大象传媒

For the average person in the United Kingdom without family contacts in the Far East, the German surrender in May 1945 must have seemed like the end of a long and bitter war fought mainly in Europe, Russia and North Africa.

At that time I was serving as a Squadron Staff Officer with the British Fleet in HMS Indomitable in the central Pacific. We heard the news of the German surrender but felt there was a long struggle ahead, perhaps for two years with many thousands of casualties, before victory over Japan could be achieved. Much of the Japanese conquest remained in their hands and where we had recovered territory in Burma or the islands such as Iwojima, it had involved the use of great resources and considerable losses. The US Air Force was attacking Japan but with bombs which might not prove decisive and the invasion of Japan itself seemed likely to meet with fanatical resistance and result in extremely heavy casualties on both sides.

Then everything changed.

In early August 1945, HMS Indomitable, one of the Fleet's Aircraft Carriers, had returned from operations with the US Fleet to our base in Sydney where preparations were being made for an invasion of Malaya, though we did not know that this was the plan at the time. Then came the dramatic news that we hardly comprehended of first one, and then a second super bomb called an Atomic Bomb dropped on Japan, causing almost unimaginable death and destruction.

In spite of all the talk of fighting to the last man, already indicated by experience of Japanese resistance in successive campaigns, it took only a few days before Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of all his forces. The Indomitable immediately set sail taking its familiar route northwards into the Pacific with our orders this time to proceed to Hong Kong, accept the surrender of forces there and install Admiral Harcourt, who had been based aboard Indomitable for a period, as Governor of the Colony.

No one knew what reception we might expect. One of our planes picked up a Japanese negotiator and brought him aboard for consultation. On the return journey the plane had to land in China where it was surrounded by Chinese Communist Forces who were largely in control of the country outside Hong Kong territory. The Chinese, very much aware of all that their countrymen had suffered under the Japanese yoke, were all for an execution, an action they abandoned with regret only after the guarantee of safety which had been given was explained.

The Indomitable sailed into Hong Kong harbour with booms down, sweeping for possible mines. Admiral Harcourt with a small party of officers of which I was a junior member, went ashore and established our base at the Peninsular Hotel. There were a substantial number of Japanese soldiers in the Colony, certainly sufficient to kill us all if they had felt so inclined, but it soon became clear that they were depressed, confused and not wishing to offer any further resistance, or indeed to exercise a policing role since it was evident that looters from the local Chinese population had stripped most of the houses of anything of value. Indeed on the following day I was sent on patrol armed with a revolver which I fired in the air to deter marauding looters.

In the evening of our first day ashore a British resident arrived from the civilian prisoner of war camp to inform us that the Colony's power station had been running on wood during the occupation but that stocks were almost exhausted and that unless supplies were restored at once all lights would go out that night and that intensified looting, riots and bloodshed could be anticipated. To meet this crisis those of us present were instructed to get the wood from a dump to the power station.

Two seamen and I requisitioned the first Japanese lorry we could find and made our way to the dump, which was not easy as we did not know where it was and we did not speak the language, but we managed. About midnight we passed a long column of Chinese trudging up the hill with wood on their shoulders and carrying flares. It was an eerie sight, especially as they were all women and much younger than their appearance suggested. Fortunately enough fuel was made available to save the day.

One of our first jobs was to visit the prisoner of war camps, of which there were several. All the civilians were in one camp, Indian troops in another, and the latter certainly received the worst treatment of any. I was despatched to the British and Canadian Officers Camp. During the three and a half years as prisoners of war just one and a half food parcels each had got through to them. Their diet provided by their captors consisted of unpolished rice and the occasional lorry load of leaves which were tipped into a corner of the compound.

Suffering from severe malnutrition and particularly from "Electric Feet" which the sufferers attempted to alleviate by sitting with their feet in cold water, they were extremely thin and in no fit state to carry out forced labour which many had been ordered to do. Deaths in captivity had been numerous and treatment by their captors brutal, although it would appear that some had adjusted to the conditions and this enabled them to survive. Once released the temptation to overeat must have been very strong but wisely most resisted this. On the first day, at their suggestion, we brought a little meat to add to their normal rice served in tin mugs.

The first duty on our arrival at our camp was to arrest a British Major. His colleagues believed that he had assumed the role of Senior Officer, which he was not, and then carried out the orders of the Japanese in return for special treatment for himself. He was blamed for the death of a number of prisoners he had sent to work. Though he was subsequently acquitted in a trial in London, other prisoners would have taken revenge once Japanese protection was removed, had he not been taken into protective custody by the British.

After a few days Indomitable departed though some crew members stayed behind. As we left the harbour one friend who had appointed himself "Director of Railways" gave us long a whistle as he cautiously drove an engine into a tunnel which had been closed throughout the occupation. We headed once again for Sydney and from there via Colombo, Aden, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, Gibraltar and home. And so for us too the war was now really ended and for most of us resumption of a civilian life beckoned. We remembered our service life and our friends and took with us a vivid picture of Hong Kong under occupation by the Japanese army, their enemies in prison camps and cruelly treated and widespread damage by looting and neglect. Yet after a few years Hong Kong was to rise again, successful and prosperous with an economy envied by much of the world, not least by China.

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