Hong Kong marks 78th anniversary of China’s victory in war of resistance against Japan with citywide events

“We will never forget the efforts that the Chinese people made in the fight against Japan’s invasion and will forever remember the late martyrs and compatriots,” Lee said.

Guests at the ceremony at City Hall held a two-minute silence for those who died during the conflict. They also sang China’s national anthem and witnessed the raising of the flag, followed by a rifle volley from police officers.

Senior officials from national agencies based in Hong Kong also attended the ceremony, including the foreign ministry’s acting commissioner for the city Fang Jianming. The liaison office was represented by its deputy secretary general, Xiao Youmei.

Deng Jianwei, director of the liaison office of the central government’s Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, also attended and the local garrison of the People’s Liberation Army was represented by its deputy commander, Rear Admiral Tan Zhiwei.

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Former city leaders Leung Chun-ying, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Donald Tsang Yam-kuen made appearances at the event.

Hong Kong was occupied by Japanese forces for three years and eight months until the country’s surrender on August 15, 1945, and the city’s formal liberation later that month.

The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, in 2014 designated September 3 as the anniversary of the war of resistance against Japan, also known as the Second Sino-Japanese War, spanning 1937 to 1945.

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Before Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty, the city observed its own Liberation Day as a public holiday on the last Monday of August. The event was subsequently replaced by the country’s victory day celebration and is no longer considered a holiday.

The Hong Kong Military Service Corps Association, a charity founded on behalf of British-Hong Kong veterans, also hosted a ceremony at Sai Wan War Cemetery to mark the city’s liberation and mourn the servicemen who died in the Battle of Hong Kong.

More than 50 guests, including representatives of various consulates in the city, attended the event.

Nearly 1,500 Commonwealth personnel who died during the war are buried at the site, including about a third who remain unidentified. Most of those interred were killed during the city’s invasion or while held as prisoners of war in the years after.

A ceremony was also held for the Hong Kong Independent Battalion of the Dongjiang Column, a former local guerilla force that continued to resist the Japanese occupation until the country’s surrender.

The event was organised by pro-Beijing group the New Territories Association of Societies and hosted at the Tuen Mun Town Hall.