Small Man of Nanataki


Book Description

Story of an interpreter for the Japanese in Hong Kong prison camps who risked his life to help the prisoners.




Not the Slightest Chance


Book Description

More than 10% of Hong Kong's defenders were killed in battle; a further 20% died in captivity. Those who survived seldom spoke of their experiences. Many died young. The little 'primary' material surviving – written in POW camps or years after the events – is contradictory and muddled. Yet with just 14,000 defending the Colony, it was possible to write from the individual's point of view rather than that of the Big Battalions so favoured by God (according to Napoleon) and most historians. The book assembles a phase-by-phase, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and death-by-death account of the battle. It considers the individual actions that made up the fighting, as well as the strategies and plans and the many controversies that arose. Not the Slightest Chance will be of interest to military historians, Hong Kong residents and visitors, and those in the UK, Canada, and elsewhere whose family members fought, or were interned, in Hong Kong during the war years.




We Shall Suffer There


Book Description

Tony Banham documents the experiences of Hong Kong's prisoners of war and civilian internees from their capture by the Japanese in December 1941 to liberation, rescue and repatriation.




Caged Heroes


Book Description




The Lost Century


Book Description

Lambda Literary Award winner Larissa Lai (The Tiger Flu) returns with a sprawling historical novel about war, colonialism and queer experience during Japan’s occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. On the eve of the return of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong to China in 1997, young Ophelia asks her peculiar great-aunt Violet about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II and the disappearance of her uncle Theo. From Violet, she learns the story of her grandmother, Emily. Emily’s marriage—three times—to her father’s mortal enemy causes a stir among three very different Hong Kong Chinese families, as well as among the young cricketers at the Hong Kong Cricket Club, who’ve just witnessed King Edward VIII’s abdication to marry Wallis Simpson. But the class and race pettiness of the scandal around Emily’s marriage is violently disrupted by the Japanese Imperial Army’s invasion of Hong Kong on Christmas Day, 1941, which plunges the colony into a landscape of violence none of its inhabitants escape from unscathed, least of all Emily. When her situation becomes dire, Violet, along with a crew of unlikely cosmopolitans determines to rescue Emily from the wrath of the person she thought loved her the most, her husband, Tak-Wing. In the middle of it all, a strange match of timeless Test cricket unfolds, in which the ball has an agency all its own. With great heart, The Lost Century explores the intersections of Asian relations, queer Asian history, underground resistance, the violence of war, and the rise of modern China― a sprawling novel of betrayal, epic violence and intimate passions. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.







Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945


Book Description

Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945: Life in the Japanese Civilian Camp at Stanley tells the story of the more than three thousand non-Chinese civilians: British, American, Dutch and others, who were trapped in the British colony and interned behind barbed wire in Stanley Internment Camp from 1942 to 1945. From 1970 to 1972, while researching for his MA thesis, the author interviewed twenty-three former Stanley internees. During these meetings, the internees talked about their lives in the Stanley Camp during the Japanese occupation. Long regarded as an invaluable reference and frequently consulted as a primary source on Stanley since its completion in 1973, the study is now republished with a new introduction and fresh discussions that recognize later work and information released since the original thesis was written. Additional illustrations, including a new map and photographs, as well as an up-to-date bibliography, have also been included in the book.




My Via Dolorosa


Book Description

This is a collection of reflections written by the author each time after his annual voluntary teaching ministry in Asian countries, which suffered under the Japanese Imperialism and military operations in the first half of the twentieth century. The introductory chapter presents first the authors perspective as a Japanese Christian scholar on his countrys modern history as it relates to its Asian neighbours and the countries that fought with Japan during the Pacific War, and then it explains the authors theological motivation and underpinning of his teaching ministry in Asia. As an appendix, the authors reflections and reservations on the bilateral agreement recently (28.12.2015) reached between the governments of South Korea and Japan over the issue of comfort women are presented. This issue constitutes, in the authors view, a touchstone as to how seriously and sincerely Japan is going to face its war past. In the course of his visits to Asia the matter has hung heavy over the authors chest and he personally met some surviving, elderly Asian victims.




Prisoner of the Turnip Heads


Book Description

As a police officer in pre-war colonial Hong Kong, George Wright-Nooth was studying for his Chinese language exams when the Japanese invaded on Christmas Day, 1941. He spent the next four years incarcerated in the Japanese Military Internment Camp at Stanley. Daily life became marked by hunger and appalling suffering at the hands of the guards. He regularly witnessed death and torture, and his account of a multiple execution by sword is as moving and horrific as anything one is ever likely to read. While many of his fellow prisoners cracked beneath the terror of such atrocities, the author repaid such treatment with subversive activities, such as the running of secret radios, and the smuggling of food and messages to and from some of those held by the dreaded Japanese Gendarmerie. Perhaps most remarkably of all, the author kept a diary throughout his incarceration which, miraculously, was never discovered by his captors.




Serving God and Country


Book Description

In World War II, more than twelve thousand Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis joined the Chaplain Corps. They were men of faith under fire. And they would charge straight into Hell to save the soul of a single soldier… Representing America’s three major religious traditions, volunteers from across the country enlisted as noncombatant commissioned officers to provide spiritual strength and guidance for those fighting men who never knew if they were going to survive. Armed only with Bibles, Torahs, and the tools of their holy trade, these men of God went wherever the troops went. They prayed over men about to go into combat on land, at sea, and in the air. And, most important and difficult of all, they guided fallen fighting men of every faith as they breathed their last, and gave up their lives in the fight against tyranny. These are the personal stories of some of the bravest and most selfless men who served with the armed forces. Many lost their lives or suffered debilitating wounds as they strived to keep the military personnel spiritually awake, morally fit—and prepared to make the journey from this world to the next without fear or despair, and with the trust of the Almighty in their hearts. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS