Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

J. FRANCIS HARRIS OF RCAC IS INTERVIEWED FOR NBC LISTENERS BY DICK CONNOLLY ON HIS RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES ABOARD THE DIPLO- MATIC EXCHANGE LINER GRIPSHOLM. RCA MAN BACK FROM JAPAN Communications Representative in China. Japan, and Mcincliuria Describes Experiences as Prisoner of War Following Return to U. S. Editor's Note. — J. Francis Har- ris has represented RCA Communi- cations in China, Japan and Man- churia since 1932 and he was the Vice President in charge in that area from 1939 until the outbreak of the war. He was also a Director in the Victor Talking Machine Com- pany of Manchitria, Ltd., and the Victor Talking Machine Company of China, Ltd. On Pearl Harbor Dan, in 19il, he was captured by the .Japanese in the RCAC offices in Shanghai. When, on December 1. 19Ji3, he returned to the United States aboard the diploinatic ex- change liner "Gripsholm," he ivas asked to describe his experiences for "Radio Age." By J. Francis Harris THK morninjj: of December 8, l'J41 at Shanghai (December 7 at Pearl Harbor), is a time I will never forget. About daybreak, there occurred the famous Battle of the Wangpoo in which the Japanese battle cruiser "Idzumo" and numer- ous shore batteries literally blew the heroic British gunboat "Petrel" out of the water. The captain of the "Petrel" had preferred to go down fighting rather than surren- der his almost defenseless little ship. After helping several of the seri- ously wounded British sailors who had swum ashore to the French Bund—an endeavor that was explo- sively interrupted by the arrival of Japanese marines in fighting humor —I proceeded to the RCA Commu- nication offices. .\t 1:18 o'clock, a Japanese Im- perial Landing Party took over all American institutions in Shanghai. Alone in the office when the Japa- nese marines marched in, it was obvious to me that RCAC's business in Shangliai was at an end for the duration. Although a Japanese officer or- dered me to stay in the office 1 was carelessly guarded and managed to destroy a number of papers which seemed important at the time. After two days, the Japanese told me to keep the office open until they had time to complete their investi- gation and take over. There was nothing to do but obey. I spent the next few months liquidating our Shanghai business. The RCAC offices in Tokyo, ()s;ika and Kobe, Japan; the Victor Talking Machine Company of Man- rhuria, Ltd., at Hsinking; and the \'ictor Talking Machine Company of China, Ltd., at Shanghai had the same experience as RCAC in Shanghai. They Avere not closed, l)ut their facilities were taken over by the Japanese. In January. 1943, I was interned in the Pootung prison camp near Shanghai where about 385 Amer- ican and 800 British men were held. Chosen Assistant - Representative for the camp, it was my job to ne- gotiate between the interned men and Japanese officials and to assist in the general management of camp affairs. The Pootung camp is an old to- Ijacco warehouse but we managed to make a fairly livable place out of it, since the internal manage- ment of the camp was left largely ill our hands. The warehouse com- prised three buildings of three lloors each. It could probably have accommodated four or five hundred men fairly comfortably—it actually held about 1,200. In my room, eighty men were crowded into space sufficient for about forty under ordinary barrack conditions. These buildings and the adjoin- ing "field," which was in reality a shell-holed ruin of a Chinese village I hat had been destroyed in the 1937 Sino-Japanese fighting, occupied a total space of less than seven acres! lUit with bare hands as our only tools, we filled the shell holes and cleared up space enough to lay the foundation for a baseball diamond and to provide other recreational space. With the aid of old railroad rails, a drag was fashioned that eventually, after much sweat, pro- \ided Pootung Camp with the finest diamond I ever saw. Almost every- liody played, even the British. In fact, to the amazement of everyone, the championship for the summer of 19-13 went to a British team— our alibi being that the British had more young athletes than we Amer- icans. Life at Pootung was no picnic. We were given enough food to live on, but it was neither plentiful nor tasty. The daily diet, almost with- out variation, was cracked wheat [3 0 RADIO AGE