The Battle of Hong Kong

1. The Battle of Hong Kong Canada’s POWs in Japan

2. Japanese Troops • In 1941, Japan was intent on the expansion of its empire. • The Imperial Japanese army began its campaign with a sweep through China, leaving a path of destruction and terror in its wake.

3. Hong Kong • The seemingly invincible Japanese troops moved south towards the Chinese border with the British colony of Hong Kong.

4. The British • In early 1941, Winston Churchill said privately that there was not the slightest chance of holding Hong Kong or of relieving it if the Japanese attacked. Eventually his military persuaded him that it was worth at least a symbolic attempt to hold Hong Kong. But rather than risk more of their own troops, the British decided to ask Canada to take on the job.

5. The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles • The first Canadian troops designated for the job were these The Winnipeg Grenadiers. • Incredibly, Canada answered England's call without making an independent assessment of the peril, accepting the mother country's assurance that the men would not be in harm's way. • Because of their lack of training, they were officially classified by the Canadian defence department as "unfit for combat". • Back in Canada, the Grenadiers were joined by another unit with the same classification: The Royal Rifles, of Canada.

6. British intelligence estimated that there were only 5,000 Japanese soldiers in position to threaten Hong Kong. In fact, there were ten times that many-- 50,000 battled-hardened veterans of the Imperial Japanese army assembling on the border. The five-year land campaign in China gave them precious experience. Superior weapons and training gave them confidence. The Emperor gave them a cause.

7. The Japanese Attack • In the early morning hours of Sunday, December 7, the Japanese high command ordered its forces into action across Asia. At 7:50 a.m. came the surprise attack on the American forces in Pearl Harbour. • Overshadowed and often forgotten are the other Japanese attacks in the hours after Pearl Harbour-- the Philippines, Malaya, and then Hong Kong.

8. Gin Drinker’s Line • At the Chinese border, Japanese ground troops crossed easily into Hong Kong territory. Soon there was an artillery duel with the retreating British. Under cover of artillery, the Japanese began a forty kilometer trek towards the Gin Drinker's line. The British calculated it would take a week - But twelve hours later, a Japanese patrol led by an enterprising officer reached the British position. • The Gin Drinker's line was supposed to hold out for weeks. The Japanese took it in a few hours. The precious northern reservoir was now controlled by the Imperial Japanese army, the colony's water supply in peril.

9. Kowloon Falls • The momentum of the battle was now with the Japanese, and soon they were on the outskirts of Kowloon, the mainland part of Hong Kong. The Winnipeg Grenadiers joined other defenders, fighting a rear guard action. • Shortly after the evacuation, the Japanese commanders paraded through the city of Kowloon with some of their other prisoners. And then most of the commanders turned the town over to their soldiers. All Chinese women were declared to be prostitutes and free. The raping and pillaging began.

10. The Bombardment of Hong Kong • On December 13, 1941, the Japanese began a five-day bombardment of the island of Hong Kong • They still expected a Japanese attack from the sea, even though the enemy was now in control of the mainland on the other side. All the Japanese had to do was cross the harbour. • The British commander said the Japanese would never come across the water at night. Canadians were assured that the Japanese were racially prone to seasickness. Because of their eye shape, their night vision was supposed to be poor.

11. The Attack • At 10:00 pm on December 18, the Japanese crossed to the island, the Canadians found themselves under fire in the pitch black. • By the time British headquarters accepted that the attack was real, the Japanese had landed 7,500 soldiers on the island of Hong Kong. They streamed over in boats of every description. Seasickness was not a problem. • The Japanese forces swept across the channel from the mainland and rolled the defenders back up the mountains in the centre of the island.

12. The Wong Nei Chong Gap • A key battle took place at the central mountain pass called The Wong Nei Chong Gap. • The Japanese soldiers were ordered to make a series of suicide attacks against the Canadian positions. • They suffered 800 casualties to win the battle at Wong Nei Chong Gap. • When the Japanese discovered how few defenders had caused this decimation, the field commander was forced to apologize to his superiors. The Grenadiers, and others rounded up as prisoners, were now in danger. Some Japanese soldiers wanted revenge.

13. The Surrender • In the afternoon of Christmas day, with much of Hong Kong in flames, the British realized that further resistance was futile. At 3:00 p.m. the British commanders officially surrendered to the forces of Imperial Japan. The Union Jack was lowered. • On the day after Christmas, in Hong Kong, the Japanese commanders paraded in triumph through the streets of the city. • The defenders of Hong Kong from Britain, India and Canada were now prisoners of war. Some appeared almost jovial, happy at least to have survived. Many expected to be treated civilly according to the rules of the Geneva Convention. They were sadly mistaken. Over the next three and a half years of captivity, many of the living would come to envy the dead.

14. POWs • After the British colony fell to the Japanese in December of 1941, the Canadian prisoners of war were incarcerated at the Shamshuipo prison camp near the centre of Hong Kong. • The prisoners were warehoused in a steaming, crowded barracks. After one year in the prison camps of Hong Kong, Canadian prisoners of war were put onto ships and sent to Japan.

15. POW Camps • For almost three years, Canadians worked as slave laborers in a giant shipyard near Tokyo. Here, many of the vessels for Japan's war fleet were built and launched -- and still are today -- by the same corporation that operated during the war, NKK Nipon Ko Kon, a flourishing Japanese multinational. The men were filthy, starving, but always determined to survive.

16. POW Camps • In the summer of 1945, most of the Canadians were sent down to work in Japanese coal mines. In those last days of the war, the Emperor's military leaders were planning one last crime. If Japan were invaded, all prisoners of war would be executed. The end, however, came far more quickly than the Emperor's men had anticipated.

21. After the War • In October 1945, four years after they left Canada, the Hong Kong veterans were finally home again. • Nipon Ko Kan and its founder, Morosiro Shiaichi, made millions of dollars profiting from the Japanese war effort, partly from using Canadian prisoners as slave laborers. • In similar circumstances, German corporations have paid billions of dollars in compensation to wartime workers. • Japanese companies are being pressed by Canada's veterans for compensation, but refuse even to discuss the issue.

22. Video Clip http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/prisoners_of_war/topics/1642/

23. The Geneva Convention Article 13 • Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. • Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. • Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.

24. The Geneva Convention Article 14 • Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour. Women shall be treated with all the regard due to their sex and shall in all cases benefit by treatment as favourable as that granted to men. Prisoners of war shall retain the full civil capacity which they enjoyed at the time of their capture. The Detaining Power may not restrict the exercise, either within or without its own territory, of the rights such capacity confers except in so far as the captivity requires