Introduction
HONG KONG ••• December 1941 was a city lulled into a false sense of security, its people living in the way they had lived for years, under the extreme conditions so typical of the Far East – on the one hand dire poverty among the refugees and peasants, and on the other, luxury enjoyed by the Europeans in their midst. True, there were continual threats of a Japanese invasion and minor incidents did occur on the border between China and Hong Kong, on the other side of which was manned by large bodies of Japanese troops, but these had been present so long that few took the possible danger really seriously. There had always been such scares - why let them interfere with the normal run of life?
It was not until mid-November 1941 that any indication was given that something was about to happen, when two battalions of Canadian troops landed in Hong Kong. The population was vaguely disturbed but still continued to take life fairly easily.