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Japan Stole Hong Kong The Japanese invasion was an awful time for many people because of the the rules about money, how brutal they were and how much stronger the Japanese were. Also the amount of people that starved because of the food restrictions. The Japanese government forced all the citizens of Hong Kong to exchange all their Hong Kong Dollars to Japanese Military Yen at a rate of HK$4 to 1 Japanese Military Yen. The people then became poorer with this unfavorable exchange rate imposed by the Japanese occupier. After the war in 1945, the Japanese Military Yen became worthless.The Japanese invasion is a significant event in history for the people of Hong Kong. Hong Kong was not ready for the attack,they were defenseless and had to surrender. The people of Hong Kong were prisoners in their own homes and their trading routes were threatened. The invasion was part of a plan to rule Asia and South East Asia. The Japanese invaded hong kong in World War II. It was fought between December 8th to 25th (1939-1945). Hong Kong surrendered on the 25th of December 1941, which the people called ‘black christmas’ because thats the day Japan changed everything. The battle was fought in HK. When Hong Kong surrendered Japan took over and changed everything like the money and the food and many were executed for disobeying. The Army and Commanders for the British/Hong Kong Army were 14,000 men,Governor Sir Mark Aitchison Young and the Major General Christopher Maltby.
The Japanese army was stronger and had 52,000 men and the Japanese Lieutenant General Takashi Sakai. Geoffrey Wilson who was there at the time, once wrote to me from his retirement home in Portugal saying: "A number of police officers of various ranks were killed or wounded; my office was set on fire and I was very lucky to get out alive with minor injuries." The Japanese changed lots of things like food, they took away rice, oil, sugar,flour and lots of other items. After a few months the Japanese let the people have 120 grams a day of rice ,yet some people couldn’t get that so they ate leaves instead. They also made Hong Kong citizens exchange all their HKD to Japanese Military Yen, (1 military yen is 4HKD)the people became very poor with this unfavorable exchange rate imposed by the Japanese Occupier. After the war ended, the Yen they all saved up for became worthless. The Japanese stopped all of Hong Kong trading ships, so Hong Kong weren't able to trade. The Japanese executed people if they disobeyed orders of the Japanese and the children of Hong Kong had to learn how to speak Japanese or they got severely punished. Many people found this an awful time and there were many rules you had to follow, people starved and people begged and worked a lot, this was torture for all the people.
By:Jemima Bland