Britain retakes colony
On September 5, 1945, the Union Flag was hoisted over Stanley Internment Camp in a simple ceremony that marked the restoration of British control of Hong Kong.
For those who survived internment it was a moving moment. But they had no idea that outside the camp, life had perhaps been harder, more uncertain and more dangerous than inside. The 1941 population of 1.6 million, swollen by refugees from China, had shrunk to 600,000. The city was battered; services had been destroyed. The harbour was choked by sunken ships.
After an absence of three years, eight months and six days, during which the Hong Kong News, a Japanese-run daily, was put out on its presses, the Post was back on the streets. Its flimsy editions carried stories of what had happened to former residents scattered during the war.
As Royal Marines escorted the Japanese garrison into camps, Japanese civilians were also interned. The official surrender took place at the Peninsula hotel on September 16, where Japanese officers handed over their swords before being interned.
On October 19, the Post published an advertisement from the British Military Administration inviting anyone who had been tortured or who had witnessed atrocities during the war to make a statement at its offices. The time for vengeance was at hand.
As gaunt expatriate survivors emerged from internment camps in Hong Kong and other Asian cities formerly occupied by the Japanese, they were processed by civil authorities or the Red Cross for repatriation.