Opinion | Hong Kong lions Stephen and Stitt, Japanese looters and the legal battle to protect cultural property
The story of HSBC’s icons reveals how attitudes to wartime plundering have evolved
Recent controversy regarding the decoration of the bronze lions outside the HSBC building brings to mind the near loss of these icons of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation.
It is 75 years since the fall of Hong Kong. Apart from the terrible human suffering the cost of the Japanese occupation included the looting of anything of value, with special treasures being sent to Japan. This was the intended fate of Stephen and Stitt, which guard the HSBC building. The story of their return in 1946 includes their fortuitous discovery by an American sailor in the Kawasaki Dockyard in Osaka.
Looting has always accompanied warfare, primarily for gain but also to oppress the conquered.
Although often contemporaneously criticised it was not contrary to international law until relatively recently. Victor Hugo famously described the looting of the Old Summer Palace in Peking as: “One day two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered, the other burned. Victory can be a thieving woman ... What a great exploit, what a windfall! One of the two victors filled his pockets; when the other saw this he filled his coffers. And back they came to Europe, arm in arm, laughing away. Such is the story of the two bandits.”
The Hague Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, 1907, included the first international attempt to protect personal and cultural property during warfare. However, the regulations’ shortfalls, especially lack of enforcement, were highlighted during conflicts including the first world war, the Spanish civil war and the Rape of Nanking.