Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special collections. Mr. Cathcart served as a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery before choosing a broadcasting career. He worked with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for 30 years, much of the time as a Parliamentary reporter in Ottawa and foreign correspondent in Washington, D.C. In the Second World War, Canadian soldiers first engaged in battle while defending the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong against a Japanese attack in December 1941. The Canadians at Hong Kong fought against overwhelming odds and displayed the courage of seasoned veterans, though most had limited military training. They had virtually no chance of victory, but refused to surrender until they were overrun by the enemy. Those who survived the battle became prisoners of war (POWs) and many endured torture and starvation by their Japanese captors. The fighting in Hong Kong ended with immense Canadian casualties: 290 killed and 493 wounded. The death toll and hardship did not end with surrender. Those Canadians who fought in the defence of Hong Kong sacrificed much in their efforts to help bring peace and freedom to the people of Asia and the Pacific. Their task was a difficult and costly one, but their sacrifice would serve as an example of the kind of effort that would be required to eventually triumph. The survivors’ ordeal that followed as prisoners of war serves as an additional reminder of the great cost of war. This talk is part of the Remembrance Day speaker series, in conjunction with an exhibit at the Chung Collection curated by Clifford Pereira.
This even took place on November 4, 2016.
Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library
Macri, F., & Franco David Macri. (01/01/2011). Journal of the hong kong branch of the royal asiatic society: Canadians under fire: C force and the battle of hong kong, december 1941 The Branch. [Link]
Roland, C. G. (2001). Long night’s journey into day : Prisoners of war in hong kong and japan, 1941-1945 Wilfrid Laurier University Press. [Link]
The damned : the Canadians at the battle of Hong Kong and the POW experience, 1941-45 / Nathan M. Greenfield. [Available at Koerner Library Stacks- D767.3 .G73 2010]
UBC Library Research Guides
Jennifer Preece, co-author of Interaction Design: Beyond Human Computer Interaction (4th Edition, 2015), helped to define research on online communities through her book Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability, 2000. Her current research focuses on information processes and technology for supporting citizen and environmental science; with an emphasis on community participation for collecting biodiversity data. Preece was dean of the College of Information Studies – Maryland’s iSchool for ten years from 2005 – 2015. Click 
The School of Library, Archival and Information Studies is pleased to welcome Anne Lindsay, Access and Research Archivist for the NCTR, as a speaker in the iSchool’s Winter 2017 Colloquium program. She is speaking Wednesday, January 18, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the topic of “Beyond Jenkinson: Authority, provenance, and Arrangement in a Complex Digital Collection at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.”
7:00-8:30 pm
Akoya is a scene from the puppet play Dan no Ura Kabuto Gunki which first premiered in 1732 and was later restaged as a kabuki play. This scene, originally known as the “Koto Torture Scene”, shows Shigetada questioning the courtesan Akoya on where her lover, the defeated Heike warrior Kagekiyo, is. Shigetada forces Akoya to answer his questions while she plays various traditional Japanese instruments such as the koto, shamisen and kokyû (lap fiddle). The actor who plays Akoya requires years of special training to be able to play all three musical instruments on stage for this performance.
A Life Sciences Institute Public Talk