During World War II, why was there so little fighting in Hong Kong?

Category: Society/Culture>>Military

Problem description:

It seems that there has never been any mention in the textbook about Japan’s attack on Hong Kong. It stands to reason that Hong Kong was a British territory at that time, while Japan and Britain should be hostile countries.

Analysis:

Hong Kong during World War II

The Fall< /p>

On December 7, 1941 (Sunday), Hong Kong showed a peaceful and leisurely atmosphere. The movie theaters were full, the bars were full of customers, jazz music was constantly playing in the dance halls, and young people went out in groups to the rural areas of the New Territories. In less than three weeks, Christmas is coming. Only in the past two or three days did the Hong Kong *** hold several joke-like air defense drills. Unexpectedly, on the morning of the next day, I heard the rumble of planes, violent bomb explosions and anti-aircraft gun fire. The unexpected Battle of Hong Kong began. Under the cover of fighter jets, thirty-six Japanese light bombers attacked Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon seaplane parking and other places. Some houses near the airport were also hit by bombs. On the same day, Japan also attacked the U.S. naval and air military base Pearl Harbor and other places. The Pacific War broke out.

On December 8, while conducting air strikes on Kai Tak Airport and other places, the Japanese army divided into four groups and crossed the Shenzhen River to attack the New Territories. At the Garbage Bay defense line, the British troops retreated one after another with little resistance in most areas. Only at the Golden Mountain position southwest of the Chengmen Reservoir was the fighting fiercer. The two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and the commander of the English Infantry Battalion was killed. In the end, due to the huge disparity in strength between the two sides, the British commander Major General Malby decided to abandon Kowloon and ordered the "Peninsula Brigade" to withdraw to Hong Kong Island. The Battle of Kowloon lasted only five days. On the night of the 12th, the entire Kowloon Peninsula was occupied by the Japanese invading army.

On the evening of the 12th, Britain and Japan bombarded each other across the sea in Victoria Harbor. The next morning, a small boat with a white flag sailed from the Yau Ma Tei Pier in Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. On board the boat were Lieutenant Colonel Tada, the Japanese envoy to persuade the Japanese to surrender, and Mrs. Lee, the private secretary of the Governor of Hong Kong who was held hostage. The British army rejected the Japanese army's surrender. On the 17th, the Japanese army once again sent people across the sea in two small boats to persuade them to surrender. Hong Kong Governor Yeung Mu-ki once again refused and warned Japan that if any more "peace envoys" cross the sea, Hong Kong will shoot them unceremoniously.

At midnight on the 18th, the Japanese troops used more than a hundred motorboats, rubber boats, etc. to force a frontal landing on the north shore of Hong Kong Island. They land. After they landed, they fought fiercely with the British army in Wong Nai Chung. Captain Wakamatsu of the Japanese army was seriously injured, and John Rawson (Lord Canada), commander of the British Western Brigade, was killed. As a result, the British army retreated, and the communication between the Eastern Brigade and the Western Brigade defending Hong Kong Island was cut off. The Japanese army also occupied the Wong Nai Chung reservoir, cutting off the British army's water source. There were only a few British troops left in the area. The British commander believed that he could no longer resist. After discussing with the Hong Kong Governor, he decided to surrender unconditionally. On the evening of the 25th, the British troops on the Eastern and Western Fronts successively hoisted white flags. At this point, the eighteen-day Battle of Hong Kong ended with the complete defeat of the British army when the Japanese army occupied the entire Hong Kong area.

December 25th is Christmas. In the evening of that day, a car with a white flag drove from Central to the Japanese headquarters in Happy Valley. Hong Kong Governor Yeung Mu-ki signed an "armistice agreement" with representatives of the Japanese army, and he himself became a prisoner of the Japanese army. That night, most Hong Kong residents were hiding in dark houses or air-raid shelters. The brightly lit "city that never sleeps" in the past has turned into a bloody and terrifying world. The entire Hong Kong area has completely fallen into the clutches of the Japanese invading army, so people call this day "Black Christmas."

Atrocities

After the Japanese troops entered the city, they looted and raped women and killed innocent residents frequently. The Japanese army's anti-civilian notice falsely declared: "Protect Chinese property, the Hong Kong war is a war against white people." However, many Chinese shops are still closed, especially those large shops such as Xianshi and Wing On. , Daxin and other domestic companies, hardware stores, automobile stores, etc. Most of the companies that have been seized have wooden signs with the words "Military Collection Department Management" nailed on their doors, while banks and pawnshops have wooden signs with the words "Financial Class Management" nailed on their doors. Everyone understands: "Management" is just another name for grabbing. The Japanese army stored 950,000 dans of rice in Hong Kong and stole 800,000 dans to use as military rations, causing a serious food shortage in Hong Kong.

The book "The Fall of Hong Kong - Eighteen Days of War" once recorded the scene of the Japanese army carrying out robbery with open fire and sticks: "The Japanese army was near the naval dockyard, and they were sorting out bundles of hunting rifles. The harvests were all tied up in sacks and piled up in an open space. On top of the sacks, an enemy soldier tied a small label, which read: 'Kobe...' After the harvests were gathered. , the truck took it to the pier in Sai Wan and put it into the big ships, which sailed all the way back to Japan. "I once stood in front of a large bicycle shop and stared at it for a long time. A car was placed at the door, and several Japanese soldiers directed the coolies to carry the brand-new bicycles out one by one and load them into the car... and another moment, there was another truck... so the brand-new bicycles Bicycles were brought out one by one from inside. "The boss is just like me, sitting idle as a bystander, as if these things don't belong to him in the first place..." (Tang Hai: "The Fall of Hong Kong-" ---Eighteen Days of War" pages 95-96)

In addition to robbing property, many drunk Japanese soldiers often went out looking for women in the middle of the night. Women were hiding everywhere. Not only were the women raped, some were even raped by several enemy soldiers. In the nights after the Japanese army held its "entry into the city", many women were so frightened that they ran around on the roofs of three- and four-story houses, and the tiles made a cracking sound when they were stepped on. At that time, some women said that they were not afraid of bombs and machine guns, because if they encountered them, they would just die. What they feared most was the enemy's flashlight and the terrifying knock on the door.

The Japanese invading army also killed innocent residents indiscriminately and regarded Chinese lives as nothing. On Blue Pool Road not far from Happy Valley, eight members of a household were murdered. On Queen's Road West, an elderly woman wanted to pass through the guard post to go east because she could not understand Japanese. She was shot and killed by the Japanese army on the spot. In the Gulf, a young man accidentally broke into the so-called military area. The Japanese soldier came up and killed him with a bayonet. On Yuen Chow Street, Sham Shui Po, a woman went shopping for groceries with her child on her back. When she came back, she caught up with a police officer. She was looking at the building she believed in and could not walk past it. Her eldest son, about eight or nine years old, wanted to cross the street to meet his mother. The woman waved her hand to prevent her son from coming over. Unexpectedly, all three of them, mother and son, were shot and killed by the Japanese army. ...

During the more than three years since the Japanese invaders occupied Hong Kong, the majority of Hong Kong residents lived in dire straits and suffered tremendous suffering. The Japanese invading army forced residents to use military stamps. Initially, the ratio of military bills to Hong Kong dollars was set at one to two. By October 1942, it was changed to one to four. On June 31, 1943, it was announced that the Hong Kong dollar would be banned. Residents must go to the Bank of Taiwan to exchange military notes within a time limit. Violators will be killed without mercy. This is an open financial robbery. In the early days of Japanese rule, residents only received rations of rice of sixty-two cents per person per day, and they could barely make ends meet. In the middle of the war, when there was a food panic, the Japanese invaders changed the rationing system and only rationed food to civil servants serving the enemy. As a result, the price of rice skyrocketed, from nothing to more than 200 yuan per kilogram, and countless residents died of starvation. It was unbearable to watch.

The Japanese army also demolished historical sites and demolished civilian houses at will. They demolished the walls of Kowloon Walled City and blew up the Songwang Tower, which symbolized the national spirit. In August 1942, the Japanese army wanted to set up 500 comfort stations (residences for military prostitutes) in Hong Kong, and the location was chosen on Locke Road near the Big Buddha's Entrance in Wan Chai. Nakagawa Jinguang, captain of the 68th Battalion of the Japanese Army, personally took action and commanded a large number of soldiers to suddenly block Locke Road, starting from the entrance of the Ordnance Factory Street in the west and ending at Xunning Road in the east, with a barbed wire fence. The ferocious Japanese soldiers armed with bayonets ordered all the residents to move out within three days, leaving no one behind. Residents were forced to move their young and old to other places during the storm and even slept on the streets. This is the Lock Road Incident caused by the Japanese invading army. In fact, the comfort station could not use so many houses, so the Japanese army turned this area into their entertainment area. In addition to comfort stations, tea shops, bars and restaurants were also set up. This place became the bar district of Wan Chai.

During the Japanese rule, all industries in Hong Kong withered, and only sinful industries such as gambling and drug abuse developed. There are casinos from the busiest Queen's Road to the most remote corners. The notorious big casinos include "Rongsheng Company", "Liangli Company", etc. At the entrance of the casino, there is often a Japanese flag and a slogan "Please come in to get rich." Someone is ringing a bell, and some even have prostitutes to entertain them. This is the "new order" brought to Hong Kong by the Japanese army.

Most of the people who opened casinos were desperadoes who colluded with the Japanese army, and some even used the names of their secret organizations in the past, such as "Eighteen Sons" and "Guangdong Chengtang". In February 1944, after Tanaka Jiuichi, the commander of the Southern Branch Expeditionary Force, concurrently served as the governor of Hong Kong, he openly encouraged gambling and used gambling wages as military expenses. Since then, there have been many casinos and the atmosphere has become even more chaotic. In addition, the Japanese army also encouraged drug abuse. The enemy's general headquarters set up a drug trafficking agency, the Yuzhen Company, which transported cigarettes from Rehe by plane and opened smoking shops, allowing smokers to obtain licenses to buy cigarettes.

Recovery

During World War II, China formed an anti-fascist alliance with the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and other countries to support each other and cooperate with Germany, Italy, and Japan. The fascists fought long and hard and finally defeated the invaders. On August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan announced unconditional surrender in Tokyo because Hong Kong did not belong to the Southeast Asia Theater under the command of Lord Mountbatten, but belonged to the China Theater and was part of the Guangdong Theater. The Japanese troops stationed in Hong Kong were supposed to surrender to the Chinese army. However, the British insisted on sending a fleet to Hong Kong to accept the surrender on the pretext of clearing their former shame. To this end, China and Britain conducted many diplomatic negotiations before and after Japan surrendered. Later, Chiang Kai-shek requested that the British be authorized to surrender in Hong Kong in the name of the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Theater. However, relying on its own military strength and the support of the United States, the British Communist Party refused even this request to save face. During this period, after the news of Japan's surrender reached Hong Kong, Johnson, the Colonial Secretary of the Hong Kong Communist Party, who was imprisoned in Stanley Concentration Camp, immediately followed the instructions of the British Communist Party and returned to the city to organize a temporary massacre to prevent Hong Kong's status changed after the war. He had no armed forces in his hands, but he asked the Japanese army to temporarily maintain order and wait for the arrival of the British army. On August 30, 1945, British Rear Admiral Harcourt led the Royal Navy Task Force and sailed into Victoria Harbor to take over Hong Kong from the Japanese army. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek was eager to send troops northward to seize strategic areas from the Japanese. After the British agreed to use Hong Kong as a transfer station for transporting troops northward and agreed to hand over the equipment of the Japanese troops stationed in Hong Kong, he acquiesced to the fact that the British would take over Hong Kong.

On September 16, 1945, Major General Harcourt, accompanied by Major General Pan Guohua on behalf of China, Colonel William Johnson on behalf of the United States and other representatives of the Allied Powers, formally accepted the appointment of Major General Umekichi Okada, Commander of the Japanese Army in Hong Kong, at the Governor's Mansion. and the surrender of Vice Admiral Reutaro Fujita, commander of the Japanese South China Fleet. Three years and eight months after its fall, Hong Kong returned to British colonial rule.

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