Canadians At Hong Kong

battle of Hong Kong was a disaster waiting to happen to the Canadians from the

Japanese. The attack of Hong Kong was an intelligent plan from the Japanese attacks on the

Canadians. Hong Kong was over Canadian control when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in

the USA however news did not spread to the Canadians in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong was

attacked just a few hours later on December 8, 1948 (time when the attack in Hong Kong)

after Pearl Harbor. The year before the Japanese made the plan to invade and take over Hong

Kong. The plan was under the code name "Hana - Saku" which means in Japanese "flowers in

bloom, flowers in bloom".

Before the attack from the Japanese the Canadians thought that Hong Kong will never

be attacked and they were not ready to be sent in or engaged in armed combat with any

nation's army. The Canadians were classified as "C Force" which means in need of refresher

training or insufficiently trained and not recommended for operations. Only about 30% of the

Canadian Army or "C Force" for short fired a bullet in training called Boot Camp. The Canadians

later joined a small Commonwealth defend with less than a total of fourteen thousand (14 000)

people. They included civilian and nurses volunteers.

On December 8th 1941 (December 7th 1941 in Canada), the Japanese attacked Hong Kong.

They [Japanese] used their air force by bombing and destroying docks, military barracks, gun

emplacements, and the five old RAF [Royal Air Force] airplanes on the British airfield. Even

though the defenders of Hong Kong heard the wailing of air raid sirens all they could do was

try to survive the air raid for they had no Air Defense and after the Japanese air raid the

defenders of Hong Kong had no protection from the air and also from the sea because of the

Page 3

attack on Pearl Harbor just a few hours before.

On December 18, 1941 the Japanese troops began their invasion of Hong Kong. The

Japanese outnumber the Canadians and it's local land team, Common Wealth, ten to one (10 Ð'-

1) The battle of Hong Kong only lasted seven