Education
Image: Sw32-051. Photograph by Waren Swire, Image courtesy of John Swire & Sons Ltd from the University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China.
All schools in Hong Kong were closed on the 8th of Decemeber 1941.
There were around 120,000 children enrolled in schools in Hong Kong in early 1941 before the Japanese invasion. (ref 1) But near the end of the Japanese occupation, it was reported in a Hong Kong News article on the 24th of February 1944 that there were 7,000 pupils enrolled in schools. (ref 2)
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Schools were closed on the 8th of December 1941, and were not opened again until May 1942.
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Whilst sources are limited, explores the work by Anthony Sweeting in the shift the Hong Kong education system had under the Japanese Occupation, and then looks at the impacts this would have had on the everyday experience of children in Hong Kong.
Taikoo Sugar Refinery School in August 1940
The Taikoo Sugar Refinery School was established in 1923 to provide free education for the children of the workers the Taikoo dockyard.
In these images we can see children we were excluded from the evacuation scheme of June 29th 1940, as they were still in Hong Kong attending schools in later in August 1940
Image: Sw32-053 Photograph by Waren Swire, Image courtesy of John Swire & Sons Ltd from the University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China.
Image: Sw32-052 Photograph by Waren Swire, Image courtesy of John Swire & Sons Ltd from the University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China.
Reservoir, Stanley Terrace and Quarry Bay School (Taikoo Sugar Refinery), Hong Kong
You can see the school pictured here in to the right at the bottom of the hillside.
Image: Sw07-025 Photograph by Waren Swire, Image courtesy of John Swire & Sons Ltd from the University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China.
Carrier-based planes strike Hong Kong, one of the most important Japanese-held seaports in China. Taikoo Shipyard is ablaze. Photographed by a plane from USS Hancock (CV 19), 16 January 1945.
Photograph uploaded by National Museum of the United States Navy licensed under public domain
What was school like for children in Hong Kong during WWII?
'The education system practically fell apart'
John Carroll, A Concise History of Hong Kong (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), page 124.
The education system fell apart because the school enrollment fell significantly during the Japanese Occupation, from 120,000 to 7,000, at an estimate. The latter number is from Hongkong News, a newspaper controlled by Japanese authorities, and therefore, Anthony Sweeting warns the newspaper could have even exaggerated the number for good publicity, so the number could be even lower than 7,000. [Ref 4]
Primary source: 'Governor displays keen interest in Welfare of the General Public' The Hongkong News, Wednesday 28th of October 1942
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Education Question
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The head of the Wanchai Bureau Mr Ho Yat-Yu, in his report said that out of the 76,000 residents in his district there were some 5,000 boys or girls of school age. There was only one school in Wanchai now as compared to some 30 schools before the war. The head of the District Bureau for the Bowrington Canal said that I his district there were two schools teaching the Nipponese language.’
Governor displays keen interest in Welfare of the General Public, The Hongkong News, 28 Oct 1942, 3.
Poor conditions of schools
Have students read through these two excerpts from newspapers describing the physical conditions of the schools and make sure they consider the provenance of the producers of the newspapers. Which aligns/supports with the sources above? Who would their readers be? Why would this be important to consider?
Primary source: Newspaper article ‘Education Revived: Schools Being Re-opened All Over Colony’, South China Morning Post & the Hongkong Telegraph, 6 Oct 1945 p. 1
Steps to revive education in the Colony have already resulted in 12 mission and 27 private vernacular schools being reopened.
A number of schools have had their premises either completely looted or bombed, notably Queen’s College, once described by an ex-Chancellor of Hong Kong University as the “Eton of the Far East,” The re-building of this institution will take a long time- if indeed, it is ever done.
‘Education Revived: Schools Being Re-opened All Over Colony’, South China Morning Post & the Hongkong Telegraph, 6 Oct 1945 p. 1
Primary source: Newspaper article 'Education in Hong Kong Makes Good Progress' from The Hongkong News, 24th of February 1944
​‘The schools of Hong Kong today have to make the best of make-shift quarters wherever they can find them. In many cases, classrooms are found in ordinary residential houses, while others may still boast of playing fields and other amenities. However, the necessity of studying must go on, with educational facilities improving slowly but surely.’
'Education in Hong Kong Makes Good Progress' The Hong Kong News 24 Feb 1944, p3.
Hongkong News was a Japanese newspaper, the only newspaper that was authorised to be produced in English during the Japanese Occupation.
South China Morning Post is an English-language newspaper and provides a viewpoint of British administration
New Curriculum
The Japanese used anti-colonial rhetoric, setting out to remove any traces of Britishness to promote the message that they were liberating the Chinese from their British oppressors. However, instead of replacing Britishness with Chinese culture, they replaced it with Japanese.
'Nipponization': the process of making something or someone more Japanese or embodying the "Nippon spirit"What does Nippon mean? It is a Japanese name for Japan and comes from the term meaning the origin of the sun.
Japanese was now compulsory to be taught in all schools rather than English. School teachers who taught before the occupation of Japan were required to learn Japanese and attend training courses organised by Japanese military authorities.
This article from Hongkong News in 1943 outlines the aims of the Japanese in liberating Hong Komg into the 'ideal Asia'
Primary source: 'How to Achieve the Ideal Asia', The Hongkong News Friday 1st of January 1943, p 3.
Bi-lingual Education
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‘This will necessarily involve the general establishment of the East Asia educational system on a bi-lingual basis, with the Japanese as a compulsory language in all middle and higher schools
This may raise objections from the Chinese, who may claim that, as the largest and most densely populated of the East Asia group, their language should be used for trade and political purposes. But the arguments against the use of Chinese are many. Firstly, Japan, being the dominant Asiatic power and the protector of East Asia, will be the nucleus of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and for this reason alone, if for none other, the Japanese language must receive pride of place'
Training for teachers
A teacher training school was established by Japanese authorities called the East Asia Hong Kong School Toa Gakuin. It was established in the former premise of St Stephens Girls College and opened on April 1st 1943. Mr Munetoshi Kobayashi was shipped from Japan to be the appointed headmaster. Teachers were trained to learn Japanese as it was compulsory in the new curriculum as Japanese was intended to be the centralised language that would be used in Hong Kong.
Primary source: 'Details announced of East Asia School', The Hongkong News, 5th of March 1943 p. 2
As reported in the HongKkong news on March 1, steps are being taken by the Governor’s Office to establish a Hongkong Toa Gakuim (East Asia School) in order to provide higher educational facilities for Chinese, other Asiaties and third nationals at the former premises of the St Stephen’s Girls’ College at Nishitaisho-dori. The school is expected to open on April 1.
The objects of the school are to provide higher education facilities in Hongkong and to teach the true Oriental spirit and culture to the younger generation. An interesting feature of the school is that it will have facilities for co-education’.
Included in the course of the higher class are lessons in translation from Japanese to Chinese and vice versa, public citizenship, the teaching of the true Oriental spirit and Japanese moralit, customs and social habits. In addition, there will be East Asia geography and history physical training, games, contests, fencing and judo and voice culture.
References
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Anthony Sweeting Education in Hong Kong 1941 to 2001: Visions and Revisions, (Hong Kong: Hong University Press, 2004), p. 82
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'Education in Hongkong Makes Good Progress' The Hong Kong News Online 24 Feb 1944, p 2.
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Education in Hong Kong 1941 to 2001 visions and revisions by Anthony Sweeting page 82