Download or read book The Longest Odds Canadians in Hong Kong 1941 written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Japan entered the Second World War in 1941, the British suffered a catastrophic defeat in Malaya and Singapore. Those events overshadowed the heroic defence of another British colony - Hong Kong. A garrison largely composed of Canadian troops - the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada - outnumbered four to one, without hope of relief, held off the Japanese for two weeks. It was one of the heroic defences of history.
Download or read book TAM KWONG written by Cameron Tam and published by Partridge Publishing Singapore. This book was released on 2023-06-14 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography is about the life’s journey of the late TAM Kwong through the eyes of his children growing up in Hong Kong and Brisbane from the 1960s. It entailed the times and life of a seafarer’s journey sailing the seven sea from 1940s during the golden age in Shipping era and eventually settled in Brisbane in the 1970s. The writer’s recollections of memories of his late father throughout different timelines at Pearl Sea (Zhuhai, Sanzao Dao,Guangzhou)/Hong Kong/Brisbane was turned to a collection of flashbacks, moments in time, portraying a historical account of a life lived through hard work, struggles and determination to succeed. The gallery of historical account was partly based on a manuscripts hand written by TAM Kwong in 1965 and skillfully built up to form the comprehensive account of a life that set the cornerstone to the foundation of the TAM’s Clan in Brisbane. The book represents the culmination of years of research. Diligently researched over the years and densely informative. The author’s work is a biography in full, and particularly rich on his father’s character, personality, and his way of life. The writer paints a vast canvas of his father but still maintains a sharp focus on his character, his reactions to people and events around him. Each chapter contains a wealth of fascinating historical Information. It is especially touching to read his description of his father to whom the writer here offers a gracious tribute. Perhaps the most poignant section of the book is a collection of essays and reviews about his father. He has turned his memory of his father, among many others, into a virtual reality by display of various miniature models for those younger generations to capture their interest and brought his father’s characteristic in exhaustive details. A wonderful sense of narrative pace and style, and surely a passion for his aim .The writer succeeds in portraying his parents come to life in this clearly written while entertaining and well-researched biography - an extraordinary piece of family historical account pieced together from scratches over the years. Overall, the book is engaging. Interspersed throughout the book are little asides of easy reading. There may be sensitively written vignettes from the life of his late father that Cameron is writing about, autobiographical episodes from his own life, or fanciful stories or determination. In short, densely intertwined with tales makes it nearly impossible for readers, once drawn in, to lose interest, an uncommon achievement of both style and substance. The real stuff is in the writer’s individual pieces - passionate, thoughtful and, usually, enlightening ...riveting. The historical context of his father was well described by the writer while the strength of the book lies in the way he conveys his father’s virtues and outlook on life, which are inspirational and educational for his children and progeny to follow. I would recommend that anyone living in Brisbane should read the book if they want to add or share the writer’s memory (of course in a less than pedantic way) of the development history of Brisbane in the recent decades as witnessed by the writer over the years. Looking back, an account of the embryonic growth of Brisbane is particularly lively and informative from the perspective of an ordinary resident ever since living through his boyhood and growing up in this wonderful city. There are many model displays of various scale for readers to visualize the scenes mentioned in the chapters and to capture readers’ attention on some history events/places to arouse their interest from a historical perspective. As Dad’s grandchildren are all born in Australia, hopefully the grandchildren and their progenies can get to know this mild mannered chef and pastry cook and learn how he shaped the family future in the land “Downunder” where “Women glow and Men thunder”.
Download or read book Betrayal written by Terry Meagher and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book C Force to Hong Kong written by Brereton Greenhous and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2016-02-22 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of a “no military risk” campaign that slowly turned into a nightmare. The book provides new answers to a number of difficult questions beginning with a discussion of why Canadian troops were sent to Hong Kong at the request of the British War Office. Were the British duplicitous in making this request? Was Canadian Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar, guilty of putting his own interests above those of his men in telling the minister of National Defence that there was “no military risk” in sending the “C” Force? The book recounts the formation of the “C” Force and its departure to Hong Kong where it arrived just three weeks before the Japanese attack. It outlines the course of the battle from December 8, 1941, until the inevitable surrender of the garrison on Christmas Day. It places appropriate emphasis on the Canadian contribution, refuting 1947 allegations by the British General-Officer-Commanding — allegations which were only made public in 1993 — that the Canadians did not fight well. Greenhous attacks these charges with solid evidence from participants and eye-witnesses. Finally, the book tells the story of life and death in the prison camps of Hong Kong and Japan.
Download or read book No Reason why written by Carl Vincent and published by Stittsville, Ont. : Canada's Wings. This book was released on 1981 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Japan 1941 written by Eri Hotta and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking history that considers the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective and is certain to revolutionize how we think of the war in the Pacific. When Japan launched hostilities against the United States in 1941, argues Eri Hotta, its leaders, in large part, understood they were entering a war they were almost certain to lose. Drawing on material little known to Western readers, and barely explored in depth in Japan itself, Hotta poses an essential question: Why did these men—military men, civilian politicians, diplomats, the emperor—put their country and its citizens so unnecessarily in harm’s way? Introducing us to the doubters, schemers, and would-be patriots who led their nation into this conflagration, Hotta brilliantly shows us a Japan rarely glimpsed—eager to avoid war but fraught with tensions with the West, blinded by reckless militarism couched in traditional notions of pride and honor, tempted by the gambler’s dream of scoring the biggest win against impossible odds and nearly escaping disaster before it finally proved inevitable. In an intimate account of the increasingly heated debates and doomed diplomatic overtures preceding Pearl Harbor, Hotta reveals just how divided Japan’s leaders were, right up to (and, in fact, beyond) their eleventh-hour decision to attack. We see a ruling cadre rich in regional ambition and hubris: many of the same leaders seeking to avoid war with the United States continued to adamantly advocate Asian expansionism, hoping to advance, or at least maintain, the occupation of China that began in 1931, unable to end the second Sino-Japanese War and unwilling to acknowledge Washington’s hardening disapproval of their continental incursions. Even as Japanese diplomats continued to negotiate with the Roosevelt administration, Matsuoka Yosuke, the egomaniacal foreign minister who relished paying court to both Stalin and Hitler, and his facile supporters cemented Japan’s place in the fascist alliance with Germany and Italy—unaware (or unconcerned) that in so doing they destroyed the nation’s bona fides with the West. We see a dysfunctional political system in which military leaders reported to both the civilian government and the emperor, creating a structure that facilitated intrigues and stoked a jingoistic rivalry between Japan’s army and navy. Roles are recast and blame reexamined as Hotta analyzes the actions and motivations of the hawks and skeptics among Japan’s elite. Emperor Hirohito and General Hideki Tojo are newly appraised as we discover how the two men fumbled for a way to avoid war before finally acceding to it. Hotta peels back seventy years of historical mythologizing—both Japanese and Western—to expose all-too-human Japanese leaders torn by doubt in the months preceding the attack, more concerned with saving face than saving lives, finally drawn into war as much by incompetence and lack of political will as by bellicosity. An essential book for any student of the Second World War, this compelling reassessment will forever change the way we remember those days of infamy.
Download or read book Pulp Paper Magazine of Canada written by and published by . This book was released on 1942 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Not the Slightest Chance written by Tony Banham and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2003-02-01 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 10% of Hong Kong's defenders were killed in battle; a further 20% died in captivity. Those who survived seldom spoke of their experiences. Many died young. The little 'primary' material surviving – written in POW camps or years after the events – is contradictory and muddled. Yet with just 14,000 defending the Colony, it was possible to write from the individual's point of view rather than that of the Big Battalions so favoured by God (according to Napoleon) and most historians. The book assembles a phase-by-phase, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and death-by-death account of the battle. It considers the individual actions that made up the fighting, as well as the strategies and plans and the many controversies that arose. Not the Slightest Chance will be of interest to military historians, Hong Kong residents and visitors, and those in the UK, Canada, and elsewhere whose family members fought, or were interned, in Hong Kong during the war years.
Download or read book Battle for Hong Kong December 1941 written by Philip Cracknell and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 25 December 1941 is known to this day by the people of Hong Kong as ‘Black Christmas’. The battle for Hong Kong is a story that deserves to be better known.
Download or read book The Fall of the Philippines written by Louis Morton and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Frommer s Halifax written by Carol Matthews and published by *Frommers. This book was released on 2003-04-09 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * The comprehensive guide to Atlantic Canada's premier city * Cruise ship dockings in Halifax Harbour increased 130% between 2000 and 2001 * Halifax is within easy driving distance of several eastern states * Includes comprehensive listings and star ratings for the best lodgings, restaurants and attractions in the city and other must-see attractions like the Evangeline Trail, the Cabot Trail, and Peggy's Cove * Travel to Canada is at record levels as Americans search for affordable and friendly vacations close to home
Download or read book Those Angry Days written by Lynne Olson and published by Random House Incorporated. This book was released on 2013 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the crisis period leading up to America's entry in World War II, describing the nation's polarized interventionist and isolation factions as represented by the government, in the press and on the streets, in an account that explores the forefront roles of British-supporter President Roosevelt and isolationist Charles Lindbergh. (This book was previously featured in Forecast.)
Download or read book Air Force Combat Units of World War II written by Maurer Maurer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1961 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Advice And Support The Early Years 1941 1960 Illustrated Edition written by Ronald H. Spector and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 812 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes over 75 maps, photos and plans. The present volume describes the activities of the U.S. Army in Vietnam during World War II, military advice and assistance to the French government during the immediate post-war years, and the advisory program that developed after the Geneva Agreements of 1954. Its scope ranges from high-level policy decisions to low-echelon advisory operations in the field, presented against a background of relevant military and political developments. The author enjoyed access to the official records of the period and examined personal papers, interviews, other documentary sources, and miscellaneous published materials. Useful not only as a study of military assistance but as a view of the Army as an agent of national policy, this volume is a fitting introduction to the overall study of the conflict in Vietnam.
Download or read book Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada written by and published by . This book was released on 1942 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of the Canadian Dollar written by James Powell and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai written by John D. Meehan and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-10-20 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canadians share a long history with China. Canada is home to a large Chinese diaspora, it appointed a trade commissioner to Shanghai over a century ago, and it was one of the first Western nations to recognize the People’s Republic of China. This absorbing account of Canadian sojourners in Shanghai, from the arrival of Lord Elgin in 1858 to the closing of the consulate general in 1952, gives a human face to that history. Some Canadians came to save souls, nourish bodies, and educate minds; others sought financial and political gain. Their experiences – which unfolded against a backdrop of civil war, invasion, and revolution in China and were coloured by Canada’s evolution from colony to nation – reflected Canada’s deepening relationship with China and the troubling asymmetries that underpinned it. Although Canadians, like other foreigners, had left Shanghai by the early 1950s, their lives and activities foreshadowed more recent Canadian initiatives in that city, and in China more generally.
