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History

fell to the Japanese in 1938, resulting in a mass flight of refugees to Hong Kong. It was estimated that some 100,000 refugees entered in 1937, 500,000 in 1938 and 150,000 in 1939 - bringing Hong Kong's population at the outbreak of World War II to an estimated 1.6 million. It was thought that at the height of the influx, about 500,000 people were sleeping in the streets.

Japan entered World War II on 7 December 1941, when its aircraft bombed United States warships at Pearl Harbour. At about the same time, Japanese armed forces attacked Hong Kong (8 December 1941, Hong Kong time). They invaded the city across the border from China and pushed the British from the New Territories and Kowloon on to Hong Kong Island. After a week 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 allied cause. Chinese guerrillas operated in the New Territories, and the rural population helped escaping allied personnel. 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 2016, around 2.1 million. people - roughly 30 per cent of the population - were living in public rental housing.

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