1933 - 1942
Hong Kong falls to Japanese invaders
The Japanese invasion began at dawn on December 8, 1941. Aircraft dive-bombed Kai Tak airport, catching the Royal Air Force on the ground. They also attacked shipping in the harbour and strategic targets. Hours before, advance units had crossed the border preparing to sweep towards Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. British units demolished road and rail bridges. 'Early Raids Achieve Poor Results' the Post noted reassuringly next day.
As the Japanese stormed through the New Territories, the paper did its bit for the propaganda effort with headlines such as: 'Futile Raids Give Colony Timely Practice'; 'Vain Bomber Attacks on Warships'.
Rice shops were ordered to stay open and sell stock at fixed prices; hotels were crammed because the government had requisitioned homes. Most Japanese civilians had quietly left Hong Kong in the days before the invasion and the 50 or so who remained were interned. Chinese soldiers who had retreated across the Shenzhen River were recruited as stretcher-bearers by the British Army.
There was hand-to-hand fighting at Shing Mun Reservoir and the boom of guns in artillery duels echoed over the city. Five days after the Japanese invaded, all troops had been withdrawn from Kowloon and were in 'fortress Hong Kong'. British civilians tried to maintain a stiff upper lip with parties in hotel lobbies, but the enemy advance continued.
Troops and the Hong Kong Volunteers braced themselves for landings on Hong Kong Island. On Christmas Day governor Young surrendered. For 1.6 million people, it was the start of a grim occupation.
Japanese capture Guangzhou and Shenzhen
Guangzhou (Canton) and Shenzhen had succumbed to advancing Japanese troops in October 1938. There had been sporadic air raids and naval blockades of southern China for 15 months, and in autumn 1938 towns on the coast and along the Pearl River began to fall one by one to the enemy.
On October 14, Japanese troops supported by fighter aircraft attacked the Chinese section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway. At the same time, there was heavy fighting between Hong Kong and Shantou.
On October 21, led by 20 tanks, Japanese soldiers occupied Guangzhou. By November 25 the Japanese were making sorties along the Hong Kong border. Shenzhen, then a small farming village, fell after an hour's fighting.
IN FEBRUARY 1939, Britain protested angrily to Japan after fighter planes with rising sun insignia strafed and bombed Lowu railway station. An Indian policeman and a Chinese customs officer were among 12 dead. At least 60 people were killed in Shenzhen in the same attack.
The day after Britain declared war on Germany, on September 3, 1939, Hong Kong authorities began to round up aliens, with 102 Germans interned at La Salle College, Kowloon. Several of the men held were Jewish refugees from the Nazis. 'The official view is that they are still German nationals,' the Post reported. July 1940 saw the evacuation from Hong Kong of 'British women of European race'.
IN JANUARY 1941, Hong Kong felt like giving itself a pat on the back. It had been a century since the foundation of the colony, and the Post and its sister publication, the Hong Kong Telegraph, proudly announced: 'The story of a century of great achievements'. It lauded the changes that had taken place over the previous 100 years, but said too much gaiety would be inappropriate: with 'the Empire fighting for survival it would be a mockery'.
The editor predicted 'the native born' of Hong Kong would come into his own in a mighty future. The theme of the centenary was Anglo-Chinese cooperation, one the paper said was fitting 'since the government and the enterprise has been so predominately British and the labour so largely Chinese'.
The two races had in common 'a stolidity of temperament, a dogged persistence and a keen sense of values', the paper said.
HEALTH
IN 1938, the Radium Hydro Therapeutic Institution was pro-mising to banish rheumatism and help people lose weight with 'state-of-the-art equipment run by specialists'.
IN JUNE 1934, police warned of an outbreak of rabies after a spate of more than a dozen cases.
ALMOST 70 YEARS AGO, a gynaecologist was advertising his remarkable ability to produce test-tube babies. 'The method is tried and true from America', claimed his advertisement in a Guangdong newspaper.
SMALLPOX STALKED Hong Kong in the early 1930s. In February 1933, Kowloon had 148 reported cases and Hong Kong Island 98.
30 killed as typhoon lashes territory
At dawn on September 3, 1937, Hong Kongers woke to the devastation caused by one of the worst typhoons in the territory's history, with wind speeds of up to 263 kilometres an hour. At least 10 large ships were aground from Lai Chi Kok to Lei Yue Mun Pass, some well ashore. Scores of junks and fishing boats had disappeared.
'The scene at Taiwan Bay was ghastly ... huge areas of wreckage were marked with human bodies and fragments of junks,' reported the Post. Many major wharves on both sides of the harbour were badly damaged.'Huge waves surged over the praya, almost reaching Queen's Road,' the paper said. 'Ships broke their moorings and careered drunkenly about the harbour.' One of the vessels, the steamer Van Heutsz, had 1,260 passengers aboard.
Across the harbour the Eng Lee ended up on Kowloon cricket ground, while at the height of the storm the screaming winds fanned flames that destroyed a crowded tenement building at 131 Connaught Road.
More than 30 people died as a result of the fire, including a woman carrying her baby who jumped from the building to try to escape. Ironically, firemen worked in waist-deep floodwater and driving rain as they fought the blaze.
FASHION
IN 1933, patent-leather dress shoes for men were sold for $9.75 to $19.50 at Wm. Powell, a specialist store for gentlemen's wear. A 10 per cent discount was given with cash sales.
The following goods were on offer in
the Whiteaway sale of January 1933:
Woolly pullovers: $4.75 to $9.75
Ladies' stockings: $1 a pair
Dress lace, 16 feet wide: $2.95 a yard
Hem-stitched handkerchiefs: 50 cents and
75 cents a half-dozen.
Felt hats: $2.95 to $12.50
Felt berets: $1
Macintoshes: $10.50
IN 1933, silk stockings were worn 'to make the ankles look trimmer'. Kayser stockings sold for $3.25 a pair and were considered durable, sheer and expertly knit.
AN INFORMAL EVENING BAG was essential for the lady about town of 1933. A popular choice was a clutch made of brown velvet, which had an ingenious clasp of rhinestones that fastened over a pearl tassel.
HONG KONG LADIES WERE FANATICAL about the new wide-brim hat that appeared in summer 1937. It was popularised by the Duchess of Kent, who also sported a black straw pope's cap with veil accessory.
MODE ELITE OFFERED A 30 PER CENT cash discount on Gage hats in June 1939 to women refugees from Swatow (Shantou). The hats were considered essential for patrician women of refined taste.
Child hurled to death
Readers were aghast in June 1934 as news spread of an attack against five children in Central. A Chinese man dressed in what was described as a sailor's uniform hurled five British children, aged five to eight, from a bridge near Murray Barracks.
The children were thrown into a torrent caused by heavy rains; the floodwaters washed some of them through an underground tunnel and into the harbour. Michael Paine, 8, died. Quick thinking by Chinese passers-by and British soldiers saved the others.
'Extraordinary Outrage', said the Post. Ng Loi-yuen, 28 and unemployed, from Shantou, was arrested after being identified by his clothes.
Witnesses said they heard screaming from the bridge as he threw the children into the water. Then he jumped himself. Four soldiers who followed found Ng in a tunnel leading to the sea.
At his first trial Ng claimed he was drunk at the time of the attack and the jury was unable to agree on a verdict. A second found him guilty of murder and he was hanged at Victoria Prison on March 30, 1935.
Playing at the Oriental in 1935 was Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. The next change brought in another comedy, Fran Diavolo, starring Laurel and Hardy as bandits.
Luis Trenker and Vilma Banky starred in the 1933 romantic drama The Rebel, in which the daughter of an aristocrat leaves her family for the love of an outlaw.
In June 1933, J. N. wrote to the Post informing readers about prices at the World Theatre. Matinees ranged from 10 to 50 cents, and evening screenings 20 cents to $1.
Barbara Stanwyck starred in Ever In My Heart in 1934. In June, the Alhambra Theatre in Kowloon screened the film five times at weekends.
Entertainment
On March 7, 1935, China's most famous screen actress, Yuan Ling-Yuk, died in Shanghai from an overdose of barbiturates. Almost 100,000 grief-stricken fans lined the streets as her funeral procession moved from Kiaozhou Road to its final destination of Chapei Cemetery. A wave of copycat suicides followed the departure of the actress as young women attempted to follow their idol.
the territory's Radio relay services were extended in 1935 to reach further into Kowloon. The cost of a plug-in receiver link was $12 a quarter.
Hong Kong was proud to host the Balinese dancers of Ratu Idja and Kewi Ratna for the gala premiere of their first world tour on March 6, 1935. The curtain went up at the Queen's Theatre, Central, with admission prices of $3, $2, $1 and 50 cents.
British playwright and author Noel Coward arrived in Hong Kong in 1935. He visited friends in the colony before departing aboard the yacht of film star Douglas Fairbanks.
In 1933, Ma Kong Bay, just beyond Repulse Bay, was touted as the next most popular resort for bathing in the sea. Attempts were made to preserve its scenic beauty to avoid the beach being over developed.
At the 1933 Lunar New Year sales, the Alba store was offering a Model 808 gramophone, plus a dozen Victor label records, a box of needles and a bottle of record varnish, for $39.
Daily life
For 50 cents, messengers could be dispatched to the popular Exchange Rest-aurant in Central to pick up delicacies such as Bovril sandwiches, 'freshly made for office workers'.
Grandasia cigars were advertised as nicotine free. A box of 50 cost $4 to $10 depending on size.
The Maersk shipping line provided a fast, regular freight and passenger service. 'Excellent accommodations' were provided and the voyage from Hong Kong to New York took 40 days.
IN CANTON's 1933 campaign against immorality, 'seditious and obscene' publications were seized by members of the Bureau of Censorship of Publications in Guangzhou. About 1,500 were burned.
Timeline
Hong Kong and China
1933
Mar 3
Hang Seng Bank founded
Sept 1
Government puts forward plan to ban opium smoking
1934
Jan 5
Kowloon residents demand lower water charges
0ct 16
Red Army evacuates Kiangsi; Long March begins
Oct 17
Government proposes to set up Kowloon customs post in face of strong opposition from Guangdong
1935
Feb 12
Sales of shark's fin limited; shops to be licensed
Apr 15
Kowloon Motor Bus Company indicted for selling fake tickets
Oct 10
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building completed
1936
Apr 1
Three earthquakes recorded
Aug 17
Typhoon causes $10 million damage
1937
Jan 18
Stanley Prison opens
Apr 13
Queen Mary Hospital opens
July 22
Cholera epidemic, 1,000 die
1938
Mar 24
Smallpox spreads, 1,000 die
Apr 19
400 Hong Kong fishing boats bombarded by Japanese navy, killing 200
1939
Sept 3
Britain declares war on Germany; 62 Germans in Hong Kong detained at La Salle College, Kowloon
1940
Mar 7
Secret meeting between China and Japan in Hong Kong
June 11
Japan demands citizens of hostile countries leave
1941
Dec 28
Hong Kong surrenders to Japan
1942
Feb 20
Tokyo formally declares Hong Kong an occupied state
Around the world
1933
Jan 30
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
Mar 4
Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as US president
Mar 7
Board game Monopoly invented
1934
Jan 26
Germany signs 10-year non-aggression pact with Poland
May 11
Dust storm ravages the Great Plains of North America
1935
Feb 28
Nylon is invented by Wallace Carothers
Mar 22
Persia renamed Iran
0ct 6
Mussolini's Italian armies invade Ethiopia
Nov 6
Japanese troops take Shanghai's Chinese city
1936
Aug 1
Olympic Games in Berlin
Nov 6
Spanish Civil War begins
Dec 10
Edward VIII abdicates to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson
1937
May 12
Duke of York crowned Britain's King George VI
May 26
San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opens
July 7
Marco Polo Bridge incident; Japan invades China
1938
Mar 3
Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia
Mar 12
Germany invades Austria
Sept 30
First British radar system in operation
1939
Sept 1
Germany attacks Poland, World War II starts
1940
Feb 29
The Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb begins
May 5
Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
1941
Dec 7
Pearl Harbour attack brings US into war
1942
Feb 15
British forces surrender in Singapore
Feb 24
Voice of America first broadcast