Feature: Never surrendered -- Canadian veteran recalls defence of HK

"Old soldiers never die; they just fade away," goes an old barracks ballad. But for 93-year-old George MacDonell, the memories of the Second World War never fade away.

MacDonell said they never surrendered, either in the 18-day fighting against the Japanese or in the succeeding four years as prisoners of war (POWs) in Hong Kong and Japan.

In 1941, MacDonell was 19 and was told that he, along with a regiment of 1,975 young soldiers, was going to Hong Kong. "You can imagine the excitement. Here we are a bunch of farm boys from little towns, never been in big cities, know nothing about China," MacDonell told Xinhua in his Toronto residence.

After landing on the island, the young men acquainted themselves with China's ancient culture and the modern skyscrapers in "the pearl of the orient". They started learning about the Chinese, preparing for the defenses alongside the British army and local volunteers.

"We met Hong Kong volunteers, they were very professional citizens, they were going to be fighting with us, but nobody really believed that Japanese would be so foolish," said MacDonell.

On the morning of Dec. 8 local time, the Japanese struck Hong Kong, almost the same time they attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. MacDonell recalled, "Now the battle started, a gigantic Japanese army of approximately 80,000 men with a powerful airforce and a very strong naval presence, attacked Hong Kong. The Japanese were very well equipped and experienced troops that have been fighting in China. So a very difficult battle began, we were outnumbered enormously both in manpower and in equipment, we had no air support. On the first day, the Japanese destroyed our naval vessels in harbor and destroyed our military airplanes in Kaitak Airport."

A dreadful hand-to-hand battle took place. About a week into the battle, the soldiers received a message from Winston Churchill, then British Prime Minister: "Do not surrender, damage the Japanese as much as you can, delay them, do everything you can to buy time, but never surrender, do not give up the island, fight with the Chinese as long as you can, and harm the Japanese army as much as you can."

After 18 days, they were defeated, suffering a heavy casualties of about 500, and the survivors were exhausted. "We were forced backwards onto Stanley Peninsula, but we never surrendered, we never put our hands in the air to the Japanese. Because the governor signed an agreement with the Japanese, we were ordered to lay down our arms," said MacDonell.

On Dec. 25, which is known in Hong Kong as "Black Christmas", the island was overrun by the Japanese, who began their military dictatorship over the people for the following four years.

But when the Canadian soldiers were held POWs at Sham Shui Po, the Chinese would not give up on them. MacDonell said the Chinese guerrillas had plotted an unsuccessful escape. "They would sweep in Hong Kong, free the prisoners and escape back into China. It came that close to succeeding, but at the last minute, the Japanese discovered the plot and stopped it, so it's amazing that Chinese won't give up either, they resisted in this awful struggle. "

A year later, the captives were sent to a shipyard as slave laborers in Yokohama, Japan, but they refused to stop fighting. Staff Sergeant Charles Clark and Private Kenneth Cameron, both from Toronto, set fire on the blueprints at Nippon Kokan shipyard, shutting down the largest shipyard in Japan, a vitally important war industry building much-needed Japanese freighters and naval vessels. They were then moved to a camp in northern Japan called Ohashi until freed in 1945 when Japan surrendered.

Five such stories were told in They Never Surrendered, a book by MacDonell. "They continued to sabotage and damage the Japanese as POWs. They never surrendered and they fought like tigers. They tell Canadians about courage, sacrifice and struggle for freedom," he said.

"Also too little has been said about the Chinese volunteers who fought with us, and who went to the prisoners' camp with us, they were extremely brave and we were very proud that we were associated with them," the veteran said.

One in three prisoners died of disease, starvation and abuse. However, MacDonell said hating the Japanese is a waste of time and is wrong. When MacDonell visited Toshiba in Tokyo for business cooperation as the CEO of General Electric Canada, the Japanese were deathly silent the moment they knew MacDonell was a POW in Japan, but MacDonell told them the war was over and he had no hatred toward the Japanese people. Years later, Toshiba and Honda built big plants in Alliston, Ontario.

Meanwhile, MacDonell's ties with China never end. When MacDonell became the deputy minister of Ontario in charge of trade and technology in 1982, he reached out to China once again. Thanks to his efforts, a technology center was built in Nanjing, China's Jiangsu Province in 1987, which has been functioning till today.

"We had a wonderful relationship, so I have been involved with Chinese people as a solider, and as a diplomat, for a long time, for about 80 years," MacDonell said.

After returning to Canada from Japan, MacDonell managed to resume his school calendar and fell in love with Margaret, a young professor at the University of Toronto. They had been married for a life time with a son and a daughter till Margaret passed away two years ago.

MacDonell published four books so far after his retirement from business and government, including One Soldier's Story, A Dog Named Gander, They Never Surrendered, and The Life and Times of George S. MacDonell. He hopes to tell his stories to more people. Endite