100 Hong Kong wartime aerial photos on display reveal WWII details in Kowloon
Collection retrieved from US National Archives is on display in different locations in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City and Yau Ma Tei
Professor Kwong Chi-man, chair of Baptist University’s history department, said the aerial photo collection of the Kowloon Peninsula, taken between 1941 and 1945, was retrieved from the United States National Archives and Records Administration.
Organised by the department’s Hong Kong Spatial History Project, the ongoing exhibition includes one rare image capturing the moment when Whampoa Dock in Hung Hom came under attack on April 5, 1945.
“It was recently found in an action report that clearly showed the bombing at that time, and the damage made in an earlier attack,” Kwong said, referring to the largest air raid in Hong Kong that took place on October 16, 1944, and killed about 900 civilians.
“During the Japanese occupation, Japan deemed Hong Kong a shipping and logistics base. Since October 1942, the Allied forces had launched attacks on dockyards to weaken their functions.
“There’s a chance we might find bombs in the waters off Hung Hom, alongside areas in Tai Koo, Admiralty and Wan Chai, that were under severe attack.”
A 1,000lb (454kg) wartime bomb unearthed in Quarry Bay last month was believed to have come from a US air raid targeting Taikoo Dockyard on April 2, 1945.