Reappraising the Battle of Hong Kong: Preliminary Observations from a Spatial History Project

This article summarises the author’s recent experience of revisiting the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941 through a spatial history project based on a critical reading of primary sources from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. The spatial history approach allows the author to propose new observations about the operational and tactical dimensions of the battle, the experience of the Canadian forces, the performance of the Japanese forces and the reasons for the battle’s outcome, which was seemingly a foregone conclusion. This article also discusses some possible future research directions on the topic and outlines how these new directions help with the commemoration of the battle in Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and the United Kingdom.