471
8 months of their occupation, and their view of their role here, and putting this into a satisfying chronological framework, while at the same time casting light on the internal politics and disputes within the Japanese administration. While not attempting an analysis in depth of the internal bureaucratic structures in place under the Japanese, the book in fact gives a great deal of information on this as well, incidentally showing why the Japanese administration was so grossly ineffective and inefficient in almost everything it undertook. It is also of great value in clarifying the involved and tangled politics among the various parties involved in the restoration of British rule - the Nationalist and Communist Chinese, the British, the Americans, and the Japanese. For the first time, a book puts flesh on the major figures of the Japanese period, especially Governor Isogai, so that they cease to appear as the cardboard cut-outs they have normally been seen as, and can be seen as real people. Much the same goes for the book's excellent delineation of the major Chinese elite figures and the role they played under the Japanese, especially Sir Robert Kotewall and Sir Shouson Chow. Also of the greatest value and interest is the careful discussion of the role and changing attitudes of the Chinese elite to the Japanese and the British (although this could, perhaps, have been still more nuanced than it is), and the detailed, and very satisfying, analysis of exactly how the period of the Japanese Occupation shaped and changed British attitudes to Hong Kong and its citizens in the post-War period. Fascinating stuff, and all of it immensely useful and valuable.
That is not, however, to say that the book is without flaws. Unfortunately, the first half of the first chapter, and most of the concluding Epilogue chapter, are caricatures. These sections cover Hong Kong in the 1930s, and after 1947. These give a sketch of the British in Hong Kong as lethargic, "troglodytic," stupid, third-rate, racist, status-seeking, arrogant, selfish and self-centred - colonialists in the comic-book tradition, in other words - and assume that, having said so much, little else requires to be said. The account of Governor Grantham and his administration in particular cannot be said to be in any way a well-rounded portrait. Snow seems to have taken the "Gin and Bridge all day" description of 1930s Hong Kong at face value, which is a very great pity. There is, of course, some truth in this sketch of the British, as there is in all good caricature, but it is not the truth, but a distortion of the truth. For this reviewer, reading the first Chapter almost led me to give up reading the rest, fearing that the book would be throughout
471
8 months of their occupation, and their view of their role here, and putting this into a satisfying chronological framework, while at the same time casting light on the internal politics and disputes within the Japanese administration. While not attempting an analysis in depth of the internal bureaucratic structures in place under the Japanese, the book in fact gives a great deal of information on this as well, incidentally showing why the Japanese administration was so grossly ineffective and inefficient in almost everything it undertook. It is also of great value in clarifying the involved and tangled politics among the various parties involved in the restoration of British rule - the Nationalist and Communist Chinese, the British, the Americans, and the Japanese. For the first time, a book puts flesh on the major figures of the Japanese period, especially Governor Isogai, so that they cease to appear as the cardboard cut-outs they have normally been seen as, and can be seen as real people. Much the same goes for the book's excellent delineation of the major Chinese elite figures and the role they played under the Japanese, especially Sir Robert Kotewall and Sir Shouson Chow. Also of the greatest value and interest is the careful discussion of the role and changing attitudes of the Chinese elite to the Japanese and the British (although this could, perhaps, have been still more nuanced than it is), and the detailed, and very satisfying, analysis of exactly how the period of the Japanese Occupation shaped and changed British attitudes to Hong Kong and its citizens in the post-War period. Fascinating stuff, and all of it immensely useful and valuable.
That is not, however, to say that the book is without flaws. Unfortunately, the first half of the first chapter, and most of the concluding Epilogue chapter, are caricatures. These sections cover Hong Kong in the 1930s, and after 1947. These give a sketch of the British in Hong Kong as lethargic, "troglodytic," stupid, third-rate, racist, status- seeking, arrogant, selfish and self-centred - colonialists in the comic- book tradition, in other words - and assume that, having said so much, little else requires to be said. The account of Governor Grantham and his administration in particular cannot be said to be in any way a well- rounded portrait. Snow seems to have taken the "Gin and Bridge all day" description of 1930s Hong Kong at face value, which is a very great pity. There is, of course, some truth in this sketch of the British, as there is in all good caricature, but it is not the truth, but a distortion of the truth. For this reviewer, reading the first Chapter almost led me to give up reading the rest, fearing that the book would be throughout
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