This GIS-based interactive map showcases the experiences of Hong Kong under Japanese occupation during the "Three Years and Eight Months" (December 25, 1941, to August 30, 1945) from military, governance, economy, and social perspectives. Previous studies on Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation have often focused on the brutality of the Japanese rule and the sufferings of the civilians and the prisoners of war, but these descriptions rarely included spatial and contextual changes. This interactive map attempts to reconstruct the urban space of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation, allowing researchers and readers to understand different events and trends within specific spatial contexts. Additionally, this interactive map serves as an ongoing platform that systematically preserves the history of Hong Kong during this period and presents it in an easily accessible visual format.

The "The Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong Spatial History Project, 1941-1945" is a follow-up project to the "Battle of Hong Kong 1941 Spatial History Project". We received generous support from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs) for research on the history of Hong Kong under Japanese occupation and the history of TWGHs during this period, from August 2022 to January 2025. This interactive map is one of the deliverables of the research project. The Principal Investigator (PI) of the project is Dr. Kwong Chi Man, Associate Professor of the Department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University. Since 2022, he and his research team have collected historical materials from China, the UK, the USA, and Japan, utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to establish databases on the administrative planning of the Japanese military government, various economic activities, the distribution of military and political facilities, the state of public health, the activities of Allied guerrilla and underground forces, and the experience of various individuals to Hong Kong during this period. The team is particularly grateful to the Archives and History Office of TWGHs for lending archives from the Japanese occupation period, attempting to outline the state of public health in Hong Kong during that time. Furthermore, the team has collected maps and aerial photographs from different periods, presenting the conditions of Hong Kong at various times through georeferencing. We hope that this interactive map can provide educators, conservationists, tourism professionals, and other history enthusiasts with an easy-to-use historical map and related database.

The online interactive map contains the following data:

1. Main Database: The main database encompasses the management of various levels of agencies and social activities. The following categories are listed:
   1. Governance: The map categorizes the governance institutions of the Japanese military government into different subcategories, displaying their geographical distribution.
   2. Economy: The map showcases the distribution of different commercial activities, presenting economic interactions between different sectors and the collaboration between businesses and the Japanese government.
   3. War: In addition to the distribution of Japanese military forces and facilities, prisoner-of-war camps, there are also activities related to the resistance efforts of the Allied forces and air raid activities.
   4. Residences: The map collects data on different residential addresses, including those related to military administration, civilians, and Taiwan.
   5. Religious Establishment: It presents the distribution of different religions in Hong Kong and depicts the activities of various religious denominations during that time.
2. Local Administration: It gathers archival materials related to the Japanese administrative division of Hong Kong, displaying the scope of Japanese administrative governance in Hong Kong.
3. Faces of War: It showcases different stories of individuals related to the Japanese occupation period.
4. Images of War: Photographs taken in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation period.

Historical Map and Aerial Photo Layers:

1. Historical Maps: Three sets of maps drawn in 1939, 1947, and 1949 are used to identify the landscape of the time and understand the geographical concepts of that era.
2. Aerial Photographs: Two sets of aerial photographs taken in 1942 and 1945, respectively by the Japanese military and the United States Army Air Forces, are used to explore the urban conditions of that period.