When the Pacific War broke out in 1941, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of Hong Kong. To meet the unexpected demand from hawkers that emerged after many shops closed down, the government urgently commissioned the Commercial Press to produce overprinted one-dollar notes from Bank of China banknotes that were about to be shipped to mainland China. After the Imperial Japanese Army occupied Hong Kong on 25 December that year, Hong Kong dollar coins and notes continued to circulate for a time at different exchange rates in the city alongside Japanese military notes. This situation lasted until 1943, when Japanese military notes were made the only currency of exchange and the Hong Kong dollar was no longer accepted as legal tender. When the Japanese Army conducted an audit of foreign banks at the beginning of the occupation, it found a large volume of banknotes in the vault of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and forced the bank to sign and release them. These notes were not backed or authenticated by any certificate of indebtedness, but they were nevertheless used to pay for supplies and services. When the British resumed the administration of Hong Kong after the Japanese surrendered in 1945, it wanted to take the military notes out of circulation as soon as possible, and the military administration under Rear-Admiral Cecil Harcourt decided to issue overprinted notes again. However, the timely arrival of new notes printed in Britain averted the necessity of implementing this measure.