Soares were married. Soares pawned the jewellery he’d given her to buy food so he could carry on his work, and they lived simply together.[10] On June 30 almost all of the Hong Kong Americans sailed for home – their government had arranged a prisoner exchange with the Japanese. In an extraordinary act of self sacrifice, Chester Bennett stayed behind. The British Colonial Secretary Franklin Gimson, had asked him to do so to continue helping the internees.[11]

In addition to his work arranging food supplies, Bennett began gathering information about Japanese shipping movements and sending the details to agents in China.[12] American submarines were able to take a heavy toll of Japanese ships partly thanks to agents like this.

 Bennett eventually teamed up with Portuguese attorney Marcus da Silva. Together they raised money from wealthy Hong Kong residents, mainly Indian and Swiss, by getting well-known internees to provide promissory notes – any loans would be repayable after the Allies retook Hong Kong, when the Japanese imposed Military Yen would become worthless. They smuggled some of this money back into Stanley so food could be bought on the black market.[13]

 Bennett also helped smuggle messages in and out of camp; in both forms of smuggling he was helped by the Chinese Stanley Camp supervisor Chan Kai Wai.[14]

 Those of Bennett’s activities involving money smuggling put him under the leadership of  Charles Frederick (‘Ginger’’) Hyde, one of the bankers who the Japanese had kept out of Stanley for their own purposes. In spring 1943, Bennet and da Silva were informed of Hyde’s arrest, and soon after were told by a Chinese agent that their names were on a Japanese blacklist and advised to go into hiding. They discussed the situation and decided their work was so important that they had to continue it.[15] They planned to tighten their espionage ring, with Bennett focusing on financial issues, da Silva on spying. They also devised an impressively ambitious three part programme of resistance: 1) the organisation of an intelligence unit to spy on ship movements; 2) the assassination of Indian and Chinese agents of the Kempeitai (Japanese security police) as a warning to others and the first step in inciting wider resistance; 3) the maintenance of British  loyalty amongst the 2,000 troops used  by the Japanese to guard the Hong Kong-Canton railway by raising the money to give them a small monthly cigarette allowance.[16]  In April 1943 they sent a messenger into China with details of these plans, hoping to get approval from higher authority. It was their last message; the British Army Aid Group, the main organiser of anti-Japanese activities in Hong Kong, received notice on June 8 of the arrest of 173 people, including Bennett and da Silva.[17] Bennett had been taken by the Kempeitai on May 13.[18]  His arrest was part of a broad Japanese strike-back, beginning in February, against a range of ‘illegal’ activities in Hong Kong and the Camps.[19]

 Four Japanese ‘gendarmes’ arrived at the Bennetts’ home one morning. They managed to hide the radio – another of Bennett’s ‘crimes’ was passing on war news to the internees, and some internee promissory notes and messages from the Colonial Secretary, Franklin Gimson.[20] The Kempeitai were eager to find an excuse to arrest Gimson, and the quick action of the Bennetts probably saved his life and perhaps that of the signatories of the notes. The four gendarmes found nothing, but still took Bennett away.

 Over the next months he was starved and brutally tortured but he never revealed a single name of all those who had helped him in his work. Rope burns on his leg became gangrenous and the Japanese would have amputated if he hadn’t been sentenced to death.[21]

 Boyle gives the trial date as October 26,[22] but according to former internee George Wright-Nooth it was October 19, and Bennett was one of the second of three groups of defendants.[23]

 The trial was a farce, with the verdicts decided beforehand[24] and no defence allowed. The prisoners were forced to stand in the same place for hours on end, and beaten if they made any movement.[25] The Japanese were never able to prove that Bennett had spied on them, but they were confident he’d been smuggling money into Stanley. Marcus Da Silva thought they probably wouldn’t have executed him just for financial ‘crimes, but did so because of the arrival in September of Japanese ‘thought police’ from Tokyo ‘who put the harshest kind of penalties into effect’.[26] I’m not sure who these men were, but da Silva’s theory is plausible, as the Japanese didn’t usually condemn men to death without a confession or of spying.

 On October 29, 1943 Bennett and 32 others – Indian, Chinese, Canadian and British – were taken to the hillside close to Stanley Beach.[27]. Bennett’s walk was upright, and he only limped slightly, in spite of what must have been agonising pain from his gangrenous leg. To all outward appearences he was calm. Two lines of trenches had already been dug in the small clearing. Black execution masks (or perhaps blindfolds) were placed over their faces, and they were told to kneel.[28] The beheadings were begun by one Japanese soldier and continued by others when he flagged. [29]  Eventually all the bodies had fallen or been kicked into the trenches and Indian warders covered them up.[30] It was claimed that potatoes were planted on one of these communal resting places as a last gesture of contempt.[31]

In Stanley Military Cemetery, a little above the beach where he was executed, there is a memorial to Chester Bennett. The inscription reads simply British Army Aid Group, and when the stone was created there was no-one available to provide Mr. Bennett’s date of birth.[32]

 Mrs. Bennett didn’t see her husband for the five months after his arrest. On January 14, 1944, she gave birth to a girl, Carol Ann. Two months later Marcus Da Silva, who’d managed to get himself released by the Kempeitai and then promptly fled to Macao, sent a messenger to help her join him, but she refused to leave with such a young baby, and in any case didn’t think the Japanese would bother her after having killed her husband. She was wrong; the gendarmes came in June. They searched the house but failed to find Bennett’s papers, which she’d hidden in the garden. They took her anyway, accusing her of carrying on the work of smuggling money into Stanley. She was brutally interrogated and at one point starved for five days. She had to wash in cold tea. She never told her interrogators where to find her husband’s papers.[33]

 One of the first to visit her after liberation was the Colonial Secretary, Franklin Gimson, at whose request her husband had turned down the chance of repatriation.[34] According to one source, she eventually went to live in Los Angeles.[35]

 Between August 2 and August 9, 1946 two Japanese civilians and a Warrant Officer were tried for their role in the brutality meted out to Bennett, Hyde and others. One of the civilians was also accused of mistreating Mrs. Bennett. The verdicts were complex and nuanced, with the judges obviously trying to assess the responsibility of the defendants in every act they stood accused of, but they were all found guilty of something. In two cases, their sentences, although not severe given the gravity of the charges, were reduced on appeal.[36]  This was very different to the treatment experienced by Bennett and his co-defendants after their arrests.

 While awaiting execution, Bennett had heard that his wife was going to have a baby, whom he of course would never see. He wrote a final message of love, and asked his wife to bring up the child in her family’s faith ‘in which I now believe’[37] – this almost certainly means Catholicism. The letter was taken out by a friendly guard, while a Chinese fellow prisoner smuggled out his last message to Marcus da Silva: ‘Marcus I kept faith. I didn’t talk’.

 No, whatever was done to him, Chester Bennett said not one word to implicate others. He knew what was in store for them if he did.

But now his actions speak clearly, telling us of selflessness, dedication and total commitment to the cause of the good, of an unbreakable spirit that, in the most extreme of circumstances, displayed courage beyond imagination.

 

Note: On April 27, 1942 internee Barbara Redwood recorded in her diary:

Japs have offered us HK$75 each, and we have made out lists of what we want to buy and it’s hoped they will let someone in to town to buy it soon.

http://gwulo.com/node/10119

On May 25 she added that the sum allocated was actually $100 dollars per internee but that $25 was kept back to be spent by the communal kitchens – this adds up to the $3000 mentioned by Boyle. Although the source of the funds is the Japanese not the internees themselves,  I strongly suspect that this is the occasion on which Bennett left Stanley.

View Record	SERIAL NUMBER	NAME	SERVICE CODE	STATE OF RESIDENCE	AREA	STATUS	DETAINING POWER	CAMP
		BENNETT CHESTER	CIVILIAN		Asiatic Theatre: China	Executed, Died in Ship’s Sinking or Result of Ship Sinking, Shot While Attempting Escape	JAPAN	Stanley Camp (Civilian) Hong Kong 22-114

 

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[1] This and all other references to websites are, unless otherwise indicated, to Hal Boyle’s 7 part series on Bennett. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19460126&id=V4wyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GecFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6296,3739885

[2]http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19460126&id=V4wyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GecFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6296,3739885

[3] Google Books edition of  Hong Kong Cinema a Cross Cultural View, Law Kar, Frank Bren, Sam Ho, 2004: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=85DKMniFe4gC&pg=PA380&lpg=PA380&dq=hong+kong+cinema+cross+cultural+law+kar&source=bl&ots=n9Ws1umTd_&sig=MrYSRMrNrfl4TGSRegNDw-sjOtk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=aKVTT8OxEoL78QOQ5IXxBQ&ved=0CF8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=chester%20bennett&f=false

[4] Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0071667/

[5] http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19460129&id=GABGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1703,1916632

[6] IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0071665/

[7] http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19460129&id=GABGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1703,1916632

[8] http://www.newspaperarchive.com/SiteMap/FreePdfPreview.aspx?img=110921420

[9]http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19460204&id=HABGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3056,2264831

[10]http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19460204&id=HABGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3056,2264831

[11] http://newspaperarchive.com/the-paris-news/1946-01-30/page-6

[12]http://newspaperarchive.com/the-paris-news/1946-01-30/page-6

[13] http://newspaperarchive.com/the-paris-news/1946-01-30/page-6

[14] George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 159. Wright-Nooth wrongly calls him Chester-Bennett.

[15]http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WowyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GecFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6132,5061119&dq=chester+bennett+hal+boyle+ginger+hyde&hl=en

[16]http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WowyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GecFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6132,5061119&dq=chester+bennett+hal+boyle+ginger+hyde&hl=en

[17] Tony Banham, We Shall Suffer There, 2009, Kindle Edition, Location 1849.

[18] http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/ Original article at: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vAFNjgINIfEJ:fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%252011/Corning%2520NY%2520Evening%2520%2520Leader/Corning%2520NY%2520Evening%2520%2520Leader%25201946%2520%2520%2520Grayscale/Corning%2520NY%2520Evening%2520%2520Leader%25201946%2520%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200207.pdf+hal+boyle+chester+bennett+american+hero+hong+kong+stanley+bay&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj0U6YMM3VdcT2wFDON9FVGWsDHPo3VABR1-dn20QWuUmB1PDHHV1KNaYWmrbucvgVNiywCLT3UQeBOUZAP_IEyZPPpyODS9cHNtK32U02h7YC9MgOsy-agOGH4ekvyvMh2-Tck&sig=AHIEtbTQ0cERMF0TW0skYY5U1nPpkzZJ8A&pli=1

[19] Philip Snow, The Fall of Hong Kong, 2003, 185.

[20] http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/

[21]http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GwBGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1641,2176084&dq=chester+bennett&hl=en

[22]http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GwBGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1641,2176084&dq=chester+bennett&hl=en

[23] Wright-Nooth, 180. Tony Banham accepts the October 19 dating: We Shall Suffer There, Kindle edition, Location 2061.

[24] Wright-Nooth, 179.

[25] Wright-Nooth, 180.

[26]http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GwBGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1641,2176084&dq=chester+bennett&hl=en

[27] Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 2008, Kindle Edition, Location 1758

[28]http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%202/Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser/Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser%201946%20pdf/Newspaper%20Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser%201946%20-%200267.PDF

[29] Wright-Nooth, 187.

[30] http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%202/Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser/Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser%201946%20pdf/Newspaper%20Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser%201946%20-%200267.PDF

[31] http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19460126&id=V4wyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GecFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6296,3739885

[32] Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=15287296

[33] http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19460204&id=HABGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3056,2264831

[34]All in this paragraph from: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19460204&id=HABGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hukMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3056,2264831

[35] Roll of Honour: http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/Cemeteries/Stanley_Military_Cemetery/html/b.htm

[36] http://hkwctc.lib.hku.hk/exhibits/show/hkwctc/documents/item/55

[37]http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%202/Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser/Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser%201946%20pdf/Newspaper%20Auburn%20NY%20Citizen%20Advertiser%201946%20-%200267.PDF