Japanese war-time inscriptions must be protected, says historian

A scrawled memento of one of the bloodiest periods in Hong Kong's history has been found on the wall of a ruined pillbox near Tai Po Road, leading to a call for better preservation of Japanese inscriptions that recall the Japanese army's 1941 invasion of Hong Kong.

The kanji - Chinese characters used in the Japanese way - express a soldier's prayer for luck in battle and are one of only two such inscriptions known in the city.

Historian Ko Tim-keung, who found the inscription, said it was "very precious", because before its discovery the only similar relic was a well-known one at the nearby Shing Mun Redoubt that had been vandalised over the years.

"These are some of the very few physical traces of Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941," Ko, an expert on Hong Kong's military history, said. "They deserve better protection."

The pillbox, one of numerous second world war relics dotting the Kowloon Hills, is hidden in bushes beside the Piper's Hill section of Tai Po Road, near the redoubt that was built to guard the Kowloon peninsula.

Ko had to climb over a fence to enter the site of abandoned police officer's quarters before reaching the pillbox, which looked like the entrance to a drainage channel and had become home to bats. He said the Japanese advanced to the pillbox after seizing the Shing Mun Redoubt on December 10, 1941.

The characters read, "From Aichi-ken, 16.12.10. Praying for good luck at war". Aichi-ken was the prefecture where the Japanese 38th Division, the main invading force during the Battle of Hong Kong, was formed and the date, in the Japanese calendar, is December 1941.