Trapped in the City of Sorrow: Life Under Japanese Occupation in Hong Kong

In this book, the author went through memorabilia passed down for generations, to shed light on the life of Hong Kong people during the three years and eight months of Japanese occupation. In the late autumn of 1938, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places were occupied by Japan one by one, and the Japanese army repeatedly provoked China on the border. The shadow of war had enveloped Hong Kong, and the war was about to break out. On December 6, 1941, Hong Kong people were enjoying the weekend. Happy Valley was crowded with citizens watching horse racing, and markets was filled with people singing and dancing. However, two days later, the Japanese army launched a massive attack on Hong Kong. After 18 days of fierce fighting, Hong Kong was lost, and the citizens began a sorrowful life under the iron hooves of the Japanese army. Fast forward to 70 years later, Hong Kong has long become an international metropolis and an Asian financial center, but this difficult period is still engraved in the hearts of the older generation of citizens, and it is difficult to erase. This book uses more than 100 rare memorabilia of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, including rental bills, electricity bills, water bills, land tax bills, property tax bills, insurance vault receipts, dividend bills, horse tickets, horse plates, tram tickets, bus tickets, ship tickets, postcards, universal stamps, and newspaper advertisements, supplemented by explanations in contexts, hoping to let readers have a deep understanding of the life of Hong Kong people under Japanese occupation. Let’s remember this difficult period that the older generation cannot forget.