The following speech was given by Mary T.
Previte at OPENING CEREMONIES of the 60th Anniversary Celebration of the liberation
of Weihsien.
NEW
MARY T. PREVITE
ASSEMBLYWOMAN, 6TH DISTRICT
320 N. HADDON AVENUE, SUITE 4
HADDONFIELD, NJ 08033
SPEECH by Mary
T. Previte
Weihsien
Concentration Camp Liberation, 60th Anniversary Celebration ---
August 17, 2005
Honored guests of Weifang , you have
earned our deepest gratitude by inviting us here to celebrate this Day of
Liberation. Assembled from all around the world, we, former internees
in Weihsien, say thank you. You have welcomed us home.
Kindness like this is more powerful than bombs, more powerful than armies
in building peace and friendship in the world. Kindness like this
binds us heart to heart. Today we are one people of one world
--
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Gan-xie zhu-wei Yuan Ni-men
When I first returned to
Many of us who have returned today from all around the world were born in
Today, we are home.
Today is August 17, 2005. Let me tell the story of August 17,
1945 -- Liberation Day, sixty years ago.
I was 12 years old. For almost three years, my older brother,
my younger brother, my older sister and I had been prisoners of the Japanese
-- first in Yantai, then in Weihsien.
We were separated by warring armies from our parents. Imagine
this. We had not seen our Daddy and Mommy for 5 ½ years.
The day after
When the Japanese occupied Chefoo in 1937, from an aircraft in the harbor, a plane dropped leaflets in Chinese explaining that
this was "The New Order in
We were now called enemy aliens. And they wanted our school for a military
base.
I remember so well when the Japanese came and marched our
After 9 months' imprisonment in Yantai, the Japanese
shipped us to Weihsien. There, they had commandeered a Presbyterian missionary
compound that housed a school and a hospital. They turned it into a
concentration camp and called it the "
Yes, that is one story of Weihsien.
But that is NOT the story of Weihsien I want to tell you. My story of
Weihsien is a story of heroes, a story of hope, a
story of triumph. That story of triumph has shaped my life for ever.
Weihsien is a story of Chinese heroes -- Chinese farmers who risked their
lives to smuggle food over the wall to prisoners. We called it the "black
market." And those who brought us food so generously when the war was
over. Chinese heroes who helped two prisoners escape and then hid them safely
when the Japanese searched madly for these men. Chinese
heroes who smuggled messages and news into the camp -- messages hidden in
their mouths when they entered the camp to empty the cesspools.
I hope some of these heroes are here so we can thank them again today.
Xie-xie, Xie-Xie.
Weihsien is a story of heroes like our missionary teachers who told us, "You
will go to school each day" (Please remember, most of us children in
the
Weihsien is the story of heroes like Scotsman Eric Liddell, who won the Gold
medal in the 1924 Olympics. In Weihsien, we children called him Uncle
Eric -- a hero whose life and words taught us the love of God every day.
He organized games and races for us children -- to keep hope in our hearts.
Weihsien is the story of heroes like ornithologist Hugh Hubbard -- world famous
for his study and writing about birds. Hugh Hubbard became the hero
of Weihsien to countless boys. Under the trees of Weihsien, Hubbard
took them on bird watching walks. He taught them the songs, the colors,
the flight, the nesting habits of the birds. Some of our boys still
have the bird-watching diaries they kept in the camp.
Weihsien is the story of heroes like the Salvation Army Band. I don't
know how they brought their band instruments into a concentration camp, but
they did. They kept telling us the message of hope. WE WILL WIN
THIS WAR, they said. And when we do, we will be ready with music of
a Victory Medley to welcome our liberators. But who would those liberators
be? They said it would be
Life in this concentration camp tore open the human soul. Yet all these
heroes held one freedom -- the ability to choose their attitude -- even behind
barrier walls and barbed wire. Even with Japanese everywhere, they turned
life into inner victory.
Weihsien is also the story of seven heroes who volunteered to risk their lives
to liberate 1,500 Allied prisoners in that camp. August 17, 1945.
It was a hot and windy day. I was lying sick with an upset stomach in
the dormitory in the second floor of the hospital that stands here still when
I thought I heard the drone of an airplane over the camp. Racing to
the window, I watched it sweep lower, slowly lower, and then circle again.
It was a giant plane, emblazoned with an American star. Beyond the treetops
its belly opened. I gaped in wonder as giant parachutes drifted slowly
to the ground.
Weihsien went mad.
Oh, glorious cure for my diarrhea!
I raced for the entry gates and was swept off my feet by the pandemonium.
Prisoners ran in circles and pounded the sky with their fists. They
cursed, wept, hugged, danced. They cheered
themselves hoarse. Wave after wave of prisoners swept past the guards
and into the fields beyond the camp.
A mile away we found them -- six Americans and a Chinese interpreter standing
with their weapons ready -- surrounded by fields of ripening gao-liang.
Advancing towards them came a tidal wave of prisoners
intoxicated with joy.
Free in the open fields. The men hoisted the young American major onto
their boney platform of shoulders and carried him
in triumph to the gates of the camp.
In the distance, from a mound near the gate of the camp the Salvation Army
Band was blasting its joyful Victory Medley. When they got to the American
"Star Spangled Banner" the crowd hushed:
"O, say, does that star-spangled banner still wave,
O'er the Land of the Free and
the Home of the Brave."
From up on his throne of shoulders, the young, sun-bronzed American major
struggled down to a standing salute. And up on the mound by the gate,
a young American trombonist in the Salvation Army Band crumpled to the ground
and wept. He knew what we all knew. We were free.
I was a child that could understand the excitement of that day -- seven men
parachuting at only 400 feet from an American bomber. We cut off pieces
of their hair for souvenirs. We got their signatures, their buttons,
their insignia, pieces of parachute. We followed them around. We
sat on their laps.
But I was too young to understand the miracle of seven men -- against how
many Japanese -- risking their lives to rescue me and 1,500 prisoners whom
they did not even know.
Here in this place, I salute those heroes today: MAJOR
In the
We who were interned here speak from the story of our lives: War and hate
and violence NEVER open the way to peace.
In this place, where there was despair I saw heroes plant hope.
My friends, I learned in Weihsien that goodness
and love triumph over evil. Weihsien shaped me. I will carry Weihsien
in my heart forever. #
