Three Years Eight Months: The Forgotten Struggle of Hong Kong's WWII

by Derek Pua, Jenny Chan, Sarah Kleeb (Foreword)

Eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Army launched an invasion plan for Southeast Asia, including Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong was a British Colony at the time, soldiers from British colonies including India and Canada fought alongside Chinese guerrilla fighters. However, soldiers defending the city at the time were largely unprepared and Japan claimed its victory within 18 days. During the Christmas of 1941, the governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young surrendered Hong Kong and started the 3 years 8 months of the Japanese Imperial Army's occupation of Hong Kong. Civilians were raped and tortured during the occupation. Instead of caring for the citizens' stories and wellbeings at the end of WWII, people cared about who Hong Kong belonged to as England and China raced to reach the city. The book tells the stories of the Battle for Hong Kong, daily civilian lives, Hong Kong mafia's collaboration with the Japanese Imperial Army, and the POWs camp in Hong Kong during the occupation.

111 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2019

Reviews

[Silkie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expected more

It was a nice historical summary and I did learn new things. However, from the description I imagined it would contain more about the lived experience of the Hong Kong people during the war, and not of the foreign nationals. Also there were typos/mistakes that were distracting