Two prominent monuments – one exquisite,
the other oppressive – rose above the Eastern Districts in 1946. Tai Hang's terraced hillsides gleamed with the white Tiger Balm Gardens pagoda. And a few kilometres away, on a summit overlooking Wan Chai, a massive Japanese monument reared up. Insinuatingly offensive,
it had been built to celebrate the invasion of
Hong Kong.

The Japanese monument was destroyed in February 1947. Hedda Morrison wrote, 'The memorial had been built by "volunteer" labour to demonstrate public appreciation of the Japanese. It was the object of spectacular demolition while
I was in Hong Kong.' However, never interested
in recording specific events, she did not photograph the happening. Instead, she devoted herself to the district's landscapes and street life, generally photographing wider views rather than close-up studies. Wan Chai's environs, its crowded tenements and markets drew her eye,
as did the more spacious surroundings of
Happy Valley, Causeway Bay and Tai Hang.

Morrison's China photographs had indicated the poverty that existed there, but she never depicted its extremes. That philosophy, of celebrating human endurance rather than pointing to abject misery, guided her Hong Kong images. But in one instance she may have crossed her self-imposed barrier, when she photographed the street sleepers who appear in this section. Surprised
by her intrusion, the people, judging from their expressions, perhaps wished to be left alone.

Writing of poverty in China Morrison observed