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Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Thu, 23 Feb 2017 at 22:13
[weihsien_camp] Eddie Wang's birthday letters

Eddie Wang wrote a happy letter to me today about how many of you wrote him e-mail congratulations and good wishes for his birthday. He loves getting mail and I've found that he responds almost immediately. His computer keeps him connected with the world.

If you mailed Mr. Wang a birthday card to his home address in Guiyang, he will not yet have received it. The family is divided much of the year because Mr. Wang's son's wife (daughter-in-law) and her son (Mr. Wang's grandson) live in Ningbo, where she teaches English at Ningbo University. Mr. Wang and his son live in Guiyang. The family celebrated Chinese New Year together in Ningbo and decided to external the family reunion there through Mr. Wang's birthday.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness to this hero. He was fascinated that the e-mail birthday greetings come from several countries.

Elaine Yau writes from Hong Kong that the English version of the Eric Liddell movie may soon be released. Thank you, Elaine, for keeping us informed.

Mary
Mary Taylor Previte

Sent from my iPad



Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Tue, 21 Feb 2017 at 20:43
[weihsien_camp] Death of Weihsien-er, Jack Fitzwilliam

Sad news announcing the death for Weihsien-er, Jack Fitzwilliam. Jack was a student at the Chefoo School. He was interned into Weihsien with the Chefoo School group in 1943.

Dear Mary,

Jack went to be with the Lord on Sunday, February 25, after a long illness. There will be a Memorial Service for him this Saturday, February 25, at 11 a.m., at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, followed by a luncheon for all. Jack always loved Chefoo and all of your Weishen stories even though he couldn't respond. The service will be all about God's Faithfulness--our grandaughter will be singing "God is Our Refuge and Strength" (Chefoo version).

Lovingly, Alice Fitzwilliam




From: Mary Previte [mailto:MTPrevite@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2017 3:07 PM
To: Leopold_Pander
Subject: Re: Weihsien Topica archives

Leopold,

I have read about a consideration being given to facilitate a rescue of everyone in the camp.

Our Chefoo group arrived in Weihsien in September 1943, so we overlapped for a week or two with the Americans who were evacuated on the Gripsholm.

I've read of accounts written by internees who arrived in Weihsien in 1942 when the entire compound was in shambles. I believe it had been over run by Chinese and Japanese troops. Circumstances for the first-arriving prisoners must have been horrendous.

These internees did an amazing job of cleaning up the place and making it liveable -- but crowded.

I remember being hungry much of the time, but never starving. Our Chefoo School was not nearly as crowded in Weihsien as we were in Temple Hill, Chefoo, in 1942 and 1943 when the Japanese commandeered our school to turn it into military base.

We had not one inch between our mattresses on the floor.

Through all of this, our Christian missionary teachers protected us with comfortingly predictable rituals that made us feel safe. Of course, we were used to dormitory life in our school compound, so dormitory life in these camps was not such a shock for us children from Chefoo.

Leopold, please post on Weihsien-camp Yahoo group that letter found by Greg Leck in the National Archives. All of us will be fascinated! PLEASE!

Thank you,
Mary

Sent from my iPad

> On Feb 17, 2017, at 2:49 AM, Leopold_Pander wrote:
>
> ... also a very interesting document written by a protestant
> missionary upon arrival of the Gripsholm in New-York.
> It is in Norman Cliff's documents :
> http://weihsien-paintings.org/GregLeck/NARA(1)/p_1945-0526.htm
>
> I will let you make your own conclusions !!!! on what could have
> happened if that evacuation was organised !!!!!
>
> Leopold





Mary Broughton' maryhbroughton@swissmail.org [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Cc:johnhoyte12@gmail.com,estelle.m.horne@gmail.com
Re: [weihsien_camp] Re: 1942 internment




From: Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 10:11 AM
To: weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Cc: John Hoyte ; Estelle Horne
Subject: Re: [weihsien_camp] Re: 1942 internment

I was a child in Weihsien. We played during roll call time when we had a long, boring wait for the Japanese to come to our section to count us. Our roll call section was the open space-- a basketball court, I think - near what we used as the entrance to the hospital building. I remember leapfrog. I also remember practicing semaphore for a Girl Guide badge.

Who else ground peanuts into peanut butter? I think our room mate, Marjorie Harrison, once got the tip of her finger caught in the hand operated grinder. That was in the space behind Block 23 when we first arrived in Weihsien.

A few years ago, I attended the powerfully/moving memorial service for Marjorie in Lancaster, PA. She had been a missionary. At the luncheon that followed that service, I lugged her br other, Jimmie, up and we sang together -- LOUDLY -- Chefoo songs. Didn't you love it, Jimmie? What did we sing? God is our refuge? That made me so happy with memories that I wanted to hug the world.

Not during roll call in Weihsien, but in free time, a Church of the Nazarene missionary from the United States, Mary Scott, took upon herself the education of us British-educated girls in the correct way for throwing a softball. We gathered in the small court just beyond the basketball court. We girls had never played softball. Mary Scott was a tomboy, who had grown up in a large family of boys in the USA, a skilled softball player, so much so that she was the only lady in Weihsien ever invited to fill in for someone on the men's softball teams -- I guess when team members were short on energy. Mary Scott was a tiny ball of energy.

Do yourself a favor and try to buy yourself her book, Kept in Safeguard. She has a good chapter about Weihsien.

Years later, in Dayton, Ohio, I met Mary Scott at the home of my brother, John, and his wife, Beth. I think Mary Scott was there to speak at their church. For sure Mary Scott was an angel!

What games did you play at roll call of how did you fill the waiting time? Tell us.

Mary Taylor Previte

Sent from my iPad



Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:johnhoyte12@gmail.com
Cc:estelle.m.horne@gmail.com,weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Wed, 15 Feb 2017 at 20:13
[weihsien_camp] Re: 1942 internment

Devastating beyond any imagination, John.

I think one of my girl friends got word that her father had died.

Mary

Sent from my iPad



John Hoyte johnhoyte12@gmail.com [weihsien_camp]
To:mtprevite@aol.com
Cc:estelle.m.horne@gmail.com,weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Wed, 15 Feb 2017 at 18:55
[weihsien_camp] Re: 1942 internment

Mary and all:

I think you are referring to my sister Mary. We six Hoyte kids got the news from our dad, in Lanchow, Kansu, in 1943, that our mother had died of typhus. It was devastating as there was no funeral or resolution. John

John M. Hoyte
cell phone: 360-318-3743
Author of Alpine Elephant
web site: www.johnhoyte.com to view writing and gallery



Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:estelle.m.horne@gmail.com
Cc:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Wed, 15 Feb 2017 at 15:20
[weihsien_camp] Re: 1942 letter on internment of civilians in Chefoo' Temple Hill

When my big sister, Kathleen, was diagnosed was lupus, it was pronounced that she would live for a year and a half before she died.

That's exactly what happened.
Medicine was just beginning to use steroids.

In the early 1950s , it was called "red wolf disease" and was considered rare.
These days, it seems quite common and is controlled by medication.

Mary

Sent from my iPad



Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:estelle.m.horne@gmail.com
Cc:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Wed, 15 Feb 2017 at 14:59
[weihsien_camp] Re: 1942 internment

I remember at least one of our classmates getting the news that either her father or mother had died.

Mary Taylor Previte

Sent from my iPad



Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Cc:neilyorkston@gmail.com,theshipples@comcast.net,pat@patrickgoodland.plus.com,htorjesen@yahoo.com,stanley@ginniff.com
Mon, 13 Feb 2017 at 19:23
Re: [weihsien_camp] Eddie Wang's birthday

Sylvia,

Yes, I'll forward your thank you to Mr. Wang.

Good for you, reminding us that our rescuers had no idea whether or not our Japanese captors knew that the war was over. They absolutely did know that they might be parachuting to their death.

Major Stanley Staiger told me that he had two choices that day. (Major Staiger led the mission.). He could direct the pilot to land their airplane on the tiny airstrip not far from the camp. Or he could direct the team to parachute -- even on that windy day. He chose the latter, because he believed there might be more loss of life if the Japanese were to attack the airplane on the airstrip or if the airstrip were sabotaged in some way. Major Staiger ordered the team to parachute at about 400 feet -- frighteningly low -- because that would give the Japanese less space and time to shoot the team as they floated to the ground.

Men of another of the August 17 teams sent to liberate Japanese concentration camps in east Asia came within inches of being executed by the Japanese. That team returned to Si-An without liberating the camp they were assigned to liberate.

Member of our team told me, they thought that the leader of that team should have been court marshalled.

Mr. Wang has said he did not know until the rescue team headed to Weihsien that day that they were on their way to liberate a Japanese-held internment camp. He had never before jumped from a plane. He has told me that the automatic opening of the parachute saved his life. He said the jump momentarily made him unconscious, but the jerk of the parachute's opening jolted him awake.

Eddie Wang was a 20-year-old, college sophomore, studying physics. He had dropped out of college to fight the Japanese. Imagine it! The youngest and the shortest member of this team.

Mary Taylor Previte





Sylvia Prince sylprin@gmail.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Mon, 13 Feb 2017 at 17:05
Re: [weihsien_camp] Eddie Wang's birthday

Dear Mary,

Please wish Mr. Wang a very happy birthday too.

I am 83 and live in Irvington, Virginia. USA. Leopold and I have corresponded thru email quite often, I have his books.

It took a lot of courage for those seven men to parachute into "they didn't know what" and I am deeply grateful for their bravery.

Way to go Mr. Wang.





Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Sun, 12 Feb 2017 at 02:02
Re: [weihsien_camp] Eddie Wang's birthday

1626320433@qq.com.
E-mail address of Mr. Wang ChengHan

Mary Taylor Previte

Sent from my iPad



KELLY HUNSAKER hunsakermountain@msn.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Sun, 12 Feb 2017 at 00:21
Re: [weihsien_camp] Eddie Wang's birthday

I am sure it is in this text somewhere but I don't see it.

Would someone please share his email address with me? I would love to send a note as Sister Eustella's family.

Kelly





Elaine Yau elaineyau2000@gmail.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Cc:mtprevite@aol.com
Sat, 11 Feb 2017 at 19:21
Re: [weihsien_camp] FW: "Eddie " Wang ChengHan's 93rd birthday

Dear Leopold,

Per message from Eddie Wang, his address should be as follow:
Wang Cheng Han
Suite 8-2-3-2
Jing Dian Shi Dai
185 Bao Shan Nan Lu
Nan Ming District
Guiyang,
Guizhou 550005
China

Thank you!
Blessings,
Elaine

從我的 iPhone 傳送



Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Sat, 11 Feb 2017 at 18:45
Re: [weihsien_camp] Eddie Wang's birthday

Dwight,

Mr. Wang LOVES getting mail. He uses e-mail to keep in touch with the world. And I've discovered that he responds to my e-mail letters promptly and in delightful detail. I hope you'll keep in touch with him. It will fill his days with joy.

In our July '16 reunion, I found him vibrantly alive in mind and body. He seems to thrive with all the excitement and human interaction. He lives with his only living son. (Another son and wife died in an auto accident many years ago.) In other words, his son now takes care of Mr. Wang. His son's wife, Mr. Wang's daughter-in-law, teaches English in Ningbo University, several provinces away. She came to Guiyang for our reunion. These family separations because of jobs are very common in China. The Wang grandson lives with his mother in Ningbo.

In China, employment rules require retirement at much earlier ages than ours. But because Mr. Wang's daughter-in-law teaches English at Ningbo University and they couldn't find an equally-qualified professor to teach English, they did not make her retire. So the family is split up, separated by quite a distance. I also keep in touch with Mr. Wang's son and daughter-in-law.

Make this wonderful man happy. Write often.

Mary

Sent from my iPad



Dwight Whipple thewhipples@comcast.net [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Sat, 11 Feb 2017 at 17:24
[weihsien_camp] Eddie Wang's birthday

Thanks to Mary Taylor Previte for sending info re Eddie Wang’s birthday.

I responded to Eddie and he promptly wrote back to me.

Such a wonderful and thoughtful human being!

Our correspondence is below:

---Original---
From: "Dwight W Whipple"
Date: 2017/2/11 04:42:25
To: "1626320433"<1626320433@qq.com>;
Subject: Happy Birthday Eddie Wang

Our family was interned at Weihsien in 1943.

We were repatriated to the U.S. in an exchange of prisoners between the Japanese and American governments -- so we were not there in 1945 when you liberated the camp. I was born in Kuling (now Lushan), Kiangsi province and we were in Tsingtao, Shantung province when the war started. Long time ago -- and now you are having a Happy Birthday! Many, many more!

Thank you for your service.

-Dwight W Whipple
thewhipples@comcast.net
2643 Mayes Road SE
Olympia, WA 98503
[360] 456-4300 residence
[360] 280-3299 mobile

Thank you for your congratulatory letter on my birthday.

I wonder if you learn about my address and birthday from Mary Taylor Previte who lives in New Jersey.

It's a pity that we did'nt recoglize each other because I came to Weihsien campin1945 where you left there in1943 by exchange of preseners。

I am now 93 years old and live in Guiyang,Guizhou province with my son.

Last year,Mary came here what a wonderful reunion after71 years we had.You may obtain some informations of our reunion from her.

From your letter,I know you were born in Kuling,beautiful place located in the center of Lushan scenic spot.You know that Kuling originally named from "cooling"by an English man because it's cold.

How about your recent years I would like to know if you please.

Best Wishes !
Eddie Wang





Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Sat, 11 Feb 2017 at 17:02
[weihsien_camp] Weihsien liberator, "Eddie" Wang's 93red birthday

The last living member of the Weihsien liberation team, “Eddie” Wang ChengHan, will celebrate his 93rd birthday, February 23.

Let’s shower Mr. Wang with birthday greetings.

Mr. Wang’s e-mail address is 1626320433@qq.com Mr. Wang enjoys getting e-mail messages and, yes, he still speaks and writes English. He was the Chinese interpreter on the Duck Mission liberation team. He appears to be blessed with good health.

A brief, e-mail message will delight him. Tell what country you’re writing from.

If you wish to post him a birthday card by postal service, do it right away. His mailing address is

Wang ChengHan
Suite 8-2-3-2
Jing Dian Shi Dai
185 Bao Shan Nan Lu
Nan Ming District
Guiyang,
Guizhou 5550005
Peoples Republc of China


Mary Taylor Previte





Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:estelle.m.horne@gmail.com
Sat, 11 Feb 2017 at 16:56
[weihsien_camp] Re: 1942 letter on internment of civilians in Chefoo' Temple Hill

What a wonderful letter, Estelle! You have flooded me with Temple Hill memories!

I remember planting a few seeds in that tiny garden — working on some kind of gardening badge for Brownies. Imagine it! Earning badges for Brownies in a Japanese concentration camp! God bless every one of those sainted teaches! I remember writing in my Brownie diary that someone had “kindly” (sarcasm of a ten year-old) stepped on my tiny garden patch.

I wonder what ever happened to that diary.

Two of my most vivid Temple Hill memories were my terror of those huge geese attacking me and the attack I had of hay fever. My nose just POURED! I don’t think I’ve ever had such an attack of hay fever since then. Certainly, no Kleenex tissues in Temple Hill camp!! Growing geese at Temple Hill must have been — like growing the pig — to supplement our diet.

Since we’re now in our 80s, we can tell about the commode bucket for you teenage girls always being blood red. I was in the Prep School then. Until I was reunited with our parents in 1945 at age 13, I was clueless about menstrual periods. When we got to Weihsien, one of our thirteen girls in the Lower School Dormitory (LSD) started her periods, but teachers kept this a very big secret — like it was, perhaps, a wicked thing. None of the rest of us knew. I didn’t learn about this part of becoming a woman until after I was repatriated in 1945. I guess it was my big sister, Kathleen, who educated me. Kathleen, you know, was “wicked” in Weihsien. She and Douglas Findlay had actually KISSED, so one of the bishops was considering whether or not Kathleen should marry Douglas right there in the camp! Douglas, you know, was from Tientsin, not from Chefoo. (Let me assure you that Kathleen got over her “wickedness.” She died of Lupus in 1942 while she was studying in Asbury Theological Seminary, preparing to go with her husband as missionaries to Africa. )

Doctors in the camp surely knew that poor nutrition affected the teeth of growing children and the delay of menses in young women.

Remember eating powdered egg shells to preserve our teeth and our bones with that pure calcium?

Let’s have more memories from the rest of you.
What badges did you earn?

Mary Taylor Previte





tapol@skynet.be [weihsien_camp]
To:suetsumuhanalou@googlemail.com,weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Thu, 9 Feb 2017 at 08:49
[weihsien_camp] RE: Enquiry about Weihsien and Julyan family

Dear Louise,

Yes, I am – indeed ― at the origin of this Weihsien-Paintings’ website … 17 years already! Marvellous adventure !!!

I had a look at Ron Bridge’s listings (on the website) and the Julian family lived in block 33 room 5 but that is about all I can tell you. I was a baby in 1943 and four when we left camp in October 1945. My parents died a long time ago and as the clock keeps ticking away, year after year … all the sources of information are getting fewer.

However, the best I can do ― to help you ― is to forward your message to our wiehsien_camp@yahoo.com chat list and send you an invitation to join us. Maybe somebody will remember the Julian family and contact you directly or via the Yahoo-chat-list.

Best regards,
Leopold
(Belgium)

From: louise rolland [mailto:suetsumuhanalou@googlemail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2017 7:27 PM
To: tapol@skynet.be
Subject: Enquiry about Weihsien and Julyan family

Dear Leopold,

I hope this email finds you very well. I've been looking at the wealth of information on the web site you keep about Weihsien - thank you for making such a great resource available!

I believe that I am related to the Julyan family, who were interned at Weihsien and lived in Block 33. I found an email address for Kevin Julyan in your Topica email archives, but unfortunately it's no longer valid. I think he was married to Peg Julyan and living in Australia back in 2005.

I am pretty sure that Kevin Julyan's mother Maria Therese was the widow of Patrick Julyan (who was my grandfather Cedric's older brother). They married in Hong Kong in 1925 and Patrick worked in Tientsin for the North China Star. Patrick died some time before 1936. Kevin was 16 and his sister Can(d)ice 13 when they were interned along with their mother.

I'd be very grateful if you could let me know whether you are in contact with anyone in the Julyan family, know anyone who is or who knew them? I couldn't see a way to post a query on the web site.

Many thanks for your help.
Louise
(from London)