Before dawn on Monday, December 8, 75 years ago, Imperial Japanese troops in Guangdong stole over the border into Hong Kong. That same morning, the Japanese launched attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, British Malaya and Thailand.
Barbara Anslow
Barbara Anslow
Barbara Anslow (née Redwood), then a young stenographer for Hong Kong's colonial government, interviewed in November 2016 – “It was 6:30 in the morning. I was in bed when there came a ring at my doorbell. A Chinese messenger brought a note from my boss at ARP HQ [Air Raid Precautions Headquarters], where I'd worked for two years, saying, ‘Get to work by 7:00.' He didn't say why. I had some breakfast and rushed over. The deputy director of ARP, Mr [Michael Lee] Bevan, said that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbour. Well, we didn't know where Pearl Harbour was. All I could think of was the Pearl River [...] But as the morning wore on we discovered that the Japanese had attacked the Americans and war was expected to come to us. Just after 8 o'clock, air-raid sirens sounded.”