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History
of stubborn resistance on the Island, the defenders - including the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps - were overwhelmed and Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day.
The Japanese occupation lasted for three years and eight months. Trade virtually disappeared, currency lost its value, food supplies were disrupted, and government services and public utilities were seriously impaired. Many residents moved to Macao, the neutral Portuguese enclave hospitably opening its doors to them. Towards the latter part of the occupation, the Japanese sought to ease the food problems by organising mass deportations.
In the face of increasing oppression, the bulk of the community remained loyal to the anti- Japanese cause. In February 1942, the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Battalion of the East River Column was established in Wong Mo Ying, a village in Sai Kung. They attacked the Japanese bases and shipping lines on the sea. Together with Allied forces, they carried out rescues of prisoners of war. Soon after news of the Japanese surrender was received on 15 August 1945, a provisional government was set up by the Colonial Secretary, Mr (later Sir) Frank Gimson, who had spent the occupation imprisoned in Stanley Gaol. On 30 August, Rear Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt arrived with units of the British Pacific Fleet to establish a temporary military government. Civil government was formally restored on 1 May 1946, when Sir Mark Young resumed his interrupted governorship.
Post-war Years
After the Japanese surrender, Chinese civilians - many of whom had moved to the Mainland during the war - returned at a rate of almost 100,000 a month. The population, which by August 1945 had been reduced to about 600,000, rose by the end of 1947 to an estimated 1.8 million. In 1948-49, as the forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government began to face defeat in civil war at the hands of the Communists, Hong Kong received an influx unparalleled in its history. Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from Kwangtung (Guangdong) province, Shanghai and other commercial centres, entered during 1949 and the spring of 1950. By mid-1950, the population had swelled to an estimated 2.2 million. Population numbers have continued to grow, reaching four million by 1971, five million by 1980, six million by 1994, and now over seven million.
The surge of people in the early 1950s led to a drastic increase in the number of squatters. A squatter fire left 53,000 people homeless on Christmas Day 1953, and the government responded with emergency rehousing measures, marking the start of the public housing programme. It has since developed into a programme encompassing a wide range of rental and home ownership flats and facilities. In the fourth quarter of 2017, roughly 29 per cent of the population were living in public rental housing.
Hong Kong started to industrialise to overcome economic stagnation caused by the United Nations' trade embargo on China in 1951 arising from the Korean war. No longer could the city rely solely on its port to provide prosperity for its swollen population. The rise of its manufacturing sector began with the setting up of textile mills. The mills expanded their range of products and, by the 1960s, they included man-made fibres and garments. During this decade, textiles and clothing made up about half of domestic exports by value.
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