Title:'HONG KONG TODAY': REHABILITATION OF HONG KONG AND OPENING OF HONG KONG WAR CRIMES TRIALS [Allocated Title]
Film Number:JFU 589
Other titles:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: 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.
Description: 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.
Attached media - film JFU 589 and JFU 590
Alternative Title:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Production Details: War Office Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor)
SEAC Film Unit (Production company)
Tulloch, John ReayJohn Reay Tulloch, 375458, sergeant (later lieutenant, commissioned 25 April 1946) cameraman with No 9 Army Film & Photographic Unit (SEAC Film Unit). (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Festing, Francis Wogan (person)
Royal Air Force, Transport Command (regiment/service)
Keywords: Kowloon, Hong Kong (geography)
Kai Tak, Kowloon, Hong Kong (geography)
Liberation of Hong Kong 1945, Pacific War 1941-1945, Second World War (event)
Japanese Atrocities, War Crimes (event)
Investigation of War Crimes, War Crimes Trials (event)
Singapore War Crimes Trials, War Crimes Trials (event)
India 1939-1945 (theme)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
JFU 483 (IDENTIFICATION OF JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS AT HONG KONG [Allocated Title])
JFU 563 (HONG KONG TODAY [Allocated Title])
JFU 495 (ACCUSED JAPANESE WAR CRIMINAL KAZUO KOGI AT HONG KONG [Allocated Title])
JFU 590 ('HONG KONG TODAY': COMMANDOS PATROL THE STREETS [Allocated Title])
JFU 626 (PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN HONG KONG [Allocated Title])
