Fighting for the future: the history of Hong Kong through the eyes of those who lived it
- Four-part series takes us on a historical journey that offers a greater understanding of the city’s past and life lessons to be learned.
This is the first of a four-part series on ageing Hongkongers whose personal history is interwoven with that of the city since the second world war. Our first story features unsung heroes of the guerilla forces organised by the Chinese Communist Party during the war to resist the Japanese occupiers.
Over the coming weeks we will also feature former chief secretary David Akers-Jones, who spearheaded the development of new towns in the New Territories in the 1960s and 70s, Martin Lee Chu-ming, founding chairman of the Democratic Party, and Hilton Cheong-Leen, the first ethnic Chinese chairman of the now-defunct Urban Council.
Through their recollections of the history of Hong Kong, they offer us valuable insights and lessons for now and the future.
Lam Chun was just eight years old when she became a child messenger for the local branch of the East River Column, a guerilla force put together by the Chinese Communist Party to fight the Japanese during the second world war.
Lam, who joined the Hong Kong and Kowloon Independent Brigade in December 1943, is the youngest of almost 60 surviving veterans of the group.
“When the Japanese army invaded Hong Kong in 1941, I was just a kid of around six years. It was my elder sister who got me to join the guerillas,” Lam said.
Witnessing the ordeal of her elder sister, Lam Chin, at the hands of the Japanese army sparked the decision to enlist.
