22 Dec 1941, Harry Ching's wartime diary

The day opened mildly for us. An air raid alarm for breakfast; but they have been sounding so frequently and are so mixed with the all-clears that they have become meaningless. We fed as we could. Plates have become impractical; we eat with spoons from rice bowls. With these we are mobile, can duck quickly when the crashes surge near. The lull did not last for long. Another terrific bombardment around us and away up in the hills. Another shell on our roof destroyed some of my tomatoes. There were again great fires on the mainland - big smoke near Tsun Wan. The remaining oil tanks in the installations there had been shelled and set alight.