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The Bravest
People I Have Ever Met
It is the custom for enemies to attempt to diminish the other
side by any means possible in order to paint them as,
despicable, hateful, less than human cowardly creatures, and so
easier to face on the battlefield and to kill. This has been
done since men threw stones at each other. It was done in Hong
Kong, it is still done today.
Brigadier John Masters, DSO,
OBE, said of the Japanese:
"They are the bravest people I
have ever met. In any armies, any one of them, nearly every
Japanese would have had a Congressional Medal or a Victoria
Cross. It is the fashion to dismiss their courage as fanaticism,
but that only begs the question. They believed in something and
they were willing to die for it, for the smallest detail that
would help achieve it. What else is bravery?
They pressed home the attack when no other troops in the world
have done so, when all hope of success was gone, except that it
never really is, for who can know what the enemy has suffered,
what is his state of mind? The Japanese simply came on, using
all their skill and rage, until they were stopped by death. In
defense they held their ground with furious tenacity that never
faltered. They had to be killed, company by company, squad by
squad, man by man, to the last. By 1944 the number of Japanese
captured unwounded, in all theatres of war, probably did not
total one hundred. For the rest, they wrote beautiful little
poems in their diaries and practiced bayonet work on their
prisoners. Frugal, bestial, barbarous and brave, artistic and
brutal, they were the dushmen, (the enemy), and we now set
about, in all seriousness, the task of killing everyone of
them."
These were the kind of men the Canadians faced on the morning of
December 18th, 1941. Arthur G. Penny, author of the "Royal
Rifles of Canada, a Short History", published in 1962 for the
l00th Anniversary of the Regiment said of Brigadier John Masters
words, "This evidence, as conclusive as it is comprehensive,
surely justifies me in stating--as I do without hesitation--that
no troops in the 20th century--and certainly none in World War
II--have been tested more terribly, more searchingly than were
the Canadians at Hong Kong: men brave, intelligent, if you will,
but all unused to combat and fighting within an area to which
they were complete strangers. Nor have any other troops met such
a test with greater credit to their country, to their military
traditions and to themselves."
These words will no doubt be challenged by anyone who fought, or
was held captive by the Japanese Imperial Army anywhere in the
world. Anyone held by them was subjected to the most terrible
acts of inhumanity, made all the more horrible by the callous
indifference of those who tortured, mutilated, and killed
helpless people. The prisoners of the battle for Hong Kong do
not have an exclusive claim to the horrors of Japanese
internment, but that in no way diminishes their suffering.
Kowloon,
1945 - Photo Courtesy of Bill Lake
December 8th, 1941
At about 01:00 hrs the grave-yard shift on duty at "D" Coy H.Q
were listening to a battery radio as they worked. Suddenly the
regular program was interrupted by a voice brittle with urgency.
Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese. The men huddled
around the radio waiting for more news while the word spread
like wildfire around the island. The Japanese had attacked the
United States. What was to happen to Hong Kong?
December 8th, 1941, dawned bright and clear. The sun rising from
its bed behind the mountains promised the day would be a hot
one. Waking about 06:30 hrs the men of "D" Coy, Royal Rifles of
Canada, went about their business as usual: wake up, tidy up,
wash, brush hair and teeth, dress and go to breakfast. Then, go
to the Orders Board to see if there were any new orders for the
day. Those who had assignments went to do whatever duties they
had been assigned -- just another day, but the tension in the
air was electric. Something was bound to happen, but when?
Lt. Angus A. MacMillan had been standing outside "D" Coy HQ when
he heard the distant sound of approaching aircraft. "Just in
time" he thought. The long awaited reinforcement aircraft were
arriving just in the nick of time. The aircraft turned out to be
Japanese!
Thirty-six Japanese bombers streaked across the blue sky at
tree-top level and plastered Hong Kong's Kai Tac Airport,
Kowloon and surrounding area with bombs. The runway of Kai Tac
was pock-marked with craters. The raid destroyed 1 Wildebeest
which was set ablaze. There was nothing left of it but its load
of bombs sitting, red-hot, on the runway.. In 5 short minutes
the Japanese owned the air. General Maltby grounded the
remaining 2 Wildebeest. They would take to the air only if a
target such as a Japanese capitol ship should appear.
The air was thick with smoke that hung over both Hong Kong and
Kowloon. The smell of cordite filled nostrils and burned the
eyes. Fires burned everywhere. There was an ache in the hearts
and bellies of the shocked troops. This was not supposed to
happen.
Sham Shui Po Camp was bombed when it was being evacuated and two
men of the Royal Canadian Signal Corps became the first Canadian
infantry wounded in WWII.
The Japanese bombers made another pass dropping leaflets
demanding the immediate surrender of the New Territories and
Hong Kong. Then they flew away. The time was 08:00 hrs., Monday,
December 8, 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong had begun. It was a
very hot day.
The Mainland
From the time the very first bomb dropped Maltby knew he had big
problems. Wallis was on the mainland with only three battalions
to protect almost 16 kilometers of mostly unfinished defensive
positions. Some of the Royal Scots were ill with malaria, but
worse ... Maltby had based the defense plan on faulty
intelligence. There were far more than 5,000 "poorly trained,
poorly equipped scrawny little Japanese" on the mainland. There
was the entire 23rd. Japanese Imperial Army, under the Supreme
Command of Lt. Gen. Sakai, and these Japanese soldiers knew how
to fight. At 08:00 hrs, as the bombs rained down on the
defenders, units of the Japanese 23rd. crossed the Sham Chun
Shan river and like a tidal wave rushed eastwards towards the
Allied Forces.
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