I am an old man now, however I was born in Hong kong where I lived until I was nine years of age. My Parents worked in the Colony pre war and post war. My mother and elder brother escaped to Australia before the Japs invaded. My father was in the HKVDC. He never spoke much about what went on except to tell me little bits about the surrender. They fought like tigers with units of the Punjab Rifles. They fell back from Kowloon, the C/O of the Punjabies pulled rank on dad and told him to take his men over to Victoris Island as people would know it,which he did. Jap Destroyers sailed round and round, shelling them day & night. Water was very short towards the end and he told me they drank from toilets and cisterns,not destroyed. The Japs finally landed and the fighting became hand to hand. From what I can gather, they were a pretty rough, “raggle taggle” group of all sorts of other regiments. Anyway,the Japs pushed them towards the top of the Peak and the situation became hopeless. The Govenor who’s name I shamefully admit escapes me said at a meeting. To continue would be a waste of life so, we must surrender! Which of course they did.
We now know that to a Jap, if you surrender, you are lower than a dog!!! That’s when the beating’s began. Dad was alway’s very proud of the Chinese men in his platoon, as a civillian he was a Health Inspector and his men were the koolies in his department. Their courage was outstanding he said and was always ashamed at their lack of recognition after the war. While in Sham Shei Po Camp ( forgive spelling), this is one of the thing’s he saw. I’ll tell it to you as he told it to me.
A young Chinese girl in a Bath chair ( wheel chair) was throwing penney Buns (small bread rolls) over the wire to the prisoners. An order was given and she was dragged out of her chair and into the camp. There she was humiliated, kicked and beaten & finally butchered, in front of the men. I believe some who verbally protested were shot! He and others were taken to Sendai in Japan and made to work as coal miners, slaves to the Emperor of Japan. A lot of the chaps he was sent with were Canadians. He survived the war and returned to HK and worked in the health department until he retired in 1957 when we came back to the UK. After the war, my brother, 18 years older than me and his friend Bobby Stott, found two bodies of Canadian soldiers in a pill box in what I can only imagine were ” The New Territories”. They reported the find of course. As a small boy, I can recall dad takeing me to a holding place of some sort. It was full of Japanese vehicles, Tanks and so on, which he allowed me to stand on. From my friends apartment at a place called King’s Park, I could see out over a bay where there were two Jap Destroyers which had been sunk. I very much doubt if there is much left of my Hong Kong. I went to the Kowloon Junior school and my friend was a South African callled Van der Lin, his dad was a doctor and they lived in a beautiful bungalow on top of a hill, I cannot remember where though? An American airman used to visit his parents every single year. The japs shot him and his companion down, both bailed out. One of them saw some young Chinese girls who had been stripped naked and made to stand in front of a white wall, holding a concrete block over their heads, in the heat of the sun. The Americans bombed them so I was told. To drop the block meant being bayoneted !!! One airman was caught, tied behind a truck and dragged to his death through the streets? The other broke his leg on landing in the jungle. Doctor Van der Lin found him, hid him and more to the point, treated his leg.That’s why he visited every year. I believe they lived among the Chinese in a fishing village during the occupation. I’m sure there are many stories like this which have gone untold. I returned to Hong Kong in 1966/67 in the Royal Navy. I am disabled now so a long flight is out of the question, however, my mind often takes me back to my beloved Hueng Ha! Again please forgive spelling, but you know what I mean.