On December 18, 1941, the Japanese troops touched down in Hong Kong. They started to make air raids all over the city, and a British crown colony was followed up on December 17. The Japanese wanted to pay a visit to Sir Mark Young, who was the British governor of Hong Kong at the time. The troops demanded that the British garrison there should surrender to the Japanese. The British knew that resistance would be pointless. However, the envoy was sent back with the following message, “The governor and commander in chief of Hong Kong decline absolutely to enter into negotiations for the surrender of Hong Kong.”

Following this, Japanese troops arrived back in Hong Kong with heavy weaponry fire. The order from their commander at the time was to take no prisoners. As a result of this, many soldiers were captured and bayoneted to death by the Japanese. Even the soldiers who didn’t retaliate were captured and ruthlessly murdered, including the Royal Medical Corps. The Japanese also took over important reservoirs and threatened to kill the British and Chinese by denying them water resources. Finally, after this onslaught, the British finally surrendered control of Hong Kong.

The War Powers Act, a congressional resolution made to limit the American president’s ability to start and escalate any military actions abroad, was passed on the same day and authorized the president to end defense contracts and start to reconfigure government agencies for priorities of war and freezing foreign assets. Finally, a censorship law was passed to restrict magazines, cartoons, and pinups. This was the start of the dire circumstances that the Chinese had to face.