'HONG KONG TODAY': REHABILITATION OF HONG KONG AND OPENING OF HONG KONG WAR CRIMES TRIALS (6/3/1946)

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: JFU 589).

Synopsis

Part 1, shot on 6 March 1946: Platform sign reads 'Kowloon'. Repeat shot of the sign with pan to a passenger locomotive reversing. Chinese labourers wearing conical straw hats at work on Kai Tak airfield; behind them a Vultee Vengeance divebomber comes in as if to land before taking off again. Train arriving at Kowloon station; a woman with a pole hurries alongside and a number of buckets are passed out of a carriage window to her, while the passengers disembark. Passengers walk along the platform and the camera pans to follow them. Passengers pass through a gate and hand tickets to a collector. A trolley piled high with square objects is pulled along by a number of civilians. The trolley is hauled towards the docks. A view of a gas holder or gasometer, with an Indian soldier on sentry duty and civilians with handcarts. Out of focus view of a Dakota landing at Kai Tak. Passengers, apparently from the Dakota, get down from a lorry; pan to a sign which reads 'No. 201 Staging Post RAF Transport Command'. The gates of the Hong Kong Electric Company are pushed open and a car drives in, apparently carrying company officials; pan to chimney stacks. Very dark interior apparently showing an engineer checking an instrument panel. A clearer shot of the same. Looking down on a coal heap with civilian labourers; pan to the gasometer. Civilian women hauling a trolley laden with pieces of scrap metal.

Part 2, shot on 28 March 1946: Exterior of headquarters Hong Kong Land Forces with a sign which reads 'War Crimes Court No.5'; the General Officer Commanding Hong Kong, Major-General Frank Festing, gets out of his car and goes inside as the camera follows him (the cameraman slightly misjudges this shot and Festing is cut off at the chest). A civilian woman selling newspapers with billboard that reads 'China Mail - Hong Kong War Trials Begin - Grim tales of torture and killing - Security Council deadlock'. Closer shot of the headline. Japanese war crimes suspects get down from a lorry. They are marched into the court compound led by the senior accused; they keep step and are escorted by armed Commandos. Very dark interior shot of the courtroom.

Two part film showing (1) scenes related to the economic rehabilitation of Hong Kong and (2) the opening of the trials of suspected Japanese war criminals.

Notes

For other material showing Hong Kong shot by Sergeant Tulloch under the title 'Hong Kong Today', see related items.

Sergeant Tulloch's dopesheet states that the accused in Part 2 were charged with 'committing a war crime, in that they at Lantau Island between August 18 1945 August 26 1945, in violation of the laws and usages of war, were together concerned in the beating, torture and maltreatment of inhabitants of the Silver Mine Bay district of Lantau aforesaid and in the killing of nine of the said inhabitants'. For film of the identification of suspects in this case, see related items.

 

Titles

  • 'HONG KONG TODAY': REHABILITATION OF HONG KONG AND OPENING OF HONG KONG WAR CRIMES TRIALS (6/3/1946) (Allocated)
Series Title:
BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
 

Technical Data

Year:
1946
Running Time:
8 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
35mm
Colour:
B&W
Sound:
Silent
Footage:
689 ft
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB
Sponsor
War Office Directorate of Public Relations
Production company
SEAC Film Unit
Sergeant; cameraman.
Tulloch, John Reay
 

Countries

 

Production Organisations