WW2-ANNIVERSARY/CHINA-MILITARY YEN Hong Kong's WW2 survivors urge Japan to convert military yen to usable money

Record ID: 143955

  • Title: WW2-ANNIVERSARY/CHINA-MILITARY YEN Hong Kong's WW2 survivors urge Japan to convert military yen to usable money
  • Date: 14th August 2015
  • Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (AUGUST 14, 2015) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS MARCHING IN DEMONSTRATION ORGANIZED BY THE HONG KONG REPARATION ASSOCIATION PROTESTER LEADING CHANTS CHAIRMAN OF HONG KONG REPARATION ASSOCIATION, LAU MAN, MARCHING CHILD MARCHING HOLDING ONTO ELDERLY PROTESTER'S SHIRT BANNER ATTACHED WITH DOZENS OF MILITARY YEN (SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) CHAIRMAN OF HONG KONG REPARATION
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA63199S37NQG1RPF5HSHKASYT4
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS NOTE, PLEASE REFER TO 0078-WW2-ANNIVERSARY/FILE-PART ONE AND 0079-WW2-ANNIVERSARY/FILE-PART TWO SENT ON AUGUST 9 FOR FILE MATERIAL
    A group of World War Two survivors in Hong Kong took their 70-year-old fight to the Japanese consulate on Friday (August 14) and demanded Tokyo convert millions of military yen issued during the war into usable money.
    Japan occupied Hong Kong for three years and eight months before surrendering on August 15, 1945. During the occupation, people were forced to exchange their legal tender into military yen.
    The Hong Kong Reparation Association said about 3,000 people who hold a total of roughly 500 million military yen have voiced their grievances with them over the years.
    The sheets of paper money lost all their value overnight on September 6, 1945, a few weeks after the surrender, when the Japanese government announced the military yen would not be worth anything anymore.
    On Friday, one day before the anniversary of the surrender, about 30 elderly members of the association took to the streets urging Japan to give them proper compensation.
    The head of the association, Lau Man, said Japan has left the issue hanging for too long.
    "They (the Japanese army) converted all Hong Kong people's money into the military yen. They surrendered and fled in 1945, but to this very day they still haven't resolved the issue and haven't taken back their military yen," Lau said.
    The Association had sued the Japanese government in 1993 for compensation, but after a six year long legal battle, Tokyo's district court ruled in favour of the government on the grounds that Japan does not have laws on military yen, according to local media.
    The protesters said they do not know how much the money should be worth today, and hoped experts could help calculate the correct compensation amount and take 70 years of inflation into account.
    The group also condemned Tokyo's lower house of parliament for passing a controversial security bill in July, which would allow the country's troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War Two.
    Lau said Japan's move would harm regional security.
    "The memory of Hong Kong's occupation that lasted for three years and eight months during World War Two is still fresh in our minds. But now militarism is reviving. This greatly threatens peace in Hong Kong and in Asia," he said.
    The protesters also took their plight to the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, because it was the successor of the Yokohama Specie Bank, which issued the military yen notes.
    During wartime, Hong Kong people were forced to pay HKD$2 for every military yen. The exchange rate later went down to HKD$4 to a yen.
    Stacking bundles of military yen on his table, 81-year-old Tang Tak-ming recalled a Japanese bomb landed at a store and killed his father when he was only about seven years old.
    He remembered seeing Japanese troops piling all the bodies into a truck and driving away. Even now he does not know where his father's body is.
    Tang said the Japanese would beat up people who secretly hid Hong Kong dollars.
    "After the Japanese army came to Hong Kong, we could not shop with Hong Kong dollars, we had to use military yen. If you were walking down the street and they found Hong Kong dollars on you, they would beat you, like this. The Japanese would stand on guard on every street corner. If they found Hong Kong dollars on you they would hit you. So we were all forced to use military yen. We still have the military yen from that time," Tang said.
    Tang owns between 300,000 to 400,000 military yen, but he said they are useless pieces of paper now.
    Although it has been over half a century, Tang said they would continue to fight for justice.
    "Many of us are old. Many already passed away, but we'd just pass this to the next generation. But we'll still chase them (for compensation) as long as we are alive," Tang said.
    The Royal Hong Kong Regiment Association would mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War on Sunday (August 16).
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