On this day, 84 years ago, on December 25, 1941 (November 8, 1941 in the lunar calendar), Hong Kong Governor Yang Moqi surrendered to the Japanese army. In 1941, Hong Kong Governor Yang Mo-ki led British colonial officials across the sea to surrender. December 25, 1941, it was a frustrating Christmas for the British army and British citizens in Hong Kong. After years of turmoil and weeks of exile, the British surrendered to the Japanese that night. As 38 Japanese divisions approached earlier this month, Governor Mark Young had ordered the garrison to withdraw to Kowloon. The Japanese army continued to attack and indiscriminately bombed it. That night, Sir Mark surrendered to Japanese General Sakai. SMarkAitchisonYoung (June 30, 1886-May 12, 1974) was a British colonial official. He served as Governor of Barbados from 1933 to 1938, during which time he implemented many reforms and made a lot of contributions. In September 1941, Yang Moqi was appointed as the 21st Governor of Hong Kong. However, Japan then launched the Pacific War in December of the same year and then invaded Hong Kong. Finally, Sir Yang surrendered to the Japanese army on December 25 and became a prisoner of war. Hong Kong began a difficult "Japanese rule period" for 3 years and 8 months. Yang Muqi returned to the post of Governor of Hong Kong in 1946 after the war. During his tenure, he proposed the "Yang Muqi Plan" in an attempt to reform Hong Kong politics. However, due to the unstable situation in the mainland of China, the plan ended in abortion. The occupation period of Hong Kong refers to the period when Japan occupied and ruled Hong Kong during the Second World War. The specific time was from December 25, 1941, when Hong Kong Governor Yang Moqi surrendered to the Japanese army, to August 15, 1945, when Japan surrendered. Hong Kong people commonly call this period "three years and eight months". During the Japanese occupation, Hong Kong's people's livelihood was greatly devastated, and its economy was also wantonly plundered. The method was to force Hong Kong people to exchange Hong Kong dollars for military handbills (commonly known as "military votes"). More than 50 years later, many Hong Kong people are still fighting for the Japanese government to compensate them for their losses for the military bills issued back then. On December 26, 1941, the day after the fall of Hong Kong, the Japanese military government announced that it would replace the Hong Kong dollar with military bills and become the only legal currency in Hong Kong. In January 1942, the exchange rate between military bills and Hong Kong dollars was 2 to 1, but by July 1942, the exchange rate had changed to 4 to 1, a sharp drop from the previous exchange rate, which greatly devalued the wealth of Hong Kong people. Military bills officially became the only legal currency in circulation in Hong Kong on June 1, 1943, and the price of daily necessities must be in military bills. By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, the total value of Japanese military bills forcibly exchanged exceeded HK$5.7 billion. Although Hong Kong was no longer allowed to use the Hong Kong dollar during the Japanese occupation, the Hong Kong dollar was still very popular in other neutral regions such as the Pearl River Delta and Macau, and there were also Hong Kong dollar trading activities on the market. The Japanese army will force the collected Hong Kong dollar banknotes to purchase supplies overseas, benefiting a lot. Since the printing and issuance of military bills did not require any reserve funds at all, the Japanese army actually forcibly exchanged Hong Kong dollars with white paper. On the other hand, due to the indiscriminate issuance of military votes, Hong Kong's prices soared, speculation and reselling were rampant, and Japanese corruption became a common practice. In the late period of the Japanese occupation, Hong Kong people's lives were miserable. In less than three years, Hong Kong has transformed from a prosperous entrepot port into a dead port with a depressed market. In terms of publicity, Japan has always claimed that it occupied Hong Kong to "liberate the Chinese from British colonial rule." However, in fact, Japan governed Hong Kong in a much more authoritarian and corrupt way than the pre-war colonial government, and the methods it used were far more cruel and barbaric than the colonial government. Since the establishment of the Military and Political Affairs Department, the governments of the occupied areas have formulated a large number of unprecedented regulations. The Japanese military police can beat, scold, imprison and even kill residents at will. They can also capture men on the streets to do hard labor at will, or enter houses in the name of searching houses and ravage women. In addition, the Japanese army set up multiple comfort stations along Lockhart Road in Wan Chai, forcing women to provide sexual services; it also restored gambling and smoking bars in the urban area. There was also an unwritten rule at that time: whenever citizens saw the Japanese army on the street, they had to bow 90 degrees regardless of distance, otherwise they would be kicked and kicked, or even killed. In addition to the "resident card", citizens also need to take a group photo of the whole family and place it in the house. When the Japanese army checks the household registration, if someone in the photo is not in the house/or a stranger lives in the house without a reasonable explanation, they will be regarded as harboring guerrilla members. The Japanese army used to ill-treat prisoners of war and ordinary citizens, including forcibly dousing water until their stomachs were swollen, and then stepping on their stomachs violently with their feet. In addition, the shocking tortures included electrocution, hanging and beatings, and burning the chest with tongs. In addition to torturing, the Japanese army also massacred citizens at will. What is most suggestive is that even after Japan announced its unconditional surrender, the Japanese army still massacred more than 70 citizens in Silver Mine Bay, Lantau Island. Survivors of this blood debt can still testify to it. Under Japanese rule, life for Hong Kong people was extremely difficult. Since 1942, the occupied government has implemented a quota rationing system, supplying daily necessities such as rice, oil, flour, salt and sugar in limited quantities. Every family is issued a rationing permit, and each person can only buy six ounces of white rice every day. Since there are no other non-staple foods to supplement, six ounces of white rice is not enough to fill the stomach. Since 1943, the Japanese army began to lose on the battlefield. Due to transportation difficulties, the rationing system became more stringent. In the later stages of development, many people could only eat leaves, roots, sweet potato vines, tapioca flour, peanut bran and even leaves and roots to satisfy their hunger. During the Japanese occupation, various resistance activities continued to emerge in Hong Kong, the most famous of which was the Hong Kong Kowloon Brigade of the Dongjiang Column, commonly known as the "Dongjiang Guerrillas". The Dongjiang Guerrilla is a guerrilla group formed by children of indigenous residents of Hong Kong's New Territories under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Its members include farmers, students and sailors, and mainly operate in the Sai Kung area of the New Territories. The Dongjiang Guerrillas were led by Zeng Sheng. When the Japanese army attacked Hong Kong in 1941, the number of the guerrillas suddenly expanded from 200 to more than 6,000. After the British army retreated, the guerrillas obtained weapons abandoned by the British army and established bases in the New Territories and Kowloon. At the same time, they established an underground communication system in Sai Kung Market. Under the leadership of Cai Kwok-liang, Huang Guanfang and Liu Heizai, the third and fifth branches carried out anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare in Hong Kong and Kowloon. On August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan officially announced unconditional surrender to the allies. After the British Army took control of Hong Kong, it immediately took over government agencies and docks, released prisoners of war and imprisoned British nationals, and ensured the supply of important public facilities such as water and electricity. Government departments such as the Police Station and the Maritime Department also resumed work one after another. Public order was also largely maintained with the assistance of the British Army. In fact, the military government is facing many problems. After the recovery of Hong Kong, there is a lot of waste to be developed. Residents are malnourished, medical and health conditions are extremely poor, school-age children are out of school, and a large number of houses are destroyed. In addition, a large number of people who had fled Hong Kong earlier quickly returned, further exacerbating the situation. In order to rebuild Hong Kong as soon as possible, the military government implemented a comprehensive control policy from the beginning, which controlled foreign trade, industry and commerce, and even the food, fuel, daily necessities, housing and wages of ordinary citizens to varying degrees. Of course, this control is completely different from the concept and mentality of the quota rationing system during the Japanese occupation. The last thing to talk about is the issue of handling war criminals. From 1945 to 1948, the British colonial government tried at least 123 Japanese war criminals involved in at least 45 war crimes. The war court was located near the Sogo Department Store in Causeway Bay. Among them, 22 were sentenced to death and interrogated in Stanley, 14 were released due to insufficient evidence, while the remaining war criminals were sentenced to imprisonment, with terms ranging from six months to life. Due to political and economic factors, all of these war criminals were released in the 1950s. In fact, the war crimes committed by the Japanese army in Hong Kong are countless to record. How could there be just a mere 45 cases? In fact, there are more crimes that are unknown because they are not documented, or the Japanese army who committed the crimes has long been repatriated to Japan and cannot be held accountable. What suffers is the victims and their families, and they cannot afford justice to the innocent victims.