Catholic Churches in Hong Kong under Japanese
Occupation
University of Tokyo PhD Candidate Akiko Kurata
1.Introduction
On December 25, 1941, Hong Kong was occupied by Japan after 18 days
of battle and the Japanese Occupation period that lasted 3 years and 8 months
begun. The present paper’s main topic is to investigate the real situation of Catholicism
in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation.
Actually there are many books about the Japanese Occupation period
either in or outside Hong Kong.[1] Some of them describe the general situation, but few talk about the
religious activity in that period. The book “Historical Document of the Hong Kong Catholic Church” presents some data about Catholicism under Japanese
Occupation, but the overall situation of the Hong Kong area has not been
investigated yet.
Bishop Enrico
Valtorta, who was the Vicar Apostolic of the Hong Kong Apostolic Vicariate from
1926 and throughout the Occupation period, says the following about the Hong
Kong Vicariate of that time: “The Catholic population had diminished from about
20,000 to little over 3,000 so that our Churches, always full and insufficient
in normal times, looked desolate and empty. All Catholic activities had been greatly reduced and some of them stopped altogether”.[2]
Bishop
Valtorta also uses the term“the black years” to
describe the Japanese Occupation era. [3] So how did the Catholic Church in Hong Kong endure the 3 years and
8 month “black period”? This paper intends to investigate with clarity the definite
situation at that time by using intensively the data in the Hong
Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives and the Japanese data
found in Hong Kong or Japan. However, since the writer
lives in Japan, and was allowed limited time to gather information in Hong
Kong, even if there is useful information in the Hong Kong
Catholic Diocesan Archives, from the file titled“Japanese
Occupation Period”, [4]where there is data about Bishop Valtorta
himself and each religious
institution, the writer could not look at them carefully.
There are also some data or newspaper of that time at the Hong Kong Public
Record Office but the writer was not able to study them carefully either,
leaving them as a future task. I hope this paper can become the beginning of
the research of Catholicism in the Japanese Occupation Period.
2.Hong Kong and Religion
during the Japanese Occupation Period
2-1 Ruling System under the
Japanese Military Government
Japanese Army (The 23rd Army) immediately started forming a
military system after their occupation. On December 29, 1941, the Military
Government was established at the Peninsula Hotel, with the basic policy of
restoring public security and maintaining the actual state of the Hong Kong Society.
Under the direction of the Commanding Officer of the 23rd Army,
Takayuki Sakai, 5 departments were set up: politics, civilian, economy, judiciary, and navy. Later, the “Imperial Headquarters”(大本営Dai-hon-ei) decided that they should have
direct jurisdiction over Hong Kong instead of the Ministry of Military Affairs.
On February 20, 1942, the Military Government was established, the first governor was Lieutenant General Rensuke Isogai, and the chief of staff was
colonel Yadoru Arisue.
The following is the name list of the General
Staff Headquarter[5]
General Staff Hong Kong Defense Office
Headquarter Hong
Kong Gendarmerie Office
HongKong Police
Civil Affairs Department (Education•Commerce•Hygiene•General Affairs
divisions) Area Office Area Committee
Financial
Department(Finance•Tax division)
Military
Transport
Department(Maritime•Land•Civil Engineering•
Government
Sewer divisions)
Official Genral Economic
Department(Production•Military
Budget divisions)
Official Press Department
Administration
Department
Foreign Affairs Department
Chinese People’s Assembly Chinese People’s Agreement Committee
All the problems concerning the ruling of Hong Kong were delegated
to all the 7 sections under the command of the Military Government Official. Among
the organizations of the Military Government there was
also the“Chinese People’s Assembly” and the ”Chinese
People’s Agreement Committee”, both were advising organizations of the Chinese People. All the members were Chinese
nationals controlled by the Japanese Army after the occupation of Hong Kong,
who were maneuvered by the Army in order to proceed smoothly with their ruling.
In
addition, the Hong Kong Defense Squadron, Hong Kong Gendarmerie and the Hong Kong Police were created under
the Military Government. Especially about the Gendarmerie,
there are many research books and memoirs that reveal
their violence, and prove that the Hong Kong Citizen was often cruelly treated[6].
Soon after opening fire with the British Army, the Japanese 23rd
Army decided the main policies for the Hong Kong Occupation: migration of
population, issuing of Military Scrip, restriction
of Chung Ching Sect’s main members’ freedom and all the Chinese Nationals’, and
use them to facilitate their ruling.
During the pre-war era,
great quantity of refugees rushed from Mainland China into Hong Kong in order
to avoid the threat of war. Reportedly, there were around 2 million inhabitants
in Hong Kong at the time it was occupied by the Japanese Army, but in order to
be able to carry on with the Military Government successfully, it was
considered their priority to decrease Hong Kong population to an “Adequate size”,
by imposing the migration policy over the Hong Kong people. Only during the
period that the Ministry of Military Affairs existed (Between January and February 1942) 554,000 people left Hong Kong,
and until the end of September 1942, another 419,000 people migrated. [7]Furthermore, the Military Government recruited workers to the island of Hai Nan. According to records,
565 people left for Hai Nan between February 1942 to July 1943. [8]Such a policy of rapid migration forced the Hong Kong Citizen to
make a great sacrifice[9].
The Military
Scrip circulation policy has also been planned with
great anticipation. On December 30, 1941, a Military
Scrip Exchange Center was already settled in Kowloon;
on January 5, 1942, another Exchange Center was settled in the Hong Kong
Island, which started exchanging Hong Kong Dollars into Military
Scrip. In July 1942, the circulation of Hong Kong
Dollars was totally banned, and the exchange rate of Military
Scrip to Hong Kong Dollar that used to be of 1 to 2, was also changed into 1
to 4. As a result of this policy, the assets of the Hong Kong Citizen decreased
greatly after the exchange[10].
The Military Government used the system of “distribution” for the
food and daily necessities. In March 1942, the
distribution system started with rice, then cigarettes, sugar, cooking oil, and
the following year firewood, coal and matches were being distributed too.
However, due to the great amount of Military Scrip in circulation, the
commodity prices raised considerably, resulting in the raise of the
distribution price, affecting the life of the people. In addition, in April
1944, rice started to be distributed only to the collaborators of the Military
Government, and from December 1944, only the direct collaborators were eligible
for the distribution. Not long before the surrender of Japan, the people of
Hong Kong found it almost impossible to survive, since the repeated bombings of
the Allied Forces were added to the extreme poverty caused by the April 1944 distribution
system.
The extreme policies,
the poverty and the difficulties these caused during the Japanese Occupation
Period mentioned above, have direct influence over the Catholic Church of Hong
Kong.
2-2 The Religious Policies
under the Japanese Military System
In the data that
exists today, there are very few files mentioning the Religious Policies of
that time, but in the book published in Hong Kong in February 1944 called 《軍政下の香港》”Hong
Kong under the Military System”, there is a paragraph that compactly describes
the views of the Military Government:
The religions of this area can roughly be divided in 4 as: Buddhism,
Christianism, Indian Religions (Islam, Hinduism) and the traditional Chinese
Monastery. Among them the Buddhists, Indian Religious,
and Monastery followers are actually very few, therefore not causing any
difficulty in guiding and supervising.
But the Christian Religion is more complicated, having followers of all
nationalities, and is the majority religion of this area. We expect to be
especially careful. Our policy is to aid in all the possible ways, the
spreading of the Japanese Buddhism and other Japanese religions”.[11].
From the paragraph above we can
deduce that the Military Government paid
especial attention to the Christianity of Hong Kong (Potestantism and Catholicism).
Concerning the Protestant Religion, in Feb 1943, the Hong Kong Christian
General Assembly was settled with the aid of pastor Gosaku Okada. In September 1943, pastor Moritaka Samejima was assigned to Hong Kong, and became a “Top
Rank Adviser” which let him act as a mediator between the Church and the Military
Government. [12]Concerning the Catholic Religion, in 1942 Bishop
Valtorta asked the Apostolic emissary in Japan to
delegate Japanese priests and nuns to Hong Kong. In summer 1943, the Japanese
Catholic Church decided to send 1 Japanese priest and 2 Japanese nuns to Hong
Kong, but in November the ship were all three were traveling was attacked and
sunk at the Straight of Taiwan, leaving none of them alive. [13]After that, there were no more Japanese priests or nuns being sent
to Hong Kong, leaving only Bishop Valtorta himself to negotiate with the Military
Government all the matters about the Church and the issues of the convents.
On the other hand, not
only did the Jodo Shinshu、the Nichiren Shu and other Japanese Buddhist sects all arrived in
Hong Kong and settled their respective missionary institution, the Military Government also carried on with the construction of
the Hong Kong Shrine and the Monument to the Faithful. The place chosen to erect the Monument to the Faithful was Mount Cameron, and the site for the Hong Kong Shrine was Canossa Hospital.[14]But Japan was defeated before the completion of either.
The pastor Samejima describes the
environment around the Hong Kong Protestant Religion at follows:
Among the
Japanese soldiers, government officials, educators, police officers and all the
ones we consider the ruling class, there have always been a large number that
considered the Catholicism an evil religion with dangerous revolutionary ideas,
and with hatred, tried to either ignore or destroy it. During the war, it has
been proved that there were many priests and Catholics, that have been
detained, kept in custody and incarcerated without an apparent reason even
inside the Japanese territory, by the police and the gendarmerie. If such is
the situation in our country, the situation in the occupied territory is much
worse, where the proud and ignorant victorious side oppresses and persecutes
without mercy. It is a reality we cannot deny that such things happened also in
Hong Kong.[15]
Actually, the
situation of the Catholic Religion has always been similar. The mission of pastor
Samejima was “To penetrate into the group of believers, and help them with the
kind understanding of a priest whenever they are in a problematic situation”.[16] However, due to several reasons, the person who was in charge of “Solving
all the problems” that were related to the Catholic Religion, was always Bishop
Valtorta.
3. Catholicism during the
Japanese Occupation
3-1 General situation of the parish and the church
followers at the beginning of the Occupation
Since the settlement of the
parish in Hong Kong, the Prefect Apostolics and Vicar Apostolics were usually Italian Nationals, therefore,
most of the priests and nuns were Italians (including Bishop Valtorta). There were also some Chinese, French, Irish, Spanish, American and
Canadian priests and nuns, who were all dedicated to preaching, educating and
other activities for the welfare of people. Before the war begun, besides from
the Cathedral there were 10 churches and 1 chapel in the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon area. At the
New Territory there were 35 churches or
chapels. The Catholic population
of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Territory was of 21,500[17].
Actually, the
battle situation in Europe even before Japan Occupied Hong Kong has already
influenced the Catholic Church in Hong Kong. In June 1940, after Italy declared
war, Britain became an enemy. Therefore, except from Bishop
Valtorta and some sick ones at the hospital, 17 Italian
priests were detained at the Stanley Internment Camp. Since Italy was an Ally
of Japan, all the priests were released after the Japanese Occupation[18].
On the contrary, after
the Japanese Occupation, all the American and Canadian priests and nuns
belonging to the Maryknoll Fathers, Maryknoll Sisters of St.
Dominic, Inc., Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate
Conception and Salesians of
Don Bosco were detained. On January 1, 1942, the Japanese Army published a Public Publication
to gather nationals of enemy countries. On January 6, Bishop
Valtorta wrote to the Military Department, explaining that all the priests and nuns of the Catholic faith, no
matter what their nationality is, have all been sent by the Church for
missionary, educational and welfare activities. Therefore, the priests and nuns
do not have any political relation with their nations. The Bishop also asked
them to reconsider the necessity of detaining them. [19]But the Japanese did not accept this petition, so the
Maryknoll Fathers and the Missionary
Sisters of the Immaculate Conception were sent to The Stanley Internment Camp on January 20, and the Maryknoll
Sisters were sent to The Stanley Internment Camp on
February 8.[20]
The panorama for the Catholic
activities was not clear during the British Japanese battles or even
afterwards, during the Japanese Occupation. It is said that at least for the
Protestant, during the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong, worshipping, preaching and other religious activities have been
prohibited. [21]On April
16, 1942, the Military Government forced all the religious organizations who
wished to restore their religious activities to declare the name of their
group, sect, name of their representative, preacher, language, nationality and
quantity of followers, activity contents, economical situation and many other
details to get the approval of the Government. [22]This is the only way to be allowed to carry on their religious
activities. But the Catholics already had gatherings and religious activities
before this Public Publication was published.
For example, most part
of the Maryknoll Convent’s building at Kowloon Tong
was taken by the Japanese Army when the war first started, but the nuns and
priests that have been arrested could still pray and perform misas. Even after
they have been sent to the Internment Camps, they were allowed to perform misas
in their own rooms everyday, and on Sundays, they performed 3 group misas with
others.[23]
On March 12, 1942, Amadeo Duca d'Aosta, Governor-General of Italian
East Africa[24]’s farewell misa was led solemnly at the Cathedral. The participants
of the misa were Italian priests, and nuns mainly, and some foreign
Chancellors, etc. On the previous
day, March 11, special misas were performed in all the Churches in Hong Kong
Island and Kowloon.[25]
According to the data in the Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives, Bishop Valtorta handed in a
report to the Catholic Church of the Public Publication No.10 of June 21, 1942.
Later, in order to report to the Vatican, he handed in another parish report on
October 22. [26]As written in these 2 reports, great changes have occurred inside
the Catholic Church immediately from the night before the beginning of the war
until October 1942.
One of the
changes was that the number of priests, nuns and teachers of each convent
diminished. In the case of the Maryknoll Fathers and Sisters, almost all the priests and nuns returned to their own country after
their arrest and ceased all their activities in Hong Kong. Although the situation
of other convents was not that
severe, some priests and nuns still had to leave Hong Kong to other areas due
to economical problems.
There is no record of
the exact number of Catholics since it was impossible to make an accurate statistic,
this situation is explained in the report mentioned above. In the data of the
Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives, there seems to be data of the research on the churches of 1943, where the name of the
priests and number of believers sorted by country of the Cathedral
and the 9 churches of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and
the churches of Chu’n-Wan. [27]Comparing the data above mentioned and the statistics of the
Hong Kong Catholic Church Directory of 1941, we reach the conclusion
that all the followers of all the churches decreased considerably compared to the
pre-war era. [28]There were 18,877 followers
living in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon before the war, but later there were
only 7,815 left. At that time, great part of the Chinese population emigrated
from Hong Kong due to the Population Migration Policy, which also leaded to the
loss of a large amount of Catholics. (See chart 1)
In the
statistical data of the Hong Kong
Catholic Diocesan Archives of 1943 (from July 1942 to June 19436), although the number of Catholics cannot be found, the number of
priests and nuns of each church and convent, teachers, students, people living
in shelters, and the numbers of baptisms, confirmations, communions performed
in each church are clearly stated. [29]According to this data, the number of
babies baptized in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon was 179, the baptized adults were 459, the ones who
received confirmation were 443。If we
compare this data with the numbers of the Hong Kong
Catholic Church Directory of 1941, “baptized babies 656, baptized adults 782, 1047 confirmations” we can still see a decrease. We can conclude that although the activities of the Catholic Church
managed to continue during the Japanese Occupation, the scale diminished
significantly.
Concerning the churches
of New Territory, according to the Hong
Kong Catholic Church Directory, there were 4 parishes in New Territory: Sai-Kung, Tai-Long, Yun-Long and Tai-O. But according to the statistics
of 1943, there were only 2 parishes: Tai-Pou、Ch’un-Wan. In this data, there is no total number of followers, but
according to the research information of each church mentioned above, there
were 70 followers in the church of Ch’un-Wan. [30]In addition, according to the
draft of the “Mission Application” presented to the pertaining authorities in
November 1944, the churches controlled by the Tai-Pou Catholic Church were 5, with 153 Chinese followers.[31]
There was not
only the issue of the shrinking of the religious activity, there was also the
problem of confiscation of church properties by the Japanese Army, which
description we can find in the 2 reports of 1942. When the war first started on
December 8, 1941, many Catholic
churches, schools, houses, etc were destroyed during the battles. After Japan
Occupied Hong Kong, they confiscated many schools, shelters, houses and other
buildings. Some time later, the Japanese Army started to confiscate in a larger
scale. In order to enlarge the airport of Kai-Tak in September 1942, the Church of St.
Francis of Assisi and the Holy Family Canossian Convent at Kowloon City were confiscated, even the French
Procuration Building and the Canossa Hospital
were continuously confiscated.
About the confiscation
problems, Bishop Valtorta has already
mentioned them in the letters sent directly to governor Rensuke Isogai in March
1942. In them Bishop
Valtorta asks the Japanese Army to provide “ support”
while confiscating convents, especially in the case of nun convents. [32]But after the confiscation of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Bishop Valtorta used the
word“compensation” to demand the Japanese Army to carry on in a more adequate manner.
These troubles concerning the destruction and confiscation by the Japanese
Army, never ceased until the day of Japanese surrender.
3-2 Negotiation with the Governor during the
Japanese Occupation---- Issues of Church property confiscation and
compensation.
In the background
of the issues of compensation, there is the economical crisis of the Catholic
Churches cause by the Japanese ruling. The Churches and schools that were
maintained with the offering of the followers and students, lost an important
part of their income when the population was forced to migrate to other areas,
the rent income also decreased due to the destruction and confiscation of
properties. In addition, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Generale
Belgian Bank, Standard Charted
Bank and other banks of the “opposition” were closed,
and later only 20% of the deposits were returned. Therefore, many convents lost
their capital considerably. [33]Moreover, the prices raised so abruptly that is became obvious from
the beginning of the occupation that soon their living would be in trouble.
Concerning the
economical situation of each convent, the central bases of the convents or the
countries where the convents are placed are supposed to aid them. Bishop Valtorta had to
administer the Catholic churches in Hong Kong, the theological
colleges and other problems of the parish, and above
this he was the leader of the Italian convents, that means he had to be in
charge of asking Italy to help convents of that country. Below we will see the
main problems concerning the parish and compensation problems of the Italian
convents.
When the Japanese
Army was about to confiscate the Church of St. Francis of Assisi and the Holy
Family Canossian Convent, Bishop
Valtorta immediately wrote a letter to the Military
Government to ask them to inquire the Vatican’s opinion first. But the Japanese
forcefully confiscated them in September 1942. Although the Military Government promised to compensate the losses
in the future, Bishop Valtorta’s idea was
that the negotiations of the compensation issue should be carried with the
approval of the Vatican. However the Military Government asked the present
parties to discuss the compensation issue in situ. Later the Foreign Affairs
Department of the Military Government carried on many meetings with Bishop
Valtorta to negotiate the matter, but the Bishop insisted that the opinion of
the Vatican should be heard first before making the decision, resulting in
never ending negotiations. Moreover, the prices of the confiscated properties
presented by Bishop Valtorta differed
greatly with the ones presented by the Foreign Affairs Department; therefore,
the negotiations lead to no concrete results.[34]
In order to mend
the problems faced by the Italian convents, Bishop
Valtorta asked the Italian General Chancellor in
Guang-Zhou for his help, who accepted to collaborate with the living expenses
of the convents, in July 1943. [35]But this money has not been transferred even after a month of the
promise. Therefore, Bishop Valtorta
finally accepted to ask the Military Government’s Foreign Affairs Department to
provide part of the compensation promised to the convents once the war was
over, and use this money to help the convents in bad economical situation. Here
I retake the issue of compensation of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi and
the Holy Family Canossian Convent. Bishop Valtorta
protested strongly against the price difference of the confiscated properties
presented by the Japanese Government, but he never received any more news from
the General Chancellor in Guang-Zhou. In October 1943, facing such a situation, he finally decided to accept the
compensation amount presented by the Foreign Affairs Department. The amount
given for the Holy Family Canossian Convent was 4,163.5 Military Yen, what is even less
than the 4,487.5 Military Yen offered in April during the negotiations.
Concerning the Church of St. Francis of Assisi and the subordinate school, the compensation was only 7,583.33 Military Yen, that is only 1/3 of the 22,750 Military Yen
offered during the negotiations in April. The Military Government also
announced that those were the “Final Compensation Amounts”. [36]Although the amounts were less than satisfactory, they accepted them
since the Italian convents were already in extreme poverty.
In 1944, the situation intensified,
and the prices increased even more because Hong Kong was obliged to depend on
the import of food to be able to gather enough provision. For example, the rice
distribution price was 0.2 Military Yen 1 per catty, in
October 1942, it was raised to 0.3 Military Yen, in September 1943, it was 0.375 Military Yen, and finally in January 1944, it raised
abruptly to 0.7 Military Yen. The market price of the rice raised even
more. The price was already 2.05 Military Yen in May
1943, and in May 1944, it already surpassed the 5 Military Yen. Some say that at the final days of the Japanese Occupation, the
price inflated into 200 Military Yen. [37]In such a situation, the Daughters of Charity of the Canossian
Institute and the Sisters of the St. Paul’s of Chartres who always dedicated to care for the poor and the orphans, faced poverty
in a daily basis. Looking at such a panorama, Bishop
Valtorta once again mentioned the compensation problem
to the Governor, for the sake of both Italian convents and the Hong Kong Catholicism
as a whole.
On March 14, 1944, Bishop Valtorta had a
face to face meeting with Jiro Kimura, head of the Education division, who was
in charge of administrating religious matters in order to discuss the fairness
of the financial aid to the convents that were living in extreme poverty due to
their loss of income caused by the Army. Bishop Valtorta also petitioned on paper that the government should continue to provide rice to the
members of the Catholic convents and the orphans they sheltered, who must not
be included in the decision made by the Governor on April 15, where rice was
only going to be distributed to the collaborators of the Military Government.
Thanks to this petition, many convents received a special permission for food
distribution.[38]
On June 6, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs Tsuneo Hattori told Bishop
Valtorta that the government would give the convents
special aid, but needed the convents that wished to receive the help to write a
detailed economic report. In the end, the only convents that wrote the report
as the government demanded were the Daughters of Charity of the Canossian
Institute and the Sisters of the St. Paul’s of Chartres. The convents that decided not to receive aid from the Military
Government wrote letters to Bishop Valtorta explaining that they did not expect
the government to actually help them, and were more worried about the
government interfering in their affairs. Just as they predicted, the arrival of
the aid was continuously delayed by the Japanese side.[39]
In March 1944, Bishop Valtorta mentioned
another problem about the Canossa Hospital. It was announced in September 4,
1942, that the Japanese Army was to confiscate The Canossa Hospital.
Although Bishop Valtorta petitioned
the Japanese Army to ask the Vatican’s opinion first, the Army ignored it and
destroyed the Hospital’s building completely. However, such a problem has never
been mentioned during the September 1943 negotiations for the compensations to
the Italian convents. In March 1944, Bishop
Valtorta presented the problem about the trees included
in the land of the Canossa
Hospital. The Military Army once promised that if those
trees were ever hewed, the Canossian Sisters would have the right to
recover and use them as firewood, but the Government overlooked their promise
and the nuns were never given that wood. Bishop
Valtorta’s position was that the sisters should get 25,000-30,000 catties of firewood, therefore, in the Bishop’s view, the Military
Government should either give them the equivalent to this amount of firewood or
allow them to chop the trees themselves. In April, the Foreign Affairs
Department that announced they would pay 11400 yen for the building of the
Hospital to the Canossian
Sisters, but the sisters qualified the amount as too
absurd and refused to accept it. According to the pre-war estimations, the
Cannossian Hospital’s worth was 483,730 Hong Kong
Dollars, if we convert it into Military Scrip, it’s worth would equal 121,200 Military Yen. Bishop Valtorta
sadly expressed that the compensation they offered could not even pay for the
bricks of the hospital, therefore, he once again petitioned to be given land
and a building fit for a hospital, and 30.000 catties of firewood. Japan did
not give him an answer until December.[40]
The problems concerning
the compensation to the Catholic Church continued until September 1942, but the
amount that each convent could receive was minimum, and could not save the
convents from the economical crisis they were facing.
3-3 Education and Social
Welfare Activities during the Japanese Occupation
Education and Social
Welfare are the areas where the Catholic Church apported the most. In the educational
field, they built elementary schools, high schools, art schools, seminaries,
etc, and in the Social Welfare field, there were orphanages, blind schools,
hospitals, and elder homes.
Let’s look at
their Educational work first. The Japanese Army started attacking Hong on
December 8, 1941, and all the schools
in Hong Kong were obliged to cease their activities. Later, according to the
<Rules for the Private Schools> published by the Military Government,
some Chinese schools re-started classes after being approved by the government.
It is said that in May 1, 1942, 20 private schools were approved and started
classes, and in August 7, 9 more schools followed. [41]In the statistics of beginning of 1943, there were 34 elementary and high schools. 19 in Hong Kong Island, 9 in Kowloon, 6 in the New Territory, with a total number of
students of 3,200.[42] According to the statistics of end of 1943, there were 27
elementary schools and 15 high schools, with a number of 14,600 elementary school students, and 1,700 high school students. [43]According to the statistics of the Catholic Church of 1943, there
were 8 elementary schools belonging to the Catholic convents (with 2,940
students), 5 High schools (with 363
students). As we can observe from
the number of schools, 1/3 of the schools in Hong Kong were Catholic Schools
directed by the convents.[44]
In a recently
published recompilation book of oral history, there are stories of teachers and
students of the Tak-Ching Girls School, held by the Congregation of Sisters of
Precious Blood (elementary and high school) and the Canossian Convent Chinese School at Wanchai held by the Cannosian
Sisters. Mr. Huey Shin
He who coursed his 1st and 2nd
year of high school at the Tak-Ching Girls School comments as follows:
The
Tak-Ching Girls School was founded by the Sisters of Precious Blood, and the nuns themselves were teachers there. The school was full
time, classes started 8 o’clock in the morning, we
went home for lunch, then came back school for the afternoon classes. Two
classes shared a classroom and the teaching method was the repetition
method. Students didn’t have to wear uniforms. I still
remember I used to bring money to school to pay tuition. Besides, although the Tak-Ching
high school was a girls’ school, they also accepted male students. In my class
there were a little over 20 students, 4 boys and more than 10 girls.......The content of the classes are similar to the ones we have now,
there was Chemistry class, Biology class, Geography and History, etc.[45]
At that time, the Military Government’s rule was that it was
compulsory to have 4 hours of Japanese class even in the Chinese schools, [46]but Mr. He says:
During the
Japanese occupation, it was not allowed to learn English, and the Ministry of
Education sent people to teach Japanese at schools. The Japanese teachers knew
some Cantonese, sometimes they even taught Japanese in Cantonese. I suppose
that teacher was a Chinese Immigrant in Japan. I resisted the Japanese classes
very much, at the beginning of each year when the teacher asked us the progress
of the previous year, we always told them we were not sure, so we always
started learning the Japanese alphabet again, and our Japanese level never
improved. Besides from learning the alphabet, we also learned some Japanese
songs, like the Japanese National Anthem and some easy conversation. We only
had one Japanese class per week, the time was too short, so we weren’t able to
learn it well.[47]
The sister Yueh Hua Tan who was a teacher at the Tak-Ching
elementary school also said that pupils from 1st to 3rd
grade didn’t need to learn Japanese. The pupils started to learn the alphabet
and easy conversations at grade 4. [48]Ms. Chih
Ling Huang who used to study at the elementary school of St. Francis convent in
Wanchai (聖嬰小學) also explained that
they had only 1 Japanese class per week[49]. The Japanese education forced by the Military Government was just
a false, without real results.
Ms. Huang also said
that: “ the ‘Shing-ying’(聖嬰) was backed up by the church, and had money, and those sisters were
very kind.......If a student lacked
the rice for paying the tuition, they could pay less or none at all, the people
there were very warm, unlike the ‘Wan-chai chapel school’(灣仔堂小學) that used to come to student’s homes to ask for the payment.” [50]Just as mentioned above, the economical situation of the Canossian
Convent was terrible from the first days of the occupation. Nevertheless, they
could make the students feel the human kindness. Ms. Huang said
that she had to take a bag with rice to school to pay
tuition, but later the economy at home turned worse, and had no more rice to
pay for school even if the family still hoped she went. We can say that what
allowed the classes to go on even when the income was extremely little, was the
perseverance and hard work of the nuns.
The Regional Seminary for South China,
Seminary of the Vicariate of Hong Kong, Dominican House of Studies also continued their classes. According to the statistics of 1943, there were 53, 13 and 11 students at these schools respectively.[51]
Concerning the
Social Welfare Activities, Bishop Valtorta
made a special contribution. In September 1942, with the 5000
yen Military Scrip that Bishop Valtorta
donated to the Chinese Representative’s Committee as foundation, the“Chinese People’s Charity General Assembly” was erected. This Chinese People’s Chairty General Assembly
became the “Directing and Planning Organization” of the Social Welfare
Activities, and their work was to gather and divide donations for the Chinese
Nationals in Hong Kong.[52]
In June 1942, he also established a fund with the transfer made by the Pope to
help the war criminals and war victims of Hong Kong. He used 45,000 yen for the war criminals, and the Military
Government gave this money to the Japanese and British wounded soldiers, the
war prisoners and detained. And the subsidy distributed to the victims
of war was "handed to everybody who turned up or brought to the private
house, without any discrimination of race and religion", but
"priority was given to the Catholic institutions, convents, orphanages,
seminaries which were without food".[53]
Moreover, each
Catholic convent also worked in Social Welfare Activities. Although part of the
establishments have been confiscated by the Japanese Army, orphanages and elder
homes still had the Military Government’s support. According to the statistics
of the Military Government of 1943, there were 9 orphanages, with 1,144 orphans. There were 2 elder homes, with
196 people. There was also an institution for the
Blind, that sheltered 32 people. [54]According to the data of the Catholic Church, in October 1942, there
were total 6 orphanages (including schools) and an elder home. The
Sisters of the St. Paul’s of Chartres and the Canossian Sisters all had institutions for the Blind, but which one was the one that
the Military Government accepted and put in the statistics, it is still
unclear. [55]We conclude that most of the Social Welfare activities that the
Military Government accepted belonged to Catholic Churches. Besides, the Sisters of the St. Paul’s of Chartres, Canossian Sisters, Sisters of Precious Blood etc, all had clinics,
even a free of charge clinic for the poor.
Most of the
convents that did Social Welfare Activities were nun convents. To actually take
care of hundreds of children and elders is not an easy task. For example, the Canossian Sisters could not solely survive of the aid that the government provided,
so some of the sisters taught music or language, some worked as seamstresses,
others planted vegetables to support their living. When none of this effort was
enough, they even sold the convent’s furniture or construction to help with the
income. [56]They even went to Japanese companies directly to ask for some
contribution[57]
At that moment,
the fire of the Allied Army became worse. There were more than 10 bombards
during 1943 and 1944, and in 1945, the number became too large to count. The
scale and violence of the attacks also escalated. Under the repeated attacks,
the Catholic Church hospitals sometimes received wounded soldiers. For example
in December 1944, St. Paul
Hospital received the 100 workers that were injured
during the attack of the Tai-Ku vessel.[58]
In such a terrible
environment during the Japanese Occupation, the Catholic Church, especially the
sister’s convents made a great contribution to the education and welfare.
3-4 The parish and convent
situation during the final period of the Japanese Occupation
There are is no data or statistics about the situation of the Hong
Kong parish after 1944, therefore, it is
extremely difficult to mention exact numbers. Concerning the number of people
working at each convent or being sheltered there, there is a chart in Bishop
Valtorta’s letter to petition compensation to the Military Government of March
1944, from which we have a general idea of the situation of the convents at
that time (See Chart 2). The general
situation of the Catholics after 1944 cannot be found in the Hong
Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives that the writer of the
thesis read, and the number of followers of each Cathedral is also unclear. We
can only imagine the situation from the following words that Bishop
Valtorta said after the war was over: “The Catholic
population had diminished from about 20,000 to little over 3,000 so that our
Churches……looked desolate and empty.” Actually, the period between the second half of 1944 and August
1945 when Japan surrendered was the hardest during the whole Japanese
Occupation.
After the cease in the
distribution of rice in April 1944, the distribution of rice to some Catholic
convents completed stopped on December 31, 1944 making the gathering of food provisions even harder. [59]According to Bishop Valtorta’s
memoirs, the price of rice sometimes rose to 200 Military Yen a catty, but he
could only ask the convents to“sell anything you can sell, borrow money,
mortgage your convent, make debts, but carry on”.
Luckily, some “Kind and
generous friends came to rescue. Some
anonymous, some not even Christian, and they gave and gave again generously”, what allowed
them to finally win this battle. [60]Bishop
Valtorta was always hoping that generous people would
help them, and never stopped fighting for the compensation the Military Government
owed them.
In March 30, 1945
in order to help the Canossian Sisters and the Sisters
of the St. Paul’s of Chartres, Bishop
Valtorta once again petitioned the government to
compensate the Canossian Hospital and the trees (firewood) at the Pokfulam,
owned by the Paris Foreign Missions. [61]This time he mentioned the problem to a lower rank official of the
Foreign Affairs Department, Mr. Keiji Makimura, unlike previous times where he wrote letter directly to the head of
the department. From this moment until the end of the war, Bishop
Valtorta only negotiated with Makimura, and no matter
how bad the situation turned, he never tried to contact the higher rank
officials anymore. According to the data of the Hong
Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives, Makimura made a great
effort in 1945 to let Bishop Valtorta visit
the prisoner’s camp. In February 1945, when the St. Joseph' s
Home for the Aged run by the Little Sisters
of the Poor was forced to move, Makimura dealt things
according to the wishes of the Bishop and the convents and compensated them
with rice urgently. Makimura was a person who showed a lot of mercy to the
Catholic Church and Bishop Valtorta. [62]There is a possibility that Bishop Valtorta retook the compensation problems
that did not show any improvement in months, due to the help and existence of a
person like Makimura.。
On April 4, the
Allied Army bombed the Sisters of the St. Paul’s of Chartres’ orphanage and destroyed it. 7 nuns and 50 orphans died that day. [63]As a result, the hospitals and schools of the Sisters
of the St. Paul’s of Chartres were all closed, and the
activities of the sisters were abruptly interrupted. The lucky 169 children
that did not perish were sent to the Canossian Sisters and the Po
Leung Kuk, but their situation did
not allow them to accept such number of new orphans, so finally Makimura negotiated
with the Apostle of Macao, and made the children go under Macao’s protection.
The 63 sisters that survived the attack to the orphanage lived from selling the
wood that has not burnt out and other objects in the convent.[64]
After these events, the
compensation issue of the Canossa Hospital and the trees at Pokfulam of the
Paris Foreign Missions made some progress. On April 24, Makimura promised Bishop
Valtorta that the Military Government would accept to
pay 10,000 catties of rice. [65]Makimura started to negotiate with the sectors involved, asking them
to pay for the compensation, however the negotiation did not advance smoothly
since those sectors did not cooperate. In June, the Government agreed to let
Makimura help the Paris Foreign Missions and
paid them 300catties of rice to
compensate the Pokfulam construction.
Finally, the promise of paying 10,000 catties of rice for the trees was broken.
Bishop Valtorta urged them several times, later
on July 22, Makimura answered that the quantity of rice they could gather was
only 1/10 of the promised amount, only 1000catties. Makimura promised to
continue trying, and Bishop Valtorta
decided to be more patient because he believed his words. Finally, soon before
the Japanese surrendered, they paid 3000 catties of rice to the Canossian
Sisters and the Sisters of the St. Paul’s of Chartres. Bishop
Valtorta says the following about these events: “Although I
have been freatly annoyed by the exasperating delay, yet I know that you have
actually done your best. Therefore, I
beg to thank you for your personal efforts, which I greatly appreciate...”[66]
Bishop Valtorta wrote this letter on August 15, which
is also the date the Japanese surrendered. This became the last action to help
the convents to gather food provision of the Bishop Valtorta, and he did it by
relying on the “personal efforts” of
Makimura.
4. Conclusion
Although the Hong Kong
Catholic Church was in a terrible situation, it endured the 3 years and 8
months Japanese Occupation.
In the policies set by
the Hong Kong Military Government, they accepted that the Catholic Religion was
one of the main religions of Hong Kong; therefore, they accepted the activities
of the Catholic Church in order to pacify the people. As a result, the education and social welfare activities at the
beginning of the Occupation Period have not been obstructed or prohibited. The
Catholic Church played a central part in the education and social welfare of
Hong Kong. The Church established schools, orphanages and elder homes in a
period of many restrictions.
On the other
hand, a great amount of the parishes’ or convents’ property had been
confiscated by the Japanese Army, putting them in a terrible economical
situation. The distribution system for the daily necessities and other restrictions
to their lifestyle and activities obliged the convents and their followers to
live in a state of extreme lack of freedom. All these are things we cannot
deny. There were also often incidents of destruction of churches or confiscated
convent buildings and Saint Figures by the gendarmerie or the army. It was also
harder to gather food provisions with the intensification of the war. Bishop
Valtorta often became the window of negotiation between the Church and the
Military Government, since he was the representative of the Catholic Church. He
negotiated with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the head of the gendarmerie
and other top rank officers of the Military Government, or with the head of the
General Staff Headquarter, sometimes even wrote letters directly to the Hong
Kong Military Government. He did all this effort to protect the Catholic
convents, the followers, orphans, and elders. Without Bishop
Valtorta’s effort, all the problems faced by the
churches and convents should have been much graver.
In the last days
of the Occupation Period, Bishop Valtorta met
Makimura, who was much eager to help the Catholic Church. According to the data
of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives, Makimura
was the only Japanese that Bishop Valtorta
called his “friend”. After Japan surrendered, the Japanese non-military
Nationals that remained in Hong Kong were 3500 people. They were first gathered
at the Kowloon Whitfield Barrack. Later in October they were sent to the
Stanley internment camp. Some Japanese were allowed to leave the camp because
they acted as interpreters.“This permission was to favor those Japanese that we especially
humanitarian during the Occupation Period”. Among the list of these
Japanese, appeared the name of Makimura. [67]It is possible that Bishop
Valtorta was behind this. These non-military Japanese Nationals were mostly
sent back to Japan in January 1946.
In the post-war Hong Kong, the
population increased rapidly due to the civil war in Mainland China. The
Catholic population that once decreased to 3,000 also increased to 33,000 in
only 1 year. [68]On
April 11, 1946 the Catholic Hierarchy was established in China, and the Hong Kong
area elevated in rank from being a Vicariate to a Diocese, and later the Catholic Church made their first step forward with Bishop
Valtorta as the first bishop.
（Translator：Jessie Lin）