1941 Hong Kong : the Harrison Forman Collection of photos
I was very excited when I stumbled across the collection of photographer Harrison Forman. There are over 300 photographs taken in Hong Kong in 1941!
It is very diffcult to find photos from this period, as it was just before the Japanese invaded in December 1941. Much of Hong Kong's photographic record was destroyed during the fighting and the years of hardship that followed.
The result is that if you go searching for photos of this time, the same few turn up again and again. But I don't recognise any of these! Although the photos are very well indexed, and the website is easy to use, I think they are hidden from Google, and so have kept a low profile.
The records give the year of the photos as 'circa 1941', but don't give any more exact date. I guess he must have stayed in Hong Kong until fairly late in the year. Some of the photos show buildings with sandbags piled up outside, so they certainly knew that trouble was coming. After a bit more searching, we think they were taken during Sep - Nov 1940, and in Sep 1941.
The photos themselves are good quality, as Forman was a professional photographer. Of immediate interest to me are over 20 photos of Air Raid Tunnels in various stages of construction. So that immediately more than doubles the number of photos of the subject I've been able to find. But the photos cover all topics and areas of Hong Kong, so I think anyone with an interest in 1940s Hong Kong will find them well worth a visit.
Here are the photos he took in Hong Kong in 1941.
The collection is part of the American Geographical Society Library collection, held at the University of Wisconsin. Here is their description of the collection:
Forman Collection. The Harrison Forman Collection represents the work of a prominent photojournalist from Milwaukee. It was acquired in 1987 and consists of approximately 98,000 images, primarily in the form of 35 mm slides with some prints and negatives, spanning a period of fifty years between the late 1920's to the mid 1970's. These images document cultures and landscapes in Asia and throughout the world.
Comments
Hong Kong 1941
O, 1941, it was the best of time and the worst of time (sorry Dickens). My parents got married and looked forward to their bright future. Three days later, Japan invaded Hong Kong and turned people's life there up side down.
With these photos, I reach back to those poignant days but can only imagine; for they show the people my parents saw and walked by, the streets they walked on, and the buildings they would have touched.
Probable Locations of Hong Kong 1941
A nice collection of photographs. Have tried to identify the locations from memory and photos that I have come across. Please feel free to update the locations or any errors referenced below.
View photos 1..20
Photo 1 ARP tunnel portal on Queen's Rd Central below Battery Path
Photos 2-9 Maybe the air raid shelter on Austin Rd, Kowloon, near the entrance to Kowloon Park
Photos 11, 135 Probably Pottinger St air raid shelter. The lampost looks familiar.
Photos 12-13 221-223 Gascoigne Rd, Kowloon, probably the air raid shelter near Hung Hom and Kowloon Dockyard
View photos 21..40
Photos 35, 153-155 Pedder Bldg, Pedder St
Photos 36-37. 144. 214, 235, 243, 249, 251 Rickshaw rank Connaught Rd Central near St. Georges Bldg facing entrance to Star Ferry. Note Nippon Yusen Kaisya (now NYK Line) sign on King's Bldg
View photos 61..80
Photos 61, 63-64 72-73 Entrance to Kowloon Docks
Photos 62, 78 Kowloon KCR Station
View photos 101..120
Photos 113-115. 117, 159 Looks like corner of Johnston and Hennessy Rds looking east
Photo 116 Southorn Playground, Wanchai
View photos 121..140
Photo 135. See #11.
Photo 137 Junction of Queen Victoria St and Connaught Rd C, near Central Fire Stn (now Hang Seng Bank Bldg)
View photos 141..160
Photos 140-143, 219 Former Supreme Court Bldg adjacent to Statue Square
Photo 146 near Happy Valley Racecourse
Photos 149-151 Crossing Des Voeux Rd C near Pedder St
View photos 161.180
Photo 163 former HK Cricket Club grounds with HK Club on left
Photo 173 today's Bank St near HSBC Building
Photo 175 Praya Central
View photos 181..200
Photos 189, 258 Queen's Theatre, near Theatre Lane
Photos 190-191 Oriental Bldg (former Japanese Consulate) next to HK Club facing Chater rd
View photos 201..220
Photos 202-203 205-207 King's Theatre, near to Entertainment Bldg
Photos 212-213, 215-216, 255, 257 Corner of Des Voeux Rd C and Pedder St next to former GPO taken from Gloucester Bldg (Landmark)
View photos 221..240
Photos 221-223: see #12
Photos 225-226 Probably near Theatre lane
Photos 230-234 Queen's Rd C near HSBC
Photo 236 Probably Wellington St looking west
Photo 237 Aberdeen St
Photo 238 Princes Bldg, junction of Ice House st and Des Voeux Rd C
View photos 241..260
Photo 241 Probably Johnston Rd, Wanchai
Photo 242 Probably top end of Pedder St and junction of Queen;s Rd C and Wyndham St
Photo 244 Connaught Rd Central looking west with GPO at the corner of Pedder St
Photo 245 Probablu Junction of Luard and Johnston Rds
Photo 246 Queen's Rd Central with Central Market on left. Note funeral procession and scaffolding
Photos 247, 253 Junction of Queens Rd Central and Queen Victoria St
Photos 248, 252 Junction of Queens Rd East with today's Queensway, near main entrance to Victoria Barracks
View photos 261..280
Photos 260, 267, 271 Junction of Queen Victoria St and Des Voeux Rd Centrral near former Central Fire Station
Photos 261, 269 Probably Wellington St
Photo 262 Probably junction of Pottinger and Wellington Sts
Photos 263-264,270, 272 Pottinger St
Photos 265, 268 Probably junction of Queen's Rd Cental and Pottinger St
Photo 266 Pottinger St air raid shelters
Photo 276 Gloucester Hotel, junction of Des Voeux Rd Central and Pedder St
Photo 277 Ice House St and Star Ferry Entrance
View photos 281..300
Photos 281-283 Former Supreme Court Bldg
Photos 289-291 Probably taken from the Gloucester Hotel
Locations of 1941 Photos
Impressive memory and methodical notes,thanks Moddsey.
Photo 245: I can't find Luard Road on the map so I wonder if it is the junction of Landale and Johnston. Somewhere and likely at this location, I saw similar types of stores, exterior signs, and the rarely-found blocked-up half-walls by the curb.
Photo 61 and others: That track and the iron gates survived a long time. About two decades later, I walked past them to take an American President liner for America.
Photo 277: Though not as impressive as the one on the Kowloon side, the clock here and the huge half-circle glass window bring back warm memory.
Several photos on the web page list them as parade, when they were in fact funeral processions. I remember in the old days, the more money you spend, the more bands you can hire and more workers to carry the flowers. The scaffolding outside one building was used to carry out the coffin, as either it was more ceremonial, or the stairs were not wide enough.
Photos 113-115. 117, 159
"Photos 113-115. 117, 159 Looks like corner of Johnston and Hennessy Rds looking east"
Yep, with a great view of Pillbox 57 in the middle of the junction.
Photos 241, 245 and 250
Old Timer you are right. Photos 245 and 250 would be at the triangular junction of Landale St, Johnston Rd and Hennessy Rd near the area of Tai Fut Hau (DaibutsU). It used to be a well-known area of Japanese curio and antique shops.
Photo 241 is Johnston Rd looking east towards Luard Rd and Ship St. The pawn shop building at the corner still stands and has been renovated by the the Urban Renewal Authority. It is leased to a restaurant called of things "The Pawn"!
Photo 173 - 174
The 'Load' here in #173 & #174 was a coffin, what we Cantonese called it the four and a half pieces (四塊半). It's actually made out of five huge pieces of wood, being chopped into the correct size by workers by axes.
Photo 259
The American Asiatic Underwriters (Asia Life) Building stood on Queen's Rd Central at the corner with Zetland Street. It was later known as the American International Building. Note the Parisian Grill, next door which was an up-market fine-dining restaurant in its day.
Photos 95 thru 110
The National City Bank of New York, forerunner to Citi Bank stood on Queen's Rd Central between Ice House and Duddell Streets. Battery Path can be seen in the background.
Photos 139, 179-180, 214, 243 and 292 Osaka Syosen Kaisya
The Osaka Sysosen Kaisya (O.S.K.)also known as Osaka Shosa Kaisha was a transport and shipping line headquartered in St George's Building, Central with its own wharf in Praya Central opposite Wing Wo St.
Photos 2 & 3
They have helped clear up a little mystery.
Some time ago I received an email suggesting there were Air Raid Shelters dug under Southorn Playground. It seemed a bit unlikely to me, but I'd filed it away at the back of my mind.
Then on Monday I spent some time in the HK Museum Resource center, browsing their old photos. Photo P87.19 is titled: "Air raid shelter at Johnston Road, Wanchai", and someone has added the note "(today's Southorn playground)". The photo shows the mouth of a tunnel under construction, and it is clearly the same tunnel shown in Forman's photos 2 & 3.
So I guess other people have seen photo P87.19 over the years, and the story that there was a shelter at Southorn Playground gradually becomes accepted as a fact. The tunnel in the photo was actually dug into a hillside, and so obviously wasn't at Southorn (which is on reclaimed land). However maybe the description of it being in Wanchai adds to the idea it was one of the tunnels from network 3?
The photo itself looks like it came from a book, magazine, or newspaper. The caption under the photo is in English, together with the name 'Tien Hsia'. Does anyone recognise that as the name of a photographer or publisher?
Tien Hsia
Tien Hsia is the Mandarin pronunciation of 天下, it is the name of a Chinese magazine.
Photo 116 - Shelters at Southorn
Moddsey sent an email while the site was down:
Well spotted! They are definitely pen shelters. If you zoom in to the shelter wall just to the right of thtree in the foreground, you can see the words 'shelter' and 'persons', just the same as the shelter in this photo.
Any guesses which direction we're looking in this photo? I'm guessing it's looking across the playground to the junction of Luard and Hennessy Roads.
And I wonder if it was taken from a tram? The photo is taken looking slightly down onto the shelter roofs, and it could be part of the same tram journey where he took photo 241.
Raymond, thanks for the info on Tien Hsia. If anyone ever spots the original photo, I'd be interested to know in which book / magazine it was published.
The air raid shelter under the Southorn Playground
The news article about the air raid shelter under the Southorn Playground in Wanchai was published by the Chinese language Sing Tao Jih Pao[星島日報]on 31st August,1940.You can ask your wife to help you to translate the article into English.
Southorn Playground
Raymond, thanks a lot for tracking this down. Is it accessible over the web from the HK Public Library search? If yes, please could you let me know the search terms to find it?
Many thanks, MrB
Southorn Playground
MrB,you have to read it from the mircrofilm in the Hong Kong Central Library.You can ask someone who can read chinese to help you.
Or,I scan the news article later this week and e-mail it to you.
re: Southorn Playground
If you could scan and e-mail a copy when it's convenient, that would be great.
Thanks again, MrB
Air raid shelters under Southorn Playground
Well, the mystery is not cleared up after all. Raymond Lo has kindly sent along these two clippings from local Chinese-language newspapers. Both are dated 31 Aug 1940:
MrsB translated them (they are basically the same, so I guess there was a Government statement they are referring to), and I made these notes. Feel free to correct them!
So, did they ever progress beyond these announced plans? Or did the cheaper, easier to build pen shelters in the photo replace them?
I wondered if the English papers would cover the same story. I checked the HK Telegraph for 29-31 Sep, but there is no mention of this.
MrB
Re: Air raid shelters under Southorn Playground
Hi there,
Please take a look at photo 028 in the link below. It showed some trenches, which would become the shelters. The background of the photo clearly showed the children playground.
Best Regards,
T
http://www.hytd.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=28&replyid=3084&id=341&page=1&skin=0&Star=3
Re-Air raid shelters under Southorn Playground
Translation of the caption of the photograph:
In 1940,air raid shelters[防空壕]were dug by the side of the Southorn Playground in Wanchai.
The caption of the two Chinese newspaper clippings also use the term 防空壕.
re: Air raid shelters under Southorn Playground
T & Raymond, thanks for the extra info. There's a piece on page 12 of the 8-Sep-1940 HK Sunday Herald that talks about the plans for air raid shelters on HK Island:
So I wonder if these underground shelters at Southorn are an example of the 'trench shelters'?
MrB
A bit more information about Air Raid Shelters on Kowloon side
Hi there,
I found a map showing a draft of location for sand bags, Air Raid Shelters/Trench Shelters here:
http://www.hytd.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=28&replyid=3084&id=341&page=1&skin=0&Star=3
Please take a look at photo 031. The map was drawn entirely in Chinese, but you could still have an idea. I'll if I could get you an English overlay later.
Best Regards,
T
Mike Chappell & 高添強
Hi T,
I'm afraid that most of the pictures, if not all, in the link that you mentioned, are copied from the book by 高添強, "香港 日佔時期", 1995, ISBN 962 04 1254 0.
What makes it worse is, the illustration of the soldier on the right, is from the book by Mike Chappell, "The Canadian Army at War", 1985, ISBN 0 85045 600 2. It also appears in "香港 日佔時期".
Regards,
isdl
hmm..... copied?
Hi there,
I have not read the two books you mentioned so it would be difficult for me to identify them when I first bumped onto the link. Just checked the www.hytd.com domain and the whois record is a bit murky.......... Traceroute at DNSStuff.com showed the site is very likely to be behind firewalls, sort of unable to trace.
Thanks for pointing it out, however.
Best Regards,
T
Mike Chappell
Hi T,
I would be surprised if those people could have access to HM government's archives. Indeed, some of the pictures are very obvious, post #199 "return of the governor Sir Mark Young", tables in post #62 & #73... all are scanned from the book.
Sometimes, I would get excited when unearthing a new site, espcially if the information is original. But, it does not go perfect everytime.
"香港 日佔時期" is still available from good book stores, "The Canadian Army at war" is currently out of print.
高添強, needs no further introduction.
Mike Chappell is a renowned author & illustrator on military subjects. He has his own publishing house: Wessex Military Publishing.
Regards,
isdl
re: Air raid shelters under Southorn Playground
Thanks to Moddsey for sending in this newspaper clipping, which gives a good view of the trench shelter at Southorn Playgorund under construction:
#118: Statue Square in
#118: Statue Square in Central facing south. The building was the old HSBC HQ Building in No.1 Queen's Rd Central. The Queen Mary statue was relocated to Victoria Park.
#117: Central Market
#117: Central Market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Market)