Chapter 735: Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong (香港日據時期)
Once Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese after the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941, it had been officially been given back to Taikoku, while at the same time ruled by martial law as a occupation territory of the Co-Prosperity Sphere under General Rensuke Isogai, administered from their military headquarters at the Peninsula Hote lin Kowloon. The military government; comprising administrative, civilian affairs, economic, judicial, and naval departments; enacted stringent regulations and, through executive bureaus, exercised power over all residents of Hong Kong. They also set up the puppet council of Taokoku Chinese consisting of local leading Chinese 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 at the End of the Second Great War. Moreover, the Imperial Japanese military government blockaded Victoria Harbour and controlled warehouses. 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 rioters, or prisoner-of-war for beheading and shooting squads. The Imperial Japanese gendarmerie took over all police stations and organized the Police in five divisions, namely East Hong Kong, West Hong Kong, Kowloon, New Territories and Water Police. This force was headed by Colonel Noma Kennosuke. The headquarters was situated in the former Supreme Court Building. Police in Hong Kong were under the organization and control of the Taikoku government and the Imperial Japanese government. Imperial Japanese experts and administrators were chiefly employed in the Governor's Office and its various bureaus.
All trade and economic activities were strictly regulated by Japanese authorities, who took control of the majority of the factories. Having deprived vendors and banks of their possessions, the occupying forces outlawed the Hong Kong Dollar and replaced it with the Taikokuo Empire Yen and the Japanese Military Yen. 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. While the residents of Hong Kong were impoverished by the inequitable and forcibly imposed exchange rate, the Imperial Japanese government sold the Hong Kong Dollar to help finance their war-time economy. In June 1943, the yen was made the sole legal tender. Prices of commodities for sale had to be marked in yen. Inflation then disrupted the economy, inflicting hardship upon the residents of the colony. Devaluation of the Imperial Japanese Military Yen until the end of the war made it a problematic economic situation until it became a hard currency again in 1944 till the beginning of the 1950ies. Public transportation and utilities unavoidably often failed, owing to the shortage of fuel and the aerial bombardment of Hong Kong by the Americans. Tens of thousands of people became homeless and helpless, and many of them were employed in shipbuilding and construction. In the agricultural field, the Imperial Japanese took over the race track at Fanling and the air strip at Kam Tin for their rice-growing experiments. 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. These two banks replaced the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and two other British banks responsible for issuing the banknotes. They then liquidated various Allied banks and reopened a few Taikoku Banks as well. British, American and Dutch bankers were forced to live in a small hotel, while some bankers who were viewed as enemies of the Imperial Japanese were executed. In May 1942, Imperial Japanese and Imperial Taikoku companies were encouraged to be set up. A Hong Kong trade syndicate consisting of Imperial Japanese firms was set up in October 1942 to manipulate overseas trade.
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 Kowloon. Buildings of prestigious secondary schools such as Wah Yan College Hong Kong, which is one of the two Jesuit schools in Hong Kong, Diocesan Boys' School, the Central British School, the St. Paul's Girls' College of the Anglican church and de La Salle brothers' La Salle College were commandeered by occupying forces as military hospitals and reopened as Taikoku and Japanese schools after the war, besides newly build ones. Life was hard for people 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 (240 g or 8.5 oz), of rice per day. Most people did not have enough food to eat, and many died of starvation. Because of this the rationing system was abolished at the End of the Second Great War in 1944. Some Japanese soldiers tortured, raped, or mutilated local civilians, mainly European prisoners of war, but also around 2,000 Hong Kong citizens. 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 to 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. Other orphans were put into the new Coprospist schools and educated in Japanese, filled with Coprospist propaganda.
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. Through schooling, mass media and other means of propaganda, the Japanese tried to foster favorable view among residents of the occupation. This process of Japanisation prevailed in many aspects of daily life. It was the Japanese conviction that education was key to securing their influence over the populace. The Japanese language became a mandatory subject in schools, and students who performed poorly in Japanese exams risked corporal punishment. At the same time English was forbidden from being taught and was not tolerated outside the classroom. Additional private Japanese language schools were established to promote oral Cantonese (Taikoku) and Japanese. To make teaching Cantonese / Taokoku possible Coprospist Chinese invented a new system and set pattern in Cantonese grammar; and changed the pronunciation as the occasion demands, still it was easier for Cantonese people to learn Japanese than Japanese people to learn Cantonese. 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 Co-Prosperity Sphere control over the territory’s populace in furtherance of the establishment of their Co-Prosperity Sphere in Asia.
(imprisoned Europeans)
The Japanese promoted the use of Cantonese/ Taikoku as the lingua franca of Taikoku and and Japanese as a overall Co-Prosperity Sphere lingua franca between the locals and the Japanese business man, politicians and military forces. English shop signs and advertisements were banned like European and American ones were everywhere in the Co-Prosperity Sphere 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 Theatre was first the Nakajima-dori. Their propaganda also pointed to the pre-eminence of the Japanese way of life, of Japanese Coprospist spiritual values and the ills of western materialism. The Government House, the residence of English governors prior to occupation, was the seat of power for the Japanese military governors. To obviously European, American and non Asian inspired buildings and architecture were not only renamed, but given a fully new more Asian front. During the occupation, many buildings were largely reconstructed between 1942 and 1944 following designs by Japanese engineer Siechi Fujimura, including the addition of a Japanese-style tower. Nearly all Georgian and other non-Asian architectural features were removed during this period. Often the roofs also were changed to reflect a more Japanese influence. This was something done all over the Co-Prosperity Sphere in a attempt of Asianization. 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. Former newspapers, like the Hong Kong News and the South China Morning Post pre-Japanese areaowned English newspaper, was revived in January 1942 during the Japanese occupation. The editor, E.G. Ogura, was Japanese and the staff members were mainly Chinese and Portuguese and under the name The Rising Sun News, the new newspaper became the mouthpiece of the Japanese propaganda. Ten local Chinese newspapers had been reduced to five Taokoku ones in May. These newspapers were under press censorship. Radio sets were used for Japanese propaganda. Amusements still existed, though only for those who could afford them. The cinemas only screened Japanese films, such as The Battle of Hong Kong, the only film made in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. It was 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 December 1941, a group of Japanese soldiers killed ten Red Cross stretcher bearers at Wong Nai Chung Gap despite the fact that the stretcher bearers all 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. Other notable massacres also include the St. Stephen's College massacre, and a mass murder at Mui Wo called the Silver Mine Bay massacre (銀礦灣大屠殺) by some locals. Part of this lead to the rise of anti-Japanese, anti-Taikoku/ Cantonese and anti-Coprospist resistance. One of these groups was the East River Column, originally formed by Zeng Sheng (曾生) in Guangdong during the Guangxi Civil War, this group mainly comprised peasants, students, and seamen, including Yuan Geng. When the war reached Hong Kong in 1941, the guerrilla force grew from 200 to more than 6,000 soldiers. In January 1942, the Guangdong people's anti-Japanese East River guerrillas (廣東人民抗日游擊隊東江縱隊) was established to reinforce anti-Japanese and anti-Taikoku forces in Dongjiang and Zhujiang Pearl River deltas. 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 the wake of the British retreat, the guerillas picked up abandoned weapons and established bases in the New Territories and Kowloon. Applying the tactics of guerrilla warfare, they killed in their eyes Chinese traitors and collaborators working for Taikoku's Coprospist Govenment and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. They protected traders in Kowloon and Guangzhou, attacked the police station at Tai Po, and bombed Kai Tak Airport. During the Japanese occupation the only fortified resistance was mounted by the East River guerillas.
Another resistance group was the HK-Kowloon brigade (港九大隊) established in January 1942 from the Guangdong People's anti-Japanese guerilla force. 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. They numbered about 400 between 1942 and 1944 and operated in Sai Kung. Additionally, the guerillas were noteworthy in rescuing prisoners-of-war, notably Sir Lindsay Ride, Sir Douglas Clague, Professor Gordan King, and David Bosanquet. In December 1943 the Guangdong force reformed, with the East River guerrillas absorbing the HK-Kowloon brigade into the larger unit. Americans and Europeans, weather civilians, former prisoners-of-war or soldiers found in such insurrection and guerrilla forces were shot without trial when captured. Another resistance group, he British Army Aid Group was formed in 1942 at the suggestion of Colonel Lindsay Ride. The group rescued allied POWs including airmen shot down and workers trapped in occupied HK. It also developed a role in intelligence gathering. In the process, the Group provided protection to the Dongjiang River which was a source for domestic water in Hong Kong. This was the first organization in which Britons, Chinese and other nationalities served with no racial divide. Francis Lee Yiu-pui and Paul Tsui Ka-cheung were commissioned as officers. Besides that Air raids on Hong Kong as a important Taikoku and Japanese harboru were flown by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) units based in China from October 1942 until the American end of their participation in the Second Great War in 1944. Most of these raids involved a small number of aircraft, and typically targeted Japanese cargo ships which had been reported by Chinese guerrillas. Until then the city was being regularly raided by the USAAF. The largest raid on Hong Kong took place on 16 Mai 1944 when, as part of the South China raid and the South China Sea raid, when around 800 United States Navy and Royal Air Force aircraft attacked shipping, harbor facilities and other targets of the Co-Prosperity Sphere in South-East Asia.
The Japanese capture of Hong Kong from the British would be celebrated as Liberation Day by the Cantonese/ Taikoku nation state, government and citizens after the Second Great War, a tradition that the Japanese and Taikoku had started in 1942 and was a public holiday in Hong Kong. At the same time the day celebrated the Japanese General Takashi Sakai, who led the invasion and liberation of Hong Kong and subsequently served as governor-general during the Japanese occupation until the End of the Second Great War. During the Second Great War direct Cantonese/ Taikoku control over the sovereignty and territory of Hong Kong was assumed by the Taikoku government, even if important strategic parts remained in Japanese hands until the End of the Second Great War in 1944. Still Japanese Zaibatsu and Military remained in control of many important industries and facilities as well as overall trade in Hong Kong (Honkon in Japanese) would remain as a part of the Pearl of Strings, the harbor cities allowing for international trade in the former Chinese Empire/ Chinese Republic that were all mainly controlled by the Japanese from Shanghai. Harsh rations, food shortages and deportations had led to a shrinking of Hong Kong/ Honkon from 1,500,000 citizens to 800,000 by the End of the Second Great War in 1944. One of the main problems after the Second Great War remained the reconstruction of the city from Allied air raids and the securing of convoy and transport routes, as the surrounded waters had been heavily mined by the Allies.