Keeping light shining on dark days of Japanese occupation of Hong Kong

Ahead of the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, marking the end of the Sino-Japanese war and the global fight against fascism, we look at the effects of the conflict and its aftermath, and how they continue to affect China’s place in the world. In the third part of a series, the Post looks at Hong Kong’s experience and one veteran’s call for the people’s sacrifices to be remembered.

Lam Chun witnessed the brutality of war up close in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong when she was just eight years old.

The now 90-year-old recalls the day back in May 1943 when two Japanese soldiers burst into her tenement flat on Tak Ku Ling Road in Kowloon City, with her eldest sister in their grip.

The soldiers had accused her then 23-year-old sister of stealing military yen, the Japanese currency in occupied Hong Kong. They beat her for hours in front of Lam, her mother and her older brother.

Whenever her sister was about to pass out, the soldiers would throw water on her to keep her conscious and even put a bayonet to her throat. They also turned the flat upside down.

Lam, the youngest in the family, said she hid behind her mother, terrified. By the time the soldiers left, Lam’s sister was covered in bruises and her clothes were torn.