By Carol Leung

June 29, 2007 

     My grandma sighed deeply and spoke in an angry tone, “A Japanese soldier waved a sword, one swing up and one down, and the head of a Chinese was chopped.  Blood shot up for several meters.” I totally understand my grandma’s feelings about the executions that the Japanese had done in Hong Kong during World War II.  My grandma, a gray-haired old lady in her eighties, is a brave and strong woman who supported a family of eight by herself for nearly her entire life, yet she says the worst hardship that she endured was the experience of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II.  Many Hong Kong senior residents who lived though the war would agree with my grandma’s statement.  The Japanese occupation in Hong Kong during World War II is the darkest chapter in Hong Kong’s history.

     Not surprisingly, Hong Kong people were strongly opposed and full of hatred towards the Japanese military government in World War II.  Hong Kong was ruled by the British colonial government from 1842 to 1997, except the Japanese occupation period in World War II that lasted for three years and eight months.  Some who are not familiar with this part of the history, might wonder why did the people in Hong Kong, who accepted the British colonial government between the 1840s and the 1930s, were so strongly opposed to the Japanese occupation in the 1940s?  While, of course, political, social and economic factors contributed to the people’s different reactions towards the British and Japanese, it is the cruelty, inhuman and degrading treatment that the Japanese imposed on its subjects during the occupation in spite of its propaganda of liberating Asia that leads to the huge resentment among Hong Kong people.

     Propaganda was used by the Japanese military government throughout the occupation period in Hong Kong to build up a stronger administration regime.  Yet, this campaign wasn’t successful and resulted in more hatred towards the Japanese.  The Japanese military government created propaganda on a concept of “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” which promulgated an idea that Asian nations that are led by the Japanese are free of Western powers.  The Japanese created propaganda through education, mass media and other means to promote its agenda.  Japanese became the official language in Hong Kong when Japanese took over the government.  English shop signs and advertisements were removed.  The names of the streets and prominent buildings were replaced by Japanese names. At schools, teaching of Japanese was obligatory and English could not be taught.  Japanese culture and affairs was the core of the education.  The Japanese propaganda campaign also promoted the superiority of the Japanese way of life.  The primary aim of this Japanization was mainly to infuse Japanese influence over Hong Kong people and to promote the idea of “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. But because of the forceful nature of the propaganda that disregard people’s feelings about their Chinese and British traditions, citizens in Hong Kong continued to feel hostile towards the Japanese military government.

     “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” was one of the slogans that was used by the Japanese military government to justify its aggression in Asia during World War II.  Yet, it was never more than an empty slogan.  The Japanese committed numerous atrocities in Hong Kong while claiming that they were liberating Hong Kong from the British’s hand.  “During the battle [the Japanese] repeatedly bayoneted prisoners, after binding them hand and foot, and murdered doctors, nurses and patients in military hospitals.  Immediately after the surrender they deliberately let their troops run wild, raping and looting everywhere” (Morris 277).  This was the hard evidence that the Japanese Imperial forces did nothing to liberate Hong Kong but committed the worst and most devious acts towards people in Hong Kong.  The Japanese was more brutal than the western power that they claimed they have liberated Hong Kong people from. 

     Japanese military government also enacted harsh regulations on economical and social matters during the occupation period that made Hong Kong people suffer. Hong Kong’s economy collapsed during the Japanese occupation.  Under Japanese rule, all trading activities were strictly guarded and the majority of the factories were taken over by the Japanese.  Merchants, vendors and banks were deprived of their possessions, and Hong Kong people were forced to replace their local dollars with Japanese military yens.  The exchange rate was fixed at two Hong Kong dollars to one military yen.  Later, in order to acquire more properties and assets from local people, the Japanese military government declared that the yen was revalued at four Hong Kong dollars to a yen, which meant Hong Kong people can exchange less military notes than before.  While people in Hong Kong became poor in the forced exchanges, the Japanese government used the assets it acquired to help finance their war-time expenses.  Under the disguise of economic regulation, the Japanese government manipulated Hong Kong local economy for the benefit of Imperial Japan.

     During the entire occupation period, the Japanese military government heartlessly disregarded the lives of Hong Kong people.  Life was hard during the Japanese occupation.  Because the Japanese took away assets and possessions from merchants and vendors, food import trade virtually came to a stop.  As a result, there was huge shortage of food, supply and fuel.  The Japanese military government then controlled the remaining supplies and rationed necessities such as rice, flour, oil, salt and sugar.  Many people were starving because they couldn’t afford to buy much food.  People had nothing to eat and had to eat plants like tree bark to survive.  Many died of starvation and piles of corpses could be seen on the street.  The Japanese administration, who asserted their rightfulness in replacing the British rule in Hong Kong, had a callous attitude toward the sufferings of Hong Kong, for they failed to provide even the basic human need such as adequate food for the people of Hong Kong.  Therefore, not surprisingly, the hatred of Hong Kong people towards the Japanese continued to grow during the occupation era.

     The Japanese military government also disrespected Hong Kong people and treated them with vicious arrogance.  During the occupation era the Japanese set up excessive, unreasonable regulations and rules which were often used as an excuse to arrest people for failing to comply with the rules.  For example, Hong Kong people who failed to bow to a Japanese solider when they passed by the solider were at best slapped on the face or hit with a rifle, at worst thrown into a jail (Morris 277).  Life was under constant fear for most of Hong Kong people.  Throughout the Japanese occupation, Hong Kong people suffered tremendous humiliation and abuses at the hands of the Japanese Imperial forces.  Clearly, the brutality and humiliation of the Japanese led to them being regarded as much worse than the Western imperialists, the Japanese’ predecessor in Hong Kong.

     The horrendous acts that the Japanese did to the people of Hong Kong were in fact inhuman and full of cruelty.  However, this part of the history is mostly unknown to the Western world.  Students in America and Europe learn a lot in their history class at school about World War II and Holocaust.  However, almost all of the students have never heard of the Japanese occupation in Hong Kong during World War II.  To bring awareness to the general public in the U.S. about the horrendous acts that the Japanese Imperial forces did to the Chinese people during World War II, it is important to let everyone to learn about the lives of Hong Kong people under the Japanese military government and the kind of hardship that they lived through.  When one can better understand this historical event, one will be able to comprehend the scope and latitude of the atrocious behaviors that were done by the Japanese military forces in World War II.  

     The humiliation and atrocities that the Japanese military forces committed during World War II caused great suffering to the people of Hong Kong.  Yet, the current Japanese government continues to cause dismay among its Asian victims because of its denials and amnesias of its war crimes.  The Japanese government up to today still does not fully repent for its war crimes.  Japanese politicians, historians and cabinet members repeatedly deny any wrongdoings of Japan in World War II.  For example, some of the parliament members in Japan insist that the atrocities that were committed by the Japanese Imperial forces were fabrications.  Earlier this year, the Prime Minister of Japan denied that there were coercions in the recruitment of comfort women during World War II.  In addition, amid protests from China and Korea, Japanese Prime Ministers continue to visit Yasukuni Shrine, a temple that house millions of war dead, including the 14 convicted as World War II criminals by a 1948 war tribunal.  Because of the denials and the apathy reaction from the Japanese government, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos and other victims in Asia are not satisfied with Japan’s “apology” up to this date.  Today thousands of Japanese war crimes’ victims still seek reparation from the Japanese government.  In Hong Kong, hundreds of people are seeking reparation for being forced to replace their possessions into Japanese military yen during the occupation era, which became worthless after the war.  However, the Japanese government and its courts have since refused to pay reparation to its war crime victims.  As George Santayana, a poet and philosopher once says, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.  To be recognized as a great world power today, Japan needs to take full responsibility for its war crime by offering reparation and issuing official apology to its victims.  Without its own acknowledgment of its wrongdoing in World War II, Japan will unavoidably repeat its mistake.