Prisoner of the Turnip Heads

The longer I live here the more interested I become in Hong Kong's history.

I'm fascinated by the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong on December 8, 1941. This was the same day they struck at various points throughout the Pacific, including Pearl Harbour (which was across the International Date Line and thus it had still been December 7th on the calendar).

A book called Prisoner of the Turnip Heads recounts the story of a POW in the notorious internment camp at Stanley, on the south side of Hong Kong Island. During his three and a half years there, he kept secret diaries of the events that took place under Japanese rule.

The book is so titled because the derisive Cantonese nickname for Japanese at the time was loh baak tau, literally turnip head. The Chinese believed that Japanese heads were shaped like turnips.

Not many use that phrase these days.

It's considered rude.

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