Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong

Having spent the night in the beautiful and grand lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, we had to leave the very next morning. For those who have not read my first blog, I must explain that it was Monday, 8 December, 1941. Hong Kong was attacked by Japan. Those of us living in Kowloon had experience a day of the heavy carpet bombing. A very frightening experience for a 10 year old girl, especially when the house next door to her house was hit and the lovely couple – friends – were both killed.

My father a civilian with Kadoorie’s HK Engineering and Construction Company, was at the time of the attack, on exercises with the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corp (HKVDC) somewhere in the New Territories. The exercises suddenly turned to the real thing and he then was blowing up roads and bridges in defense of our beloved Hong Kong.

After a day of bombing, my father left his post to take my mother, my sister and me to the Peninsula Hotel where an evacuation of women and children was being organised.

Once at the Peninsula Lobby, I felt safe but terribly worried about my father. The Lobby with its tall ceiling and massive columns had only happy thoughts for me – milkshakes and cakes with my mother. Surely nothing can happen to us here!

Alas, the next morning we had to leave. We were taken in groups in small power boats. The harbour in those days was wider and it took longer to get to the Hong Kong side. I remember sitting huddled next to my mother and looking at the Peninsula, the beautiful proud building – its original size – watching it get smaller and smaller as the boat puffed away. My little girl’s heart ached – I hated to leave. It would have ached much more, had I envisioned what awaited us.