Hong Kong museum officials have assured that the contents of British and Allied forces’ role in the city’s fight against Japanese aggression have not been downplayed at the city’s defence museum despite its renaming under a patriotic education initiative.
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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday unveiled the new plaque of the Hong Kong Museum for the War of Resistance and Coastal Defence, highlighting the addition of the history of the second world war to the venue.
A temporary exhibition organised in conjunction with mainland Chinese museums also opened on the same day to focus on the activities and artefacts of the local branch of the East River Column, comprising Communist guerillas who hailed from Guangdong during the war.
Museum officials said new additions to the venue after the renaming included a plaque to commemorate the 115 East River column members who perished in the war, but contents of the galleries remain largely unchanged since it reopened in November 2022.
“We have not removed any materials from the exhibition, instead we have included more information about the coastal defence history of the Guangdong area in the Ming and Qing dynasties,” said Terence Cheung Yui-fai, director of the Hong Kong History Museum.