START 00:10:37 Views of a community of Chinese people living on board sampans in a harbour on Hong Kong island.

00:13:09 A victory parade through Hong Kong's Central District with people marching with colourful banners, Allied flags (no British flags are visible) parasols, dragon masks and floats, including one of a British First World War battleship in Nationalist Chinese colours. Youthful demonstrators with Chinese Nationalist flags on board sampans on Hong Kong's waterfront near a ferry terminal linking the island to Kowloon.

00:15:49 In a bay somewhere on Hong Kong island (Aberdeen ?), a Chinese junk has been beached for cleaning and other running repairs. Views of the floating community of sampans and junks in the harbour.

00:17:09 Views filmed from a ship moving through Victoria Harbour showing sampans being manoeuvred by their owners using stern oars and under sail and HMHS Gerusalemme, a hospital ship, at anchor in Victoria Harbour, with a US Navy supply vessel visible in the background.

00:18:29 A panorama over sampans and junks in a harbour somewhere on Hong Kong island and a view from the waterfront where people sit down at cafe tables (?) or stroll up and down. Shots showing a large number of sampans, each one a family home; the cameraman concentrates on young children playing in the shallows, paddling a small dinghy and living on board on one of the many sampans in the harbour.

END 00:21:03

16mm Kodachrome footage filmed in September 1945 showing ordinary life in Hong Kong and Chinese victory celebrations in the city.

Notes

Acquisition: Harold Thomson retrieved this Kodachrome footage from the Royal Navy and passed it on to the IWM after meeting Neil Pilfold of the Department of Information Retrieval in 1980.

Remarks: excellent footage.