英軍及美軍
項美麗性格外向，朋友眾多，因此雖然是外國人，生活圈子卻比較闊，她筆下的淪陷期間香港眾生相，涵蓋廣闊的社會層面。
戰後公開的文獻顯示，當年不論英軍或者日軍的將領，都預計香港攻防戰大約會打半年時間，因此守城期間，駐港英軍把儲藏的食物扣住不放。張愛玲在《燼餘錄》(註五) 中提到「政府的冷藏室裏，冷氣管失修，推積如山的牛肉，寧可眼看著它腐爛，不肯拿出來。做防禦工作的人只分到米與黃豆，沒有油，沒有燃料。」項美麗亦提到這一點。結果香港攻防戰只打了短短的十八日，英軍便投降了。
英軍迅速潰敗，兵力不足固然是原因之一，士氣低落亦不無關係。對於淪陷前夕英軍的心情，項美麗後來的丈夫，當年駐港英軍的情報主管 Charles Boxer 如是說：
Hong Kong is the dumping ground for the duds ...including me...I went to my office and took a clean sheet of paper and wrote the word “Secret” at the top. After lunch I shall probably go back and add the word “Very”... the day of the white man is done out there ... we're finished and we know it. All this is exactly like the merriment of Rome before the great fall.
香港淪陷之後，英國人首先要面對的是從主人變成階下囚的事實。對於其中的心理震盪，項美麗如此形容：
Hong Kong was full of government servants who behaved like kings, sitting as they did on that heap of coolie of labor. Remember that. And then, all of a sudden, this! This indignity, this swoop back through the generations to a level of existence which none of them could image. Why, for most of those people just going home to England called for a terrific readjustment. Yet now within the space of a few hours they had been shoved into the life of an oriental jail. They were being treated like coolie malefactors.
面對淪為戰俘的命運，部份英國人仍然奢望可以把集中營設於山頂：
Sir Atholl MacGregor, Chief Justice, as spokesman for the British, had bagged without avail for the Peak as a camp. The Japs hemmed and hawed long enough to give him hope. It has been uncharitably suggested that Sir Atholl's real reason for his request was that his own house was on the Peak, and if the Japs had given in he would be able to see the war through in comfort, at home.
項美麗說，日軍明白到山頂的象徵意義，為了羞辱英國人，拒絕了這個要求，而且下令禁止任何沒有被關進集中營的白人住在山邊，但是這條禁令幾個月之後便撤銷了，原因是香港多山，海邊根本沒有多少平地可居。後來山頂搭起了日式茶寮，沒有被關進集中營的白人可以在日本憲兵的監視下在那裡遊蕩甚至坐下來喝杯茶。事實上，日軍對香港的認識不深，連純種英國人和歐亞混血兒也分不開，搞不清英國公民的定義，以致淪陷初期許多外國僑民都不知道自己是否應該進集中營。
香港淪陷之後，負責空襲香港戰略設施的是美國空軍，項美麗憶述首次聽見警報，目擊美國戰機，起初非常開心，但是很快變成失望，然後是羞恥：
The first air raid from our own planes! Somewhere inside of me a flower burst open. It was amazing, the happiness of it... We saw a few puffs of smoke, we heard more explosions, and that was all...The raiders actually accomplished noting, except to light up our lives again and to blow the cinders of hope to roaring flames.
...The first one to come to our attention was the boastful reports that came through immediately from Allied broadcasting stations. Chinese and American pilots claimed to have destroyed the Hong Kong power station and to have left the military parts of the city in flames. This wasn't true. Whatever the planes did accomplish, we didn't see any signs of it...We heard the Japanese laugh at the Allies for their lies, and we knew the laughter was justified, and we were ashamed. Until then we had thought only Axis people lied and boasted.
參與行動的美國空軍，卻以為行動非常成功。二十個月後，項美麗重返紐約，遇上其中一位機師，两人有以下的對話：
“How did it look from the ground, Mickey?” he asked. “I was in one of those bombers, you know. I waved to you; did you see me?”
“It looked lousy,” I said emphatically. “You didn't hit a damn thing except some civilians. I can't tell you how awful it was, listening to those crazy reports afterward.”
...“But honest, Mickey,” Teddy pleaded, “it looked as if we hit everything in the world. It looked fine, it looked swell!”
六十年後，儘管科技一日千里，在外地執勤的美國大兵依然經常誤炸傷人，美軍的戰績一貫地「彪炳」。
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