On The War Path

Hong Kong Tried Hard to Defend Itself During the Second World War. Its Buildings and Cemeteries Still Tell That Brave Story of Resistance

- Bhavya Dore

A red-and-blue toy gun in his hand, five-year-old Giovanni Ng races around the small shelf in the hillside, pointing his weapon at the doors ahead. This is Station 10, where barely discernible storage rooms have been shaped into the rock face, some sort of defensive point maintained during the Japanese seizure of Hong Kong during World War II.

“I kill the bad guys,” says Giovanni, to no one in particular as he darts through the wooded space. In this particular place, the bad guys have been the Japanese, whose attack on December 8, 1941, through the verdant hills began shortly after the Pearl Harbour bombing. British, Canadian and Indian troops rallied until the city fell on Christmas Day, following 18 days of fighting against a vastly superior force.

“It was a hard time,” says John Ng, the boy’s father. “I have brought my son here to show him the history. We love Japanese culture but it is important to know both the good and the bad things.” This is one of the stops on the Wong Nai Chung Gap Trail that traces key points through ammunition depots, bunkers and firing positions in the Battle of Hong Kong, a battle that saw around 6,000 casualties on both sides.

Second World War history is writ deep in the woods and hills that girdle the heart of the bustling megapolis. Vertiginous towers and busy commercial complexes might be the best established leitmotifs of the city, but long before it became one of Asia’s economic tigers, Hong Kong was simply a British colonial town trying to hold out against a rampaging enemy.

“Today there is virtually no evidence in Hong Kong of the Second World War,” writes David Campion in an essay titled “The Colonial Past in Hong Kong’s Present”. “… It is a truism of Hong Kong that the old is constantly being torn down to make room for the new, and thus it may be easy to forget what happened during the war.”