WAR veterans have vowed to commemorate Liberation Day after 1997, even if they have to change their venue from the Cenotaph to a small church.
'If they turn us down, we will just go to a church and say a silent prayer,' said veteran Arthur Gomes. Tomorrow marks the last Liberation Day in the territory.
Mr Gomes, chairman of the Hong Kong Prisoner of War Association, said he would apply to the Commissioner of Police and the Urban Council next year, as he has done every year, to seek permission for a ceremony at the Cenotaph.
'I hope the commissioner won't turn down my request because it's a traditional function - it observes everyone's liberation.' Next year, freedom from Japanese occupation will be celebrated on August 18, a public holiday - to be called Sino-Japan War Victory Day.
'We can't count on a firing party or bugler any more, so we will return to the earlier ceremonies we had, where a padre said a prayer. We had the Lord's Prayer, put down wreaths and had a moment of silence,' Mr Gomes said.
'They [the Chinese authorities] are not a bunch of meanies. It's meaningful to the people of Hong Kong. If the worst comes to the worst, we can have a little dinner party or have a drink together,' he added. 'But we're not going to go underground.' Ex-prisoner of war Jack Edwards said: 'It's up to the Special Administrative Region government, but we have tried to stress that we all fought the Japanese.
'I hope they will continue to remember this day in the same way.' Liberation Day falls two days before the arrival of Japanese Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda on Wednesday.
