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BATTLE OF KONG: 75th ANNIVERSARY

THE STORIES & LEGACY OF CITY’S ANGLOPHONE IN ASIA

The Morrin Centre is managed by the Literary & Historical Society of Quebec. This issue is funded by the Government of .

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EDITING/CONTENT Patrick Donovan Jessica Kelly-Rhéaume

LAYOUT Patrick Donovan NUMBER 48 ■ SPRING 2016 PROOFREADING Louisa Blair

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CONTENTS PUBLISHER Literary & Historical Society of Quebec 44 chaussée des Écossais Quebec, Quebec G1R 4H3 PHONE Letter from the President 1 Sovita Chander 418-694-9147 FAX 418-694-0754 From the Executive Director 1 Barry McCullough GENERAL INQUIRIES [email protected] Transactions: WEBSITE www.morrin.org & the Home Front ■

A Forgotten Tragedy 2 Patrick Donovan LHSQ COUNCIL [email protected] Sovita Chander, President Bloodshed & Broken Hearts 6 Lorraine O’Donnell Barry Holleman, Vice President Gina Farnell, Treasurer Ladd Johnson, Interim Secretary The City That Nearly Forgot 10 Christopher DeWolf Donald Fyson, Honorary Librarian Bruce Laurie, Member at Large Library Pages Peter Black Jack Bryden Katherine Burgess New Acquisitions 15 Diana Cline Arthur Plumpton On the Virtual Shelf 16 Britta Gundersen-Bryden Grant Regalbuto Jacob Stone Hélène Thibault Events & Activities David F. Blair, Ex-Officio ImagiNation Writers’ Festival 17 Tomas Feininger, Ex-Officio Cameron J. MacMillan, Ex-Officio

Miscellanea ■

Further Reading 19 Patrick Donovan DIRECTOR Barry McCullough Executive Director Music Review 19 Barry McCullough [email protected] FULL-TIME STAFF Gail Cameron Accounting & Financial Clerk [email protected] Rosemarie Fischer Administrative Assistant LIBRARY HOURS [email protected] Stefanie Johnston Guided Tours Coordinator [email protected] Sunday 12:00PM-4:00PM Jessica Kelly-Rhéaume Library Manager [email protected] Monday CLOSED Caroline Labrie Rentals and Events Coordinator [email protected] Tuesday 12:00PM-8:00PM Elizabeth Perreault Development and Communications Director [email protected] Wednesday 12:00PM-4:00PM Hoffman Wolff Communications and Events Coordinator [email protected] Thursday 12:00PM-8:00PM ■

Friday 12:00PM-4:00PM The mission of the Morrin Centre is to share and foster English-language Saturday 10:00AM-4:00PM culture in the Quebec City region. The Morrin Centre is administered by the Literary & Historical Society of Quebec. ISSN 1913-0732 Front cover: Hong Kong & the Home Front exhibit logo (Kyla Johnson) SOCIETY PAGES LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Members, supporters and testament to our work over the past few years to build friends, programming in our three pillars of Heritage, Education and the Arts. On behalf of Council, I would like to again The 192nd Annual General thank RBC for believing in our model and vision. Meeting of the Literary and Historical Society Quebec will Speaking of our Education pillar, I’d like to highlight our be held on Wednesday, March We Are One/Nous Sommes Un project. We Are One 30, 2016, at 7 pm. I strongly brings together four local high schools – Collège encourage all members to François-de-Laval, École Joseph-François-Perrault, St. attend. This is your chance to Patrick’s High School and Quebec High School – to get a recap of the accomplishments of 2015 and meet carry out a common project. The students selected Council and staff. And please stay on for the always their own project: addressing poverty in our society. popular and entertaining magazine auction. The project has been made possible by the Department of Canadian Heritage and Desjardins. We’ve also been We are pleased to be launching our temporary fortunate to be able to count on support from exhibition, Hong Kong and the Home Front. I have a Centraide, Concordia University and Free the Children/ personal connection to this exhibition as my father, We Day. We Are One not only brings students now 80, was a small child during the Japanese together, it draws on the educational heritage of both Occupation of Malaya. The Pacific Theatre, specifically the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and as relates to Hong Kong, is a part of the Second World Morrin College. It was launched in February and will War that is not well-known in North America, including continue through December. Be sure to follow our the direct connection to Quebec City. I hope to see website and social media for more updates. you at the launch on March 24. Have a wonderful spring, As you may have seen in the newspaper or on our Facebook page, the Royal Bank of Canada was at the Sovita Chander Morrin Centre in January to announce a two-year, $20,000 donation to the Centre. This contribution is a FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Members, friends, partners, We have been busy with a number of non-literary events as well, including our Arts in Action workshops The ImagiNation 2016 lineup series which covered songwriting, elemental theatre, includes a number of fantastic Irish dance, travel writing and more. Your reaction to writers, including Jeffery Deaver, them was overwhelmingly positive and we will do author of The Bone Collector; Anna everything in our power to continue activities like these and Jane McGarrigle discussing in the future. their family history in their book Mountain City Girls; Giller Prize In 2015, we set another new record for total visitors to winner Will Ferguson and so much more. We also the Morrin Centre with 43,000 visitors, compared to added a few literary events with a twist, including 38,000 in 2014. I am confident that with the great Panache sommelier Yann Barrette-Bouchard pairing six activities already planned for 2016 we will again set a fine wines with books being presented at this year’s new high water mark in 2016. I hope to see you soon at festival. Books and Brunch with Douglas Gibson will the Morrin Centre. feature one of Canada’s greatest literary personalities and a full brunch plate served by Classic Traiteur. Be Best regards, sure to check out details in this issue. Barry McCullough

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SPRING 2016 TRANSACTIONS A FORGOTTEN TRAGEDY QUEBEC CITY AND THE FALL OF HONG KONG By Patrick Donovan

Quebec City’s main English-speaking regiment, the Cameron describes Hong Kong’s early years under , took part in what has been British rule as one of the most “unsavory and ignoble called “one of the darkest stories in Canadian military episodes in British mercantile ventures, surpassed only history.” The 963 men in the regiment were sent to by the horrors of the slave trade.” By the 1940s, the defend the British colony of Hong Kong. Compared to colony’s social structure was still morally suspect. the seasoned Japanese troops, they were Hong Kong was unprepared, ill-equipped, essentially founded by and soon outnumbered. British drug dealers, Roughly a third of them who smuggled Indian- did not return. The rest grown opium into faced inhumane China. Because of this, conditions in Japanese there were 12 million POW camps for nearly opium addicts in China four years. At the end of by the 1830s. In 1838, the war, the survivors Chinese government were welcomed as official Lin Zexu wrote heroes, but some to Queen Victoria to harboured bitterness at complain: “Since you do being sent on such an not permit opium to impossible mission. harm your own country, you should certainly not Imperialism and its allow it to be passed on Discontents to other countries.” The Early in 1941, Winston Queen was unfazed. Churchill claimed there Britain justified this was “not the slightest unsavory business chance” of successfully through the principle of defending Hong Kong free trade. When China against the Japanese. finally took military “We must avoid Statue Square in , 1946. action against British The statue of Queen Victoria, missing from the monument, frittering away our was taken to Tokyo during WWII. It was returned in 1952. smugglers in a troops on untenable (Photo: Hedda Morrison) nineteenth-century positions,” he said. He version of the “war on was later persuaded that there was value in putting up a drugs,” they lost the island of Hong Kong in 1841. fight, and that it would provide strong stimulus to the garrison and the colony. Britain requested Over the next century, Hong Kong grew from a series reinforcements from Canada. Few of Canada’s English- of small fishing towns to a large commercial port with speaking population were likely to question the British over 1.5 million people. It was a place where, as crown at the time. historian Philip Snow puts it, “everyone did their best, seemingly, to look down upon anyone different.” In hindsight, we may see this loyalty to imperial Britain Colonial Hong Kong was deeply unequal and racist, with as misguided. Defending the British imperial legacy in a whiff of apartheid thrown in. Although the Chinese Hong Kong certainly seems questionable when judged outnumbered Europeans, they were second-class from a 21st century moral standpoint. Historian Nigel citizens forbidden from living in certain parts of town.

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Enterprising Chinese with the right British connections earning meagre wages as a “soda jerk” at the Citadel could make fortunes in Hong Kong, but the Chinese Cigar Store near Quebec City’s Clarendon Hotel when were grossly underrepresented in government and the he signed up: “Walking home I passed a recruiting sign public service. The top brass was not elected by the for The Royal Rifles of Canada and felt a burst of people, but appointed by Britain. patriotism when I discovered the pay was $1.30 a day.” He told the recruiters he was nineteen, nobody By 1940, had taken over a sizable chunk of China, bothered to check, and he was off to Hong Kong. tensions were mounting with Britain, and Japanese troops were at Hong Eastward Ho!

Kong’s doorstep. Britain evacuated When the Royal Rifles were shipped to thousands of European women and Hong Kong in October 1941, the children from Hong Kong to Australia. regiment had had scant training and Many Chinese objected that their was classified as “unfit for combat” by taxes were being used to evacuate a the Canadian defence department. privileged minority, but their pleas fell Some hardly knew how to use a rifle. on deaf ears. Misleading lectures on board ship provided the troops with a false sense The Royal Rifles of Canada of security by perpetuating stereotypes Many people have heard of Quebec of the Japanese as short people with City’s Francophone Royal 22 nd buck teeth who could not see at night Regiment, popularly known in English because of the shape of their eyes. as the Van Doos, but there was a time “Our indoctrination was as comforting when Quebec also had a prominent as it was misleading,” wrote Cambon in English-language regiment. The Royal his autobiography Guest of Hirohito. Rifles of Canada were founded in 1862 to defend Quebec against a possible Canada thought the troops would have W.J. Home spillover of the American Civil War. Commanding Officer of the plenty of time to train in Hong Kong. The regiment took part in the Boer Royal Rifles of Canada in Hong Kong They only had three weeks. While this War and served on the European front period lasted, their military salaries in . provided them with luxuries undreamed of in Canada during that time. Many soldiers hired servants to shine The list of Royal Rifles officers sent to Hong Kong reads their shoes. They took advantage of the Chinese like a Who’s Who of the city’s prominent English- prostitutes at night. Soldier Georges Verreault was speaking families. They include John Herbert Price (who unsure whether he had committed a mortal sin, gave us Quebec’s Price Building), Reginald Simons (of confessing in his journal that a prostitute “[lui a] fait des the Maison Simons dynasty), James Forsyth Ross (whose caresses à damner St-Pierre lui-même.” Soldier William father’s signature appeared on Canadian banknotes), Allister described this time as “three glorious weeks of and Frank Power (son of WWII defense minister wild luxury, shopping, dining, drinking, spending, buying Charles Gavan “Chubby” Power). The Royal Rifles were embroidered kimonos, carved tusks, silk pyjamas.” led by another Quebec City native, William James Home, who had fought in World War I after graduating The Battle from the High School of Quebec. On , 1941, six hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese launched a surprise attack Although the officers were largely from Quebec City, on Hong Kong. That same day, they also attacked recruits hailed from all over eastern Quebec and Americans in the and the British in Malaya. northern New Brunswick. The regiment officially Forty-eight Japanese planes destroyed Hong Kong’s operated in English, but over a third of the ranks were measly air defence of five RAF planes. bilingual Francophones. Many of the recruits were fresh out of high school. Sixteen-year-old Ken Cambon was The British colony consisted of a part of the Chinese

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SPRING 2016 TRANSACTIONS mainland and some 260 islands, with the political and Geneva Convention with regard to POWs. The commercial centre located on . The Japanese Bushido code stated that surrender was Japanese sent in ground troops and the main line of contemptible—victory or death were the only defence on the mainland collapsed 36 hours later; it was acceptable paths. Consequently, the captured Canadians supposed to have held for at least a week. The Allies were treated with little regard. Roughly one in six of retreated to Hong Kong the Canadian POWs, 267 in Island. all, died under the cruelty,

starvation, and slave labour The odds were stacked against they endured for nearly four the 14,000 British, Indian, years. The death rate for Canadian, and Chinese troops captured Canadians was four defending the colony. Faced times higher than for Allies with 40,000 veteran Japanese captured by . troops, Royal Rifles POWs in Thailand and Burma commanding officer William fared even worse. Home pleaded for surrender to save Allied lives. He clashed POWs lived off small portions with British high command, of rice, unfamiliar greens and and there was even talk of occasional bits of rancid fish. charging him with high Vitamin deprivation and poor treason. Churchill said that sanitation soon took their toll. there was to “be no thought Many saw their legs swell up of surrender,” and that every like balloons with a condition day of resistance helped the called beriberi, while others Allied cause. became walking skeletons. Some suffered from “electric The battle raged on and feet,” shooting pains every 10- claimed more lives. The 15 seconds that made it Japanese disembarked on the impossible to sleep. Starvation island on December 18, took caused many to lose their control of the water supply a eyesight, and some never few days later, and Britain recovered. surrendered on Christmas Day, 1941. Thousands of Some guards were wilfully soldiers died on both sides, cruel. Kanao Inouye, and there were around 7,000 nicknamed the “Kamloops civilian casualties. Lt. C. Recruitment poster for a new Royal Rifles regiment Kid,” had grown up in Canada Douglas Johnston of Quebec printed after the fall of Hong Kong (CWM) before relocating to Japan. He City, wrote “my first reaction remembered being called “a was one of great relief that now I would, at least, be dirty yellow Jap” in Canada. British Columbia was not a able to have a good night’s sleep.” welcoming place for Japanese in the early twentieth century. During WWII, most Japanese-Canadians on the Prisoners of Japan west coast were interned in camps solely on the basis But things actually got worse: some 10,000 Allied of their ethnic origin, and their property was seized and soldiers, including around 1,700 Canadians, faced the sold. The Kamloops Kid took out his pent-up anger on horrors of Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in Hong Canadian POWs, inflicting beatings that killed at least Kong and Japan for nearly four years. three prisoners. After the war, he was convicted for his crimes by a military tribunal and sentenced to hang. “A Unlike Germany and Italy, Japan had rejected the life gone full circle” wrote POW William Allister. “It

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SOCIETY PAGES TRANSACTIONS was a sentence we were, in a way, pronouncing on into town and bartered some cigarettes for saké, ourselves, destroying our own Frankenstein creation.” drinking until he passed out. War was over! Most prisoners returned on American navy ships, gorged Lt. C. Douglas Johnston writes themselves on food, and, in about the trade that went on with October, were given a hero’s the underpaid Japanese guards. welcome when they finally made it Prisoners traded watches, rings, back to Quebec City. cuff links, uniforms, and cigarettes—25 cigarettes could get Among the returnees was Lt. John you 20 duck eggs. The guards McGreevy. He went back to even asked the Canadian dental working as an accountant in officers to stash gold in their teeth Quebec City and became a where it would be safe until their devoted community volunteer. return to Japan. “Where they got McGreevy was Treasurer of the the gold is a partial mystery,” Literary and Historical Society for writes Johnston, “but I do know 48 years and President from 1961 that some came from two wisdom to 1966. “I was treasurer of every teeth fillings which I had traded single bloody Anglophone for food.” foundation in Quebec,” he said, “that and the kitchen sink.” This Life was also difficult for civilians earned him the Order of Canada in in Hong Kong. Although many 1989. Chinese considered both the British and the Japanese as Others had a more difficult time arrogant upper castes, they readjusting, particularly the lower experienced more vicious ranks who as POWs had endured repression under the latter. The smaller rations and harsher occupiers raped 10,000 Chinese conditions. Nearly half the women in the days after Allied POWs in Niigata, Japan, 1945 returnees suffered from long-term Quebec City rifleman Ken Cambon was sent to surrender. Under the occupation, this camp, which he called “the worst Camp in ailments related to food they made civilians bow to them, Japan.” He worked long days unloading coal deprivation under the Japanese. forced them into hard labour and from ships and was given very little to eat. Many died young. Others carried performed routine executions. psychological trauma with them, Food was rationed and most people went hungry. causing difficulties at home and work. “Freedom is Nearly a million people were deported to famine-ridden more than the lack of a barbed wire fence,” wrote Ken China, and many did not survive. Cambon.

Liberation William Allister, a Hong Kong veteran from Montreal, The controversial atomic bombing of Hiroshima and came out of the experience questioning the very Nagasaki, which killed some 200,000 Japanese, put an essence of war. He mused that men loved war because end to the war. As a result, Hong Kong returned to it gave them the chance to play God: “War, the ultimate British rule and all POWs were freed. insanity, was the magic password. Once accepted, all values, norms, ethics could be stood on their heads and Quebec City rifleman Ken Cambon remembers August made to look very sensible. Now the fun was over and 15, 1945, the day the Japanese surrendered. At noon, we could all go home. Back to sanity. Or was it? Could the guards were lined up, bowing deeply to a small the world just flick a switch, sign a paper and return radio, listening to Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s voice everything to its former state?” ■ telling them they must “endure the unendurable.” American fighter planes soon swooped overhead, Patrick Donovan is a PhD Candidate in History at Université dropping magazines and cigarettes. Cambon snuck out Laval and former Executive Director of the Morrin Centre.

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SPRING 2016 TRANSACTIONS “BLOODSHED AND BROKEN HEARTS” THE ON THE QUEBEC CITY HOME FRONT By Lorraine O’Donnell, PhD

The Second World War battle of Hong Kong was a instance, when Canada declared war it was the back-to- catastrophe for Quebec City’s English-language school season. That meant work for mothers to regiment, the Royal Rifles of Canada (RRC). The troop’s prepare their children for school. A QCT insert official history states things remarked that “most mothers baldly. RRC “was destroyed are now suffering from while fighting in defence of the SCHOOL DAZE.” colony.” The war came directly to This article will look at the Quebec’s English-speaking Hong Kong tragedy on the community through the Royal home front. It presents key R i f l e s . T h e y w e r e moments of a very difficult headquartered in Quebec and time in the history of the local also included men from the English-speaking community. 7/11 Hussars, an Eastern Delving into Quebec City’s Townships Regiment. The city English newspaper, The hosted splashy RRC Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph recruitment drives. One in (the QCT), we see that the August 1941, for instance, paper both reflected the news featured a Dufferin Terrace and helped form it. concert with military bands and “choice artists” including One interesting aspect was Roger Thorne singing, “When how women fit into the we all come back.” paper’s reports in these years. Media defined women’s roles A fine, husky looking in wartime like in times of group peace. In the pages of the Soon after that event, RRC QCT, women were active, troops left to join the war. A strong yet always ladylike on British Commander later War on the Pacific Front led to silk shortages in Quebec the home front. (QCT) commented that they and other Canadians were “a fine, War and Women’s Roles husky looking group.” The When Canada declared war in September 1939, the Rifles were initially garrisoned in Newfoundland, but QCT communicated what it called a truism: “There can families and friends back home did not know details. be no neutrality for any part of the Empire when another part is at war.” For the next five years, Quebec They were, however, aware of another fact of the war City’s English paper was filled with war stories. Page in late 1941: Japan was becoming increasingly aggressive. after page talked of Empire, the Allies (including The QCT ran many menacing stories with headlines like Russians or “Reds”) and the enemy Axis Nazis and “Japanese claim gains on all Chinese fronts.” At this Japanese (usually called “Japs”). point, the Sino-Japanese war had not merged into the worldwide conflict but there were reports that the People in Quebec City thus knew all about the horrors Nazis were “pressing Japan to enter war.” going on overseas. Life had to go on back home, however. At this time, life in Quebec included clear and Early on, the QCT linked women to this international publicly accepted roles for men and women. For theatre of war in ways that might surprise today’s

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SOCIETY PAGES TRANSACTIONS reader. Historian Ruth Pierson has described how Hong Kong survivors were likely to now be POWs. The Canadian media tried to soothe anxiety about women’s QCT reported contacting RRC families on December place in wartime by emphasizing they would remain 26. At that point, they had received no confirmation. ladylike no matter what. A QCT example was a cartoon linking the Japanese conflict, which meant reduced Casualty lists were delayed because Japan had not importations of silk by the USA, and what this meant signed the Geneva Convention requiring quick release for women: “no more silk stockings.” of prisoner information. A first list was published in January 1942 with the names of only seven RRC men The saddest Christmas wounded in action. The QCT explained that it had been On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked both Pearl compiled from pre-surrender documents and further Harbour and the British colony of Hong Kong. Two lists would not be forthcoming for a while. Newspapers days later, the QCT reported that that the Hong Kong spoke of the “anxiety of relatives” and “watchful, fretful garrison included Canadian troops and that Britain and waiting.” the US had declared war on Japan. Meanwhile, QCT readers received bad news about Quebec City knew that some of its men were stationed what was going on in Hong Kong. They learned that, at in the Asian colony, but not much more than that. Its the time of the battle, some equipment destined for citizens were on tenterhooks waiting for news. Based Canadian troops had not arrived, and Canadian on a cable sent home by one RRC man, the QCT reinforcement troops had landed with little training. stated, “Quebecers serving in Hong Kong [were] ‘safe They also read that after the surrender, Japanese troops and well.’” It also admitted that since the Japanese committed atrocities against the colony’s POWs and attacks, “Quebecers have been on the ‘qui vive’ for any civilians alike. word on the Canadian troops in Hong Kong.” It was not until late in 1942, months after the battle, Early reports were encouraging enough, talking about that Canada issued substantial casualty lists for Hong Imperial forces in Hong Kong “holding out” with Kong including the Royal Rifles. The home front wait to casualties “lighter than had been anticipated.” Pictures learn the fate of RRC men at Hong Kong was over at and captions reinforced a positive message of the last. colony as the “Gibraltar of the Orient” with “new and modern fortifications.” Those who learned their loved ones had died now had to mourn. Families of men who had survived had a new On December 23, the QCT revealed that its native and dreadful task: waiting and hoping for the best for men, the Royal Rifles, were stationed in the colony. Up the POWs. As a QCT editorial put it, “this, for until then, regulations had restricted the paper to members of their families, was perhaps the worst identifying them as troops from the Province of period of all. Little or no news, either way, plus too Quebec. The Christmas Eve edition ran stories and many disturbing rumours of all kinds added to the pictures of the RRC in the “epic defence of Hong mounting and all too long tension.” It would last for Kong.” years.

But the defence was in vain and Imperial forces in the Fighting back on the home front colony, including 1,975 Canadian troops, surrendered Quebec City’s English-speaking community did much to Japan. News came to Quebec City the day it more than watch, wait and mourn. Hong Kong happened, Christmas. It was a terrible home front galvanized the home front to action. holiday. One form was by fighting back. Canada’s National Watchful, fretful waiting Defence moved quickly to reconstitute the Royal Rifles The QCT said that the suspense was over, since battalion through new recruitment drives. The QCT readers now knew the battle results. However, RRC reported in February 1942 that Quebec City men were families faced another, more excruciating wait: finding “flocking to join” and “keen to avenge the capture of out the fate of their loved ones. All they knew was that the first battalion.” Mayor Lucien Borne declared the

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SPRING 2016 TRANSACTIONS week of February 2 to 9 “Royal Rifles of Canada the best possible citizens.” Members of the Quebec Week.” Businesses backed the drive and used the City branch of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of advertising slogan “Remember Hong Kong.” the Empire met in the Morrin College building to knit warm clothes for troops overseas. The Morrin College Fighting back also involved building was also used by demeaning the enemy and Red Cross women, who glorifying the RRC. For raised funds and packed instance, one QCT parcels for POWs. By editorial described Japan as January 1942, the Red “a savage, blood-crazed Cross was sending parcels beast” and an to Royal Rifles POWs. The advertisement featured a QCT periodically published grotesquely caricatured articles, clearly aimed at Japanese soldier. In women, on how to choose contrast, RRC men were items for parcels and pack routinely called heroic and them properly. gallant, and even “martyrs who have given their lives They also wrote many as atonement for Man’s letters to their loved ones sin.” in the prisoners’ camps. One POW, Capt. ACM As this passage suggests, Thomson, kept a list while religion was also mobilized in the prison camp of to the cause. It helped dozens of letters he people make sense of received. It names his wife, tragedy. Special services children, the Jeffery Hale were held where Quebec Hospital, friends and his City people prayed “for cousin Rex Meredith. their sons fighting alongside other Imperial Unfortunately, the Japanese troops.” started accepting Red Cross parcels only in September Buying war bonds was 1942. Even after this date, another way to fight back. many parcels were pilfered In January 1942, an English- by the guards. Some Speaking Citizens’ prisoners never received a Committee convened for A little over a month after the fall of Hong Kong, single letter that their Quebec City mayor Lucien Borne proclaimed a the second Victory Loan. “Royal Rifles of Canada Week” (QCT) parents sent to them. The campaign featured the “Remember Hong Kong” slogan and an ice monument Meanwhile, despite extra work, worry or grief, Quebec to Hong Kong heroes. City had to carry on with regular life. QCT pages are a striking mix of horrible war news juxtaposed with Quebec City’s English-speaking women threw stories of boxer Joe Louis’s exploits, and regular local themselves into war work and the QCT supported this or national coverage, and, every day, the “women’s through its reports. Mrs. Arthur J. Price of Quebec pages” showing what was expected of women in the City, whose family included two RRC POWs in Hong Society Notes, fashion ads and so on. In December Kong, urged all women to mobilize for the war effort 1941, for instance, at the height of local worrying about through their traditional roles of wife and mother: to the fate of the Royal Rifles in Hong Kong, the QCT was “fight for sound homes [and] schools that will produce running a serial story called “Lady by Request.”

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Welcoming the Rifles home Power of Quebec City said such parcels “saved their World War II dragged on for years, ending only with lives.” Japan’s 1945 surrender. In October of that year, Quebec received exciting news: its Hong Kong veterans Quebec City continued to support Royal Rifles men were coming home. even after the war. In 1947, Jack Price presented a shooting competition trophy in memory of Hong Kong The men’s return involved several and the battalion. Two years later, stopovers and QCT editor A.G. the Rifles mounted a plaque Penny went to Vancouver to meet commemorating the 262 RRC them and report on their men who died in Hong Kong. In progress. A few days later, a QCT unveiling it, Prime Minister Louis editorial reflected on how hard St. Laurent spoke of “bloodshed the war had been for both POWs and broken hearts.” He and their families. It advised remembered not only of those readers to “think of the happy who died but “their relatives, present, plan for a promising fathers, mothers, wives and future and relegate the painful children whose cross has to be immediate past to its rightful borne every day and whose place.” bereavement is without consolation.” In saying this, he On October 8, the first two RRC recognized the connection of men arrived home: Cpl. A.J. Hong Kong and Quebec through Russel of Quebec and Rifleman the tragedy of battle. W. Cyr of Rouyn. Hundreds of people were at Palace Station to The Legacy cheer their arrival, along with the Returned Hong Kong veterans still RRC band, military leaders and hold reunions with banquets, members of the Red Cross and meetings and social events. The Canadian Legion. Ad welcoming the Royal Rifles back home to Hong Kong Veterans Quebec City (QCT) Commemorative Association On October 11, over 100 Royal organizes these and runs a Rifles arrived in Quebec City on “the Hong Kong website that is a treasure trove of information (http:// Special train with ‘we don’t like rice’ written on many of www.hkvca.ca ). The Association also built a memorial the cars.” Thousands of well-wishers greeted them at wall unveiled in Ottawa in 2009. the decorated train station, cheering, waving flags and throwing confetti. There was no ceremony, just happy Over the years, though, support by the broader reunions and the presence of the “highest state and community appears to have dwindled. The battle of military officials.” Many businesses put out Hong Kong is largely ignored in the media. A three-part advertisements welcoming them home. documentary called “Lost in error: the Hong Kong story” came out in the late 1960s but is now forgotten. Stories published after their return confirmed how As a Montreal Gazette letter writer complained, Pearl difficult POW life had been, especially because of lack of Harbour is commemorated in the news each year, but food, and the importance of care packages. “By not Hong Kong. Perhaps Quebec City’s English-speaking common consent the Canadian parcels were easily the community, so supportive to its Royal Rifles in the past, best,” stated a QCT article. At one point, a diphtheria will keep this sad story alive as part of its heritage. ■ epidemic had raged through a Royal Rifles prison camp: “Then the Red Cross parcels arrived, the general health Lorraine O’Donnell is a Historian and Coordinator- improved and the feeling spread that those who had Researcher of the Quebec English-speaking Communities survived this crisis would get through anything for the Research Network (QUESCREN) at Concordia University. future.” Ex-POWs Lt-Col. Jack Price and Lt. Frank

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SPRING 2016 TRANSACTIONS THE CITY THAT NEARLY FORGOT THE LEGACY OF WORLD WAR II IN HONG KONG By Christopher DeWolf

When there is a bomb scare in Hong Kong, it usually past century. The frenzied street markets and glossy doesn’t have anything to do with modern-day shopping malls don’t offer many opportunities to reflect terrorism; it’s more often a reminder of World War II. on the past, let alone the time in 1941 when Hong Kong In February 2014, was the site of an construction workers in intense battle between Happy Valley unearthed Allied forces and an unexploded 2,000- Japanese invaders. Like pound American bomb the bombs, the history that had been dropped of the war has long on Hong Kong during been ignored and the final days of its forgotten – but it is occupation by the finally coming back to Japanese. the surface.

Police superintendent “In general, wartime Jimmy Yuen arrived to heritage has been find a potentially almost totally ignored,” disastrous situation: the says Ko Tim-keung, a bomb was surrounded historical researcher by hotels, schools, a and the co-author of hospital and a Sikh Ruins of War, a guide to temple. Moving it was Hong Kong’s military out of the question; so Chinese shrine in the ruins of the British battery on Devil’s Peak, 2016 relics. When Ko was a controlled (Christopher DeWolf) published the book in explosion, because the 1996, along with local bomb was so powerful. Yuen and his team decided they historian Jason Wordie, it was the first time anyone had would need to make two small holes in the bomb to attempted to document all the pillboxes, batteries and defuse it. They worked through the night, carefully other battlefield remnants that litter Hong Kong’s cutting through the bomb’s shell, stopping whenever hillsides. To find what was left of British defences, Ko their equipment made the surface too hot. They finally pored over aerial photographs taken in 1963, before a succeeded after nine hours of work, defusing the bomb reforestation campaign covered Hong Kong’s barren just in time for the morning rush hour. hillsides in greenery.

Though its size was unparalleled, this was hardly the Hong Kong was an important military hub from the only World War II bomb discovered in Hong Kong. In time it was ceded to the British in 1842. Over the next 2015 alone, police discovered four unexploded half-century, the British navy and army built barracks, grenades, three Japanese bombs, a mortar and 54 shipyards, explosives facilities and a network of coastal rounds of ammunition. Another bomb discovered by batteries designed to ward off attacks by the Russians construction workers in Victoria Park—the city’s and other potential maritime invaders. By the time the largest urban green space—took three days of Japanese launched a surprise attack on December 8, preparation to destroy in a controlled explosion. 1941, Hong Kong’s military importance had declined, and it was ill-equipped to deal with an attack by land Hong Kong is a city that constantly remakes itself: in and air. The British and their allies defending the many parts of town, each plot of land has been territory surrendered after just two weeks of fighting. redeveloped three, four or even five times over the

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SOCIETY PAGES TRANSACTIONS

Japan took over Hong Kong and occupied it until 1945, occupation, but it was rarely mentioned. “My dad would the end of World War. sometimes tell stories of American bombers raiding Kai Tak Airport,” he says. Ko remembers when he and his Though some of Hong Kong’s military landmarks have father took a walk up to Devil’s Peak, where they found been preserved, including the Redoubt, the remains of a sprawling British battery. “I asked my which is now part of the Museum of Coastal Defence, dad what this was and he only knew it had something to most of the physical traces of the Battle of Hong Kong do with the war,” he says. have been ground down through time and neglect. Researchers have counted 150 pillboxes and 75 In a particularly Hong Kong twist, it was Japanese batteries throughout television that sparked the territory, but only Ko’s interest in a handful are still history. “Japanese TV intact after decades of programs were being left abandoned popular in Hong Kong in the bush. Some in the early 1970s,” he were dismantled by says. He was scavengers looking for fascinated by how bricks; others have they depicted the been used as shelter Meiji Restoration and by squatters. More Japan’s role in World recently, wargames War I. “As a kid I was enthusiasts have used interested in Japanese the ruins for paintball history more than sessions. Chinese history or Western history,” he New ruins are still says. He learned being discovered. Japanese, worked as a “There’s old stuff translator for Japanese around that nobody media in Hong Kong Japanese propaganda leaflet dropped during the siege of Hong Kong knows about,” says and began doing part- Stephen Davies, a naval historian at the University of time historical research. Hong Kong. In late 2015, a group of students stumbled across a previously undocumented naval boundary It wasn’t until the late 1980s that Ko became interested stone not far from the Museum of Coastal Defence. It in Hong Kong’s wartime history. After he read Lasting turned out to be 172 years old, making it the oldest of Honour, a 1978 account of the invasion of Hong Kong the stones used by the British to chart their new colony by Oliver Lindsay, who fought in the battle with the – the first time Hong Kong had ever been mapped in a Grenadiers, Ko set out to find the detailed way. “Concern with the past has simply not Redoubt, one of the sites mentioned in the book. “I been on anyone’s radar,” says Davies. tried three times to get there,” he says. “The government maps were hopeless.” He finally made it up For most of its history, Hong Kong hasn’t been a place past a dam and around a reservoir, where he found the that dwells on the past. “Hong Kong was and still is a stone and concrete remains of the redoubt. “I was so place for making money, and you can’t make too much overwhelmed. Why was there such a massive structure money from knowing history,” says Ko Tim-keung. and not even a signboard telling you what it was?” Born in 1963, Ko is the embodiment of Hong Kong’s peculiar relationship with history. His family moved to It’s a question whose answer stretches back to the Hong Kong not long after it became a British colony, Japanese occupation. Japan saw itself as liberating Hong settling in a village near the quarries in East . Kong from colonial rule, a perspective it broadcast “My ancestors were all stonecutters,” he says. His through propaganda aimed at local residents. “Shake grandparents and parents lived through the Japanese hands with us!” urged one poster. Another leaflet

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SPRING 2016 TRANSACTIONS portrayed a fat, top-hatted Englishman whipping the Chinese coolies pulling his rickshaw. “Knock out the Before the war, Hong Kong’s wealth was evil English coachmen!” disproportionately controlled by its colonial masters; when the Japanese interned the territory’s European Strangely, most of this propaganda was in English, with elite, Chinese stepped into their place. Robert Ward, only perfunctory Chinese translations. Ultimately, the US consul in Hong Kong after the war, reported Japan’s propaganda efforts in Hong Kong were half- that while the local Chinese hated the Japanese military, hearted. Though it attempted to impose a sense of they found “easy camaraderie” with civilian Japanese. n o r m a l c y — r a d i o “There are thus no stations continued to deep loyalties, no broadcast sound historic or opera, along with political bases, Japanese and Indian from which the music designed to d e s p e r a t e inculcate a sense of underground Asian brotherhood— activities which Japan soon gave up characterize trying to manage the Yugoslav or Greek city and instead resistance could began a program of spring in Hong mass deportation. In Kong,” he wrote. 1941, more than 1.6 Horne notes that, million people lived whereas the Nazis in Hong Kong; by o v e r t h r e w 1945, this number sovereign states in had plummeted to Europe, “in Hong 500,000, as Japanese Kong a corrupt forces sent ethnically View of Hong Kong Island from the ruins of the British barracks colonial state was Chinese residents on Devil’s Peak, 2016 (Christopher DeWolf) overthrown. This back to their state was unable to ancestral villages in mainland China. inspire the kind of fervent loyalty that drove the antifascist resistance in Europe.” “It was a really feeble effort to win the population over,” says historian Kwong Chi-man, the co-author of This proved a revelation to the British. When Japan Eastern Fortress, an overview of Hong Kong’s military surrendered in 1945, they moved quickly to reassert history from 1840 to 1970. “They really relied on control over Hong Kong, thwarting a potential invasion violence by the military police, the Kempeitai. Their rule by China’s Nationalists. “They thought of ways to buy was not very effective.” the hearts and minds of the local population,” says Kwong. “It was pretty much an opportunity to start That said, many local Chinese, Indians and Eurasians from scratch.” Mark Young, who had been sworn in as collaborated with the Japanese, some out of practical just six months before the necessity, others out of resentment for their poor invasion, and who had spent the war being shuffled treatment under the British. Even some British were between Japanese internment camps, returned to the inclined to work with their new overlords: in his book colony with an ambitious plan to introduce Race War, historian Gerald Horne describes how British representative democracy. This was shelved when the colonial administrator Sir proposed Communist Party took control over mainland China working with the Japanese to establish a Vichy-style and London worried that democracy could make Hong collaborationist government. “The Japanese refused his Kong vulnerable to a Communist fifth column. offer to become their lackey,” Horne notes.

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SOCIETY PAGES TRANSACTIONS

Still, the postwar colonial government took a more those changes aren’t likely to be implemented until active role in building a civil society in Hong Kong, 2019. “Some students don’t even know the war including a massive public housing scheme, an expanded happened in Hong Kong,” he says. That ignorance educational system and the adoption of Cantonese as a extends even to university students. “Some of my second official language. In this new forward-looking, students went to Winnipeg and people told them, ‘We increasingly prosperous society, there was little appetite sent Canadian troops to Hong Kong,’” says Kwong. to examine what had happened between 1941 and “They were like, ‘What?’ And these are history majors!” 1945. “The British were indifferent for ideological reasons,” says Stephen Davies – they didn’t want to But things are changing – and quickly. “When I arrived dwell on one of their most dramatic failures in the war. in Hong Kong, there seemed to be very little interest And for many Chinese, the except from those who had attitude was, “There’s our specific family involvement history and there’s theirs,” in the events,” says historian he says. Tony Banham, who has spent years collecting war There was also a sense stories on his website, Hong among many Kong War Diary. “I would that the war was something meet people when I was out that had happened in the hills looking at relics elsewhere. In the decades who knew very little about after 1949, Hong Kong was it, and in some cases didn’t flooded by millions of even know Hong Kong had mainland Chinese refugees been invaded in World War fleeing famine, economic II. Today that has changed – hardship and political there is a lot of interest, a persecution in Communist- lot from expats like myself controlled China. “After but especially from younger the war, Hong Kong Hongkongers who are became a mostly immigrant interested in their roots.” society,” says Kwong. For these newcomers, World These young Hongkongers War II was just one in a Chinese bagpipers perform on the street and at military are part of the Umbrella long line of calamities. Hong ceremonies in Hong Kong, 2016 (Christopher DeWolf) Movement generation – the Kong offered them a same politically active, chance to start anew. locally-minded students and young professionals who in 2014 led a 79-day occupation of Hong Kong’s streets in That is reflected in what young Hongkongers learn protest against mainland Chinese suppression of Hong about the war in school, which doesn’t amount to Kong democracy. “The sudden interest of young Hong much. “As a secondary school student I had no idea Kong people in this kind of history is really a reaction to about it,” says Rusty Tsoi, who is now a high school from the mainland to create a pure Chinese history teacher and the co-author, with Kwong, of identity,” says Kwong. The troops that defended Hong Eastern Fortress. Even today, the government’s Kong were a motley group made up of British, curriculum requires teachers to explain only the broad Canadian, Indian, Gurkha, Macanese, Dutch and Hong outline of the war, touching on important points like Kong Chinese. For young local activists, this seems to the Nanking Massacre, but not the Battle of Hong Kong reflect the kind of pluralistic society they are fighting to or its aftermath. protect. “The story of [the Battle of Hong Kong] is appealing because it’s multi-ethnic, multicultural, Tsoi says he is working with the government to expand international – it’s more Hong Kong,” says Kwong. the history curriculum to include more detail about the “Sometimes my students say they are Hong Kong Battle of Hong Kong and the Japanese occupation, but people, not Chinese,” says Tsoi.

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SPRING 2016 TRANSACTIONS

This new attitude is reflected online, where wartime unnoticed in the past, but now a lot of people go there history enthusiasts gather in Facebook groups like the to play war games, take wedding pictures, take a tour,” Chinese-language Watershed and English-language he says. “We get a lot of enquiries from people who Battle of Hong Kong. It is reflected in the classroom, want to know the history.” The group has lobbied the too. Recent educational government to protect reforms give teachers more and restore the military leeway to build their own ruins, but the response courses; Rusty Tsoi makes a has been cool. “I think the point of immersing his government will notice students in the history of sooner or later that the the Battle of Hong Kong. public wants some He takes students on field preservation of the past,” trips to Wong Nai Chung says Tse. “Until then, they Gap, where some of the are taking quite a passive most intense fighting role.” occurred, and he shows them the spot where In the meantime, Canadian Brigadier John Hongkongers seem to be Lawson was killed. “They taking it upon themselves can see these are stories, to learn more about the not just facts,” he says. war. On an unseasonably After one of the trips, a warm Boxing Day in 2015, group of students told him a couple of dozen hikers they had made their own lingered at the ruins of a way to the Pinewood redoubt and battery on Battery, another military Devil’s Peak, which ruin, to learn more about overlooks the eastern the battle. entrance of . Banyan tree Preserving the physical roots grew around a brick heritage of the war has bunker built into the top become more of a priority, of the hill; graffiti scrawled at least for the public. In on the walls called for the 2004, accountant Ivan Tse resignation of CY Leung, took part in a clean-up Hong Kong’s unpopular campaign on Mount Davis, pro-Communist Party an undeveloped hill that is leader. Inside the bunker, littered with abandoned a middle-aged woman 282 Canadians are buried at Sai Wan Military Cemetery batteries and pillboxes. in Hong Kong, many of them unidentified. stopped to take a photo “We wanted to make it (Christopher DeWolf) with her smartphone. “I clean so people could go used to live downhill when there and have a picnic,” he says. “But as we were I was kid,” she said. “I haven’t been back for more than cleaning, we found something quite strange. It was full 20 years. I know this was built before the war. I wanted of military heritage but the government didn’t do to come back for the memory of it.” ■ anything with it. When we started digging, we found it really was related to the war between Hong Kong and Christopher DeWolf is a Canadian journalist based in Hong Japan, and behind the war there are a lot of stories.” Kong, and a regular contributor to the South China Morning Post and The Wall Street Journal. In 2005, Tse founded Friends of Mount Davis to promote the hill’s heritage. “Mount Davis was quite

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SOCIETY PAGES LIBRARY PAGES NEW ACQUISITIONS

Here are a few of the recent additions to the Library collection. To reserve a title, please contact the Morrin Centre Library at 418-694-9147 or visit our online catalogue at www.morrin.org. Non-Fiction Anthems and A Brief History The Invention Minstrel Shows of Seven of Nature Brian Thompson Killings: A Novel Andrea Wulf BIO L394 2015 Marlon James 509.2 W725 J28 2014

Hockey Towns: Fiction Juvenile Fiction Untold stories The Japanese Imaginary Fred from the heart Lover Eoin Colfer JF COL 2015 of Canada Isabel Allende A432 2015 Ron MacLean 796.692 M163

Vinyl Cafe turns Arvida: stories Masterminds the Page Samuel Archibald Gordon Korman Stuart McLean A673 2015 JF KOR 2015 827 M163

Gratitude Those who The Adventures Oliver W. Sacks Leave and of Miss BIO C121 2015 those who Stay Petitfour Elena Ferrante Anne Michaels F373 2014 JF MIC 2015

The Reason X We are all you Walk Sue Grafton Made of Wab Kinew G737 2015 Molecules BIO K51 2015 Susin Nielsen JF NIE 2015

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SPRING 2016 LIBRARY PAGES ON THE VIRTUAL SHELF AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW E-BOOK COLLECTION AT THE LIBRARY By Britta Gundersen-Bryden

E-Books Take Their Place in the Library thrillers by Louise Penny, Peter Robinson or John Grisham. Undoubtedly, many Library readers will think it is difficult to replace the special feeling that comes with Non-fiction Titles Take Their Place opening the cover of a new-found book but e-books (which can be read on a wide variety of electronic Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue: English and How devices) do have their place in the 21st Century. It Got That Way is an e-book. So are Margaret MacMillan’s History’s People and David Usher’s Let E-books are perfect for those readers who fly with only the Elephants Run (about creativity, not wildlife). Dan a carry-on, who take the train to Montreal for a few Rubenstein’s Born to Walk, Elizabeth Zimmermann’s days, who spend long weekends at the chalet or who Knitter’s Almanac, David Suzuki’s Letters to My hunker down at home when winter is at its worst. Grandchildren, Alex Mitchell’s The Edible Balcony and Jessica Walliser’s Attracting Beneficial Bugs are E-books are also great for those who “just can’t wait”. among the hundred-plus non-fiction titles. This writer pre-ordered Yann Martel’s new book, The High Mountains of Portugal. The day the book was Literary Classics Available, Too released the system sent me an e-mail. Following a few taps of the computer keys, Voila! The book was on my The e-book collection includes works that are now part screen, ready to be read. It was another Martel of the public domain by authors such as Robert Louis masterpiece, by the way. Stevenson, Mark Twain, James Joyce, Louisa May Alcott, George Eliot and Victorian-era best-selling author, New Releases and Best-Sellers Abound Elizabeth Gaskell. There are many more books available to the library; check with the Library Manager to see if Like the Library’s wooden shelves, the virtual shelves a specific title can be added. tilt towards fiction. E-books provide an easy way to read novels such as Go Set a Watchman, by Harper For help using the e-books catalogue and downloading Lee, The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins, Animal electronic titles, contact the library manager at Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver, Fifteen Dogs, by [email protected]. ■ André Alexis, The Martian by Andy Weir or the latest

A SELECTION of some FINE E-BOOKS

in our  COLLECTION

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SOCIETY PAGES EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

Over a dozen authors will take part in our seventh annual writers’ festival, to be held April 6-10. A ROAD TRIP RWANDA variety of literary events such as readings, a book and Will Ferguson wine pairing event, and a books and brunch event will Thursday April 7, 19:30 allow you to meet your favourite writers and discover emerging artists. To learn more about the authors and the events, visit our website at www.morrin.org/imagination

THE PRISON THE WINTER FAMILY: A BOOK CLUB WESTERN NOIR Ann Walmsley Clifford Jackman Wednesday April 6, 18:30 Friday April 8, 18:30

Host: Peter Black Host: Julia Caron

DAYDREAMS OF A CELEBRATION OF ANGELS PAUL ALMOND’S Heather O’Neill LIFE & WORK Wednesday April 6, 20:00 w/ Jay Iversen & Danielle E. Cyr Host: Susan Campbelll Friday April 8, 20:00

Host: Rachelle Solomon

TASTY BOOKS: A DINOSAURS! BOOK & WINE (for readers ages 5 to 12) PAIRING EVENT Jacqueline Guest Saturday April 9, 10:30 Thursday April 7, 17:30

Presented by

Presented by In partnership with

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SPRING 2016 EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

WRITERS OUT LOUD: DEVELOPING THE MOVING INTO CRIMINAL MIND FICTION Jeffery Deaver Jack Hannan Saturday April 9, 18:30 Saturday April 9, 11:00

Host: Sarah Barclay Presented by

Presented by In partnership with

PROJECT MOUNTAIN CITY ANIMAL FARM GIRLS: A FAMILY Sonia Faruqi HISTORY Saturday April 9, 14:00 Anna & Jane McGarrigle Saturday April 9, 20:00

Host: Jeanette Kelly

THE DIPLOMAT BOOKS & BRUNCH: POET ACROSS CANADA BY Matthew Henley STORY Saturday April 9, 14:00 Douglas Gibson Sunday April 10, 11:00

ADVENTURES IN Presented by READING ALICE Monique Polak Saturday April 9, 16:00 BUILDING BRIDGES w/ Neil Smith, Paul Gagné, Lori Saint- Martin Sunday April 10, 14:00 Festival pass holders receive:  Entry to all author readings and discussions Host: Antoine Tanguay  25% discount for Tasty Books and Books & Brunch

Please consult our website for further infor- mation at www.morrin.org/imagination Presented by

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SOCIETY PAGES MISCELLANEA FURTHER READING: BATTLE OF HONG KONG By Patrick Donovan

William Allister Philip Snow

Where Life and Death Hold The Fall of Hong Kong (2004) Hands (1989) Most scholarly works on the topic have This award-winning Montreal artist a narrow outlook that focuses almost wrote what is probably the best and exclusively on the soldiers. Snow looks certainly the most literary of all the at the broader picture, taking in Japanese POW autobiographies. It deals with and Chinese sources, and looks at the the psychology of war and his post- war’s impact on civilians. war reconciliation with Japan.

Kenneth Cambon Nathan Greenfield, Guest of Hirohito (1990) The Damned: The Canadians at the Autobiography of a Quebec City boy Battle of Hong Kong and the POW who became the youngest Canadian Experience (2011) Hong Kong POW. He recounts his This military historian provides a time in Niigata, which many dramatic journalistic account of the war considered the worst camp in Japan. that focuses on the experiences of Cambon went on to become a Canadian soldiers and is intended for doctor and died in 2007. general readers.

MUSIC REVIEW: NINE INCH NAILS PRETTY HATE MACHINE By Barry McCullough

Usually in this space I review an I came to Nine Inch Nails in the early-to-mid 90’s, album that has been released in around the time that The Downward Spiral blew up. That the past few months, and I had album and Broken were staples of my teenage musical intended to do so again. I diet. Those efforts are heavier, less poppy (hey, maybe recently found myself on a cross- Air Canada was right!) and a little broodier. I always felt country flight long enough to Pretty Hate Machine was a little too “80s” for me. have the in-flight entertainment system. After watching an Some lyrics are cringe-worthy (“That’s What I Get”) episode of Portlandia (no, this is not another Sleater- and the percussion occasionally sounds dated, as in Kinney review), I decided to check out the music “Sin” (though I still liked the song), but overall I enjoyed selection. Now, the music selection on these flights my listen. The slow piano dirge of “Something I Can generally very hit or miss (usually miss). After roughly Never Have” is still a standout after all these years and poking my way through the collection of mostly the album’s other singles, “Down in It,” “Terrible Lie” “misses,” I landed on the “classic pop” category where I and “Head Like a Hole” (complete with crunchy found Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine. I’m not one industrial guitars in the chorus, foreshadowing what is for shoe-horning music into categories, but classic pop to come) all stand the test of time. seemed like a little bit of a stretch. But regardless of category, it seemed like an interesting choice for a mile- Is it their best album? No, of course not, but, more than high jukebox. I realized that the album was released in 25 years after its initial release, it deserves another spin, 1989(!), so I figured there must be some kind of 25th particularly if you kind of wrote it off all those years ago anniversary tie-in. like I did. For once, I’m thankful for Air Canada’s questionable music selections. ■

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