Symposium: The Second World War in Asia: Justice Efforts, War Memory, and Reparations
Digital Humanities and World War Two in Asia:
the Battle of Hong Kong 1941 Project as Example
by Associate Professor Kwong Chi Man (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Published on 5 October 2022
On 8 December 1941, as part of the larger conflict between Japan, China, and the Allied powers, the Japanese force invaded Hong Kong, a British possession that had just celebrated the centenary of British rule. During the ensuing fighting that lasted for eighteen days, an invasion force of 35,000 men fought against a multinational garrison of 13,500. The Battle of Hong Kong witnessed bloody fighting that left more than 850 Japanese and 2,400 Allied deaths and another 4,000 civilian casualties (see e.g., here, here, here, here and here). It also consisted of many short but intense engagements that led to hundreds of casualties, such as the fighting over Wong Nai Chung Gap. On several occasions, surrendered and disarmed Allied soldiers (of all nationalities) were murdered by Japanese soldiers. When Japanese forces captured Kowloon, the urban area entered a period of anarchy that lasted a few days, during which triad members and looters went unchecked. A similar situation happened in parts of Hong Kong Island (notably Wanchai, Causeway Bay, and Happy Valley) for days between the British surrender and the restoration of order by the Japanese forces. Japanese servicemen also engaged in looting, raping, and killing.
Although some suggested that the history of the Battle of Hong Kong is neglected because of various reasons, the events were commemorated every December since 1946, and stories about the war and occupation appeared regularly in Chinese and English newspapers and book form. From 1985, the Battle and the occupation were included in Secondary School Chinese History curriculum. Thus, it is an overstatement when one suggests that the Battle of Hong Kong was a “forgotten battle”. However, memories of the Battle were, understandably, diverse. Since the end of the war, the British and Allied service personnel who participated in the Battle, from officers to enlisted men and women, wrote numerous memoirs about their experience during the Battle and under captivity (see e.g., here and here). Allied civilians who were interned in Stanley also produced a body of works concerning their experience under the harsh but arguably less brutal experience of internment. Chinese from various backgrounds also produced works on the Battle and the occupation, commonly known in Cantonese as “Three Years and Eight Months (saam nin ling baat goh yeut)”. Moreover, the post-war Hong Kong population consisted of many who migrated to Hong Kong after the Second World War or the Chinese Civil War; many living in Hong Kong and their descendants did not share the same experience as those who were in Hong Kong during the war.
While memories of the war subsided as those who experienced the war firsthand had passed away, the past decade witnessed a surge of publications about the war, from original research by academics and enthusiasts and newly surfaced memoirs. This trend is, on the one hand, the result of the willingness of the survivors and their families to share the stories and primary sources such as memoirs or diaries, and on the other, the result of the declassification and recovery of British and Japanese primary sources about the Battle, ranging from official war diaries to unofficial regimental histories of units from both sides. The more recent trend shows an increased interest in the experience of the non-combatants, especially women, children, and the people who are left out in the previous narratives, such as volunteers from non-British and Commonwealth nations and Chinese servicemen who participated in the Battle. After the Handover in 1997, the official emphasis shifted to the Chinese contribution to the war, such as the guerrilla war waged in parts of the New Territories by the Chinese Communist-led Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Battalion of the East River Column; however, the official annual commemoration of the war dead from different backgrounds continued.
It is in this context of increased popular interest and availability of historical sources about the Battle that a team led by the author conceived the Spatial History project “Hong Kong 1941”, which uses geographic information systems (GIS) to build an interactive web map about the Battle of Hong Kong and a database about the Battle. It aims to cater for researchers, educators, tourists, and conservation professionals to approach different aspects of the Battle and put them in the same space, in this case, an interactive map. The research team has been working on the military history of Hong Kong during the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly the Battle of Hong Kong. It has also been collecting primary sources from the United Kingdom, United States, Japan, Australia, and Hong Kong. These primary sources include various official reports such as war diaries of units that participated in the Battle from both sides, personal reports and accounts produced during the war, post-war memoirs, oral history records, and photographs taken during the war. The web map contains the following layers of data:
- Unit disposition: the map divides the Battle of Hong Kong campaign into 51 “time-steps”, each showing the positions and status of the units on both sides. The data granularity is down to platoon/squad/individual artillery pieces.
- The location of various military structures: coastal defence batteries, anti-aircraft batteries, pillboxes, headquarters, shelters, medical posts, communication lines, demolition points, pre-arranged artillery targets etc. The data granularity is up to individual buildings (such as individual pillboxes).
- Faces of War: the stories of those who had experienced the Battle.
- Objects of War: objects and artefacts related to the Battle, such as weapons, vehicles, military aircraft, vessels, personal equipment and others.
- Images of War: photos taken during the period.
- Units: information about the units on both sides participating in the Battle.
- A list of Hong Kong combatants: personal information on more than 2,100 Hong Kong residents from different ethnic groups and backgrounds who participated in the Battle.
The reasons for approaching the Battle from the spatial and temporal relationship are severalfold. First, it allows researchers to critically assess the numerous and sometimes conflicting accounts on many sides. Previous studies on the Battle often focus on a single side of the conflict, be it the British/Allied or Japanese sides. An interactive map showing the spatial and temporal data, extracted from primary sources on both sides, can help researchers clarify and contextualize unclear accounts and provide opportunities to better understand and explain the Battle. This exercise helps scholars reinterpret some of the operational and tactical aspects of the Battle. The interactive map also allows us to put the military structures that still exist in Hong Kong in their proper contexts. As of 2022, more than a hundred of these structures could still be found in different parts of Hong Kong, especially in the Kowloon Hills (along the Gin Drinker’s Line) and Hong Kong Island. Giving these structures a collective story can better reflect their historical importance and thus assist conservation efforts.
Adding many different layers of information, such as stories and historical photographs, also helps researchers and other viewers to put things into perspective; for example, the interactive map currently includes eighty-six personal stories of those who experienced the Battle. They include servicemen from different nationalities (Australian, British, Canadian, Chinese, Czech, Eurasians, French, Portuguese, Japanese etc.), age, sex, and backgrounds (ranging from students to literary figures to Chinese politicians). This is to show that the Battle involved not only Japanese and British-led Allied armed forces but also the multi-ethnic population of Hong Kong. It also helps expand the scope of the inquiry of military history, which usually focuses on the armed forces’ actions. Moreover, highlighting the experiences of people from different backgrounds, helps explain why the city was attacked in the first place: the city was not only a British possession but also an international hub in South China where various kinds of political, economic, intelligence and cultural activities took place which the Japanese wanted to suppress.
The Spatial History project also serves as a tool for public history, as its interactive map and database offer a new way of introducing the fruits of academic research to the public, especially to educators and students. For example, the stories and the photographs related to the Battle are readily available materials for teaching and learning, and one can now easily understand the flow of the Battle by viewing the interactive map. The inclusion of the experience of non-combatants, especially women and children—which has usually been left out in mainstream narratives—also helps remind the public of the relevance of the Battle which many of their predecessors had experienced. Finally, the project can serve as a platform for researchers to interact with the public, who have a lot to offer to the project in the form of providing information and insights.