An interesting website, Journey of Hope, Shanghai Ghetto:

When the doors around the globe closed to Jewish immigrants fleeing Europe on the eve of the Second World War, Shanghai became a place of refuge in a time of intolerance and destruction. 

Hongkou, which lies northeast of Suzhou Creek, was the main asylum for Jewish refugees during the late 1930s and early 1940s. From 1937 to 1941, nearly 20,000 Jews fled Germany and Austria to Shanghai. The ghetto, part of the Tilanqiao neighbourhood, in an area now called the North Bund, was home to nearly 30,000 Jews during World War II. A community thrived and more than 400 children were born there. 

Today, after nearly six decades after the end of the war Shanghai is rousing itself to protect the area, whose memory is still held dear by those who received sanctuary there. 

An interesting site with photos and exhibit information. Check it out.

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The Fall of Kowloon: December 13, 1941.

Memories of the day Kowloon fell, as described in my book chapter one “Song of the Azalea”, seem like yesterday. It began at eight o’clock December 8, 1941. The Japanese bombed Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon and ended on the 13^th of December with the British troops withdrew across Victory Harbour back to Hong Kong island. The Japanese took full control of Kowloon in the afternoon of December 13, 1941 in just six days.

We had gone through hell as bombs were raining from the sky, cannon shells were flying over from somewhere at the back of our building. These explosions shook the earth, trembled buildings, and shuddered window glasses. The sound of crying and screaming made us feel as if the world was coming to an end. This was followed by nights of looting and killing, and soon Kowloon fell into anarchy.

Surprisingly, Japanese troops marched into the Kowloon encountering no resistance. After the British troops retreated back to Hong Kong Island, “Friends of Victory” didn’t put up any resistance as they shouted loudly “To protect Chinese compatriot” when they pried the doors open of Kowloon residents and asked for support.

A few paragraphs were described vividly in the book “The Fall of Hong Kong.”

THE FALL OF HONG KONG: Britain, China and the Japanese Occupation by Philip Snow

An interesting history book detailing and documenting the period of the era of WWII Hong Kong. Included in the book are detailed maps of Hong Kong Island, Victoria Harbour, Kowloon, the New Territories, and many historical photos. It is of great value for the Chinese and students who study Hong Kong, Chinese history and the war in the Pacific theatre. I would highly recommend this book and would like to quote some of the informative facts.

On page 40 “By December artillery intended for the invasion is said to have been ready and waiting in Hong Kong territory, camouflaged in the bunkers of the Japanese golf course at Shatin and hidden inside the godown (warehouse) of Japanese companies on the Kowloon Wharves. “

“Thick cement blocks had been built for artillery support on the water front directly facing Hong Kong Island inside the warehouse where Japanese companies rented the spaces in the early years before the war.”

On page 55 “In the meantime the British troops at the front had begun to find their operations impeded by acts of deliberate sabotage…

On 9 December – twelve hours before Colonel Doi sprang his assault – the Royal Scots officer in charge of the Shingmun Redoubt reported the ‘Japanese in civilian clothing’ had spend the night cutting his barbed wire and telephone lines. The fifth column which had been so painstakingly nurtured by the Japanese Army’s subversion team was showings its hand. Triad members and Wang Jingwei partisans began to guide the invaders along the precipitous mountain paths of the New Territories…”

On page 56-57 “At different points in Kowloon British police cars and ambulances had to battle their way through crowds of hundreds or even thousands of armed and hostile Chinese. The crowds shot and stabbed, burned and rioted and above all they plundered; witnesses spoke of gangs emptying the contents of shops into lorries as though moving house, of the ‘the roar of the lootings in Nathan Road’. And this was no random epidemic of burglary, but a carefully organized operation designed to maximize the chaos. The looters had been deployed by the largest Triad faction, the Wing On Lok. They wore white identity armbands and issued safe conducts, when it pleased them, to favoured Chinese citizens. They proclaimed their political allegiance by yelling ‘Victory! Victory!’ (A slogan which earned them the nickname of the Victory Fellows.)”

That was when my mother paid the Victory Fellows fifty dollars and asked them to issue some kind of proof that we had supported them. They finally sent two members of the Victory Fellows on guard for us on the night of 12^th of December.

The Gin Drinkers’ Line—a defensive line was built in 1936 linking several peaks of New Kowloon and New Territories. In a documentary film recently shown on TV, a Hong Kong Chinese veteran indicated that there were Japanese collaborators in the labour teams when the British refurbished Gin Drinkers’ Line before the invasion.

It was clear that the fifth column was planted by the Japanese, together with the groups of local gang— the Triad, and the Wing On Lok created the horrible nights.

Another fact was written by Kenneth Cambon, M.D. in his book “Guest of Hirohito.”

“Once the mainland (Kowloon) had been completely evacuated, the artillery bombardment intensified, as did the bombing and strafing from the air. It was later revealed that the enemy was able to place the heavy artillery in position so quickly, because before the war, Japanese business men had prepared concrete placements in their warehouses in Kowloon.”

Mr. Kenneth Cambon at age 17 Canadian Rifleman was sent to defend Hong Kong in 1941. Click Here for Full Text and Photos from Guest of Hirohito

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Let’s not forget, the sacrifice and the heroism of the Red Cross volunteers in World War II.

Originally the Red Cross was set up in Switzerland under the committee name “Geneva Public Welfare Society” by five Swiss citizens in 1863. The purpose of this committee was to tender protection of the sick and wounded in combat. In October 1863, the committee called an international conference, only sixteen nations responded. Together they set up principles, resolutions, an international emblem and pleaded all the nations to form voluntary units to help and rescue the wounded and sick in battles. As a result of this conference, the International Committee of Red Cross was formed.

Their Mission: “The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance. It directs and coordinates the international relief activities conducted by the Movement in situations of conflict. It also endeavours to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles.” Quoted from the Red Cross official website http://www.icrc.org

The book “The Last Escape: the untold story of Allied Prisoners of war in Germany 1944-45” by John Nichol and Tony Rennell published by the Penguin Group (reprinted edition 2004). It is an excellent book, and is an important part of the WWII history that happened behind the enemy lines. I was touched by the untold story and especially the story of the Red Cross.

In May 1944, the German Intelligence Service obtained information before hand about the day of the allied attack on May 18^th. The Invasion actually began on D-Day June the 6^th, however, the SS and the German high command decided to move millions of Allied POWs from all the principal POW Camps in Lithuania, East Prussia, Poland, Northern and Eastern Germany to the western tip of Germany. They were forced to march through snow, ice and mud, for months with inadequate supplies of food and water. The Red Cross had searched and followed the routes of these marching columns and supplied them periodically with the Red Cross parcels that managed to keep the POWs alive. They had tried to deliver these parcels by airdrop, by the German railway system (German authority had promised to transport these parcels, as they did at some early stage of WWII.), by steam-driven lorries (burning wood instead of petrol made by Sweden), and by hundreds of army trucks supplied by the American Army. Convoys of lorries carrying thousands of tons of Red Cross parcels, a Swiss driver with a German guard on each truck, crossed from Switzerland to German. On page 192, it describes: “The only thing that lifted spirits was a delivery of Red Cross parcels on March 2nd - the first to reach the camp for two months. It felt like Christmas as peanut butter, meat, jam, sardines, salmon, raisins and chocolates were poured out and shared.” The German Army consumed these Red Cross parcels so whenever their supply fell in shortage. The Red Cross members tried very hard to ensure that the majority of the rescue parcels reached the POW hands.

In WWII, The Red Cross services recruited more than 100,000 registered nurses and certified them for the military; collected more than 13 million pints of blood for military patients; assembled and shipped 28 million food and medicine parcels for U.S. and Allied prisoners of war; and providing war relief supplies for 75 million civilians overseas; to just name a few.

Let’s not forget all the Red Cross volunteer heroes who have saved millions lives in the Great Wars.

Written on the 60^th VE day anniversary.

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EastSouthNorthWest has a post about elder’s memories. Those of you interested in World War II history, there is a bit about Henan Province and a bit about Shanghai.

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