Royal - HKU Libraries - The University of Hong Kong

It 8 am on 8 December 1941, 12 Japanese bombers,supported by 36 fighters, attacked Kai Tak airport.At the same time (though it was 7 December because ofthe International Date Line) the Japanese attacked PearlHarbour.The bombing of Kai Tak, which must have been audiblefrom the Observatory, destroyed Hong Kong's handful ofRoyal Air Force aircraft on the ground, along with eightcivilian planes.The ground forces resisted valiantly, but were eventuallydriven back to Hong Kong Island, and on Christmas Daythe colony fell.The occupying Japanese forces used the Observatory -rather casually - as a meteorological station from then untilthey surrendered in August 1945. The Observatory compoundwas the site of two anti-aircraft guns.The Observatory buildings suffered only superficialdamage, but the Japanese removed most of the equipment,including the transit circle and the chronograph.During the battle of Hong Kong in December 1941, theJapanese shelled the Island with guns based on the lawn infront of the Water Police Station, Tsim Sha Tsui. The timeball tower was temporarily used as an ammunition store.The Director of the Observatory, Mr. Jeffries, had diedsuddenly in June 1941. His successor, Mr. B. D. Evans, wasinterned, along with other senior officers.No records survive of any observations made at theObservatory during the Japanese occupation.What records do exist are interesting not only for theweather information they contain, but as historic documents.They were compiled in the internment camp atStanley, and fall into four broad sections:Rainfall records for 1942 and 1943, kept by Evans. These arescribbled in pencil on the backs of carefully flattened cigarettepackets. Mr, Thompson recorded rainfall for 1944, also on cigarettepackets, along with a table of annual rainfall - minimum,maximum, average and total - for the 50 years 1884-1933.