Today was educational. We took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to go to the Hong Kong Museum of History.
The most interesting thing that I'd never known anything about was the Japanese occupation during World War II.
It's no secret that Japan invaded China and subjected its people to the most terrible occupation. Hong Kong was no exception. Britain put up a fight but was no match for the formidable Japanese who attacked on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor.
Not only did the people of Hong Kong suffer the humiliation of being occupied, they were subject to conditions which resulted in shortages, dissolution of institutions like the educational system, cholera, and starvation.
While the Brits seemed like the good guys at that point, it wasn't always so. The way they got Hong Kong in the first place is arguably as disgraceful and underhanded as probably anything they ever did during their sketchy empirical past. Basically, the Chinese wouldn't do international trade with Britain, so those wily Brits flooded the area with opium, getting the population so addicted that the locals would agree to anything.
On a side note, because it was a weekday, we were surrounded by school groups. Most of the children looked to be in kindergarten or first grade. Clyde pointed out in contrast to what you might see at home, the adults supervising these groups weren't engaged in crisis management, yelling at the kids to pay attention or stay together. They were, instead, interacting with the children about the exhibits. All of the children were writing on worksheets presumably answering questions about what they were seeing. And though there were hundreds of them, I at no point felt stressed or inconvenienced by their presence. In fact, they were just cute as could be.
So back to the exhibits ...
Fortunately, according to the museum, Hong Kong is no longer ruled by Britain. You see, during the second half of the 20th century, after WWII, Hong Kong was a chaotic place of floods, fires, and riots. Thanks to the wise negotiations of the People's leaders with the rulers of the UK, Hong Kong was ceded back to China in 1997. The very last exhibit in the museum is a movie describing all of this, ending with a great show of celebratory fireworks.
I had no quibble with any of the history presented up through WWII. In fact, it reminded me of how much I don't know about the world. Even the point of view describing the post war years was important to see. This is why it's important to travel. Seeing first hand how others see the world, learning what they value, and learning what they're taught, helps us understand each other better. When you get right down to it, it's harder to go to war (or justify a stupid, unnecessary, counterproductive trade war, which yes, is affecting Hong Kong) with people that you've met in person.
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