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Military occupation during World War II

The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. His surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce fighting against the Japanese forces that invaded the territory. The occupation lasted for three years and eight months until Japan surrendered at the end of the Second World War. The length of the period (三年零八個月, ) later became a metonym of the occupation. The Second World War saw Hong Kong falling into the hands of the Japanese who transformed it into a military centre for their campaign in Asia. The British took back Hong Kong in 1945 after Japan's surrender, and the Chinese Civil War subsequently brought waves of rich and poor refugees from the mainland, providing both capital and cheap labour and building the foundation for Hong Kong later becoming one of the world's financial centres. However, in the 1950s during the Korean War, the United States banned trade with communist China, hurting Hong Kong's businesses and slowing its economic progress. As part of the Cultural Revolution in 1967, violent riots protesting against colonial power paralysed the economy and the Hong Kong stock market collapsed in 1973.

In 1936, Germany and the Empire of Japan signed the Anti Comintern Pact. In 1937, Fascist Italy joined the pact, forming the core of what would become known as the Axis Powers. In the autumn of 1941, Nazi Germany was near the height of its military power. After the invasion of Poland and fall of France, German forces had overrun much of Western Europe and were racing towards Moscow. The United States was neutral and opposition to Nazi Germany was given only by Britain, the British Commonwealth and the Soviet Union. The United States provided minor support to China in its fight against Imperial Japan's invasion. It imposed an embargo on the sale of oil to Japan after less aggressive forms of economic sanctions failed to halt Japanese advances. On 7 December 1941 (Honolulu time), Japan entered World War II with the Japanese occupation of Malaya, as well as other attacks including attacking the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor and American ruled Philippines, and the Japanese invasion of Thailand.

As part of a general Pacific campaign, the Japanese launched an assault on Hong Kong on the morning of 8 December 1941. British, Canadian, and Indian forces, supported by the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Forces attempted to resist the rapidly advancing Japanese, but were heavily outnumbered. After racing down the New Territories and Kowloon, Japanese forces crossed Victoria Harbour on 18 December. After fierce fighting continued on Hong Kong Island on 25 December 1941, British colonial officials headed by the governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young, surrendered at the Japanese headquarters. The surrender of Hong Kong was signed on the 26th at The Peninsula Hotel. On 20 February 1942 General Rensuke Isogai became the first Imperial Japanese governor of Hong Kong. This ushered in almost four years of Imperial Japanese administration.

Throughout the Imperial Japanese occupation, Hong Kong was ruled under martial law as an occupied territory. Led by General Rensuke Isogai, the Japanese established their administrative centre and military headquarters at the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon. The military government; comprising administrative, civilian affairs, economic, judicial, and naval departments; enacted stringent regulations and, through executive bureaux, exercised power over all residents of Hong Kong. They also set up the puppet Chinese Representative Council and Chinese Cooperative Council, consisting of local leading Chinese and Eurasian community leaders. In addition to Governor Mark Young, 7,000 British soldiers and civilians were kept in prisoner of war or internment camps, such as Sham Shui Po Prisoner Camp and Stanley Internment Camp. Famine, malnourishment and sickness were pervasive. Severe cases of malnutrition among inmates occurred in the Stanley Internment Camp in 1945. Moreover, the Imperial Japanese military government blockaded Victoria Harbour and controlled various warehouses in and around the city. Early in January 1942, former members of the Hong Kong Police, including Indians and Chinese, were recruited into a reformed police called the Kempeitai with new uniforms. The police routinely performed executions at King's Park in Kowloon by using Chinese for beheading, shooting and bayonet practice. Police in Hong Kong were under the organisation and control of the Imperial Japanese government. Imperial Japanese experts and administrators were chiefly employed in the Governor's Office and its various bureaus. Two councils of Chinese and Eurasian leaders were set up to manage the Chinese population. The exchange rate was fixed at 2 Hong Kong dollars to one military yen in January 1942. Later, the yen was re valued at 4 Hong Kong dollars to a yen in July 1942, which meant local people could exchange fewer military notes than before. With the intention of boosting the Imperial Japanese influence on Hong Kong, two Imperial Japanese banks, the Yokohama Specie Bank and the Bank of Taiwan, were re opened. Furthermore, the Japanese modified the territory's infrastructure and landscape significantly in order to serve their wartime interests. In order to expand the Kai Tak Airport, for example, the Japanese demolished the Sung Wong Toi Monument in today's Kowloon City. Buildings of prestigious secondary schools such as Wah Yan College Hong Kong, Diocesan Boys' School, the Central British School, the St. Paul's Girls' College of the Anglican church and La Salle College were commandeered by occupying forces as military hospitals. It was rumoured that Diocesan Boys' School was used by the Japanese as an execution site. Life was hard for HongKongers under Japanese rule. As there was inadequate food supply, the Japanese rationed necessities such as rice, oil, flour, salt and sugar. Each family was given a rationing licence, and every person could only buy 6.4 taels , of rice per day. Between the Surrender of Japan (15 August 1945) and formal surrender of Hong Kong to Rear Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt (16 September 1945), fifteen Japanese soldiers arrested, tortured and executed around three hundred villagers of Silver Mine District of Lantau Island in retaliation for being ambushed by Chinese guerrillas. The incident was later referred as Silver Mine Bay massacre (銀礦灣大屠殺) by locals.

During the occupation, hospitals available to the masses were limited. The Kowloon Hospital and Queen Mary Hospital were occupied by the Japanese army. Despite the lack of medicine and funds, the Tung Wah and Kwong Wah Hospital continued their social services but on a limited scale. These included provision of food, medicine, clothing, and burial services. Although funds were provided, they still had great financial difficulties. Failure to collect rents and the high reparation costs forced them to promote fundraising activities like musical performances and dramas. Tung Wah Hospital and the charitable organisation Po Leung Kuk continued to provide charity relief, while substantial donations were given by members of the Chinese elite. Po Leung Kuk also took in orphans, but were faced with financial problems during the occupation, as their bank deposits could not be withdrawn under Japanese control. Their services could only be continued through donations by Aw Boon Haw, a long term financier of Po Leung Kuk.

There were very few public hospitals during the Japanese occupation, as many of them were forcibly converted to military hospitals. Despite the inadequate supply of resources, Tung Wah Hospital and Kwong Wah Hospital still continuously offered limited social services to needy people. In June 1943, the management of water, gas and electricity was transferred into private Japanese hands. Some private Japanese language schools were established to promote oral Japanese. The Military Administration ran the Teachers' Training Course, and those teachers who failed a Japanese bench mark test would need to take a three month training course. The Japanese authorities tried to introduce Japanese traditions and customs to Hong Kong students through the Japanese lessons at school. Famous historical stories such as Mōri Motonari's "Sanbon no ya (Three Arrows)" and Xufu's (徐福) voyage to Japan were introduced in Japanese language textbooks. The primary aim of the Japanisation of the education system was to facilitate Japanese control over the territory's populace in furtherence of the establishment of the Greater East Asia Co prosperity Sphere. By 1943, in stark contrast to the successful imposition of the Japanese language upon the local populace, only one formal language school, the Bougok School (寳覺學校), was providing Cantonese language courses to Japanese people in Hong Kong. According to an instructor at the Bougok School, "teaching Cantonese is difficult because there is no system and set pattern in Cantonese grammar; and you have to change the pronunciation as the occasion demands" and "it would be easier for Cantonese people to learn Japanese than Japanese people to learn Cantonese".

The Japanese promoted the use of Japanese as the lingua franca between the locals and the occupying forces. English shop signs and advertisements were banned and, in April 1942, streets and buildings in Central were renamed in Japanese. For example, Queen's Road became Meiji dori and Des Voeux Road became Shōwa dori. Similarly, the Gloucester Hotel became the Matsubara. The Peninsula Hotel, the Matsumoto; Lane Crawford, Matsuzakaya. The Queen's was renamed first the Nakajima Theatre, then the Meiji Theatre. Many Georgian architectural features were removed during this period. The roofs also continue to reflect a Japanese influence. The commemoration of Japanese festivals, state occasions, victories and anniversaries also strengthened the Japanese influence over Hong Kong. For instance, there was Yasukuri or Shrine Festival honouring the dead. There was also a Japanese Empire Day on 11 February 1943 centred around the worship of the Emperor Jimmu. The editor, E. G. Ogura, was Japanese and the staff members were mainly Chinese and Portuguese who previously worked for the South China Morning Post. Directed by Shigeo Tanaka (田中重雄 Tanaka Shigeo) and produced by the Dai Nippon Film Company, the film featured an all Japanese cast but a few Hong Kong film personalities were also involved. This film appeared on the first anniversary of the attack.

In 1941, the Japanese army transported a carload of people to the beach near the Queen Mary Hospital and killed them all. Identities of the victims are still unknown.

On 19 May 1942, 10,000 refugees were detained by the Japanese army and escorted to the Sai Wan, where they boarded the ships. When they boarded the ship, each was given a jar of rice weighing about two kilograms, two pieces of bread, and ten Hong Kong dollars. After boarding the ship, the refugees were locked in the bilge. A total of nineteen ships were towed by a small boat, but soon after the journey started, a typhoon hit and the ships were left to drift on their own. Fourteen sank, killing about 3,000 people. The bow of another ship was destroyed. Survivors rescued later were unable to walk due to starvation. Many of them died on the beach.

On 18 September 1942, the Japanese Occupation Government in Hong Kong held the first population census. According to historical documents, more than 2,000 people were killed or disappeared after being arrested during the census.

On 25 September 1942, the Japanese army brought 1,816 prisoners of war from the Sham Shui Po prisoner of war camp to the freighter "Lisbon Maru" moored at Stonecutters Island, and set sail two days later to transport the prisoners of war to Japan for hard labor. The Japanese army did not mark the ship as transporting POWs. Lisbon Maru was torpedoed by the submarine USS Grouper of the US Pacific Fleet in the sea off Zhoushan, Zhejiang. The ship sank on 2 October. Although some prisoners of war swam out of the cabin to escape, the Japanese soldiers on the adjacent ships shot and killed the escaped prisoners, resulting in about 1,000 deaths and 384 injuries.

In July 1944, about 400 refugees were found on the Beaufort Island where there were few plants or animals. They were left to fend for themselves. According to residents of Cape D'Aguilar in the nearby region, they often heard screams and cries coming from the island. Skeletons were found all over the area later on, most died from starvation or drowning in failed escape.

During the Japanese occupation, most people released from the Station died soon after, and it is estimated that more than 100 died due to starvation or torture. The police also transported some prisoners directly for execution without trials. Most of the interrogations were conducted by the Japanese military police only. There were no judges, lawyers, and observers.

In March 1942, 484 civilians who had been imprisoned at the Hop Kee Company on Gloucester Road, Wanchai, were deported to Hainan Island via the Japanese cargo ship " "Yuen Lam" for forced labour. After the Liberation of Hong Kong, only a hundred people were able to return. More than 300 people died of torture and starvation. During the Japanese occupation, a total of 20,000 Hong Kong people and 20,000 mainlanders were abducted to mine in Hainan Island, where they were abused and many died of starvation. Of the 40,000 Chinese workers on Hainan Island, only 5,000 survived.

On the afternoon of 1 December 1944, a woman went out to collect firewood sticks on the side of the mountain. Suddenly, a Japanese military police and two Chinese police officers came to arrest her and stabbed her in the back. Two other elderly women who were arrested at the same time were also stabbed in the back. They were immediately taken to the Aberdeen Police Station and imprisoned. During the period, they were not provided with food and water. They were taken to the North Point Refugee Camp on 2 December. There were also many prisoners in the camp, and the camp gate was guarded by Japanese military police and Chinese police with weapons. Some said there were only two meals a day in the camp, including a bowl of congee given at 8:00 in the morning. Prisoners were confined in jail all day. Some were stripped naked. There were children in the camp as well. Two weeks later, the number of people in the camp reached 400. At 4 pm that day, all of them were forced to board a boat by the port at North Point. After a day, they arrived in Pinghai Town, Huizhou City The able bodied refugees were released; about seventy people deemed physically weak were slaughtered and their bodies were dumped into the sea. On 19 December 1941, a group of Japanese soldiers killed ten St. John stretcher bearers at Wong Nai Chung Gap despite the fact that all the stretcher bearers wore the red cross armband. These soldiers captured a further five medics who were tied to a tree, two of whom were taken away by the soldiers, never to be seen again. The remaining three attempted to escape during the night, but only one survived the escape. A team of amateur archaeologists found the remains of half of a badge. Evidence pointed to its belonging to Barclay, the captain of the Royal Army Medical Corps, therefore the archaeologists presented it to Barclay's son, Jim, who had never met his father before his death.

Originally formed by Zeng Sheng (曾生) in Guangdong in 1939, this group mainly comprised peasants, students, and seamen, including Yuan Geng. The guerillas' most significant contribution to the Allies, in particular, was their rescue of twenty American pilots who parachuted into Kowloon when their planes were shot down by the Japanese. In February 1942, with local residents Choi Kwok Leung (蔡國梁) as commander and Chan Tat Ming (陳達明) as political commissar, they were armed with 30 machine guns and several hundred rifles left by defeated British forces. By January 1945 the city was being regularly raided by the USAAF. The largest raid on Hong Kong took place on 16 January 1945 when, as part of the South China Sea raid, 471 United States Navy aircraft attacked shipping, harbour facilities and other targets.

The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong ended in 1945, after Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. Hong Kong was handed over by the Imperial Japanese Army to the Royal Navy on 30 August 1945; British control over Hong Kong was thus restored. 30 August was declared as "Liberation Day" , and was a public holiday in Hong Kong until 1997. General Takashi Sakai, who led the invasion of Hong Kong and subsequently served as governor general during the Japanese occupation, was tried as a war criminal, convicted and executed on 30 September 1946.

The United Kingdom would administer the territory for another 52 years. Hong Kong's post war recovery was swift. By November 1945, government controls were lifted and free markets restored. Sovereignty of Hong Kong was eventually handed over to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1997, after the 1984 Sino–British Joint Declaration. The Republic of China government is now based in Taipei, having lost the mainland in the Chinese Civil War shortly after the Japanese surrender.