70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Phyllis Harrop reports:

New Year's Day – everything seems to be quiet. I have been out for breakfast and there are very few troops to be seen. All cars on the streets have been rounded up....

Bird's Eye View: the first week of the occupation

This is undoubtedly the most anxious New Year's day in Hong Kong's history. But those who are to become residents of Stanley Camp before the month is out might well feel that, bad as things are, they could have been a lot worse.

The atrocities – rape, torture and murder – that were inflicted on all of Hong Kong's ethnic groups during the fighting obviously led to a huge amount of fear at the first encounter with Japanese troops, which for many future internees was on December 26. Most 'Europeans' survived this with little more than unwelcome and unfriendly attention and robbery, particularly of watches and other desirable items.

There is some disagreement as to the timing of what, in contrast, ensued for the Chinese majority: leading surgeon Li Shu-fan states that he looked into a Japanese party on the night of December 26:

Parties like this swelled to orgies throughout Hong Kong. It seemed as though the soldiers had been specifically given license to commit any act they wished. Their first thought was to put wine in their bellies; then they set out for excitement and mischief. Under pretext of searching for arms or suspects, they broke into house after house at the point of a gun. Once in, they slapped, kicked, murdered, stole, and raped. Throughout the night we heard people wailing and crying in the distance: 'Save life! Save life!' and the desperate beating of hundreds of gongs, tins and pans. The whole of Happy Valley rang from end to end with these pleas for help.

Historian Philip Snow, on the other hand dates the start of the 'sack' to the victory parade of December 28, at the end of which the troops were given a three day 'holiday'. Snow continues:

At this juncture however an interesting distinction began to make itself felt. In the three days which elapsed between the British surrender and the start of the sack the 23^rd Army officers had apparently reimposed some discipline in respect of the treatment of Europeans. (emphasis in original).

In other words, in the last half dozen or so days of the fighting, there had been a widespread (although by no means universal) breakdown of Japanese army discipline, and atrocities were meted out to people of all races; but in the aftermath of the surrender, the 'whites' largely escaped physical violence, although not looting.

This is one of the first indications of what will become a grim reality of the occupation: for all the talk of 'Asia for the Asiatics', the Chinese will suffer much more  than the British

As they look apprehensively towards the coming year, most of Hong Kong's 'white' civilians have survived the fighting and the aftermath relatively unscathed. But they've lost most of their possessions and been driven from their homes and they are left wondering what is to become of them. Anything seems possible, from a quick Allied recovery of the colony to mass slaughter by the conquerors - and even when the outcome is very different, both the dream and the nightmare will continue to haunt the minds of the internees.

Sources:

'Everything seems to be quiet': Phyllis Harrop, Hong Kong Incident, 1943, 97

Li: Li Shu-fan, Hong Kong Surgeon, 1964, 109-110

Snow: Philip Snow, The Fall of Hong Kong, 2003, 81

A Happy New Year to you and I am sure it is going to be a happy year. Such news as we have been able to glean sounds almost too good to be true but we have had it confirmed and believe it. (all bunkum of course) We feel sure that our captivity won't last more than a few months and then the whole business will be cleared up and we can all be together again. Here's hoping anyway!
 All my love always       Billie