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The Japanese Occupation and the Restoration of the British Rule: an Overview

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Japan assaulted Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, which marked the beginning of the Battle of Hong Kong. The British forces were defeated repeatedly due to the disparity in power. When the Japanese forces captured the New Territories and Kowloon swiftly, the British forces retreated southwards and intended to defend Hong Kong Island to the death. The Japanese forces landed on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island on 18 December. Given all the counterattacks in certain areas failed, Britain surrendered Hong Kong to Japan on 25 December evening. Hong Kong entered the dark age of Japanese occupation.

During the three years and eight months of agony, Hong Kong civilians were forced to exchange their money to the Japanese military currency. Innumerable civilians died of starvation from severe food shortage and brutal implementation of the repatriation policy. The countless war crimes committed by the Japanese including arbitrary arrest and torture of civilians claimed a multitude of innocent lives in Hong Kong. The local population thus plummeted from about 1.6 million before the war to about 600,000 after the war.

Hong Kong did not cease to resist the Japanese rule and contributed significantly the Chinese mainland and the Allies during the Japanese occupation. The Hong Kong and Kowloon Independent Brigade of the East River Column attacked the Japanese forces many times and rescued British prisoners of war and American pilots. Moreover, many democrats, cultural figures, intellectual youths and their families, including some British soldiers, officers, and expatriates were rescued in the 11-month-long Rescue Operations in Hong Kong.

Japan surrendered unconditionally in August 1945. The Japanese occupation ended and the British rule of Hong Kong restored. Soon, many refugees fled to Hong Kong when the situation in the Chinese mainland changed drastically between the late 1940s and the early 1950s. Hong Kong entered a new era.

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