Tucked away in the Kowloon hills above Kwai Chung, the Shing Mun Reservoir system contains, along with numerous picnic spots and hiking trails, the crumbling remains of pre-war defences popularly remembered as the Gin Drinker's Line. Seventy years ago this weekend, after three days of intermittent fight- ing, these defences fell to the invading Japanese.
From the beginning, Hong Kong has relied on artificially created water supplies. Due to a rising population, water shortages had become an acute problem by the 1920s. When the Jubilee Reservoir (as the Shing Mun scheme was then known) opened in 1935, Hong Kong Island's urban areas were heavily dependent on water piped in from the New Territories.
Securing reservoirs therefore underpinned all strategic wartime planning. The fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese in 1941 was, in many respects, one of the first significant 'water wars'. Many will likely be fought before this century is over.
An interconnecting chain of tunnels, bunkers and gun positions, the Gin Drinker's Line was of vital strategic importance in case of attack. One company from the 228th Infantry Regiment, part of the Japanese 38th Division, commanded by Captain Wakabayashi, broke through and captured the Shing Mun Redoubt on December 10, 1941. The defences at Shing Mun were completely in Japanese hands by December 11.
Shortly after, an inscription in Japanese characters was chiselled into the wall (probably by a bayonet) at the entrance to one of the tunnels. It reads: 'Captured by Wakabayashi Unit.' This wartime graffiti was first observed - and its position noted - by Allied investigators not long after the war ended. For decades after- wards, its position was known - and noted - only by those with a specific interest in Hong Kong's wartime heritage.
But who was Wakabayashi? Born in Yamanashi prefecture, Japan, in 1912, Toichi Wakabayashi was promoted to lieutenant from the enlisted ranks. He was a noted tactical commander and served in mainland China before the invasion of Hong Kong.
