Hong Kong and World War II

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses, from different perspectives, the 1941 attack of the Japanese Imperial Army on Hong Kong and the brutal Japanese occupation there till the end of the War in 1945. It examines three scholarly articles that are seen to relate to the same broad topic of how events during World War II in Asia continue to shape thinking on Japan, more than 50 years later, in matters of power and strategy involving China, Japan, the U.S. and other influences. June Teufel Dreyer is introduced as an American follower of East Asian affairs and the author of an article on Japan and China that seems more American in scope than Asian. Richard J. Aldrich's study of British secret intelligence in Asia during World War II is then discussed in relation to Hong Kong. The third paper is by Kent Fedorowich on a British diplomat's view of Hong Kong before the colony fell to the Japanese.

Outline:
Introduction
On Sino-Japanese Rivalry
Allied Intelligence in World War II - Hong Kong
Hong Kong on the Eve of its Occupation
Concluding Remarks

From the Paper:

" When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese, civilians were interned and thousands of Indian, British and Canadian soldiers that had tried to defend the colony became prisoners of war, many of them dying of disease, starvation and general abuse. (CBC 1972) Consulting Greenhous's summary of the 2,000 Canadians defeated at Hong Kong's struggle against the Japanese showed the takeover as something that people in Hong Kong would remember for many years. (1997) The soldiers fought from December 8 to 18, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army often killing the wounded just as they viciously attacked civilians. When the Japanese took control of the colony the people lived on tiny rations, the actual takeover as brutal as anywhere in Asia the Japanese conquered. The people of Hong Kong till the lapse of 1997 were used to seeing Communist China as a place of oppression and perhaps unwanted designs on the future of Hong Kong, but Japan stayed in mind as the greater enemy, and a potential new threat. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aldrich, Richard J. "Britain's Secret Intelligence Service in Asia during the Second World War." Modern Asian Studies. 32. (1998): 179-217.
• Dreyer, June Teufel. "Sino-Japanese Rivalry and its Implications for Developing Nations." Asian Survey. 46. (2006): 538-557.
• Fedorowich, Kent. "'Cocked Hat and Swords and Small, Little Garrisons' - Britain, Canada and the Fall of Hong Kong, 1941." Modern Asian Studies. 37. (2003): 111-157.
• CBC Radio. "On This Day - Japanese Attack Canadian Troops in Hong Kong." December 18, 1972. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Radio archive, Toronto.
• Greenhous, B. C Force to Hong Kong - a Canadian Catastrophe, 1941-1945. (Canadian War Museum Historical Publications No. 30). Toronto and Oxford: Dundurn Press, 1997.

More papers on Hong Kong and World War II:

• Article Review # 129839 : "Hong Kong in World War II"
• Descriptive Essay # 132982 : "Japan's Occupation of Hong Kong"
• Term Paper # 129290 : "Japanese in Hong Kong in WWII"

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