Paul Atroshenko's childhood memories of wartime Hong Kong

The extracts from Paul's website are reproduced here with his permission. He writes:

Thanks to the Russian Revolution, a lot of Russians ended up like political shrapnel flung across the Far East. Hong Kong proved to be a great haven for many of them. Even during the Japanese Occupation, Russians were not interned because the Japanese avoided war with the Soviet Union; and all Russians, whatever their politics, were basically left alone.

Apart from the bombing, and occasional Japanese brutality, the worst problem was just finding enough food to eat.

Thanks to the fact that I was a Catholic, we found sanctuary in the Italian Convent on Caine Road, even though the rest of the family were Russian Orthodox. My father was the first man to have permission to live in that convent! The convent was not bombed.

My brother and I started at KGV when it first opened after the War, in 1947. As I recall, it was called the Central British School. 

I've selected the extracts related to Paul's wartime experiences, but the whole biography is well worth a read.