Book Review: The Lasting Honour: The Fall of Hong Kong 1941

I’ve just finished reading Oliver Lindsay’s “The Lasting Honour: The Fall of Hong Kong 1941”.

The book was published in 1978 and was the result of thorough research into wartime official documents as well as interviews with survivors then living in Britain, Canada and Hong Kong. The author himself was with the 2^nd battalion of the Winnipeg Grenadiers (from Manitoba, Canada) during the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941.

If reading “Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong 1941” (please refer to my book review posted on 25^th February, 2014) makes one feel like watching a documentary with grotesque images popping up now and then, then turning the pages of “The Lasting Honour: The Fall of Hong Kong 1941” is like sitting through a heart-rending war movie that makes one feel anger, despair and repulse about the inhumanities of wars. I couldn't help shedding a few tears out of respect and reverence for the honorable soldiers who defended Hong Kong to the best they could, even though they were aware that it was a lost cause from the outset.

That Hong Kong was doomed from the very beginning can be summed up in this passage:-

“The complete lack of air support, and inadequate sea power, made the defeat of Hong Kong a foregone conclusion. The defenders, too few in numbers and too thinly spread, have no knowledge where the weight of the attack is to be anticipated. So it can only be expected that the assault, with the advantage of surprise, pressed forward in great strength at a few points, will succeed in breaking through. This is what the Japanese achieved, and then they pushed forward to gain possession of the commanding heights which dominate the Island, and from that moment the campaign was lost.”

Even as early as April 1938, the War Office in London reconfirmed that the Hong Kong Garrison should defend Hong Kong, with no reinforcement, for as long as possible. The Chiefs of Staff in London thought of Hong Kong ‘more as a strategic liability than an asset’.

Then when it was finally decided to ask Canada for reinforcement, only two battalions with little fighting experience or training were sent to Hong Kong. Upon arrival on 16th November 1941, just three weeks before the Japanese invasion (which began in the early hours of 8^th December), they had to hit the ground running, being totally unfamiliar with the battle territory, exhausted from the long sea voyage, and later weakened by malaria.

Was any help from the Chinese ever to be forthcoming? The answer seems to lie in this passage:-

“However China had her own problems. She was divided not only by the Japanese, but also by the political struggle between the Nationalists and Communists, which continued in a desultory manner. In 1937, both had joined in a ‘United Front’ to fight the Japanese. Ostensibly integrated with the Nationalist Army, the Communists concentrated on winning over the people, and setting up base areas from which to mount guerilla operations. The Communists were to be accused of conserving their strength and avoiding decisive engagements while consolidating political power, and the Nationalists were later to be criticized for corruption and inefficiency.”

It was bad enough that the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek’s empty promises of help raised false hopes for those desperate folks in Hong Kong. But more devastating were the subversive sabotage activities by Communists who had infiltrated into the Colony (referred to as “fifth columnists” in the book), who looted, murdered and in every way added to the already harrowing ordeal that the Hong Kong population were subjected to.

Barbarism is an understatement when it comes to the unspeakable wicked acts by the Japanese during the war. The late Dr. Li Shu-fan (late founder of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital) had estimated the number of rapes committed during the battle of Hong Kong to be over 10,000. Cold-blooded murders of allied soldiers (in some cases even when a white flag was raised) by the Japanese were especially appalling at the Shaukiwan Silesian Mission Medical Post (where captured prisoners were bayoneted to death from the back) and at the St. Stephen’s College Hospital in Stanley (where many wounded soldiers lying in bed were bayoneted to death, where two soldiers were brutally mutilated and murdered and where several nurses were raped and murdered and still others raped). Civilian deaths during the battle were estimated at over 4,000 (Banham: Not the Slightest Chance).

For the Hong Kong folks, the 18-day battle was only the beginning, horrible though it was, of a protracted period (lasting three years and eight months) of great trepidation, starvation, homelessness and utter destitution under the merciless rule of the Japanese. By May 1945, one million Hong Kong Chinese had left the Colony for the Mainland, leaving only 650,000 behind.

This particular part of Hong Kong’s history is probably unknown or unfamiliar to many of Hong Kong’s young and not-so-young generations. To them, and others who might have an interest in the subject, I would highly recommend Banham’s and Lindsay’s books.

"Fated and Fateless" Excerpt Part 2

Here's Excerpt Part 2 (continued from Part 1):-

[Diana had witnessed the amazing growth of Sun Tai Land on her frequent trips back to Hong Kong while studying in England – the number of staff shot up from a couple of dozens in 1966 to a couple of hundreds now (1972). The company structure had evolved from a simple single-tier one into a multi-department, many-layered management hierarchy led by her father. Her knowledge of the company’s operations, if perfunctory, had come from her attendance as an observer at board and management meetings during all her school vacations.

During those company visits, she couldn’t help noticing that her father had regular secret meetings with Detective Ngan in his private conference room, which was annexed to his large and lavishly furnished office, where valuable Chinese paintings by Cheung Tai Chin were randomly hung. She was going to find out all about the meetings from Ms. Yeung some day.

As she lay reposed on the gold-trimmed velvety couch by the sheer-curtained French windows looking out onto the terrace, she was thinking that it was high time to take the company public and use the public offer proceeds for further expansion,. She must set up a meeting with John Woo, Sun Tai Land’s legal adviser, and Ewen Saunders, the investment banker. She was not going to tell her father yet what was on her mind until she had all the information she needed. She must be able to impress him with her first presentation. But before that important meeting, she must first have a chance to hold an internal meeting with all the department heads to get an update on the company’s business outlook and financial situation. The matter was now of top priority as John Woo had told her that the KHS Group was also planning to go public.

On that thought, she rose from the couch and walked across the chandelier-lit living room to the fireplace, above which hung a huge, three-panel mirror. She picked up the antique phone on the side table while admiring her own reflection in the mirror, and dialed Ms. Yeung’s number. Ms. Yeung had been her father’s private secretary for as long as she could recall and knew the company’s staff like the back of her hand. Diana was aware of the rumor that had been going round the office in recent years: that her father had taken Ms. Yeung as his mistress and had bought her a high-end apartment in Happy Valley. For this reason, no one from the office dared to cross her and everybody was trying to please her. If there was anyone apart from Mrs. Lee, to whom Ms. Yeung would care to show some courtesy, it was Diana. Diana had once casually dropped the question on her mother, but she had shrugged it off in an unaffected manner without saying anything. She had thought it best to feign ignorance in front of her father.

“Hello Ms. Yeung, how have you been?”

“Hello Diana, it’s good to hear your voice again. When did you arrive? Did you have a pleasant trip?”

“I arrived on Saturday. The trip was OK – you know, as usual, I slept during the flight. Look, I was wondering if you could set up a meeting of department heads for 10 o’clock on Tuesday, if my dad doesn’t have anything on.”

“Let me just check his diary – yes, he’s free. I’ll have the meeting set up right away. Is there anything else?”

“Please tell my dad that the purpose of the meeting is to let me catch up. Oh, and please ask the chief accountant to let me have copies of the audited accounts for the last five years – have them on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. Another thing is that I want you to place an ad in the English papers for two personal assistants for me. Also, ask the fung shui master Mr. Yau to come by the office tomorrow. That’ll be all for now.” Mr. Lee had hired Mr. Yau as the company’s fung shui master on a retainer basis right after that house-warming dinner in 1970.

“Yes, I’ll get on to it. See you tomorrow morning, Diana. Welcome back.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Edward hauling himself up agilely from the water. His lanky torso and tight butt, dripping wet and exuding life in the bright sunlight, looked even more sensual. As his elder sister, she felt she had a duty to watch over him, not letting him fall prey to those tramps hovering around him. He was always such a naïve and warm-hearted big boy. It was a good thing he didn’t want to go into the business world – he was just not cut out for it.

She walked out to the sunlit terrace and picked up a white thick towel from one of the wooden poolside benches to hand to him.

“I’m going shopping at Lane Crawford’s this afternoon. Want to come along?” she was hoping he’d say yes.

“Umm, I don’t think so – there’s some reading that I have to catch up on. Why don’t you ask Mother to go with you?”

Masking her disappointment, she said in a teasing tone: “What a bookworm you are! Mother has her mahjong party to go to. She wouldn’t be a great help anyway. Don’t worry, I don’t mind shopping alone.”]

Giveaway of "Fated and Fateless" at Goodreads

One signed paperback copy of "Fated and Fateless" is available as a Goodreads Giveaway from March 8 to March 15, 2014. Enter to win the copy!

 
 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

       
   

   

     

          Fated and Fateless
     

     

          by Alice Poon
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends March 15, 2014.
         

         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         

     

   

   

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"Fated and Fateless" Excerpt Part 1

The book excerpt that I'm going to post consists of almost a full chapter. As it is too long for one post, I've split it into two parts. This post contains Excerpt Part 1.

 [The last thought on her mind, as she climbed out of the Mercedes, was that she needed to advertise for a personal assistant, or maybe two, on the first day she started to work at the office.

Diana had never quite gotten over the spat she had had with Wendy when they were kids. She had never forgiven Wendy for ruining her new pink frock that day. She had the nerve to say it was my fault! She wondered where Wendy was working now, and how she was making out.

“Whatever income she may be earning, I can always give her an offer she can’t refuse.” The corners of her lips turned up in a sly smile with this thought.

The next morning, which was a Sunday, she had a chance to have a long chat with her mother at the breakfast table, her father having already gone out to the Deep Water Bay Golf Club to play golf and Edward was doing his daily laps in the terrace pool.

In the Lee family’s Sai Wan Ho days, Chuen Fat Kee had been used as a cover for a big word-guess gaming (字花) operation which was run by Ah Chuen and Ah Fat. The brothers had come from Chiu Chow like Mr. Lee. Being a sociable and astute businessman, Mr. Lee had found out about the operation during his casual chats with the brothers. He had offered to inject capital into the operation to make it bigger, using his commission earnings from broking land deals. Immigrants from Chiu Chow had a natural habit of sticking trustingly to one another. The brothers had accepted his offer without hesitation. Two years into the operation, Mr. Lee had suggested to the brothers to start a horse-racing bookie business alongside word-guess game betting. The party of three had it so good ever since that they were virtually swimming in cash.

The word-guess game was a game in which thirty-six names of well-known ancients, or of places, or of animals or profession, were put up for betting on a daily basis. Each operator would have a number of couriers who acted as collectors of bets from street gamblers. Each morning the operator would announce by word-of-mouth to the couriers which group of names would be put up for betting that day and would write up numbers in running order against the thirty-six names on a piece of paper. He would randomly pick one number (name) by marking it and would then put the piece of paper inside a porcelain container that would be hung from the beam of the flat. Bets could then be accepted by the couriers. The payout multiple for the winner was thirty to one. Thus, the odds are heavily in favor of the dealer. Such operations were illegal gaming and had to be conducted underground. The flip side to running such operations was that it would often attract triad members as well as policemen to come around to collect protection fees and bribes.

Now Diana remembered when she was in primary school, her father had a habit of placing before her each day a list of numbers and Chinese names and would urge her to pick out a number or name on the paper. Ever since she took on the job of “the gold finger”, money was flowing in faster than her father could ever have hoped for. It was thus that she became her father’s good luck charm.

As the underground operation was bringing in more and more cash, it had caught the attention of the Wo Sing Wo triad gang. Gangsters had begun coming round to extort protection fees from Ah Chuen and Ah Fat. By a stroke of chance, the brothers had got acquainted with a police detective named Ngan from the vice squad attached to the Shaukiwan Police Station. Ngan had also come from Chiu Chow and once he came to know the brothers, they just hit it off in no time. Ever since they had befriended each other, gangsters had stopped showing up. But of course there was no free lunch. Instead of paying ever increasing protection fees on demand to triad gangsters, the brothers and Mr. Lee had had to allow Ngan a cut of the gaming profits. Diana had picked up much of this information from the chauffeur Ah Wong during her car trips to and from the airport on her annual vacations. Ah Wong was a second cousin of Ah Chuen and Ah Fat. Her mother now confirmed those stories.

When the Lee family had first moved to Repulse Bay in 1960, they had settled into a 2,000 square feet apartment unit which Mr. Lee had bought with the hard cash that he earned from his underground business. Then in 1970, they had moved again into the huge 4,000 square feet, two-storey beachside mansion, which had a large manicured garden at the back and a sun terrace with a full-size swimming pool at the front facing the beach. By this time, Ah Chuen and Ah Fat had also moved out of Sai Wan Ho to live in a luxury apartment on The Peak. Together, the brothers were now the second largest shareholder in Sun Tai Land, although they were content to leave the day-to-day management of the company in the hands of Mr. Lee.

Starting from the early 60s, Mr. Lee had begun to focus his time on buying land for his own company and building low-end residential buildings in urban Kowloon for the newly arrived mainland immigrants. The business had taken off in no time and he had begun to look for land in the New Territories. In 1967, the communists in Hong Kong had started up a riot that had threatened to turn uncontrollable, which had scared a lot of rich people into running for cover overseas. The unexpected exodus had given Mr. Lee and a couple of other gutsy developers, including the Lee family’s current neighbor Mr. Ko, a golden chance to load up their land banks at negligible costs, when land and housing prices had taken a dive.]

A Note About the Kindle Format of "Fated and Fateless"

A couple of friends from Hong Kong have asked me the same question recently: how could one get to read the Kindle version of my novel if one didn't have the Kindle device?

The answer is quite simple: just download the Kindle App for free from Amazon's website as you purchase the Kindle version from Amazon. If you want to download the book to your smartphone or tablet, there is a Kindle App for smartphone or tablet. If you want to download it to your laptop, there's a Kindle App for PC. It's just a click away on the right-hand column of the Product Page (either click on "Available on your PC" or click on "Free Kindle App for smartphones or tablets" as it suits you). The retail price of the Kindle version is US$7.99.

As presently the paperback version is not yet available in Asia, the most efficient and economical way for potential Asian readers to access the novel is by purchasing the Kindle version. That being said, the paperback version is actually a nicely done product and could be had for US$12.99. But the shipping charges can amount to US$20 and it takes 5 to 10 days for the shipment to arrive in Hong Kong. It would be nice if you could get friends or relatives living in the U.S. to buy and mail it to you.

For potential readers in Canada and most European countries (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy), both the paperback and Kindle editions are listed at the respective local currency (e.g. in Canada, the Kindle version is listed at C$8.50 and the paperback at C$14.40). With the paperback version, delivery may be free or may involve a small local shipping charge.

In my earlier post I provided links to the Product Page on Amazon's U.S. and European sites but inadvertently omitted Amazon's Canada site. Here's the link:-

Amazon Canada's Product Page


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Book Review: Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong 1941 (By Tony Banham)

This is a factual and blood-curdling slideshow of the eighteen days of horrifying fighting against the Japanese in Hong Kong in the not-too-distant past.

I belong to the post-50s group who were lucky enough to be born just after the war. While I was growing up, my mother and relatives belonging to her generation seldom talked about their war-time experiences. It was only recently that I heard about some traumatic personal stories told by a primary school teacher of mine, which ignited my interest in reading books about war-time Hong Kong. Reading "Not the Slightest Chance" had a bone-chilling effect on me, and it makes me want to read more on the subject.

In sum, it was a 60,000 (Japanese) against 14,000 (HK Garrison) combat, with the latter comprising soldiers of all nationality: the British Middlesex Regiment, the Royal Scots, the Punjabis (India), the Rajputs (India), the Royal Rifles of Canada (Quebec), the Winnipeg Grenadiers (Manitoba) and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. consisting of British, Chinese locals, Free French, Russians, Scandinavians and Americans.

The valiant men and women who sacrificed their lives (some suffering atrocious tortures in enemies' hands) either in action during the war or later in concentration camps in the defense of the Hong Kong population deserve our and our past generation's utmost and lasting respect and commemoration. The fact that the Hong Kong garrison (or at least the high-ranking officers) were well aware that Hong Kong was in an untenable position, but nonetheless resisted the Japanese invasion with dauntless courage, makes this part of Hong Kong's history especially poignant.

The book just makes me ponder as to why the Chinese Communists and Nationalists were conspicuously absent from the scene of the battleground. Hopefully other books about the 1941 battle that I’m going to read will shine a light.

Brief Synopsis of My Novel and BigLychee's Plug

Brief Synopsis of "Fated and Fateless":-

"The story is set in colonial Hong Kong and spans four decades from the late 1940s.

Prior to October 1987, Wendy has her fill of bad experiences in her childhood and youth until she meets Tony, a Macanese magnate, and becomes his protégé. Despite her ascending career, her romance with Edward, her childhood playmate and Diana’s kid brother, suffers constant sabotage by Diana, who is also Wendy’s archrival by design. Meanwhile, Diana breezes through life and covets the throne of her father’s (Mr. Lee’s) property empire, but her heiress dream proves elusive. Her bad choice of lovers causes her more than a fortune and the love of her life turns out to be her cruelest life lesson.

In October 1987, Wendy and Diana finally come to a face-off when Wendy and Tony act in concert trying to take over Mr. Lee’s company, which attempt is foiled by Diana on a tip-off from a snitch. This reduces Wendy to ruins. At the same time, Diana discovers a startling secret about her mother which could change her fortunes forever."

Hong Kong Blogger BigLychee (formerly Hemlock) mentioned this in his blog post of January 23, 2014:-

“Don’t be fooled by the girly cover. Set in the 1950s-80s era, it’s (judging by the first few chapters) a tale of good versus evil, in which the rags-to-riches heroine works her way up into a position where she might be able to turn one of Hong Kong’s notoriously greedy, cheating real-estate empires into a force for social good, only to come up against a property tycoon’s spoilt daughter, who apparently comes to some sort of sticky end – hopefully, vividly portrayed and extremely unpleasant. It’s sort of Land and the Ruling Class: the Movie. There is possibly a dash of autobiography, as per a first novel; there are also plentiful resemblances to actual people, living or dead, which are of course entirely coincidental. Strictly for hard-core fans of Hongkongiana, obviously, though if/when it appears in Chinese, it could strike a chord like its non-fiction predecessor.”

I'll be posting an excerpt of the novel soon! Keep an eye on this blog!