AN INTERLUDE
By:
Dorothy Potter
If
only I had heeded the gypsy's warning given to me way back in the Australian
mountains in the year 1941, how very different my life during the latter years,
and that of my husband and small son, would have been.
Wars,
financial worries, yes and even famine were all foretold, but how could one
take such fantastic tales seriously in the midst of a lively party of friends
on a gorgeous autumn day in July?
We
were spending the last few weeks of our furlough in Australia before leaving
for Shanghai, in time for my husband to take up his duties with the Chinese
Maritime Customs, in whose service he had been employed for over twenty years.
I'm
glad we had such a carefree holiday, as it was a bright spot to look back upon
in the coming troublesome years.
Our
boat left Brisbane in the beginning of October, and the second day at sea our
troubles commenced by Anthony developing measles. This meant our being confined
to our cabins and missing the usual jolly time one had on board ship.
However,
we were out of quarantine by the time the ship reached Manila and apart from a
very rough passage for two days, we sailed into Hong Kong harbour without
mishap.
What
a marvellous sight, this fairyland harbour, especially in the early evening
with the passing fishing junks with colourful sails of red, brown and blue and
the gaudily painted eyes in the front of the boats. "No can see, no can
savee," says John Chinaman and so he goes prepared, even to the fishing
grounds.
Our
boat sailed along into the main harbour with the towering hills guarding it and
the fairy-lights, rows and rows of them, beginning to twinkle on the distant
roads of the Peak. The water-front was already aglow with light. Naval craft,
ocean ships and coastal craft with their strings of lights, added to the
brilliance of the picture. It was a beautiful sight.
We
were all packed up and ready to go ashore after the final passport examination
by the Hong Kong police, a new formality since Britain had been at war.
When
my turn came, the examining officer asked for my pass from Canberra, to permit
landing in Hong Kong. As we knew nothing of this new regulation and had not
been informed by the shipping company in Brisbane, I had to admit that I had no
permit. The result, of course, was that
I was not allowed to land and was told that I would have to return with Anthony
to Australia on the same ship.
This
was a great blow, but I felt it was useless to complain. Regulations are made
to be kept, not broken. In great dejection, I unpacked my suitcases and put
Anthony to bed. One other lady passenger was in the same fix. Like ourselves
she was destined for Shanghai but had to land in Hong Kong to book a passage
and remain there until she could get a ship. She stamped and raved and ended by
completely losing her temper, but all to no purpose. Eventually we were the
only two women left on board.
My
husband tried to cheer me up by suggesting that he would chase around and hunt
up people to try for a permit for me but I was not very hopeful.
I
was leaning on the ship's rail, feeling very depressed, when the police officer
tapped me on the shoulder. "I thought you were a real brick," he
said, "over your disappointment, so I'm going ashore to see what can be
done about it. I' II let you know in the morning." With this feeling of
"friends at court" I went to bed in a happier frame of mind. True to
his word, a permit arrived and was delivered to my cabin before breakfast. This
was followed by two others, one from my husband and the other from friends
there. I lost no time in getting ashore lest new regulations came into being!
During
my time there, very few women were actually supposed to be in the Colony. In
fact, only those doing absolutely essential work were allowed to be there but
quite a few had by various means filtered back, thinking that after all there
was no war coming off with Japan. There must have been several hundred women in
Kowloon and Hong Kong when I passed through. Husbands were holding indignation
meetings and writing to the press in their effort to force the government's
hand. Nineteen divorce cases were pending in the courts that week alone and
altogether, everyone seemed thoroughly disgruntled. I often wondered how they
all felt when the Japs did arrive!
After
a week of parties, trips around and shopping, we left for Shanghai by coastal
steamer, arriving there on the 28th October to find instructions that my
husband had been transferred to Tientsin.
Really,
it seemed as though the hoodoo had got a good grip, as this meant giving up our
furnished flat in Shanghai and selling everything except necessities,
undoubtedly at a good loss too, but the freight and packing costs for another
thousand mile sea journey absolutely forbade any other course.
It
was at this stage that my husband remarked "When I want really cheering
up, I'll read a few chapters out of the Book of Job," but he little knew
what frolicsome, evil spirits can do when they get really started.
After
two hectic weeks of sorting and repacking interspersed with one or two lively
interludes such as getting trapped in a burning shop in the celebrated Nanking
Road and standing next to a young patriot who decided at that moment to send a
collaborator to the "happy hunting grounds" with the aid of a well
flung bomb, we found ourselves, one cold morning in November, on the Bund ready
to sail up North.
We
had managed to cut down our essential baggage to 12 cases, containing our
collection of curios and pictures together with our linen, cutlery and kitchen
requisites. . Many of our friends were there on the wharf to see us depart and
our cabin was filled with baskets of gorgeous flowers, the traditional parting
gift in the Far East.
With the good
wishes, of our friends still ringing in our ears, we steamed down the Whangpu
River and past the huge buildings on the Bund, Custom House, Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank, the new premises of the Bank of China, a delightful combination
of the old Chinese and modern style of architecture, next the Garden Bridge
over the. Soochow Creek where the smaller junks and sampams congest that narrow
waterway, filled to overflowing by the crews and their families, and the huge
mass of the Broadway Mansions, an ultra-modern apartment building, towering
behind, then past the oil installations until by devious twists and turns the
vessel finally arrived at Woosung and the open sea.
I
don't remember much of the next two days as the China coast is none too kind to
poor sea travellers, but when we anchored at Chefoo we were inundated with
Japanese officials of the customs and gendarmes, all equally unpleasant. They
insisted that the Captain order the stewards to bring them tea, soft drinks and
cigarettes. None but the best brands were acceptable to them. They monopolized
the 1st class saloon to the exclusion of the passengers and sprawled with feet
on tables or as the fancy suited. They bawled, laughed and spat to their hearts
content, a law unto themselves.
A
few of these so called Customs officials searched the ship and later when going
into my cabin I found one of them interesting himself in one of my suitcases. I
was more than annoyed and told him a few home truths and finally that my
husband was an employee of the Customs. On receipt of this information, he
bowed from the waist down and hissed what appeared to be an apology. We were
later approached with the offer of a launch in case we needed to go ashore. We
tactfully declined. If the port officials' attitude on the ship was anything to
go by, we had no intention of doubling the dose.
Our next encounter with these overbearing gentry was when
we landed at Tangku at the entrance of the Haiho River to Tientsin. As before,
the Japanese boarded the boat and issued instructions that we were to queue up
outside on the deck with our passports, other documents and hand baggage. It
was a bitterly cold morning and there was absolutely no reason why passports
examination could not have taken place in the saloon, but officialdom was out
to be cussed and cussed it was. I admired the Captain of our boat for the way
he kept his temper under control. It must have been a stupendous effort.
Steerage 3rd class passengers and the Chinese crew preceded the 1st class
passengers, and the Captain came last!
Our tempers were decidedly frayed when the ordeal was over. The usual
nonsensical printed questionnaire had to be answered, "Where were you
born? Who was your grandfather? Where did you go to school?" I thought the
young gentleman who completed the school question by inserting the name of that
well known reform school, Borstal, was looking for trouble!
At
3 o'clock we were gracefully permitted to board the launch for the long trip up
the river to Tientsin. We arrived there late in the evening and disembarked on
the Bund of the British Concession into a barbed wire cage arrangement for a
further interrogation by the Japanese military and gendarmerie. The signs and
portents we thought, were none too favourable.
The
next week was spent in house hunting and. eventually we managed to rent a
partly furnished place and had bought sufficient carpets and furniture for our
needs. We then proceeded to unpack the cases brought from Shanghai. Imagine my
horror in finding everything smashed to smithereens. The cases must have been
thrown on to the launch to produce such results. When the servants finished
emptying the fragments on to the floor, I just stood by my treasures and wept.
Apart from never being able to replace lots of them, china and glass was very
expensive at the time and difficult to get.
I
had managed to get some very good Chinese servants, so we settled down to a
normal life once more ...... so we thought!
My husband
commenced his duties at the Custom House and Anthony started in the
kindergarten at the British Grammar School.
But alas, this
peaceful existence was very short-lived. On the morning of December 8, Jim went
off to the office and Amah took Anthony to school, but in less than half an
hour Jim was back again, very perturbed as the Custom House was surrounded by
Japanese soldiers who would not allow him to pass. A few minutes later the amah
came in looking very worried. She said she had put the young master in school
and when she came out, plenty of Japanese soldiers were around the school. I
scampered out of the house in search of a rickshaw to take me to the school and
arriving there found my entry blocked by sentries with fixed bayonets. By his
time, a number of anxious parents had congregated around the main entrance, but
attempts to enter the school were thwarted. About noon a Japanese officer drove
up in a car and I requested his permission to remove my small son. He just
nodded and replied in pidgin English "can do." Before he had time to
repent, I raced up the drive and into the school, grabbed Anthony and bolted
outside.
The
older pupils were kept there until after 5 p.m. What for, nobody knew, and I
doubt very much whether the Japs knew themselves. The school was later
commandeered as a military headquarters.
By
the time I got home, a number of friends had dropped in to discuss the
situation. We knew by that time we were at war with Japan. The news of Pearl
Harbour had also got through but we pooh-poohed it. We were as yet unused to
the mental process of
"sifting the grain from the chaff," but we had plenty of time in
which to learn!
We were all a trifle dazed by the
turn of events and were busy discussing probabilities when a friend dashed in
to say that a Jap military truck had driven up to the house and her husband had
been taken away but where she didn't know. It
was not until three weeks later that we tracked him down in a former municipal
gaol where he was confined in a cell usually reserved for hardened criminals.
There were a number of other men beside our own Nationals. The gaol was without
any form of heating and with the outside temperature below freezing point, they
suffered miserably from the cold besides other indignities. They were released
after a period of about six weeks but were compelled to sign a statement saying
that they had been decently treated.
We realized by the manner of these arrests that the Japanese
must have planned very well in advance and a very comprehensive black-list
existed of those not in good odour. The British Commissioner of the Tientsin
Customs was arrested and conveyed to a Chinese gaol in Peking. He had a
particularly trying time. The head of the Municipal police and the manager of
the leading American oil company were also arrested and gaoled. The bulk of our
own nationals were confined in the old American Marine barracks on the
Racecourse Road.
For some unknown reason, my husband's name and those of three
other colleagues must have been omitted from the list, as they were
not molested in any way. To this day, we cannot think how or why they escaped
prison. The mental worry however was very bad in spite of the liberty they
enjoyed. Every day, the Japs entered the house under all sorts of specious
pretexts, either from the front entrance or the rear, and one never knew
whether that particular interview would end up by his being escorted to gaol. A
suitcase was always kept packed for such an eventuality.
The
only other incident on the first day was when two Japanese soldiers marched
into the house demanding to see the radio. We took them into the drawing room
and showed them our Marconi . This was sealed by pasting a flimsy strip of
paper across the control knob. This strip could be gently eased off when we
felt it was comparatively safe to listen in, but later we found it too risky
and had to desist though the temptation to listen was very hard to resist. On
reflection it was perhaps as well that we could not hear the news. It was not particularly cheerful in the earlier phases
and we might not have been as cheerful as we tried to be. But however bad
things appeared to be, we kept our faith in our own people and their allies.
Nothing shook our conviction, whatever happened, that we could win out in the
struggle. The possibility of our losing never entered into our heads.
Another
particular cause of anxiety was an old radio-gramophone belonging to the
previous tenant. By appearance, it must have been one of the very first of
these machines on the market. The back was open, revealing a wondrous
assortment of wires, valves, transformer units and the various gadgets making
up the contraption. The wave length was found by moving a wooden knob along a
marked scale. It never uttered a squeak during our tenancy but functioned as a
plant stand. It must have been reported on during the sealing of the Marconi,
for one day, whilst I was alone. in marched a Japanese officer and two soldiers
with fixed bayonets. He stationed these two at the door of the room, then
shouted to me in English demanding to see the machine and to know where I had
sent messages. In vain I tried to explain that it was not a transmitter, but to
no apparent purpose. Oh! wasn't I glad when my husband came in. Somehow he had
a way with Japs as he generally managed to calm them down. He fetched out
drinks and sent to the kitchen for tea for the sentries.
Gradually
the tension seemed to lessen and he got down to the job of persuading the
officer to believe in the uselessness of the object under suspicion. Things seemed much easier when we
offered to surrender it for their
examination. Our only desire was to get the beastly box of tricks out of the house. They left shortly afterwards, but
apparently not fully satisfied as a number of so called experts pestered us
during the following week for continued probes in the innards of the machine.
In the end it was removed with the
Marconi and we breathed easier.
Our
first big problem was money as we had only a few local dollars in hand,
intending to go to the bank on Monday. But the first thing the Japs did was to
take over the banks, hotels and all British and American administration
buildings. Luckily for us the next door neighbour happened to have a surplus of
cash on hand and loaned us fifteen hundred dollars. I immediately called the
servants and paid their monthly wages and asked them what they intended to do
as we could no longer afford to employ them. Cook and amah decided to return to
the country but the boy decided that he would like to remain with us as long as
we could provide him with food. He was not interested in the wages as he fully
understood our position. I was very touched by this and so he stayed and shared
equally with us whatever we had. I taught him to cook and we had a fifty-fifty
sort of arrangement which worked very well.
The
Japs issued us with bright red arm bands on which were stamped the two Chinese
characters "Ying-kuo" meaning British or more correctly, English
national . These bands had to be worn on all occasions under threats of dire
penalties. No more than three of us were now allowed to congregate in the
streets at a time.
We
could shop in the Concession, but only in certain places. Orders were issued
concerning blackout arrangements in case of air raids. A large earthenware jar
containing water had to be placed outside the front gate in case of consequent
fire. This was a source of amusement to us as immediately it was placed
outside, the water froze solid.
English
road and shop signs were removed and replaced with those bearing Chinese
characters. The use of the English language was forbidden when addressing
shopkeepers or our servants. This order was honoured in the breach.
An
amusing incident happened about this time during a public ceremony of raising
the Japanese and puppet regime flag on the former Gordon Hall. Thousands of
Chinese were watching the event. They dearly loved a show of this sort. The
military forces were called smartly to attention and Wang-keh-Ming, the head of
the puppet regime walked forward to pull the string. For some unknown reason
the flags stuck. Wang tugged harder and flapped wildly with the rope. There was
an ominous crack and down cascaded a shower of tiles on his head, knocking him
senseless to the ground. He was borne to his car to the cries of
"ai-yah" from the surrounding crowd. To the Chinese present, it was a
very bad omen.
Another
amusing angle concerning the denial of the English language was the fact that the
Japanese in the meetings with their Axis partners, the Germans and the
Italians, had to resort to the forbidden tongue in order to be understood. This
was told to me by a German journalist whilst I was on a visit to some neutral
friends. A very important Japanese General was to visit Tientsin, so it was
agreed by the Japanese authorities to throw a party in his honour, inviting all
the noted German and Italian residents together with their wives. The party was
to be held in the Astor Hotel (formerly owned by the British). On the night in
question a silver shield was presented to the General and a huge basket of
flowers to his wife. After dinner the General stood up to thank everyone and he
spoke in broken English as very few folk understood Japanese. "Ladies and
Gentleman I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart," and with a
beaming smile towards his wife continued, "and also from my wife's
bottom."
Periodically
we were made to attend the Gordon Hall, the former Municipal Offices of the
concession, for interrogation concerning our financial resources, property, and
such other information as suited our gaolers. All sorts of ridiculous questions
were asked such as how many coats or pants we possessed and not forgetting the
old chestnut of grandfather's origin, which by this time had begun to pall. The
whole thing from our point of view was meaningless and was meant possibly as a
form of irritation. It succeeded admirably if this was the intention.
Vaccination
and inoculation were also compulsory, usually at intervals of 3 months.
Japanese-made serums and vaccines were issued to the small temporary British
hospital and administered by our own doctors. For that we were particularly
grateful although we had some misgivings on the standards of the Jap products.
This
sort of life went on for about 15 months with all of us trying to live as
normal a life as possible under tiring circumstances. The schools were closed
and eventually our church. The last mentioned as the altar was desecrated by
some Japanese soldiers. It had been used as a lavatory. We held small services
in several private houses by dodging the sentries. On entering or leaving, we
limited numbers to two persons only. Others followed at intervals.
All this came
to an end in March 1942 when we received orders to pack ready for a
concentration camp situated at Weihsien in
Shantung province. We were instructed that we could take one bed, one
trunk and one suitcase each. Children were not included in their calculations.
Parents had to cram in what they could for their use. On no account was
anything to be packed into beds. We then began the hectic planning of what to
and what not to take.
On
the evening of March 29th we left our home after handing the keys to a waiting
gendarme who took possession of everything we owned other than those few things
we were carrying with us. That was the last we saw of everything we had
accumulated during our twenty years in China.
It
was a bitterly cold evening and we had to wait outside the old Volunteer Drill
Hall to have our suitcases examined by the Jap guards who just tipped
everything out on the dirty ground. They poked into our pitiful belongings,
emptied thermos bottles, trampled on packages of foodstuffs under the pretext
that it was not necessary, confiscated scissors and any knives they found and
generally made themselves as obnoxious as possible. We were then ordered to
repack our cases and be ready for the march to the railway station, about two
miles away, by nine o'clock.
Old
people and babies were graciously allowed to ride in rickshaws, providing of
course, that one had funds enough in hand to pay for them. The rest had to
march through the streets lined with grinning Chinese, German and Italian
nationals. If it was the intention here to humble our pride, it failed
miserably. We had no intention of allowing that, least of all to the Japanese.
Most of us adopted a don't-care-a-damn attitude and ignored the grinning array
of faces at the kerbsides.
We
arrived at the station around eleven o'clock and stood there until midnight
when we were bundled unceremoniously into coolie trucks on the train. A
disgusting toilet was at the end of our compartment. Accommodation was strained
to bursting point. It was beyond the bounds of possibility to try to move
about, so we sat cramped together for two nights and a day before the train
crawled into Weihsien. It was a nightmare journey to say the very least of it
and we arrived in an exhausted condition. It was with a sense of relief that we
arrived at the camp, a series of compounds, roughly in all about forty acres in
extent.
It
was owned by American Presbyterian Mission and formerly used as a missionary
training centre for Chinese students. It had a brilliant red gate and high
surrounding walls and could accommodate the two thousand odd POW's who
eventually were interned there. It suited the Japs admirably for the purpose
they had in mind.
A
number of our Peking friends who were already there were waiting to welcome us.
We
were conducted to our room which was one in a row of six formerly housing a
couple of Chinese students. The overall size was twelve by eight and a half
feet. For three of us it was rather a tight squeeze but we managed in the time
we spent there to find a modicum of comfort in the space at our disposal. The
room was absolutely empty, of course, and as our beds had not arrived our first
effort was to procure, if possible, some sort of bedding. Two travelling rugs,
a deck chair in dubious state of repair and some odd bits of straw matting made
up our final collection. It was straining the resources of our friends to
provide even this; We managed this way for a fortnight until our beds
arrived. We welcomed them with open
arms. The floor was wet with snow and we were aching in every bone as we arose
after those fitful nights.
The
camp was planned in rows of these small rooms, whilst the larger buildings in
the campus were for lecture and administrative purposes. There were 3 large
kitchens and dining halls, the kitchens being equipped solely with large
cauldrons for the cooking of the usual type of coolie Chinese food. This was
the only means provided. Sanitary arrangements bordered on the primitive,
consisting of cubicles fitted with oblong porcelain bowls sunk into cement
floor. The cess-pool was periodically emptied by coolies but the rest of the
cleaning had to be performed by the internees, a job we all loathed and
detested. A roster was kept of the under 60's who had the odious duty to
perform for a week in rotation. Marvellous inducements in the way of precious
tins of coffee were handed out by individuals to those less finicky who were
willing to "stand-in" for the detested job.
It
was very amusing during the first week or so to see folks furtively creeping
out of their rooms in the early morning to empty chamber pots without being
observed, but later on the requisite duty fell into perspective and nobody
bothered at all about it.
There
were a number of different nationalities in the camp, American, British, Dutch,
Belgian, Greeks, Norwegian and White Russian. The latter mentioned were
employees of the former British Municipal Council and were in possession of
British protective passports. Later on when Italy turned over to the Allies, a
number of Italians were housed on the far side of the camp, but it was a very
long time before any contact with them was permitted.
Life
was very chaotic in the first few days. The cooking arrangements and the meals
were horrible. We seemed to live on bread porridge for the early meal and a
thin watery fluid called leek soup for the mid-day and evening meal. This
so-called soup consisted of a few chopped leeks floating around in water.
This
situation was mercifully relieved by the Catholic fathers. Incidentally there
were over five hundred of them in camp, including five Bishops. In the various
catholic institutions they had been used to this sort of bulk cooking in
primitive style and they nobly stepped into the breach. They organized and
trained teams of cooks who were therefore able to make the best of the very
poor and meagre food the Japanese doled out to us. By the time the fathers left
the camp, about sixteen months later, the trained kitchen staffs were turning
out quite creditable meals and were able to adequately disguise such doubtful
comestibles as buffalo, camel, horse and mule meat. Not that it was donated in
quantity. The amounts were pitifully slim for the numbers to cater for. The
difficulties they had to cope with were stupendous. No proper utensils, flies
by the million, no refrigeration and the poorest and most miserable vegetables
the Japs could gouge out of the local peasantry without payment at all.
Improvisation with all sorts of materials was really wonderful. We had a
veterinary surgeon among the internees who examined the meat ration daily when
it arrived. Coming from Tsingtao in ordinary rail cars without refrigeration,
it was never more than what can be described as doubtful. The "very
doubtful" was cut away and buried and the "possible" put on to
cook immediately. Fish was always buried at once. It had to be accepted as
rations but it went quickly under ground. Usually it brooked no delay.
Vegetables
usually consisted of those not particularly alluring to the occidental palate
such as sweet potatoes, which most of us grew to loathe, squash, field cucumbers,
egg plant, huge Chinese winter radishes coarse and as tough as a boot, water
reeds and some weird and wonderful weeds including clover, which they gave us
when other greens were not available. The missionary body discussed the vitamin
content of these "funnies" but we remained unimpressed.
Fat
of any kind had practically disappeared from our diet, and sugar was a
commodity we seemed to remember vaguely from some years ago. We were able
periodically to purchase at the canteen a form of syrupy maltose which went
under the Chinese name of "Tong Shih." It was a wonderful experience
to get a taste of this, providing, of course, one had enough "comfort
money" to pay for it.
There
was one blessing we were always devoutly thankful for, our bread. The supply,
if not particularly generous to hungry youngsters, was adequate. We saved any
spare and turned it into rusks and stored them in a pillow case hung on the
wall. Periodically they would be gone over and re-toasted. We felt that we had
a reserve of food if things somehow went wrong.
It
was soon realised that some sort of camp organisation would have to be
inaugurated and a system was arranged which I think reflected great credit on
those concerned. Nine chairmen were chosen with their committees. They went
under the names of General Affairs, Discipline, Quarters, Education, Hospital
Management, etc. These chairmen, besides heading their respective committees,
were in contact with the Japanese Commandant and the Chief of Police, who of
course was a member of the gendarmerie. This police head, likewise his top
sergeant was an obnoxious official. They were known respectively as "King
Kong" and "P'u-Shing-T'i," the latter being roughly translated
from the Chinese as "No can do." The sergeant's Chinese vocabulary
was limited to this one expression which he rode to death. There was no wholesale brutality in the camp mainly, I
think, for the simple reason that it was well run by our own people and the
Japs were content to leave well alone and were out to run it this way without
recourse to undue pressure. One or two faces were smacked and usually for a
definite and deserved reason. Had the position been reversed I do not think for
one moment that we would have stood for half the amount the Japs did. We did,
however, have rather a tough time when two men escaped over the wall and got
away on ponies already waiting for them. The committee had of course to
eventually break the news to the Chief of Police, not before a few hours had
elapsed to give the fugitives good and sufficient time to show a clean pair of
heels. The Chief all but had an apoplectic seizure when they told him. His face
went scarlet and he raved and stormed and regarded it as a personal affront. In
consequence, regulations were tightened up in every way and roll calls and more
roll calls were our affliction for months to come. it was no unusual thing to
hold a roll call in the middle of the night. Everyone had to go out or be
carried out to be counted. Even small babies and old people had to be produced
for the head count and it often meant hours standing in the bitterly cold
weather until the Japs were satisfied that no further escapes had taken place.
We
had a team of British and American doctors, fellow internees in the camp and
the work they did during our long stay was a marvellous example of courage,
initiative and unselfishness.
The
hospital which could later accommodate twenty-six bed patients, when it was
first taken over by the internees was a bare shell . To the eternal discredit
of the Japanese they contributed nothing at all, either in drugs or equipment,
to what was eventually an excellent hospital with very creditably appointed
surgical, medical, dental and eye clinics, besides operating theatre,
laboratories, diet kitchens and other offices and wards. The Japanese were very
quick to seize the opportunity, which was never denied them, of using the
clinics for their own sick.
Our
supply of drugs, instruments and dressings was due to the foresight of these
doctors who, when the internees were packing to go to camp, were given two
parcels to carry with them to form the nucleus of our supplies. Later on our
supplies were augmented by purchases through the Swiss Consul but, throughout
the camp, the Japanese contributed nothing at all. They were also very ready to
seize the opportunity to show off the hospital to visiting big-wigs. We took
these occasions very philosophically, but nevertheless there was an itching
desire to kick them when they did so.
No water was laid on in the hospital. Our supplies of water had to be hand pumped from shallow surface wells into a main tank above. This was the system throughout the camp. Water for the hospital had therefore carried a good distance from the outside. An engineer internee set out to rectify this difficulty. Using old pipes found around the camp and old bedstead rails, he piped water not only to the ground kitchens but to the operating theatre and offices on the floor above.
Another
difficulty he surmounted was the heating of the theatre in the winter. It was
not possible, of course, to have any naked form of flame with the ether fumes
during the operation. He devised a very satisfactory hot-air appliance worked
from the basement below. It was great success. Undoubtedly it saved quite a
number of lives.
The
general health of the camp was maintained on a
high level in spite of the conditions under which we existed. Our death
rate kept time with the births, a happy sort of balance to charm our
statisticians, but the advent of a new arrival always provided a fillip of
excitement. Everyone had to view the baby as soon as the child was out of
hospital and friends rallied round to hand out from their hoards such precious
items as an ounce or two of sugar, etc. for the christening cake.
Weddings
were of course the great events. Permission had to be obtained from the Japs
before they could be solemnized. It was really wonderful how a few strips of
mosquito netting plus a silk nightie could be converted into a ravishing
wedding dress! Honeymoons had, of course, to be spent in camp, but there was
always some kind hearted married couple who were willing to separate and go
into the dormitory for a few days so the new couple could have their room.
We
were allowed the use of the church as an assembly hall during the week and many
and varied were the activities held there. Meetings, Plays, Concerts, Piano
Recitals, Orchestral Concerts and Exhibitions were given in the hall. It was
always possible to gauge how things were going with the Japanese by their
reactions following bad news. The hall lighting used to be their spite target.
Invariably they would wait until the audience were nicely settled and the
players ready, when the lights would suddenly fail.
Our
camp electricians would be running around in circles in their efforts to locate
the fault, but the main switch room it would be noted was invariably locked and
not open to inspection.
One
Good Friday the choral society of eighty members were singing the
"Crucifixion" to a large and appreciative audience when without
warning, out went the lights. Somehow or other it must have been generally
suspected that the Japs intended to be awkward for, without further ado, each
singer produced a tiny home-made peanut oil lamp and the programme continued
without a further hitch. As a matter of fact, we all agreed that it was far
more impressive this way and lost nothing by the Japs stupidity.
We
all possessed one of these "home-spun" oil lamps. They were so useful
when the Japs pulled off stunts like this or for use in the night when the camp
lights were extinguished. We grudged however the oil being used this way as it
often meant going without a piece of fried bread for breakfast, a very real
denial. We were allowed to purchase the oil now and again in the canteen. It
was not a ration.
One
source of worry to us was the presence of the Chinese 8th Route, Communist Army in the vicinity. The
Japs never succeeded in eliminating them in spite of the several serious
attempts to do so. A favourite habit of these guerrillas was to catch the Jap
sentries standing asleep against the trees in the camp. Then would they
noiselessly climb down from the camp wall where they had been watching in the
darkness and cut the sentry's throat. It was a terrifying sound at first to
those living near the outer wall but we grew hardened and callous in time. On
hearing this frozen scream we would slide out of bed and prop a trunk against
the door lest the guerrilla, being chased, seek safety in our room and the Japs
shoot it out with him, with ourselves inside. Not a pleasant thing to
contemplate. We were rather afraid that the Japs would implicate us in these
killings, but fortunately they never did.
Our
Amateur Dramatic Society was most ambitious in the plays they produced. The
scenic effects and the costumes were a marvel of ingenuity. The Japs always
attended, whether they understood the piece or otherwise but were always
puzzled to know where we obtained the materials. Bernard Shaw's "Androcles
and the Lion" was staged with the lion outfit being produced from a moth
eaten fur coat and pipe cleaners for whiskers. The armour for the Roman
soldiers was made from "Spam" tins we gathered from our American
friends.
We
were also fortunate in having two very talented pianists, one being an Indian
girl and the other an American gentleman. They gave us many very delightful
recitals. Altogether, the entertainment
side of camp life was very well catered for and was very much appreciated by
all of us, particularly when it was remembered that every able bodied member of
the camp had so many hours of community work to do and all practices had to be
done in spare time.
My
own job in camp was Captain of the Sewing Room. This high- sounding title was
the result of an effort made by one or two of us, when we first arrived, to
help the unattached men with their mending problem. It ended up as one of the
best patronized efforts in the camp. We had a large room allocated to us. From
various places we "scrounged," chairs, table for cutting, odd pairs
of scissors and a small heating stove. Our staff grew from the modest
beginnings to over twenty. Our job book at the end of camp showed a total of
thirty thousand odd jobs that had been done. We had the assistance of one of
the best British cutters in North China who came in the afternoons to cut out
shorts, trousers, overalls, etc. from such strange sources of materials as
chair covers, curtains, bedspreads and similar articles. We also kept the
hospital stocked with sheets, O.P. towels, tea towels, etc.
Occasionally,
the Japanese allowed us to have cheap materials and this was sold on a sort of
lottery system.
Sometimes,
the Jap guards came in for small jobs to be done. We hated doing anything for
them but we had to weigh up the possibilities of repercussions on the camp if
we refused. The committee were consulted and they were of this opinion so, now
and again, when asked, we did so. I shall always remember one particular day
when a fierce-looking guard marched into the sewing room and by pantomime
efforts indicated that he had a hole in the seat of his trousers. I tried to
make him understand that we would mend them if he brought them in. He promptly
took them off and handed them to me. There were six workers in the room who
were almost hysterical with suppressed laughter. He looked screamingly funny.
The top half with his navy blue uniform coat with gold braid and long sword,
the bottom half, long pink cotton pants. He marched solemnly backwards and
forwards trailing his long sword until the job was completed. He then calmly
put on his pants, bowed from the waist and went out. Ten minutes later he
returned bearing a huge watermelon which he presented to me. As it was the
first fruit we had tasted for many a month we stifled any compunction we may
have had and enjoyed it thoroughly.
After
about eight months the Jap commandant notified the committee that a number of
American and Canadian internees were to be repatriated in exchange for Japanese
prisoners of war. When the day of departure came we all congregated near the
main gateway and gave them a wonderful send off but felt rather sad at being
left behind.
By
this time, the quantity and quality of the food supplied to us had begun to
deteriorate badly and many were the attempts made to purchase food over the
wall from the Chinese villagers. These activities passed under the name of
black marketing but our activities in this direction hardly agreed with the
accepted meaning of the term. We were merely out to supplement a semi-
starvation diet by means of purchase, whether it was considered illegal or otherwise.
Needless to remark, these activities were severely frowned on by the Japs who
confiscated any goods found and gaoled the offender. In spite of these
deterrents, the trade carried on briskly. Prices of course were extortionate
but money has little meaning when empty stomachs dictate. The Jap guards
themselves fostered the business by the secret purchase of internees jewellery
and watches. My own rings, brooches, watch, plus my husband's studs, links and
watch were disposed of for this purchase of very necessary food. It goes in the
saying that we received a mere fraction of what the things were worth. For
instance, half a bottle of peanut oil was bought with the proceeds of a heavy
22 carat topaz ring.
One
of our most successful ''merchants'' was a Trappist father. By all accounts he
had a special dispensation permitting him to speak, and he surely used his
tongue in a great service, especially for the children. He managed to get eggs,
rice, sugar, peanut oil, etc, and just charged the bare cost of the goods.
Helpers were organised and they guilefully decoyed the guards on "wild
goose'' chases with empty baskets while the goods were slipped over the wall at
a different spot. It was said that later on the father, whose room abutted the
outer wall, had an opening through the wall under his bed, the bricks being
replaced when the goods were pushed through. He came under suspicion but
managed to evade arrest for a long period but was eventually "gathered
in" and was sentenced to two weeks solitary confinement in a cell
adjoining the guards' quarters. He arrived back in the camp kitchen five days
after his arrest. When questioned concerning his early release he said that he
thought the guards didn't like his voice when he chanted during the night!
However, he was given a room in the centre of the camp with another priest. The
outer wall of the camp was then fitted with wire and electrified. In
consequence we all tightened our belts. This was something we couldn't cope
with.
Our
food supplies were very thin. Small hoards had long since been expended and the
bread, less plentiful and of much poorer quality. Yeast was hard to come by and
we experimented in growing our own cultures but it was very difficult to get a
pure culture and in consequence, the bread was sour and we began to get upset
tummies.
Tea
we heard was on sale in the canteen and those of us with any cash in reserve,
bought some and thereby succumbed to a very mean swindle. It was proved to be
nothing more than roasted willow leaves. The brew was a salty, brackish liquid
too nauseous for drinking.
After
two and a half years of this life we began to feel that it was our lot to go on
living this life for ever. And then, we would momentarily free ourselves from
the depression and hate ourselves for giving way to an impulse of disloyalty to
those who were giving their all in the service of freedom. At times it was
terribly hard to cling to our faith, but somehow we did.
The
camp abounded in rumour. One story chased another and some, we found later,
were, surprisingly, true. At this time there were more rumours than usual and
there began a feeling of optimism that somehow one couldn't shake off. We
certainly were allowed an English language newspaper, printed in Tientsin, but
as it contained nothing more than Japanese and pro-Axis propaganda, it left us
cold. It was possible however to dissect the reporting and arrive at some
pretty sound deductions that pointed to the opposite direction of the so-called
printed views.
It
was not revealed until much later that there was a way in which authentic news
reached the camp. The messages were sealed in old condensed milk cans and
dropped in the open cess-pool by a coolie in the pay of the Nationalist
Government. Outgoing messages went the same way. The Japs are usually mortally
afraid of infection, and this was the last spot they would dream of hanging
around. There were only three men in the secret. It was far too dangerous to
let it be known generally. The Japs were always making surprise raids in the
hope of finding concealed radio sets. One can readily understand why.
The
news of the first landings in Caen were obligingly told us by the Japs
themselves. They were enquiring in the camp for maps of the place! As it was a
serious offence to possess a map, the response of course was nil, but as they
seemed genuinely interested in getting an idea of the location of this place
and no "strings" appeared to be attached to the request quite a
number of maps saw daylight for the first time for years.
One
morning on the way to the sewing room a large plane flew over the camp and I
was almost positive it bore American markings. I hurried back to spread the
news but found that I was not alone in my discovery and all agreed as to the
identity. As we stood there a heavy roar fell on our ears and there, sure
enough, was the welcome plane. In a few moments it was joined by another and by
this time hundreds of wildly excited internees were gazing skywards. Suddenly
from out the planes parachutes descended with what appeared to be packages and
men.
This
was the signal for a mad rush of the whole camp out of the main gateway into
the countryside. The Japanese guards with their machine guns and rifles were
absolutely ignored. Nothing I'm sure could have stemmed that frenzied rush. The
Japs bowed to the inevitable and the mad crowds streamed past them and out of
the gate that for over two and a half years had been barred against them. This
was freedom and we drank it in wild heady gulps.
We
raced on through the small village and the less hardy met the returning crowd
with our deliverers, an American major, lieutenant and five other ranks. They
had volunteered to come to the camp as contact had been broken with us for over
ten days and the authorities feared the worst. They were equipped with explosives
to blast open the gate if the necessity arose.
Their
action in coming as they did, landing in remote, hostile territory with the
odds so heavily stacked against them, is an epic in itself. There were forty
five well armed Japs and further detachments in the immediate vicinity should
they choose to call them and yet those seven men arrived in the camp as cool as
cucumbers. They were borne into the camp shoulder high, the Salvation Army
leading the show with their band. We choked back our emotions as best we could
but a number were openly in tears. It was a day to remember for the rest of our
lives.
An
American flag miraculously appeared from somewhere and hung from the tower of
the compound buildings. It was almost too good to be true.
The
Japs, thinking that an American force had arrived by air, retired to their
quarters, so the major took possession of their administrative block, had the
radio transmitter set up and contacted his base in a matter of minutes.
The
camp crowds milled around the main compound, laughing and singing, unwilling to
let our visitors out of their sight. The amount of handshaking they had to go
through must have been an ordeal in itself. The children clung to them and
followed them everywhere so that it was difficult for them to do any work at
all.
We
were told that planes would arrive the following day bringing food, clothing
and other comforts.
I
received a message asking me to go to the office where I was asked to collect
the sewing room staff to make letters out of white material to read "O.K.
to Land." They were to be forty feet long and were intended for the nearby
airfield as a guide to incoming planes. They were to be finished by 6 a.m.. the
following morning,
There
were plenty of volunteers, but of course no material. That difficulty was
overcome by using parachute material and some blackout material found in the
Jap offices. It hurt us very much having to cut up this nice material, having
so few clothes ourselves, but all in a good cause and the work was finished in
time to be taken to the airfield in the morning
The
next day was a wonderful one for the children who were allowed to climb on the
wall now that the electrified wire had been removed, to watch for the planes.
They commenced to arrive about 11 a.m. led by a silver coloured one known as
the "Flying Angel." To us, that name seemed so very appropriate. It
circled the camp, its silvery wings flashing in the sunlight, then suddenly,
out of the bottom dropped a dozen coloured parachutes, each with a container
attached. When the last container had landed they were fetched in from the
outlying fields and carried into the Assembly Hall to await sorting and
distribution of the contents.
One
or two of the containers had burst on landing and what a wonderful time the
children had collecting treasures. They arrived back in camp with their faces
smeared with chocolate and sticky with fruit juice. It was a marvel that they
were not ill being without luxuries like this for so long. Chewing gum was the
greatest find of all, they revelled in it. A number of children born in camp
had never tasted any of these things before.
The
committee worked hard arranging the distribution of food and other things to
the camp. It was a happy band of people who sat down to their first good meal
that day and for many days to come. We were indeed thankful for Uncle Sam' s
generosity.
The
following Sunday we had more visitors by air. From Okinawa they radioed that
they intended dropping clothing and shoes. They nearly killed us with kindness,
the packages dropping all over the camp. One container fell through the kitchen
roof, another on the roof of a room, whilst a few landed in the tall trees. We
took cover until they had departed but it was a marvellous sight to see the
stacks of clothing when all the containers had been emptied. The shoes were a
godsend as a number of people had been walking barefoot for months, the
children likewise. We dreaded the thought of the cold winter coming without
shoes.
American troops had arrived by this time and the
Colonel in charge of the force had organized the Jap guards to assist in
guarding the camp. It was thought possible that the communist troops in the
vicinity might be tempted to use the camp inmates as political hostages in
their feud with the Nationalist Government. There were ample grounds for this
belief.
In
the meantime, the sick in the hospital were evacuated by air and five hundred
from the camp sent by train to Tsingtao to await transport to their various
destinations. The rest were promised a fortnight for recuperation at Tsingtao
before being sent back to Tientsin and Peking.
The
night before we were due to leave we held a round of farewell parties. Our beds
had been sent off in advance and we found the floor nothing at all to worry
about as far as sleeping was concerned, with the prospect of such a to-morrow.
We
were up and seated in the trucks which were there to take us to the station, at
4 a.m. Our truck was near the end and it seemed ages before it came for us to
start. We were almost in sight of the station when the convoy came to a halt
and we wondered what had happened. It wasn't long before we found out. The
Colonel arrived and broke the sad news that the communists had blown up a
number of railway culverts and a long
stretch of the railway line. It was impossible for the train to start. We were
disappointed to say the least of it, more so for the children as we talked of
the sea, sands and holiday.
It
was a very dejected procession that returned to camp. We opened up our room and
started again the dull old routine of queueing up for water and food and doing
the same deadly chores we had known for three years.
We
had been rescued from the Japanese on August 17th, and here we were in the
month of October. When would we get free? Our spirits were at low ebb.
About
a week later there was a whisper in camp that we were to be flown out. A
discreet enquiry and I verified the story.
This
time the American Army intended no hitch in their plans. On the 23rd we piled
into waiting trucks and drove off to the airfield. One by one the Dakota's
touched down on the field, filled up and bore us off to Tientsin..
So
ended our interlude.
In
retrospect, what had we lost by our experiences and what was our gain? In loss,
our personal liberty for three years and all our possessions. In gain,
what? We had learned the great lesson
of denial and found virtue in the same street. Grew to respect tolerance and
realise what it means. Found the pleasure of giving far richer than of receiving.
Grew to accept privation and be thankful for small mercies. We are richer by
far by our experience, what more is there to say?
***