HONG KONG, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) — In December 1941, Hong Kong, then below British colonial rule, fell into the arms of Japanese invaders. For three years and eight months, Hong Kong folks fought valiantly in opposition to Japanese aggressors, punctuated by quite a few heroic episodes.
Now, native communities are working exhausting to make these reminiscences final by future generations, scouring for historic information and using fashionable applied sciences corresponding to chatbots to recount tales of WWII.
HOUSING MEMORIES
In Sha Tau Kok in northern Kowloon Peninsula, a row of 5 linked homes constructed over 90 years in the past stands in refreshed grandeur and awaits guests.
It was the ancestral residence of the Lo household, a Hong Kong household that noticed 11 of its members be a part of the Dongjiang (East River) Column, a guerrilla led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to combat in opposition to Japanese aggression. With years of efforts from descendants of the Lo household and native communities, the homes opened to the general public in 2022 as a memorial museum on the historical past of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the primary of its variety in Hong Kong.
“Shaken to their cores by the Nanjing Massacre and other Japanese atrocities, my three uncles decided to join the fight against Japanese aggressors,” stated Wong Chunhong, founder and director of the memorial museum.
Wong’s second-oldest uncle Lo Yu Ching housed fellow guerrilla fighters within the household residence, which later developed into an operation base and transportation station for the Hong Kong Independent Battalion of the Dongjiang Column. Lo Au Fung, the youngest of the three brothers, led a maritime squadron in waters off Sha Tau Kok to disrupt the invaders’ provide line.
To move on the tales of the Lo household and numerous different Hong Kong households dedicated to preventing Japanese invaders, native communities determined to show the Lo residence right into a memorial museum in February 2018.
By the tip of July this 12 months, whole visits to the memorial museum had surpassed 96,000.
The museum is an indelible token of affection for the motherland, a accountability to the Hong Kong society and respect for the forefathers, he stated.
REVISITING PATHS
On Feb. 11, 1944, Lieutenant Donald W. Kerr was on a mission to bomb Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport, which had been was a Japanese airbase. After capturing down one Japanese Zero fighter, Kerr’s airplane was hit and caught hearth in a dogfight with three Zeros.
Kerr parachuted into the hills to the north of the closely guarded airport and was discovered by Li Shi, a liaison boy of the Dongjiang Column. Li, the “small boy” in Kerr’s journal, helped the injured pilot elude the primary hunt by the Japanese and reported to the guerrillas, who later transferred him to security.
“My father had always regretted not being able to come back to China after the war to thank the Dongjiang Column guerrillas who had helped him escape,” stated David Kerr.
In 2008, Kerr’s co-workers in Shenzhen helped him join with households of Dongjiang Column troopers, who took him and his older brother Andrew on a lot of their father’s escape route.
“It was very humbling, because that was a difficult trail,” stated Kerr. “It gave me a great appreciation for the difficult time that my father had and the help he was given by the Dongjiang Column.” During his journeys to Hong Kong, Kerr additionally met Li Shi, who at that time was in a retirement residence. “I was able to thank him for helping my father,” stated Kerr.
On Aug. 22, the simplified Chinese version of “A Memoir by Lt. Donald W. Kerr” was launched in South China’s Guangdong Province. The conventional Chinese version was printed in 2015, which took about eight years to arrange.
After attending the e-book launch, Kerr visited Hong Kong and retraced his father’s escape route once more, accompanied by Li Shi’s son.
“Wherever I go, Chinese people and American people are great friends with each other,” stated Kerr, who enjoys strolling facet by facet with the little children of the individuals who had walked alongside his father on the identical trails.
ENGAGING HISTORY
At Hong Kong’s Diocesan Girls’ School, a scholar surnamed Chan posed a query to a lifelike AI avatar of Lin Zhen — a 90-year-old veteran of the Dongjiang Column who joined the resistance at simply eight. Chan was eager to know the way she carried out her obligation in the course of the warfare at such a younger age.
The reply got here in a transparent, resolute voice, detailing the duties of a “little messenger” in WWII. For Chan, historical past shifted from static textual content to dwelling dialog.
Launched in September 2023 by the Hong Kong-based Academy of Chinese Studies, the AI dialogue platform permits college students to work together with digital recreations of veterans from the warfare in opposition to Japanese aggression.
Now being utilized in major and secondary faculties throughout town, the challenge leverages AI to bridge a generational hole, turning historic testimony into private encounters for Hong Kong’s youth.
Another scholar, surnamed Ng, stated the know-how animates the previous, and what she learns is not only WWII from textbooks, however the life and struggles of Lin and lots of others like her. “The courage stays with me,” she informed Xinhua.
For educators, the purpose extends past information. Principal Stella Lau Kun Lai-kuen described wartime training as a “multi-layered process” that builds patriotism and nationwide identification.
“Understanding our history helps us understand ourselves,” she stated. “This is essential for our students, and for all Hong Kong youth.”