{"id":10094,"date":"2025-08-14T12:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/?p=10094"},"modified":"2025-08-14T12:51:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:51:54","slug":"vj-day-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"VJ Day 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 15 August 1945, Victory over Japan (VJ) Day marked the end of the Second World War in Asia. While celebrations had already taken place in Britain and Europe after VE Day in May, the war was far from over for those still living under Japanese occupation.<\/p>\n

Among them were the civilians of Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong \u2013 over 2,000 men, women, and children \u2013 including Dr Dean Smith, who would later become a lecturer in the Department of Human Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).<\/p>\n

\n
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Dr Dean Smith<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Life in Stanley Internment Camp<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stanley Internment Camp was established by the Japanese in 1942 following their takeover of Hong Kong. Unlike prisoner of war camps, Stanley was run as a civilian internment camp, with internees allowed to organise themselves into committees under Japanese command.<\/p>\n

\n
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Photograph of internees preparing vegetables from ‘Nutrition in civilian internment camps in the Far East January 1942 – August 1945’, by Dr Dean Smith (GB 0809 Nutrition\/11\/10) <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Dr Smith, a member of the International Welfare and Central Relief Committees, used his expertise in nutrition to research and document the health problems he saw around him. The camp diet was dominated by rice and suffered from a severe lack of protein, vitamins, and salt. Supplies of fresh vegetables were limited, and caloric intake was inadequate.<\/p>\n

\n
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Photograph of cases of mild subacute wet beriberi at Stanley Camp from ‘Nutrition in civilian internment camps in the Far East January 1942 – August 1945’, by Dr Dean Smith (GB 0809 Nutrition\/11\/10)<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In his 1942 Nutritional Report<\/em>, written from inside the camp, Dr Smith evaluated the calorie and protein content of the rations, noted the limits of vegetable supply, and highlighted illnesses linked to poor diet \u2013 including beriberi. He even suggested ways to combat deficiencies, such as producing Vitamin B1 through yeast, and recorded a recipe for making it.<\/p>\n

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Recipe for yeast from ‘Nutrition in civilian internment camps in the Far East January 1942 – August 1945’, by Dr Dean Smith (GB 0809 Nutrition\/11\/10)<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Survival and Self-Organisation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout their imprisonment, internees made efforts to improve their situation. Committees rationed valuable foods, lobbied camp commanders for changes, and grew vegetables in the camp gardens whenever possible. Documents in the LSHTM Archives reveal suggestions to harvest salt from sea water, prioritise tinned mutton for those suffering from oedema, and comparisons to diets in other internment camps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n
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Reports by Dr Dean Smith concerning rations and inadequacy of nutritional standards in the Stanley Camp, 1942 (GB 0809 Nutrition\/11\/06)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Liberation and the Change in Rations<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945 brought liberation for Stanley\u2019s internees the following day. An Emergency Committee meeting on 17 August recorded the \u201ctermination of hostilities,\u201d and within two weeks the internees were evacuated.
As they waited, a noticeable change in rations occurred \u2013 honey, salmon, margarine, and meat-loaf appeared on the menu, in stark contrast to the monotonous, nutrient-poor meals of the preceding years.<\/p>\n

\n
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Minutes of an emergency meeting of the Central Relief Committee, 17th August 1945 (GB 0809 Nutrition\/11\/06)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Beyond Stanley \u2013 Other Internment Records<\/strong><\/p>\n

The LSHTM Nutrition Collection also preserves material from Changi Internment Camp in Singapore. Following the fall of Singapore in February 1942, the Japanese used the Selarang Barracks to hold around 50,000 Allied prisoners of war, mostly British and Australian.<\/p>\n

Among the records are over 400 pages of medical inspection reports compiled by Michael F.A. Woodruff, a captured Medical Officer in the Australian Army Medical Corps. These documents, gathered under extreme conditions, detail the malnutrition and related illnesses suffered by inmates and formed the basis for the MRC Special Report No. 274 on Asiatic diets and nervous disorders linked to malnutrition.<\/p>\n

\n
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Graph showing Riboflavin contents of mean daily diet in Changi camp between March 1942 and March 1944 from draft material for the publication ‘Deficiency diseases in Japanese prison camps, MRC Special Report 274’ (GB 0809 Nutrition\/11\/04)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

For more information on our collections, see our online catalogue<\/strong><\/a> or please contact archives@lshtm.ac.uk<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 15 August 1945, Victory over Japan (VJ) Day marked the end of the Second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":892,"featured_media":10119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27649],"tags":[44779,21038,82042],"class_list":["post-10094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-archives","tag-nutrition","tag-vj-day","odd"],"yoast_head":"\nVJ Day 2025 - Library, Archive & Open Research Services blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VJ Day 2025 - Library, Archive & Open Research Services blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On 15 August 1945, Victory over Japan (VJ) Day marked the end of the Second...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Library, Archive & Open Research Services blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-14T11:49:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-14T11:51:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/files\/2025\/08\/Cases-of-mild-subacute-wet-beriberi-Stanley-Camp14517-1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1714\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LSHTMlibrary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LSHTMlibrary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"VJ Day 2025\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-14T11:49:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-14T11:51:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/\"},\"wordCount\":644,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/files\/2025\/08\/Cases-of-mild-subacute-wet-beriberi-Stanley-Camp14517-1-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Archives\",\"Nutrition\",\"VJ Day\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Archives\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2025\/08\/14\/vj-day-2025\/\",\"name\":\"VJ Day 2025 - 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