De: "Joyce
Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Wei'Hsien
concentration camp
Date: jeudi 10 janvier 2008 1:47
Regarding Terri K's email
about WeiHsien camp. I sure did know Alice
Moore. She was the Principal of the
American High School at the time of her
internment and she opened and conducted the school in the camp. She had short
grey hair, horn rimmed spectacles and was quite slim. In her
early sixties. She was one of my school teachers in the camp. She also
as Principal signed my Diploma issued by the
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Menzi
To: Terri Stewart
Cc: weihsien
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 2:33 AM
Subject: Re: Wei'Hsien concentration camp
Welcome aboard, Terri,
One
of the names of your grandmother's friends, "Helen Burton" rang a
bell for me. She was apparently a very
interesting woman, so being her friend reflects well on your great aunt. Before being interned she had owned a shop in
Peking called "The Camel's
If you go to my "family" website you can find a picture of Helen Burton reading a letter informing her that her brother had died. You can find it by going to http://d.menzi.org (no www), then clicking on "Gripsholm" and then on "Life Magazine." She's on the 9th page. You'll also find a painting of the "White Elephant's Bell," a barter/exchange shop that she ran in the camp, by clicking on the "Weihsien" slide show, which is a "walking tour" of the camp, based on paintings and sketches done by inmates. Be sure to have your sound turned on to get the musical background.
Best wishes for a satisfying 2008.
Donald Menzi
-----Original Message-----
From: Terri Stewart
Sent: Jan 6, 2008 11:52 PM
To: dmenzi@earthlink.net
Subject: Wei'Hsien concentration camp
Hi!
I've only recently (two weeks ago) came into possession of my Great
Aunt's letters and diary accounts from 1948-52. Much of it was about
post-Weishsien and her life in Peiping, but several letters and entries came
from various friends that also were in the camp and continued to live in
My Aunt's name: Ruth H. Kunkel,
an American teacher & nurse from
Date of birth: Feb 27 (not sure what year)
Her constant friends: Alice Moore, also a teacher & nurse from
Both Ruth & Alice taught at the
I
would appreciate any info that you or others can pass on. Half of her original
diary has gone missing (in
I'm not sure about that and there is no one left (old enough) to ask. Somewhere in all of this stuff - my mother and I are still going through a lot of mixed up family notes (!) - are pictures of Ruth during some of these years. Many were eaten up by bugs so I'm not sure what has survived at this point.
I hope to hear from you?
Sincerely,
Terri K. (Reagle) Stewart
tksweaver@verizon.net
PS: Aunt Ruth and I share the same date of birth - Feb 27th.
De:
"Tapol" <
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: "Anne de
Saint Hubert" <annando@beeb.net>
Objet: Re: Helen Burton
letter
Date: jeudi 10
janvier 2008 8:32
Hello,
Yes!
I'd gladly add all interesting data about our days in Weihsien Concentration Camp. It is interesting to confront personal impressions about the camp in those days. There are quite a few interesting diary extracts in Norman Cliff's chapter --- Peter Bazire recently sent to me the adventures of a 13 year old boy upon liberation --- and many others in the website. Even books --- some recopied in whole and readable (printable) as e-books. I hope that my sister will write someday about the experiences of a seven year old girl in camp and we are scheduled to have some extracts of Christian de Saint Hubert's diary this year ---
Best regards,
Leopold
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org
De: "Terri
Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: missing messages
Date: jeudi 10
janvier 2008 19:55
I am now new to this list, but noticed that the last 3 messages to this list open to blank pages...no message to go with the heading.
Am I doing something wrong, or did they not post??
Terri
De: "Tapol" <
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: missing messages
Date: vendredi 11 janvier 2008 10:12
Quite right !! There seems to be a problem on the "Topica" side. Best thing
is to wait --- for them to fix it :-))
--- all the best,
Leopold
De:
"Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fw: Wei'Hsien
concentration camp
Date:
dimanche 13 janvier 2008 22:56
Regarding Terri K's email
about WeiHsien camp. I sure did know Alice
Moore. She was the Principal of the
American High School at the time of her
internment and she opened and conducted the school in the camp. She had short
grey hair, horn rimmed spectacles and was quite slim. In her
early sixties. She was one of my school teachers in the camp. She also
as Principal signed my Diploma issued by the
De:
"Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Fw: Wei'Hsien concentration camp
Date: mardi 15 janvier 2008 1:22
Hi Joyce,
Glad to have been of some help and I thank
you for your description of
I'm not sure how long she was there, but I
understand she eventually left
It would make sense. I love this list!
Terri
De: "Tapol" <
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: 2 new letters
about Weihsien ---
Date:
mardi 15 janvier 2008 11:05
Hello all :-))
Thanks to Terri Stewart, we have two new letters about Weihsien to read ---
goto:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/TerriStewart/indexFrame.htm
--- click once on the scanned letter --- it is easier to read that way --- and I added a few links too !!
Best regards,
Leopold
De:
"Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Alice Moore
Date: jeudi 17 janvier 2008 19:02
Hi All,
I've re-read the letters of my g.Aunt, and
it does mention Alice Moore going to
As for Pu Mei Li (Mary Burton), no other
mention of her is made in the rest of the letters after Dec. 1948. Helen Burton
had moved to
Terri
De: "Tapol" <
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Peter Bazire's
"First Class Journey" in Weihsien
Date:
dimanche 20 janvier 2008 17:39
Hello,
There is a new text Peter asked me to recopy for him and include in the Weihsien-Paintings' website with more pictures and links --- go to:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/PeterBazire/ScoutBadge/txt_BoyScoutBadge.htm
I tried to locate every person mentioned in
Peter's text by giving you the link to
Mr. Zimmerman is not in Ron's listings but mentioned in Greg's book --- ??
I didn't find Mr. Beasley nor Miss Melo. These names could be "phonetically" written --- or nicknames maybe??? Does somebody have a better idea? As for the other names, --- if I got some locations wrong --- please let me know --- :-))
Best regards,
Leopold
" Recently I rang the Scout Information Centre to ask about the "1st Class Journey" that I undertook in Weihsien with my class-mate Jamie Taylor. I was told that it was part of the "1st Class Badge" which no longer exists as such.
My “1st Class Journey” account was in June, but 1944 or 1945 - I don’t know. In the hymn “New every morning is the love…” there is a line: “The trivial round, the common task.” These pages are a bit like this last line: nothing dramatic; just 48 hours of observations of Camp life.
1st Class Journey.
June 8th 6 o’clock pm to June 9th 9pm
In the afternoon at 2.30-3.30 we chopped wood. We had a good deal of surplus wood which was very dry. We borrowed Birch’s axe , but during the journey we didn’t use it. Having packed the big haversack (J. Clark’s) with 2 blankets and the axe handle which was loose, and the small one (Ru Hoyte’s) with billy-cans, towel etc. and matches, salt, tooth brushes, a miniture (sic) book of psalms, peanut oil, raw food, spoon etc. mugs, we left the building at about 6.00. We emptied the kit out of the haversacks on to the mattresses which we had brought at about 3.30. We had forgotten the watch so J. Taylor went & fetched J. Graham’s while I lit the fire 6.05. I put a billy can of water on which, when almost boiling, I put in another billy can. J. Taylor returned with the watch at 6.10 and we fried leeks in a billy can. J.T’s food was cooked already so we ate that with some fried bread which was fried after the leeks. The weather was uncertain – a haze all over. There was a pleasant breeze blowing which came from W.S.W. We did not have to carry our kit with us in the evening 5 rounds. At about 7.00 we were ready to leave Mr. Warren’s block & he informed us that he had decided with Mr. Houghton that at 9.00, if the weather was threatening we would move over to the Hospital under the outside steps.
The round was from 23 to church – down Italian lane – to power house – to S. Field – to L. Showers & back to 23.
5 rounds between 7.00 & 9.00 p.m.
1st round.
The sun was a white haze. C. Trickey was at Mr. Hubbard’s who was banging some tins together. Trickey had probably seen something interesting. The Kitchen I boiler room stokers were at the showers & the kitchen workers were packing up. Mr. Dallimore was stoking at boiler I. D. Clark was pumping. The guage was 2’6”. The Houghtons’ aluminium drinking water jug was at the pump. Swifts and Azure winged Magpies were about the only birds around. Occaisionly (sic) a shrike would call harshly. The church door was locked.
The sky S.W. was comparatively heavy. In the N.E. it was slightly blue. There was a game of soft-ball on – Sadler v Sonny. Sadler was leading by 6-0. Mr Avery was pumping. There were little children playing on Italian lane. An azure was trying to peck at another while flying. Charlie Hope-Gill was watering Mr. Marshall’s garden. Stedeford was pumping 7 – 7.30 at the Hospital pump. The gauge was 4’11”. Miss Craggs was teaching Mr. Beasly the violin in the barber’s room. There were a few little black insects plaguing my leg. The S. Field was empty. There was the usual evening gossiping in block 50 yard. At the ladies showers, Mr. Girling was stoking and Mr. David pumping very slowly. There was a small queue for distilled water which was flowing very slowly. I noticed the walls were still very warm from the day’s heat.
At 7.30 when we were leaving, Mr. Girling told Mr. David that he was going to fill the boiler. The gauge was 6” from overflow. Mr. Churchill was smoking a long Chinese pipe. We noticed an azure’s nest in a silver poplar N.E. of 24. We also heard & saw an oriole. There were lots of sparrows by the sisters’ room.
P.S. There was a man sketching in pencil
the
2nd Round
D.
6.45 Mr. David was still pumping at the Ladies showers. The sketches had finished just as we came around 35.
K.2 stokers had just finished. There was second oriole with the first.
3rd round
D.
7.46. A man came for distilled water at Boiler I. The next day’s bakers were coming to set yeast. The softball game finished 16-0 Sadler-Sonny. Jessu playing chess in Italian room. The wind as we came down Italian lane was due E., but it was always changing. On a whole it kept to S.E.
7.55. There was a service in the Iso. Ward. I was informed by George Andrews that there were two tennis leagues for over 18 & under. Miss Craggs had just finished from the violin lesson. J. Hoyte was climbing over the Jap-S.E. wall having hit a tennis ball over but he hadn’t found it.
Mr David was still pumping 8.00. The board with ‘no hot water’ was still up. The guage (sic) was 4” from overflow, but by the time we finished at that place, there were only 2” to go. There was very little water in the well. Mr. Girling had just finished drawing the fire. One person came for drinking water. Mr. David told her by mistake that it was not drinkable, but that it was the steam from the boiler condensing : so she asked Mr. Girling who said it was perfectly drinkable. The baby rooks came out of their nests & cawed slightly more shrilly than their parents. We saw the rovers going to their meeting in uniform. People were playing tennîcoît (sic) behind 23. A pied woodpecker flew from W-E behind 23.
At 8.10 an oriole was answering another in a tree 20 or 30 yds off. The sky was very yellow around the setting region. There were doves cooing but very few birds out.
4th Round
The sun set at about 8.12. The K.I. workers had finished and were coming back from their showers.
At 8.15 there were people gambling in K.I. Bazire I pumping 8 – 8.30. The guage (sic) was 2’ 8”. Dr. Hoch’s shift were well into their work.
8.20. The lights came on at 8.22. The Jap guard in the corner of the softball field was sitting on a stump leaning on his rifle. ‘Death takes a holiday’ began at 8.25. Ru Hoyte was running to pump at the Bakery. D. Parry was talking to the Italians. There were a few slightly reddish clouds low down N.E. Cool breeze blowing. R. Candlin was running up to fetch Mr. Makiloff. When we were at the bottom of the road Candlin was running back and told us that he was too buisy (sic) to come since he was in the show.
P.S. (I forgot to mention that the lights were off at the school).
Mr. Stoker & Mr. Faers were talking to Mr. & Mrs. Allan. Amos was pumping 8.30 – 9.00 at the Hospital. The guage (sic) was 5’ 0”.
At 8.35 the wind was S.S.E. Mr. Girling who had been stoking at Boiler II had had a shower because he was clean & was going to Mr. Houghton. The Jap guard was sitting on the turret wall. The 57 residents were gossiping S. of 57. There were no people on the S. Field.
8.38. A cat was running around the Zimmermans back yard. The rovers were in S.E. room of 35.
At 8.42 the Boiler II was closed up &
the guage (sic) was 3” from overflow. The bats were beginning to fly around. I
hoped that they would kill off some of the insects that were plaguing my leg.
Miss. Ragiere was sketching Miss Melo & Mrs. Cox who were sitting on the 8
steps of 23. There were gamblers in
5th Round
8.50, people were still gambling in K1. Father Ghyselinck was reading in K1.
8.52 the bakers were still mixing dough—some had finished & were having showers. Mr Huebener was fetching hot water for the bakery. Stoker banking fire at Boiler 1.
9.00, Mr Harle emptying yeast dregs (sic). Wind died down.
9.58 Amos finished pumping. Guides singing songs in 61. Jap guard still sitting in old position on turret. The Rovers were singing as if they were board(sic). Insects-moths were flying around the lights.
9.05 finished.
We then went back to Mr Warren & since it looked like rain, we moved our mattresses under the hospital SW steps & our kit. We were careful with the peanut oil. The lights went out at 10.15. These are the constellations and stars that were up at 10.15 from camp-site. There was only the SW section of the sky visible.: Straight above, Bootes, a star Arcturus. Hydra in the south, a star Alphard. Leo in the SW fairly high up a star Regulus. Castor & Pollux just setting in W. Virgo in the S, a star Spica. Since we were where the two wings of the hospital met, there was very little sky visible.
We woke up in the night & it was absolutly (sic) clear but by the morning it had clouded over again. We woke up at 5.00 but went to sleep & woke up at 5.30. Mr Warren came to see how we were getting on. We then set out for 23.
5 rounds between 5.30 & 7.30.
1st Round.
5.55 shreddy clouds. E. one haze. Heard orioles & doves. Irwin & Marques on KI. 5.59. Irwin stiring (sic) sweetened porridge.
2 or 3 people in hot water queue. Clearing up on the N sky - clouds yellow - sun somewhere near.
Dallimore stoking still at Boiler I. Lester pumping Bakery.
6.00. Mr. Calvert sieving (sic) cinders. Guage (sic) 1’5”. Weighing out dough into pans for baking – Hoch’s shift. Field empty. No guard to be seen. Pat Beatty practicing in the church.
6.08. Oriole heard in church yard. Gentle breeze E.S.E. Red legged falcon whistling in big Italian poplar. Bird pumping at the Hos. Pump.
6.10. Lots of sparrows in hedges by sewing
room.
6.12. I. Chan & Father Hanquet playing tennis. Oriole made a noise like a person whistling high to low ‘tu. Baby rook flew over Garland Smith lighting brick stove fire. People going for tea.
6.15. Orioles in 23 trees. Red-foot gliding over. Girling stoking & Boiler 2. Sun rising.
P.S. Bongo Jones & Rich sleeping out. Rich’s bed collapsed.
2nd Round
Dick Burge’s rooks on perch in KI.
6.20. 2 men sweeping KI with tea leaves. Some vegetable workers at work. Heard the Shrikes.
6.25., Steele doing exercises on the field. Jimmy doing exercises in the Hos. Pump area
6.27. Jap guard walking around. Wind changed to S.S.E. getting stronger.
6.29. 2 orioles on top of poplar ½ way up cow lane. We rested on the W.35 steps.
6.35. Torjesen I & Candlin going to pump. Torjesen getting hot & drinking water. Manning Railton doing exercises on mat.
3rd Round
6.39. Bakers eating perks. L. Attree’s team having practice
6.40. J. Pyke hitting out to them. Heard female cuckoo. Overhead no clouds
6.46. Quiet morning. Hos. Tank, 5’ 1”. No pumper. R. Masters & G. Bell carring (sic) out mattresses (sic)
6.48. thourough
clean out of their room. Sun just appeard over Hos. onto S.
Field. - We rest at 35. Drongo on cowlane wall.
S. David carring (sic) water to
Boiler 2 queue just started 6.54.
3 or 4 swifts flying around. Baby sparrows in 35 eaves. Wheat ripening. Clouds standing out against blue sky very clearly.
7.00. A Burmese red turtle dove flew over from West fields with a twig in mouth.
4th Round
K.I. vegetable workers
picking wor…. out of baskets. There was a small
queue for hot water. The magpie in K.I. yard was cocking its head as if looking
at some object up in the air. The softball practice finished at 7.05. D. Carter
pumping at Bakery. There was a long queue 20 odd. S.E. wind 7.10. At the
Hospital pump Mr. David pumping extremely slowly. The guards at the tennis
court changed at 7.17. We rested at 35 as usual. We changed the watch. Mr. Foxlee practicing at 35. S. David still getting water. Usual happenings at K.2.
5th Round
Bakers cleaning bin at 7.26 - making buns. Guage (sic) 2’ 2”. There were groups of flies here & there. A red-foot was whistling in a tree by guard house. Hos. Weather vein (sic) swinging from S.E. to S.S.E & back. Mr. David loafing. Guage (sic) 4’ 10 ½ “. Jap sitting on turret. Mr. Foxlee finished & Mr. Gleed practicing (sic). Stedeford pumping at Boiler 2 from 7.30. – 8.00. Huebener finished his early morning bakery work.
7.39. finish
(The watch stopped & was moved forwards so we ended a bit late.)
From there we went & got our jug &
cooked our breakfast by the bushes N.E. of the hospital.
Finished Sunday 6 o’clock p.m.
De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Peter Bazire's
"First Class Journey" in Weihsien
Date:
lundi 21 janvier 2008 12:37
Dear All
Oliver J BEESLEY British b 08.08.1907 Shanghai Yee Tsoong Tobacco Co Block 57 Room L did live in Quingdao pre Weihsien.
Could Miss Melo be Miss L Meebold lived in Block 23 with Mrs Florence Cox.
Zimmerman Family probably missed from the original listing as the end of the lists were torn. I can remember the name and what have have established over the last few years are below can anyone add to this. Leopold can you add to the list
Zimmerman Alfred Lionel b 1902 Director
Zimmerman Catherine Child
Zimmerman Dinah H Mrs b 1912
Zimmerman Donald Irving b 1939
Zimmerman Hazel Dretta b 1900
Rgds
De:
"Tapol" <
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Peter Bazire's
"First Class Journey" in Weihsien
Date: lundi 21 janvier 2008 18:05
Dear Ron,
Thanks very much --- the lists are modified now ---
I still have a hesitation for one name: Mr.
Huebener who worked at the bakery. Your listings mention Evelyn Huebener who
wrote a diary (see Norman Cliff's chapter: http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/Diary/EvelynDavey/p-01.htm ). The problem is that we are
looking for a Mr. ---- not a
Can you help?
best regards,
Leopold
De:
"David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Peter Bazire's
"First Class Journey" in Weihsien
Date:
lundi 21 janvier 2008 21:51
Dear Leopold (and Ron),
I personally knew both Mr and Mrs Huebener. Mrs Huebener was Miss Evelyn G Davey was one of the prep school teachers at Chefoo and Weihsien. So she was one of my teachers for possibly my full four years in the prep school. She was a great friend of Miss Monica Priestman.
I believe that Mr Huebener, then a very
eligible bachelor, began courting Miss Davey, a wonderfully cheerful and
talented woman who was the main cub scout leader in
the
EDGEWATER HOTEL,
In the first stage of our repatriation from Weihsien to our home country, my little brother John and I actually shared a room with Mr Huebener and Jim Murray in the Edgewater Hotel. I recall Mr Huebener's keen sense of humor. John and I had been caught by one of the male teachers, up on the roof of the hotel where he was satisfied that we were "up to no good!" We were sent to our room with no supper and given the gloomy notice that on the following morning, we would be paraded before Captain Crockett of the Royal Marines who presumably would put the fear of death into us. Mr Huebener thought this was a great joke, and suggested, with tongue in cheek, that we stuff a notebook into the seat of our pants , presumably for protection from the impending doom.
MOST RECENT ENCOUNTER WITH THE HUEBENERS
In 1988 I attended a Chefoo/Weihsien
reunion in
The Huebeners made their home in coastal
I will contact David Allen, a contemporary of John's and mine, who lives in Mt Vernon, WA. I think it very possibly that he may be able to get us in touch with the Huebeners' daughter. Or the Overseas Missionary Fellowship may have a way of contacting her.
Sincerely hope this may shed some light on the situation for you. Mr Huebener, I clearly recall, was a most colorful and fun-loving man, as well as being highly educated.
Respectfully
David
PS You will find Miss Davey mentioned in Appendix 1 to David Michel's "A Boy's War."
De: "Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: weihsien camp book
Date:
mercredi 30 janvier 2008 1:35
I am thanking you, Ron, for the latest collection of information you have sent me. I have enjoyed reading it and will pursue getting a copy of Hilda Hale's book. My email is down, so please forgive me for writing this on the topica list as I have no other way of thanking you beyond snail mail for the time being. It still amazes me to think what all the Weihsien internees went through!
Leopold, my mother has discovered quite a number of letters from my Aunt that are mostly pre-Weihsien, but a few are post-Weihsien. She is in the process of sorting out pictures trying to get them in some type of order (by whatever country my Aunt & Alice moved/visited/etc) as they are quite jumbled up. I will pass on whatever I find useful to the topica list when she is ready for me to have them. My mother was quite surprised to find these letters as we thought they had all been destroyed. So glad to find more treasure and I can't wait to read them!
Please be patient - it may take a few days yet until me email is working again. I hope to have the letters and pictures in another week or so.
Terri Stewart
De: "Tapol" <
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: weihsien camp book
Date: mercredi 30 janvier 2008
8:22
Dear Terri,
Thanks very much in advance for all you
will send my way and also thanks for all you have already sent. Of course, for
the website I will only use the "Weihsien" material. Pre-Weihsien could also be
interesting. The "home arrest" period from -
Best regards,
Leopold
De:
"Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: weihsien camp
book
Date: mercredi 30 janvier 2008 23:47
HI Leopold,
My email is up and running again (!) today - turns out Verizon had turned off my in-box in error and it has taken 5 days for them to figure out how to turn it on again. Technology is such fun! I will be glad to send on whatever pre-Weihsien life was from Ruth's letters, as I am also interested in finding out why she was there in the first place! My mother stated that she moved there circa 1932-33 but isn't sure if she was stationed there as a nurse first and became a teacher later or just what the reason was. There are still a few letters to go for her to read before I get them. Will keep you posted!
Terri
De:
"Tapol" <
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fw: le départ de notre cher Emmanuel
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 8:17
Dear Weihsien friends,
Father Hanquet left us ---- Wednesday 13th ---
best regards,
Leopold
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Lagasse Paul-Emile
To:
Pander Leopold
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 7:21 PM
Subject: le départ de notre cher Emmanuel
Chers Monsieur et Madame
Pander,
Comme vous le saviez,
Emmanuel Hanquet ne se remettait pas bien de sa décompensation cardiaque qui
l'avait conduit en clinique. Depuis son retour sa santé nous inquiétait fort et
il avait conscient de son départ prochain.
Après une nuit un peu
difficile - Sa sœur Monique avait logé près de lui - il s'est
éteint doucement ce mercredi 13 un peu avant 8 heures du matin.
Comme je sais combien
vous étiez proche de lui, je me fais un
devoir de vous l'annoncer par email.
Vendredi soir à 19h30,
nous aurons une veillée de prières dans la salle de la Fraternité auprès de son
cercueil et l'Eucharistie des funérailles aura lieu ce samedi à 11heures à
l'église St François de Louvain-la-Neuve précédée de condoléance à la famille
Hanquet.
Paul-Emile Lagasse
De: "Tapol" <
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: father hanquet
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 8:30
I got a message this morning from Father
Hanquet's downstairs neighbour --- he died Wednesday morning. He had been 1
week to hospital in the previous days, and after a check-up was allowed out. I
went to see him after that. He seemed OK but very tired. Happy
to see me. He told me stories about
all the best,
Leopold
De:
"Christine Talbot Sancton"
<sancton@nbnet.nb.ca>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: father hanquet
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 14:17
Dear Leopold:
Please accept our condolences on the death of Père Hanquet. We know how close you were to him.
We feel so lucky to have been able to meet
him when we were in
Having that connection to my parents, Ida and Sid Talbot, was very moving for me.
Will there be a memorial to him of some kind? We would like to contribute to it. Please let us know. Also please can you tell me the name of his sister, Monique so that I can write to her personally.
Thank you for everything you have done, and are continuing to do, for us Weihsieners.
Sincerely,
Christine Talbot Sancton
De:
<MTPrevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: father hanquet
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 17:30
I send deepest sympathy on the passing of Fr. Hanquet.
I've enjoyed every one of the memories he's added to our Weihsien story.
Thank you, Leopold, for making this connection possible.
Mary Previte
De: "Albert de Zutter"
<albertarthur@sbcglobal.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: father hanquet
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 20:17
Dear Leopold,
Thank you for all you are doing and have done to keep us Weihsien survivors, progeny and friends in communication with one another, and thank you especially for providing our link to Father Emmanuel Hanquet. While I know that we all deeply regret his passing, we have all benefitted from his contributions to our memories here through your mediation. Our thanks also to M. LaGasse in Louvain-la-Neuve.
It was a great blessing to me to discover that Father Hanquet was still among us when you brought him to us through this site some years ago (six or seven?).
I am very grateful to you and Nicki and Janette and Pierre for arranging our visit at Janette's house in 2004. It was wonderful to talk over old times and to discover that Father Hanquet still remembered a verse of "Tout Va Tres Bien, Madame La Marquise." That song was performed as a comedy skit in the concentration camp by two Belgian priests. Father "Gus," short and plump (this was early in the game, before malnutrition had taken its toll), played the Marquise calling home, singing in a falsetto voice, and a great big bearded priest played the butler whose role was to tell the Marquise that everything was fine ... except for a growing list of disasters revealed verse by verse. They had us in stitches. I know it must have made a big impression on me as an 11-year-old because although the whole thing was in French, I understood the gist of it and remembered the chorus. When we parted that evening after you brought me to my hotel, Father Hanquet said, "See you in heaven."
Fortunately for me, that was not to be the last time I saw him.
Laughing at ourselves, our guards and our circumstances was a key survival technique in the camp. There was a song about the monotony of bean sprouts on our menu day after day for a time; there was a song about Father Scanlan getting caught dealing for eggs with the Chinese farmers through a hole in the wall ("Oh they trapped me a Trappist last Wednesday, Now few are the eggs to be fried..." I wish I could remember more of it).
The 300 priests we had there for the first six months or so did so much for the overall spirit and morale in the camp, and while Father Hanquet was no comedian, he made a substantial contribution to our welfare with his activism, his optimism and positive, can-do attitude. In truth, I do not remember a time when I saw him other than positive and very much in tune with his mission in life -- not in his twenties in the concentration camp, not in his forties when he visited our family in Brussels when we lived there from 1949 to 1950, and not in late eighties and early nineties during the two times we visited in Belgium in 2004 and again in the spring of 2007.
He was to me the epitome of what a priest should be -- dedicated to doing good and happy in his work. I have known many good priests during my lifetime (and some who were less than impressive), but Father Hanquet remains as the standard-bearer in my mind.
While Father Hanquet was well-known throughout the camp for his activism and concern, he was a special friend to our family, consisting of my father, Jean de Zutter, my mother Olga, my older brother John and myself. He and Father Palmers, Father Van Pelt and others visited our second-story room many times. He was also a French language tutor to my brother and me. As we had no textbooks, he wrote out dozens of verb declensions in his neat and economical handwriting. He and Father Palmers were assistant Scoutmasters with the elegant, quiet-spoken Mr. Cogburn (pronounced Coburn) as Scoutmaster.
Our
family came to
I
am so glad that I decided to make another trip to
I
am so grateful to have had that opportunity to learn more about a man who was
so influential in my life. I am equally grateful for the friendship extended to
me by Leopold, Nicki and Janette, and though I did not have the opportunity to
get to know him, I am sure I saw acceptance in
Thank you all, and I thank the Lord for Father Hanquet.
Your friend,
Albert de Zutter
USA
De: "Gay Talbot Stratford"
<stillbrk@eagle.ca>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: father hanquet
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 20:31
Dear Leopold,
Our sypathies to you all . No doubt Father Hanquet is being welcomed as the good and faithful servant. But he leaves a gap in the lives of those left behind.
Our prayers are with you all.
Gay Stratford
From:
Donald Menzi
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 9:06 PM
Subject: RE: father hanquet
Leopold,
You really
HAVE to collect all the information and stories you can about Fr. Hanquet into
a single biographical document for us all to share. We will all be
grateful for it.
Donald
De:
"David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: father hanquet
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 21:08
Dear Leopold,
My sincere condolences to you on the passing of your dear friend, Father Hanquet. Although he was very elderly indeed, and could not have been expected to live very much longer, he had been a 'larger-than-life' figure in your own life since you were just a little child! Your personal loss must be very great.
May God bless and comfort you at this time.
David
De: "Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: father hanquet
Date: vendredi 15 février 2008 23:46
My condolences to you, Leopold, for the loss of a very dear long-time friend and also to the rest of the Weihsien survivors who knew him. Like the others on this list, I hope that you will be able to pull together some of his stories for all to read, share, and remember.
Terri
De: "Dwight W. Whipple"
<thewhipples@comcast.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>; <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: father hanquet
Date:
samedi 16 février 2008 0:33
Seems like the end of an "era" for us Weihsien internees. We are all getting older and passing into history. Thanks to people like Fr. Hanquet and Leopold and Don, and those who have written of our experience, there will be a legacy left for others to peruse. Condolences to all~
~Dwight W. Whipple
4728A
360.456.4300
thewhipples@comcast.net
De:
"Tapol" <
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: father hanquet
Date: samedi 16 février 2008 14:13
Dear Christine,
You can certainly send a personal letter to:
Famille Hanquet,
c/o Fraternité des Buissons
rue des Buissons 1
1348
Louvain-la-Neuve
---
We are just back from the ceremony that took place in the big church of the University Campus of Louvain-la-Neuve. The church was full and I counted not less than 18 priests --- a very moving 2 hours ---
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "lucy lu" <lucy9859@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: father hanquet
Date: dimanche 17 février 2008 10:07
Dear Leopold,
It's so regret to know the passing of respected Fr. Hanquet.
I can clearly remember the meeting with you and Fr. Hanquet in
My sincere condolences to you all.
Best regards.
lucy (Lu Jie)
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 10:44 PM
Subject: Weihsien liberator, James Jess Hannon
I am so very sorry to report the death of James Jess
Hannon, one of the six Americans who liberated the Weihsien Civilian
Assembly Center
Jim's wife died a few months ago, so, in January, his family moved
him to be closer to his daughter in Washington State
Many of you will remember that after the rest of the
American liberation team left Weihsien to establish an Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) base in Tsingtao in 1945, Jim Hannon stayed in Weihsien to
coordinate the evacuation of prisoners. That evacuation was complicated by
warring Chinese factions blowing up the railroad between Weihsien and Tsingtao .
In the 1990's. Jim became the center of controversy when he published a report that American aviatrix Amelia Earhart had been interned in Weihsien. His report stirred huge interest from members of the Amelia Earhart Association. The Amelia Earhart devotees may have even contacted some of you in their effort to verify this report.
Jim wrote several books. When I visited him and his
wife in Palm Springs , California
However, because of the controversy, Jim published the story as nonfiction in 2004. Available on Amazon.com, the paperback is called SECRET OF WEIFANG, A novel by James Jess Hannon.
If you go to Leopold Pander's wonderful Weihsien web site,
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org,
you can hear Jim Hannon's voice as well as those of Major Stanley Staiger and
Jim Moore recorded by National Public Radio in 2000 as they talked about the
liberation of Weihsien. NPR was there when I visited Jim Hannon in California
If you'd like to send a note to Jim's daughter, you may write to
Lisa
Schreiber, P.
O. Box 2782 , Friday Harbor ,
WA 98250 ,
USA
Mary Previte
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 2:59 AM
Subject: Chinese documentary about Eric Liddell
Hello, Everybody:
In preparation for the summer Olympics, a Chinese
Christian producer, Mark Chang, is now creating
a documentary about Eric Liddell. The Olympics connection is that Eric
Liddell was really China China
Can anyone help with answers to the following inquiries from Mr. Chang? Ron, I'm definitely hoping you will come through for us on this one.
Mr. Chang writes:
1.
Where can we get a contact person for the
Eric Liddell’s foundation? As we know, the foundation
is no longer active in Hong Kong but would
like to know whether anyone has contact
number and email of Charles Walker or Peggy Judge. We want to use dedication of
the Memorial Stone of Eric Liddell as one of the storylines.
2 In a letter Liddell addressed to a woman
named Elsa, he writes that he saved a Chinese soldier's life by running and
pushing him on bike to Tongren
General Hospital
3.
Liddell's death certificate was handed over by a Japanese professor whose
English name is Dr. Ikuhjko Hata. Does anyone have his or his family's contact
information? Any related information would be appreciated. We also
will ask Ken Michell, the son of David Michell, the
same question and hope he will find some information from his
father's files.
4.
Do you have any photos that were taken in
Concentration camp of you and your friends in the camp?
Contact Mark Chang: mark_chang@vip.163.com
Thank you.
Mary T. Previte
From: grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 6:02 AM
Subject: Re: Chinese documentary about Eric Liddell
We all knew Eric Liddell he was a good Christian man, I'm sorry I
have no pictures taken in camp. The little space we were allowed (one suitcase/trunk)
a camera was not a necessity. Too bad the Chinese did not mention Eric
being a Christian on the plaque at Weihsien. Thanks for your continued info.
Phyllis Evans Davies
From: Ron Bridge
To: weihsien@topica.com ;
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2008
11:02 AM
Subject: RE: Chinese
documentary about Eric Liddell
The Eric Liddell Centre is now located in
INfo The BBC have done
a TV programme already.
>> From: <epg@efn.org>
>> To: <info@weihsien-paintings.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 7:26 AM
>> Subject: Photos of Weihsein
>>
>> Dear Sirs--
>>
>> I was surprised and delighted to find your web site, particularly with
recent photos of what was once the
>>
>> Attached are three photos of the University compound when it was new,
ca. 1908. One shows the student dorms with the chapel in the
background; one shows the main square, and the third is the compound from
outside the walls. The student quarters still look pretty much the same.
>>
>> Eric Gustafson
>>
From:
<epg@efn.org>
To:
"Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2008 8:25 AM
Subject:
Re: Photos of Weihsein
Dear Mr.
Pander--
You are very welcome to use these photos. I will send you some more soon which
you can add to the site. Thanks for the opportunity to share.
I have been researching my grandfather's papers and photos. He was Horace
Chandler; his wife--my grandmother--was Chloe. If anybody there knew
them or anything about them, I would like to hear.
-Eric Gustafson-
From: Tapol
Sent:
Saturday, March 15, 2008 10:18 AM
Subject:
Fw: Photos of Weihsein
Hello everybody,
I received 3 new pictures of
Weihsien for the website :-)) --- (See new chapter in the left-frame of the Home-Page.)
The first two photographs were easy
to locate but I seem to have difficulties in finding as to where the
photographer was standing to take the picture of the exterior wall of the
Weihsien compound. Anybody has a suggestion?
Can somebody help Eric Gustafson? (see message below)
Best regards,
Leopold
From: Alexander Strangman
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 2:26 AM
Subject: Re: Photos of Weihsein
Re: As to where the photographer was standing?
Given the buildings don't correspond with the map it could be
anywhere! Therefore, your guess is as good as mine.
But IF it was in fact our Weihsien camp, what appears
to me as ground preparation, suggests it might have been
for the building of the cottages in the 'out of bounds' area
( as we knew it) being constructed at a later stage, perhaps.
And my guess is the photo was 'snapped' from a spot just south of
Block 42 and outside a corner of A wall. Our
map does show a wall, an interior wall, enclosing a group of smaller
buildings (the largest could be Blk 35). You may recall a wall did
separate our interment area from 'out of bounds',
Finally, too bad that row of nice young trees standing along each
side of
Regards, Zandy
From:
Tapol
Cc: Eric Gustafson
Sent:
Monday, March 17, 2008 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: Photos of
Weihsein
Hello,
Looking
at this picture, I guessed that it was the river Wei that, in those days wasn't
as important as nowadays! The door looks very much like the door in
I will
add the flipped image to the website --- let us know which one is the good one?
Any other
suggestions????
All the best,
Leopold
From: Tapol
Cc: Eric Gustafson
; Janette &
Pierre @ home
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 12:55 PM
Subject: Re: Photos of Weihsein
Tilt !
I just
phoned Janette ----
--- of course --- it's pure logic!
The
hospital as we know it was built in 1924 (
The door
seen in Eric's photo is the secondary door (closed) as mentioned in Father
Verhoeven's map: http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/maps/pages/page04.htm. Remember, it was there that
Father Hanquet was waiting, very early in the morning before roll-call,
with a rope ladder for the eventual return of the escapees when Hummel
& Tipton escaped from the camp --- The main entrance, as I mentioned previously,
is not visible on the photo.
Any suggestions?
Best regards,
Leopold
From: Tapol
To: Len ; weihsien@topica.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 7:46 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien Camp Website
Dear Len,
Thanks
for all your additional data :-)).
I will
also forward your message to "Topica-Weihsien-chat-list"
started 8 years ago by Natasha Petersen.
http://lists.topica.com/lists/weihsien/read
The whole
of my website is connected to and thanks to this chat-list and your family
archives will certainly interest more than one.
You
can - of course - refer to my website in your e-book and as for the
future --- as long as I will be able to use a keyboard, my website will live
--- I am certain that there are still many unpublished diaries or stories,
photos and maybe even films about Weihsien that still can be added to all we
already have.
I hope
that we will stay in contact in the future --- I'm glad
that you found the "weihsien-paintings" website on the Internet
---
Best regards,
Leopold
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 5:27 PM
Subject: Audio recordings related to Weihsien, NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Hello, Everybody:
Troy Sacquety, who has
been researching
The other audio recording
is an interview with a Lt. William Zimpleman, an American pilot
whose plane was shot down near Weihsien and was hidden by friendly troops
for more than six and a half months until he was contacted by Lt. Jim
Hannon. Hannon, who died early this year, was in charge of the camp after
other member of the DUCK MISSION left to establish an
Who in the
Thanks to Troy Sacquety,
I have listed below all the reference numbers for these two audio
recordings. By the way,
Mary Previte
----- Original Message -----
From:
troy.j.sacquety
To: MTPrevite
Subj: Re:
OSS
Ms. Previte,
I am now an historian with the U.S. Army Special Operations
Command. As you might guess, I work with a good deal of
I found the following on the Duck Mission. Both are audio
recordings.
ARC Identifier: 102070
Local Identifier: 226.13A
Title: INTERVIEW WITH LT. WILLIAM ZIMPLEMAN, 09/1945
Creator: Joint Chiefs of Staff. Office of
Strategic Services. Office of the Deputy Director,
Operations. Morale Operations Branch.
(01/04/1943 - 10/01/1945) ( Most Recent)
Type of Archival Materials:
Sound Recordings
Level of Description:
Item from Record Group 226: Records of the Office of Strategic Services, 1919 -
1948
Location: Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special
Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-M), National Archives at College Park,
8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 PHONE: 301-837-3540, FAX:
301-837-3620, EMAIL: mopix@nara.gov
Production Date: 09/1945
Part of: Series: Audio Recordings, ca. 1940 - ca. 1945
Scope & Content Note:
INTERVIEW: Lt. William Zimpleman, U.S. flier whose plane was shot down near
Weihsen, China, tells details of his experience. Lt. Zimpleman parachuted from
falling plane, injured ankle upon landing and could not run. Friendly troops
rescued, hid, and kept him safe for six and a half months until contacted by
Lt. Hannon of Duck
Use Restrictions: Undetermined
General Note: Title from preservation list.Reverse of 226.0013.
Variant Control Number(s):
NAIL Control Number: NWDNM(s)-226.13A
Copy 1
Copy Status: Preservation
Storage Facility: National Archives at
Media
Media Type: Audio Disk
ARC Identifier: 102069
Local Identifier: 226.13
Title: DUCK
Creator: Joint Chiefs of Staff. Office of
Strategic Services. Office of the Deputy Director,
Operations. Morale Operations Branch.
(01/04/1943 - 10/01/1945) ( Most Recent)
Type of Archival Materials:
Sound Recordings
Level of Description:
Item from Record Group 226: Records of the Office of Strategic Services, 1919 -
1948
Location: Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special
Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-M), National Archives at College Park,
8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 PHONE: 301-837-3540, FAX:
301-837-3620, EMAIL: mopix@nara.gov
Production Date: 09/1945
Part of: Series: Audio Recordings, ca. 1940 - ca. 1945
Scope & Content Note:
INTERVIEW: Maj. Stanley Staiger, leader of Duck Mission to parachute into
civilian prisoners of war camp near Weihsen, China, for purpose of evacuating
internees needing medical assistance, discusses mission details. Describes how
camp was found and identified. Lists names of mission participants, roles they
played, order in which they jumped from airplane. Participants other than Maj.
Staiger were Sgt. Nagaki, Ens. James W. Moore, Corp. Peter Orlich, Eddie Wong, Lt. James J. Hannon, and Sgt. Raymond N.
Hanchelak. Mentions other mission objectives of resupplying POWs with food and
clothing, collecting and turning in Japanese authorities and Chinese assistants
of camp, and learning of and contacting William Zimpleman, downed U.S. flier
being hidden in area.
Use Restrictions: Undetermined
General Note: Title from preservation list. Reverse of 226.1003A,
interview with Lt. William Zimpleman, recued by Duck Mission agents.
Variant Control Number(s):
NAIL Control Number: NWDNM(s)-226.13
Copy 1
Copy Status: Preservation
Storage Facility: National Archives at
Media
Media Type: Audio Disk
From: grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 1:06 AM
Subject: Re: Audio recordings related to Weihsien, NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Thanks
for the news, it would ne great to hear these recordings, please keep me
updated Phyllis(Evans)Davies
From: Tapol
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: Audio recordings related to Weihsien, NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Dear Mary,
I found this link on
the Internet:
http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=102069%20226&Gsm=2008-01-04
OK --- it is what we are looking for
--- but can somebody let me know how I get it for the "paintings'"
website???????
Help !!!!!
Leopold
From: "Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 10:09 PM
Subject: Re: Audio recordings related to Weihsien, NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Ø Leopold,
> Looks as if you may have to contact them to get a copy
> of the recordings. It appears to be a lot of red-tape
> to download or
> purchase a copy. I was looking under the heading
> Privacy & Use off this website. Good luck!
> Terri
From: Briggs, Lyvonne (NBC Universal)
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 12:49 AM
Subject: Eric Liddell Artifacts
Hello
all,
Greetings!
My name is Lyvonne Briggs and I work with NBC Olympics in the
Any
assistance you can provide in the proper telling of Eric Liddell's story would
be of great value to us! Please feel free to reply to this email or call me
anytime. I can be reached in my office, 203-356-0663, or if there is a good
time for me to reach you please let me know and I will make myself available.
My sincerest thanks for
your time and I look forward to speaking with you soon!
Kind regards,
Miss Lyvonne Briggs
NBC Olympics - Profiles Production
W: 203.356.0663
F: 203.964.8689
C: 718.807.8726
From: C. Wayne Mayhall
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 1:01 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell Artifacts
Lyvonne,
Unfortunately, you will not find much info from the participants in this thread
regarding Eric Liddell artifacts. This is mainly a group of relatives and
children of
We would be glad to assist you in any way possible and put you in touch with
the right people to see this piece come to fruition.
Call me at 612-616-2366 anytime. I suspect an story
even larger than Eric's death in the camp would be his life spent there and in
Regards,
C. Wayne Mayhall, Ph.D.
Associate Editor, Christian Research Journal
Professor of Philosophy,
From: Donald Menzi
To: weihsien@topica.com ; weihsien@topica.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 2:14 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell Artifacts
Lyvonne,
You are
probably aware that the city of Weihsien is in the process of making a
documentary about Liddell, and also that a one-man play about his life was
performed last year in New York. If you need help in tracking down
either, we can probably help you with that.
Donald Menzi
From: Tapol
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 7:14 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell Artifacts
Dear Miss
Lyvonne,
--- the "little" we have about Eric Liddell can be
found by clicking on this link:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/people/individuals/Eric01/leftFrame.htm
Hope this
helps you !!
Best
regards,
Leopold
(4 years
old in 1945)
From: Briggs, Lyvonne (NBC Universal)
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 3:50 PM
Subject: RE: Eric Liddell Artifacts
Leopold,
Thank you so much for your help! Would you happen to have these
original photos? Have a blessed day!
LB
From: Ron Bridge
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 9:26 PM
Subject: RE: Eric Liddell Artifacts
Are you aware of PURE GOLD McCausland (ISBN 0 57293 051 9)to which I added a bit. , McCAusland also wrote three
episodes for a small Christian TV Channel in the States and I have a tape of
that it in UK Format should be possible for the NBC to trace
Also that there is an institute to him in
Finally as a matter of fact I was when he collapsed in February
1945 and was taken to the
Also Shantung Compund by Langdon Gilkey uses pseudonyms for the
inamtes not the real names I ahve a decode done by my
mother in the 1950s.
Hope that this helps.
Rgds
Ex Weihsien
Chmn Association British Civilian INternees
From: grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 3:52 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell Artifacts
I
hope they mention that Eric was a Christian and
was in
From: Tapol
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 7:10 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell Artifacts
Dear
Lyvonne,
Our
website is free access and non-commercial and all the data in it has been
"given" to me for reproduction in the Weihsien-Paintings.org. All the
originals (if the case) have been returned to their owners. As for the
"Eric Liddell" chapter the documents and photos come mostly from
Norman Cliff's scrap books.
Best regards,
Leopold
From: "Tapol" <tapol@skynet.be>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>; "Brian Butcher" <bdbutcher@telus.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 5:20 PM
Subject: Fw: Brian Butcher
> Dear Brian,
> Copy of a message I just received --- from
> This Internet is really fantastic !!
> Can you help?
> I will also send a copy to Weihsien at Topica --- maybe somebody can help?
> Best regards,
> Leopold
>
> -----
Original Message -----
> From: "Vic Brocklehurst" <shamwari@gmail.com>
> To: <info@weihsien-paintings.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 5:28 PM
> Subject: re: Brian Butcher
>
>
>> Greetings!
>>
>> A Google search on <"Alan Benson" missionary
>>
>> I remember Alan Benson as being a visiting missionary speaker,
probably during the late 40's or early 50's, to the church my parent's and I
attended.
>>
>> Occasional searches for Alan Benson in the past had produced nothing,
so it was interesting to find this single page which showed that my memory
about Alan wasn't faulty!
>>
>> Would you be able to pass this message on to Brian Butcher, if you
have his e-mail address, and ask if he has any further information on Alan
Benson? I assume Alan was "promoted to Glory" many years ago.
>>
>> Vic Brocklehurst
>> Scarborough
>> North Yorkshire
>>
From: <mncpether@xtra.co.nz>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 10:58
PM
Subject: Tsingtao
Internment
>I am researching a relative of mine who
lived in
> Her name was Mrs. Flora Fretwell and I have a copy of a Red Cross letter,
dated by her as 7 November 1942 with the address of "Tsingtao Internment
camp,
> Flora lived before internment in her own home at N0. 10 Yueh Yang Road,
Iltis Huk, Tsingtao and ,despite it having been used as a Japanese barracks -
and absolutely trashed by the Japanese- she returned to this house after the
War until her death there in march 1951.
> My research is primarily to ascertain what happened to Flora after the
bulk of
> I have many photos of Flora in her home in Iltis Hulk, together with my
mother and grandmother, who would often visit her from
> Does anyone know the name Flora Fretwell ( she
was a widow by the time of the war and aged in her 6os )? Are there any copies
of pre war maps of Iltis Huk or
> I would appreciate any comments or leads.
> Thanks,
> Michael Pether
>
>
>
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 3:48 PM
Subject: 1945 interview with Major Staiger, transcript
Happy news, Everybody,
We have retrieved
from the
The voices of all seven of our liberators are on
this audio recording. In the last two days, I've listened to it over and
over again with tears and giggles and teeth-gnashing frustration
that it is too, TOO brief. I want
more. And you will, too.
It blows my mind -- that our hero, Major Stanley
Staiger, who had just jumped from a B-24 bomber at 450 feet, facing possible
Japanese bullets and death to liberate 1,500 allied prisoners, is terrified -- of a
microphone!
Yup!
You're reading right! I giggle every time I listen to this hero
interrupt his narrative -- just when I'm
waiting to hear about the parachute jump -- and he whispers, "I can't do
this."
And the interviewer encourages him, "You're
doing fine, Major. Step right back to this microphone."
"Holy smokes!" the Major says. as the interviewer nudges him back to the story.
So human! You'll absolutely love it.
I know you want to hear every word. However,
my computer server will not allow me to transmit an attachment with so
much information, so I've mailed a copy of the recording to our wonderful
Leopold Pander in
http//www.weihsien-paintings.org
early this week when the recording arrives there.
. Leopold -- bless him! -- has
already posted the transcription on the web site for the whole
world to read. .
When you go to the web site,
look for the link with an old-fashioned HIS MASTERS VOICE
record with the title Major Staiger interview.
I have transcribed the full Major Staiger interview
for you.. I haven't yet transcribed the
interview with Lt. Zimpleman. Give me time.
You can imagine the joy
yesterday when I told Tad Nagaki about this recording. Tad is the
only living member of the team. He helped me
identify the time of the interview as August 1945 when the whole team
was still in Weihsien. Carol Orlich, widow of Peter Orlich, was
beside herself with delight when I told her I had just listened to her
husband's voice. I'll send copies of the audio disc to these folks.
My special thanks go to Dr. Troy Sacquety,
who has just earned his doctorate following
completion of his thesis about the Office of Strategic
Services..
Thanks, too, to Leopold Pander for reaching
across the Atlantic to the U. S. National Archives near
Mary Previte
Interview with Major
Place of interview: Weihsien,
Date: August 1945
The interview was
created by the Office of Strategic Services (
Transcribed by Mary T.
Previte, (2008)
Source of audio
recording: National Archives,
(ARC Identifier: 102069, Local Identifier: 226.13)
Voices include those of
Ensign
James W. Moore, 1st Lt. James J. Hannon, Sgt. Tad Nagaki, Sgt. Raymond N. Hanchulak, Corporal Peter Orlich, Eddie Wang.
Interviewer: On
August 17, an
parachuted
into the civilian assembly camp at
Major
Staiger: On August 17, 1945, our team comprised of
three
officers
and four enlisted men made a parachute jump into
Interviewer: Major,
did you have any idea of the Japanese
probable attitude towards your
mission?
Major
Staiger: No we did not. We had no idea.
Interviewer: Uh, so
you were taking a chance that you might be
met
with bullets when you went out on that mission.
You knew that possibility.
Major
Staiger: Yes, we knew that possibility.
Interviewer: Now,
sir, you went up in the plane above Weihsien.
Now
what information did you have on the location of the camp?
Major
Staiger: Our information concerning the location of
the
camps
was that the internee camp in this area was located near
Interviewer: Uh,
you knew just that it was a compound outside
of
the camp (city) somewhere.
Major
Staiger: Yes.
Interviewer: And,
uh, what steps did you take to discover the
compound
from the plane?
Major
Staiger: Our plan flew in at about 2,000 feet over the
city
of
Weihsien on our first pass over the district.
Upon contacting no enemy resistance from the ground, we lowered down to
1,000 feet at which time we continued to lower until we were at 500 feet. We made several passes over the city of
Interviewer: Major,
how did you locate the camp? How did you
know this was definitely it?
Major
Staiger: We noticed one compound which was located
two to three miles southeast of the city of
Interviewer: You’re
doing fine, Major. Step right back up to
this
microphone!
Major
Staiger: (softly) Holy
smokes!
Interviewer: You saw
wire around it?
Major
Staiger: We saw wire around the compound and a high
wall
with pill boxes on all ends.
Interviewer:
Fine. And you saw people out
waving, too, didn’t
you?
Major
Staiger: Yes, there were people in an area which was
similar
to a ball diamond, and, uh, we got the idea right away that they were Allied
prisoners of war because the persons waving as us has cotton clothes on –
cotton dresses with plaid and so forth.
Interviewer: Yes,
that’s right. Well, then you came down
and
the
pilot brought the B-29, B-24 down.
Major
Staiger: Exactly – down about 450 feet.
Interviewer: And
then you jumped.
Major
Staiger: Jumped.
Interviewer: Major,
in what order did you and the team jump
from the plane?
Major
Staiger: We jumped in the following order: Myself was
number
one man. Number two man was Sergeant
Nagaki.
Sergeant Nagaki.
Sergeant. Nagaki: Sergeant Nagaki, Japanese-American
interpreter on this mission.
Major
Staiger: Number three man was Ensign James W. Moore.
Ensign
Moore: Ensign James W. Moore, Intelligence Officer
for
the DUCK Mission.
Major
Staiger: Number four man was T/5 Peter Orlich.
Corporal
Orlich: Corporal Peter Orlich, radio operator on
this
mission.
Major
Staiger: Number five man was Eddie Wang.
Eddie
Wang: Eddie Wang, Chinese-American interpreter on
this
mission.
Interviewer: Ding hao!
Major
Staiger: Number six man was 1st Lieutenant
James
Hannon.
Lieutenant Hannon: Lieutenant Jams J. Hannon, AGAS
(Air
Ground Aid Service) representative on the DUCK
Mission.
Major
Staiger: Number seven man was T/4 Raymond N.
Hanchulak, our medic.
Sergeant
Hanchulak: Sergeant Ray Hanchulak, medical
surgeon on this mission.
Major
Staiger: I can truthfully say that it has certainly
been a
pleasure
and honor to serve with this group, the officers and enlisted men that
comprised the DUCK
#
From: "Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:28 PM
Subject: Re: another correction in transcript
Ø Dear
Leopold,
>
> I was thrilled to read the transcript and sent a copy
> of it to my family that are now following these
> threads of history! My thanks to everyone for being
> able to obtain the recordings and to post them to the
> topica group. I've known a number of people over the
> years that would do ANYTHING but talk into a
> microphone...I can understand Major Staiger's
> reluctance! That bit of the human factor brought a
> smile to my face.
>
> Terri
From: rod miller
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 10:49 PM
Subject: Re: another correction in transcript
Dear Leopold
It sounds fine in Sydney Australia.
What an amazing find.
Congratulations to all involved making this available.
Rod
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: another correction in transcript
Thanks, Rod, for the response.
I mailed a copy of the audio recording today to
Carol Orlich, widow of Pete Orlich, who was the radio operator on the rescue
team and the youngest member (age
21). She was beyond thrilled when I phoned her last week to report that I had just listened to her
husband's voice. Carol collects everything that tells the story of Pete
Orlich's heroism and shares it all enthusiastically with her children,
grandchildren, and her friends. She says she has no recording of her
husband's voice. She'll have one now.
Carol was
especially thrilled with Teddy Pearson's account of Liberation Day,
finding Pete Orlich in the fields with his glasses taped to his
head. It confirmed the story Pete had told her -- and that she has told
me many times. Carol says that Pete wanted desperately to be on one of
the rescue teams, but knew he would be excluded because he wore glasses and
couldn't pass the eye exam. When they were conducting
physical screenings of the volunteers for the rescue missions, Pete
removed his glasses as he waited in line for the eye test. He
memorized the eye chart by listening to the men
in front of him and passed the test.
When on his first practice parachute jump, his
glasses almost flew off his head. Pete decided he'd have to tape on his glasses for the jump. That's exactly what
Teddy Pearson says he saw out in the gaoliang fields where he found
Peter Orlich.
Mary Previte
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 3:17 PM
Subject: NBC producing story about Eric Liddell
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the
Brian told me yesterday that he became
fascinated with this story when he saw in his research that an Olympic gold
medal winner from
Priscilla Liddell Russell,
Eric Liddell's oldest daughter, has been interviewed in
In
Sally Magnusson, author of
the Liddell biography, THE FLYING SCOTSMAN, has also been
interviewed in
I was interviewed yesterday in
This NBC spotlight on Eric Liddell will almost
certainly bring more attention to the
I've asked if NBC
will allow us to post the Liddell piece on Leopold Pander's
Weihsien web site.
Mary Previte
From: "Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: NBC producing story about Eric Liddell
Ø Thank
you, Mary, for this announcement and NBC's
> interest in Eric's story. I look forward to hearing
> more and seeing their broadcast later this year!
>
> Terri
From: Briggs, Lyvonne (NBC Universal)
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 7:51 PM
Subject: RE: NBC producing story about Eric Liddell
By the way, it's Patricia (not Priscilla)
Liddell Russell. God bless!
LB
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:15 PM
Subject: Re: NBC producing story about Eric Liddell
Thank you, Lyvonne.
Mary
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 1:03 PM
Subject: Where is Eric Liddell buried?
Hello, Everybody,
With the current interest in Eric Liddell, I'd
like to pass along a letter sent to me this week by
Dear Mary, When the memorial gravestone was erected.
Eric's remains were located and moved to that site. About 2 years ago Priscilla
Russel (Eric's daughter) wrote me and told me that she had had a letter from
the official who was in charge of the exhuming and reburial. He assured her the
suggestion that they had been moved to the National Martyrs memorial was a
rumour. I myself made some brief enquiries when
we were in Weishien regarding the remains of Brian Thompson. They pointed out a
private garden quite a distance from the site and said they are lost somewhere
in that location. I myself in writing up my article on Eric had taken up the
rumour and included it in my article. In hindsight I have been quite
embarrassed about it. Priscilla was quite distressed that they had not been
consulted,and wrote me asking who she should contact
to clarify the situation. I gave her Sui Shu De's E-mail. and
subsequently he contacted the official who wrote her. Unfortunately there are
rumours about Eric, ie: that Winston Churchill negotiated for him to be
repatriated....(Highly unlikely) Journalists write
things to make a good story! Of course once things are in print they are likely
to be disseminated. I would suggest that where you have seen it on the internet
you suggest they correct it.
Stephen A. Metcalf
Flat 2,
Tel +44 (0)20 8767 4257
From: jht3@msi-professional.org
To: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: 6/17/2008 10:41:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Re:
Where is Eric Liddell buried?
Hello, Mary
Eric Liddell's body was laid to rest in the little cemetery where
all who died while interned in Weihsien CAC were buried. It was located in
the SE corner of the camp near the forbidden quarters occupied by the Japanese.
To my knowledge, his remains were never exhumed. Some time ago, I inquired
about the story that they had been moved to the Martyrs' Cemetery in
Jamie (James H. Taylor) Hong Kong
From: grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:20 AM
Subject: Re: Where is Eric Liddell buried?
Dear
Mary, My father Algernon F. Evans was buried in the small weihsien
cemetery where Eric was buried. I was going to exhume my father, cremate
and bury him next to my mother in
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:27 AM
Subject: Fwd: Running the Race translated into Chinese
This information has been sent by Rich Swingle,
the actor who will play the part of Eric Liddel in the docu-drama about Eric
Liddell now being created by a production group in
Subj: Running the Race in Chinese
John Keddie's biography on Eric Liddell, Running the Race has been translated to Chinese and is
now available in
Here's an article that's been translated into English by Google: Running
life - dedication, born in China: China's Olympic champion
Rich Swingle
@ The Helen Hayes Theatre
From: Donald Menzi
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:58 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Running the Race translated into Chinese
Mary,
It's great
that Swingle is getting to play Liddel in the docu-drama - he did such a
wonderful one-man play about him.
Do you have any idea whether it will be possible for us to view this film some
day?
That's some
translation! It says that it was translated by Google. Do you think
that they have some kind of automated translation program that just strings
words together and doesn't go back an make sense of it all?
Donald
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 11:29 AM
Subject: Re: Running the Race translated into Chinese
I've asked if NBC will allow their Eric Liddell
piece to be posted on Leopold's site after the Olympics, and Brian Brown, the
producer, felt confident we could get
permission.
I'll ask the Christian production group in
Mary
From: "Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 6:07 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Running the Race translated into Chinese
Ø
I'm going to rent the movie "Chariots of
Fire" again.
> At the time this movie came out, I did not know the importance of who Eric
was. Boy, did I miss the boat on this one!
>
> Terri
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 2:39 AM
Subject: Eric Liddel story from exerpted
ERIC LIDDELL:
What I learned from an Olympic Gold Medal Winner
By
Eric Liddell was the first athlete born
in
My personal connection with Eric Liddell
started with the Japanese bombing of
I was just finishing studies at the
On my first Sunday in Weihsien, I found
myself sitting in a Bible class led by Eric Liddell. Knowing his name and his accomplishments, I
could imagine an aura around him – fame, adulation, reputation. This was THE Eric Liddell –
Olympic gold medal winner. World record holder.
But Eric quickly and genuinely identified with each of us he was
speaking to. He was speaking about
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – verses like “Blessed are the meek… Blessed are the poor
in spirit… Blessed are the peacemakers…” At first, it was Eric’s enthusiasm in his
subject and his personality that captured my attention. But as the months and years rolled on, it
was seeing his life in a prison camp – and yet living the Sermon on the Mount
that left an indelible impression on my young life.
Eric poured himself into offsetting the
drudgery of our confinement. In a walled compound that stretched only 150 by
200 yards, teenagers were bored. The
Japanese had crammed 1,500 prisoners in this tiny compound. I remember his
organizing sports events between the
Years before, in his own competitions in
International rugby in
Eric liked to quote a motto he had seen when he ran at the
I gravitated to this man. He was in his early 40s and I was 16 and
17. I helped him on the prison camp
Recreation Committee. Eric took on the
job of mending broken sports equipment.
He was always enthusiastic. Here
was a world-famous athlete tearing up sheets from his own bed to bind up bats
and hockey sticks for the teenagers! To
fix the bats, one of the main chores was melting down the stinking Chinese glue
made from horses’ hooves. The glue came
in hard thin strips about six inches long.
I don’t remember clearly where in the camp the sports equipment was
stored. It may have been outside the
lower side of the hospital.
Eric Liddell had captured the attention
of the world in 1924 when he refused to run the 100 meters in the Paris
Olympics because the race was scheduled on Sunday. His 100 meter run was almost guaranteed to
win a gold medal for
Who in Weihsien could imagine Eric as a
world famous hero? Here was a shy, modest man
– 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a receding hairline and a dimpled chin. He wore a shirt made from some of his wife’s
curtains. In all of the prison camp, I
think he was the man most admired. He wasn’t an eloquent speaker. Yet in simple words, he preached love.
It was in another Bible study on the
Sermon on the Mount that Eric confronted us with the words of Matthew 5, verse
43. “Love your enemy.” Was this possible? Could we love the Japanese guards? Or was this just an ideal that we should aim
for? The discussion was heavy on the
side that this was just an ideal.
Eric smiled. “I used to think that was the case,” he
said. “But then I took on board Jesus’
next words. ‘Pray for them that persecute
you.’ ” Eric told us how he
had started to pray for the Japanese.
“We spend a lot of time praying for all our loved ones and the people we
like,” Eric said, “ but Jesus told us to pray for the people we don’t like –
our enemies.” He challenged us to start
praying for the Japanese.
I began praying for the Japanese.
Shortly after this, I listened to some
lectures on
About three weeks before Eric died of a
brain tumor in 1945, he came to me with his dilapidated running shoes. He had patched and sewn then up with
string. In his shy and offhanded manner
he said, “Steve, I see your shoes are worn out and it’s now winter. Perhaps you
can get a few weeks of wear out of these.”
He pressed the shoes into my hands. I was a teenager. It wasn’t until much later that I realized
how much those shoes must have meant to him.
He had gone to a lot of work to patch them up for me. A few weeks later he was dead and gone to
heaven.
He died of a brain tumor. Only God knows
how faithfully Eric had run his race.
The running shoes wore out. At the end of the war, everything I owned was
in rags and tatters, infested by the bedbugs that tormented our sleep. Even the Chinese who raked through our refuse
would find them useless. I gave them up
for a pair of U.S. Army boots.
But Eric had given me a greater gift --
the baton of forgiveness.
I’ll never forget Eric’s funeral. I was one of Eric’s pall bearers and wore the
running shoes he had given to me. Only
about a dozen of us – under guard – went to the grave. The graveyard was in the off-limits Japanese
quarters. Someone read the Beatitudes
and we lowered the coffin into the ground.
We shivered with the northwest wind whipping us. My thoughts were crushing me. Why had we lost a champion and a saint? Was this all that became of a man who had
given up so much to serve God and the Chinese people? Eric gave up
everything. He was only 43. Was this all?
Some of us young fellows picked up some
of the many jobs that Eric left behind.
The war ended suddenly with the atomic
bomb. In a few weeks I was settled with
a steady job and a very busy life in a local church in
I sailed for
As the ship sailed towards
I suppose that most people thought that
Eric’s life was just another story in the history of Christian missions. Today, there are books, plays, articles, and
an Academy Award winning movie about our “Uncle Eric.”
I choose to think God nudged movie producer David Puttnam to read
the 1924 Olympic Review and the
story of a young Scottish runner who refused to race on Sunday. Thirty-five
years after Eric’s death, the story inspired Puttnam to create the
award-winning movie “Chariots of Fire.” Released in 1981, “Chariots of Fire” told the story of two
British athletes preparing for and competing in the 1924 Olympics. One
of them was Eric Liddell. The film was nominated for
seven Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture. A postscript flashed across the screen: “Eric
Liddell died in a Japanese concentration camp.
All of
My heart knows Eric Liddell isn’t dead. #
( This
story is shortened from two longer articles/papers by
From: Marti Suddarth
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddel story from exerpted
In
a message dated 6/21/2008 9:40:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time, MTPrevite@aol.com writes:
Shortly after this, I listened
to some lectures on
********** Does anyone know who this American professor from
Marti Kramer Suddarth
From: Pander
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 10:09 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddel story from exerpted
Could it
be Langdon Gilkey?
On the Weihsien-Painting's
home page, there is a search engine. I tried with "Yenching" and got
quite a few answers.
Best regards,
Leopold
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 12:51 AM
Subject: Weihsien memories from Tipton's CHINESE ESCAPADE
If you haven’t
read Laurence Tipton's CHINESE ESCAPADE, you'll be fascinated by his
chapters dealing with his and Arthur Hummel's escape fromWeihsien and their
return after Americans liberated the camp.
Leopold Pander
has made the full narrative available on his Weihsien web site. Here’s Tipton’s
description that many of you will remember.
"With the collapse of the Japanese, the food situation became
serious for a few days. Supplies of bare necessities were sufficient only for
two to three days at the time of the Japanese surrender. Major Staiger radioed
his Headquarters for assistance and within a couple of days a B–24 flew over
the camp to drop sheaves of handbills worded to the effect that supplies were
on the way. Within half an hour we heard the ponderous drone of heavily laden
planes. Ten B–29s circled overhead and, as their bellies opened, tons of supplies
were dropped, filling the sky with yellow, green, red, blue and white
parachutes.
Some failed to
open and steel drums hurtled through the air and, bursting on contact with the
earth, sent up cascades of Californian peaches and cream, tomato soup, corned
beef hash, cigarettes, candy and chewing-gum. At least 30 per cent of the first
drop was wasted. This continued on and off for several days, until the church,
resembling a warehouse, was stacked high with clothes, boots, food, smokes,
medical supplies and books — everything that the Stores Officer on Okinawa
(from where the planes had come) thought might conceivably be needed.
To
cope with the demand for fresh fruit, vegetables and eggs, an open-air market
was soon established outside the front gate by the river, where dozens of
stalls were set up. People were still short of money, however, and most of the
business was carried on by barter. Old clothes that were hardly fit to wear,
boots and shoes with gaping holes, women's hats, were all exchanged for eggs,
milk, or maybe a fried chicken or a bottle of the local brandy. Never had there
been such eating, a craving of two and a half
years' standing was satiated. There were casualties, but all
admitted that it was worth it!"
Mary Previte
From: Donald Menzi
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 2:08 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories from Tipton's CHINESE ESCAPADE
Thanks, Mary,
I see, by the
way, that a used copy of Tipton's book is selling on Abe Books for
$195.00.
By the way,
Leopold - do you have any idea what the copyright rules are for
reproducing clippings from the NY Times that I've downloaded from their
archives - not to mention excerpts from books? I've used them in my
family web site and "videos" without ever bothering to find out,
since there purely non-commercial and I assume nobody really cares. But
then again, "assume" IS spelled ASS - U - ME.
Donald
From: Tapol
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 9:16 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories from Tipton's CHINESE ESCAPADE
Dear Don,
I see it exactly the same way you do
---
Best regards,
Leopold
From: grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 12:49 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories from Tipton's CHINESE ESCAPADE
Thanks
Mary.
Relish these Weihsein excerpts. I was nineteen when we were
liberated.My memories are still very fresh. Phyllis
From: Alexander Strangman
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories
Good
for you , Phyllis! Now here's a test for
you and those who also still have memories that are fresh!
Can
anyone recall where the 'Duck Team Seven' was billeted during their stay at '
After 60
odd years some of the details are less clear to me now, but I seem to vaguely
remember we were 'advised' the day of our liberation, (somehow) that some
one 'in charge' would be speaking to us, at a certain time and
place, re initial plans regarding our immediate future.
Can you
tell me who it was?
All the best,
Zandy
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 4:35 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories
Zandy,
I phoned our American liberator Tad Nagaki this
evening to get answers to some of your questions. Tad was the
Japanese-American interpreter on the Duck Mission that liberated Weihsien. .
At 88, Tad still farms beans and corn and wheat
in
Tad is the only living member of the American members on the Duck Mission.
Tad says that six of the seven members billeted
in the Japanese commandant's office. That office was located near the
section where the Italians stayed. He said they slept on cots that were
in that building. He recalls that the building was a two-story building
with several rooms. This is the same building where on
Liberation Day, Major Staiger took over the camp from the Japanese
commandant. Staiger headed the team. So Major Staiger, Jim
Moore, Jim Hannon, Tad Nagaki, Peter Orlich, and Eddie
Wang stayed there.
Tad says that Raymond Hanchulak, the medic on
the Duck Mission, stayed in the hospital and helped there as much as he could.
Tad Nagaki says that three of the team left
Weihsien first -- Jim Moore, Raymond Hanchulak, and Tad
Nagaki -- to go to Tsingtao (now
Tad and I had a good chat about Tsingtao (
Zandy, you mention that on Liberation Day,
someone "in charge" was to speak
to prisoners about our future. If that person was wearing a sling on his
arm, it would have been 1st Lt. Jim Hannon. Hannon wore a
sling. Hannon told me several times that
Chinese interpreter Eddie Wang froze with terror when Wang was supposed
to jump from the plane. So Hannon says he had to push or encourage Eddie
Wang to jump. Hannon, who was well trained in parachute jumps, told me
that a good parachute drop depends on the
initial jump. Hannon said that he was so occupied in getting Eddie Wang
to jump, that he himself didn't get a good
start. As a result, he injured his shoulder in his landing. His arm
was in a sling. The men jumped when the plane was flying at 500
feet, barely space to get a parachute open,
so it's amazing more of them weren't injured.
Tad Nagaki says that the men dropped, carrying
nothing but a fire arm.. Other parachutes that
dropped that day provided them supplies
like food. .
On another subject, I
asked again this week if NBC will allow us to post on the Weihsien
web site their piece about Eric Liddell which they will broadcast during the
Olympic. NBC has exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the
Mary Previte
From: Alexander Strangman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories
Dear Mary, thanks for such
an informative email which fills in 'once and for all' any
remaining details on our 'Memorable 7' that may have escaped my notice ,
before!
From: Donald Menzi
Cc: Mitch
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 3:57 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories
Were any of
you able to respond to Mitch's questions about Helen Burton's barter shop, the
White Elephant's
Don
From: Pamela Masters
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 3:03 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien memories from Tipton's CHINESE ESCAPADE
Hi
Everyone --
I
got my copy of Chinese Escapade from a little bookstore in
If
anyone's interested, I could go into my archives and see if I've still got the
invoice from them, with their address. The gentleman who responded said it was
quite fun to locate as copies were very scarce. Of course, this was back
in '96 of '97 when I was doing all my research.
Sorry,
I am hanging onto my copy , not because it's now got an inflated tag, but
because I think it's a gem of a history book, especially the first part where
Laurie was in a filthy Chinese prison where executions took place daily,
and he never knew if he was going to be next ! ! !
Pamela Masters Flynn
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 1:19 AM
Subject: Eric Liddell documentary DVD to be released for Olympics
The
The TV docu-drama about Eric Liddell will not.
Because of security concerns, the Government has
stopped issuing permits for many activities, productions, and concerts.
Mary Previte
From: bob.sanders
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 9:45 PM
Subject: Lewis Mills Burfitt at Weihsien
Hullo All
I am new to his group. I am interested in the conditions etc at the
camp as my father's cousin Lewis Mills Burfitt who was a superintendent with
Butterfield & Swire is listed as an inmate in the database on the Wiehsien
Website. His gravestone at Ilfracombe,
Regards
Bob Sanders
From: Donald Menzi
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 2:20 AM
Subject: Re: Lewis Mills Burfitt at Weihsien
Hi, Welcome aboard.
You should
certainly explore Leopold Pander's www.weihsien-paintings.org web
site. You can also take a virtual "walking tour" of the camp at
my "family" web site, http:/d.menzi.org. There are also the
topica.com email archives.
Those should
keep you going for a while. You should also feel free to ask any
questions about life in the camp. Those who were there will be very glad
to respond, and your questions will help stimulate
activity which we will all enjoy.
Donald Menzi
From: Tapol
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: Lewis Mills Burfitt at Weihsien
Hello,
The "
http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Naval/Emden_04.htm
Is it true that the German captors in
those days acted as gentlemen? After the allied merchant vessel was
seized and sunk, the prisoners were well treated and fed. Did your father's
cousin ever tell you stories about those days? I remember reading about the
"Seeadler", a sailing vessel commanded by Captain Felix Von Lukner.
He raided the South Atlantic and
Best regards ---
Leopold
From: bob.sanders
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:26 PM
Subject: RE: Lewis Mills Burfitt at Weihsien
Leopold
Unfortunately I do not recall having met Lewis Burfitt, although I
may have done at some family get together. My father did, however, tell me that
Lewis' brother George who he knew much better had told him of Lewis' capture by
the Emden and that he was well treated by the Germans and in an interview that
Lewis gave to the Ilfracombe Chronicle in 1937 he refers ro his capture and
subsequent release onto another ship on which he sailed to Cochin, though he
does not mention in that article how he was treated by his German captors. My
guess is that if he had been badly treated he might have referred to it. From
what I have read about the captain of the Emden everything seems to point to
him being a "Gentleman" I think that the German officers of WW1 were generally
aristocrats and often professional soldiers who treated their opponents with
respect, even though they knew they had to fight them. As you say, not so, for
the most part, in WW2. I am now trying to find out which ship Lewis was on when
he was captured and possibly which ship he was released onto.
Regards
Bob Sanders
From: bob.sanders
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:47 PM
Subject: RE: Lewis Mills Burfitt at Weihsien
Donald
Thank you for your reply and pointers. I really enjoyed the video
tour. It gave me some idea of what Lewis would have seen and experienced during
his internment. I am very pleased to have found this group.
Regards
Bob Sanders
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 5:34 PM
Subject: From Estelle Cliff Horne -- about the Eric Liddell monument
Charles Walker is an engineer, who worked
for a time in
Formerly the memorial was in a little moon gated
garden which was created to house it near the south east part of the
former camp compound. We had a ceremony there in 1995 to mark the 50th
anniversary of our liberation on 17th August. I gave the main speech. When we
returned for the 60th anniversary in 2005, the monument had been moved to its
present position in front of the former hospital, where he died. The ward where
he was, was on the ground floor, right at the other end of the building,
overlooking the former tennis courts, where the band
(including my brother on the trombone) played his last request: Be Still My
Soul.
Estelle Cliff Horne
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 5:50 PM
Subject: Scotswoman in
Can any of you who are expert is searching for
Christian, out-of-print books tell me where I can get a copy of Annie
Buchan's book, Scotswoman in
Annie was a longtime missionary co-worker of
Eric Liddell's. Annie was with Eric
in his hospital room when he died.
Mary Previte
From: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>
To: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 3:55 AM
Subject: Memories of Helen Burton's Barter Shop
Ø Hello
Weihsieners,
>
> I'm forwarding to you an email that I just received from Mitch
Krayton. He will probably be subscribing to the topica group soon, so if
you have the kind of memories he is looking for, please hold them until your
get the request directly from him.
>
> Donald Menzi
> ==================================================================
>
> -----Forwarded
Message-----
>>From: "mitch@digital-res.com" <mitch@digital-res.com>
>>Sent: Jul 8, 2008 7:25 PM
>>To: dmenzi@earthlink.net
>>Subject: Wilders Web Site
>>
>>Don,
>>
>>I have just enjoyed the most heart-warming tribute to both your family
>>and those that shared their internment experiences out of Weihsien and
>>on the Gripsholm. Thank you for compiling this for others to appreciate
>>and enjoy. I have visited American internment camps for the Japanese in
>>
>>we can be to each other. Your site helps.
>>
>>I have been doing quite of bit of research on Miss Helen Burton, a lady
>>mentioned several times on your site. I have been doing my best to
>>document her unique life from
>>
>>
>>My wife and I were fortunate to acquire the guest book from her Camel
>>
>>illustrations and photos of visitors to the shop and it tells about
>>quite a remarkable life story as well. Then to find out that she had to
>>leave her adopted daughters at the time of the Japanese invasion has
led
>>me research further and ultimately to your site. Your work has given me
>>much more appreciation for what she and others had to endure.
>>
>>I would appreciate you assistance on gathering whatever artifacts,
>>photos or stories you have about the 'White Camel Bells' canteen she
set
>>up at Weihsien. If your family had visited her shop at the Grand Hotel
>>de Pekin and had written about it, I would love the
learn what they had
>>to say about that as well.
>>
>>And also if you have access to those incredible survivors from the 60th
>>reunion, if you could ask them on my behalf for their thoughts on Miss
>>
>>before they get much older and leave us without a record.
>>
>>Again thank you for all your efforts. The illustrations and the
personal
>>letters made this tragic episode come to life for me. It was a joy to
>>see how well the Chinese embraced everyone on the anniversary event. I
>>hope one day to be able to visit the site in person and pay my
respects.
>>
>>If I may help you with any information about Miss Burton that I may
>>have, please let me know. By the way, the materials on your website
>>would be helpful in a book my wife and I are writing about Miss Burton.
>>May we have permission to use this material in our work?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Mitch
>>
>>--
>>Mitch Krayton
>>
>>
>>+1 661-310-2435 voice | mitch@digital-res.com
From: "Mitch Krayton" <mitch@digital-res.com>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2008 10:34 PM
Subject: Researching Helen
Burton
Ø
Hello to all on this list.
>
> My wife, Linda, and I have been referred to you by Donald Menzi and with
the help of Natasha Petersen, I have successfully made
it to this list.
>
> We live in the greater
>
> Several years ago, while attending an antiquarian book fair, we came upon
the most incredible book that was the guest book of a The Camel Book shop in
Peiping (Peking, Pekin, Beijing). We purchased this tome which is leather bound
volume (apx 12"x18"x6"), corners of woven silk, has brass hinge
fittings (missing the locking pin) and encrusted with many semi-precious
stones. It was in the Grand Hotel de Pekin which was the largest and most
modern hotel in the area and served as the major hotel for visitors of every
rank and distinction.
>
> The hotel was located inside the walled city (which have since been
removed to make the ring road) and very close the The Forbidden City and
>
> The Camel Bell (aka The Camel Bells, The Camel's
>
> Born in 1917 in
>
> It was not long that she started her shop with candy, clothing, art and
gifts of her design that she arranged to be made by locals.
>
> People from all over the world stopped by and signed her guest book.
Others did a lot more: drawing, painting and writing poetry. There are photos
and holiday cards, too. Hundreds of visitors are here (we are trying to catalog
them all).
>
> She was very much the socialite and people would often stay with her in
the city or at her summer home in the hills outside the city.
>
> She never married, but did adopt 4 Chinese girls who helped her run the
shop.
>
> When the Japanese overtook
>
> There she was involved with a barter site that has been called The White
Camel Bell or The White Elephant Bell. There was no money but I suspect her
entrepreneurial spirit and her fearless willingness to bargain gave her the
courage to set this up.
>
> So to all of you who knew Miss Burton in Weihsien or the barter shop, we
would be delighted to know your stories and your impressions of her. And if you
have relics or photos of her or the shop, it would be a thrill to see those,
too.
>
> Thank you all in advance for making our quest so real and so interesting.
>
> Mitch Krayton
From: "Tapol" <tapol@skynet.be>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 1:48 PM
Subject: Fw: Researching
Helen Burton
Dear Mitch, Linda & Don ---
In Norman's scrap books I found the White Elephant's inventory ---- go to:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/NoticeBoard/Oukaze/p-Inventory.htm
From Christine Talbot Sancton, we also received a painting of the White
Elephant shop:
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/ChSancton/paintings/p_ElephanExchange.htm
--- and many other links can be found about the White Elephant shop. On the
home page, just enter "elephant" in the search engine ---- I was
surprised
at the many times it is mentioned in the Paintings' website.
On Mrs Wilder's painting I just added a link to Mitch's text --- a little
"book" symbol just under the water colour painting of the White
Elephant
shop. Dear Mitch I hope it's OK?
You just wrote that you were writing a book about Mrs. Burton ---- If it is
OK for you and Linda, we would love to know a bit more (en avant
première) --- maybe a few extracts from the guest-book as *.jpg-files ??
with your coments --- You can send them directly to me
at: tapol@skynet.be
Best regards,
Leopold
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org
From: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>; <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 3:06 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Researching Helen Burton
Leopold,
Thanks so much for the link to Christine Talbot Sancton's paintings. They
are really beautiful. I wish I had known about all of them at the time I
put together the first Weihsien slide show. Maybe I can still work some
of them into a second edition.
And thanks to Mitch and Linda for recognizing the uniqueness of this
fascinating woman, Helen Burton. I'm sure that many in this group are
waiting expectantly as you bringing her and her era back to life. If only
you can track down her daughters and their children! What a thrill it
will be for them to find their mother/grandmother's legacy.
Donald
From: "Mitch Krayton" <mitch@digital-res.com>
To: <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Researching Helen Burton
Leopold,
Thank you for these links. You're site is filled with an amazing collection of
memories. Every time I visit, it is another hour or two of amazement.
Thank you for posting the link about our Helen Burton research quest.
Not a problem for us at all. (And it is Miss Burton, Leopold, as she never
married)
We would be happy to share bits from the book as we write it. We have only some
outline notes for now. My wife is in a writer's group to help her get this
done. We have had the guest book for several years and kept it safely in a
closet. Then when we had a local fire storm in our community, we had to
evacuate for a day. When we got back home safely, we then started to look
seriously at what we had and rediscovered the treasure of The Camel Bell guest
book.
The guest book is quite large and we have yet to photograph all the individual
pages or complete the cataloging of its contents (hundreds of signature,
addresses and telephone numbers). This is a big labor of love, but I am
preaching to the choir on that account. Everyone's efforts here are much
appreciated.
If folks have comments about what we will post from the guest book, it would
make it all the richer for us all.
Best,
Mitch
From:
"Mitch Krayton" <mitch@digital-res.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Sunday, July 13, 2008 8:49 PM
Subject:
Weihsien
Captives in National Archives
> Doing research and found this page from the
National Archives Access to Archival Databases website:
>
> Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created 1942 - 1947, documenting
the period 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 - Record Group 389
> http://aad.archives.gov/aad/display-partial-records.jsp?f=645&mtch=282&q=weihsien&cat=all&dt=466&tf=F
>
> Perhaps we can review this for completeness and accuracy and update the
archivists.
>
> I did find Helen B. Burton on the archive.gov site, but not registered as
being at Weihsien. So if you don't find a name you are looking for at the link
above, perhaps you should enter it last name first in the home page search box
here: http://aad.archives.gov/
>
> Mitch
>
From:
"bob.sanders" <bob.sanders59@ntlworld.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Sunday, July 13, 2008 9:32 PM
Subject: RE: Weihsien Captives in National Archives
Ø
Mitch
>
> Thanks for pointing out the TNA records. Unfortunately my relative L M
Burfitt was not listed.
>
> Regards
>
> Bob Sanders
>
From:
"
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>; <bob.sanders59@ntlworld.com>
Sent:
Friday, July 18, 2008 11:02 AM
Subject:
RE:
Weihsien Captives in National Archives LM Burfitt
> Gentlemen,
> Just for the record and There is often confusion between the US National
Archives NARA and the UK National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office)
now TNA.
>
> The former hold a list of all those released from Weihsien as well as the
lists of those repatriated in 1943 ending up via Goa on the Gripsholm to NY.
> The latter holds the names of all those repatriated in July August 1942
mainly diplomatic staff of all allied nations via Lorenco Marques(
Now Maputo) ( I suspect this is also in
> The IMperial War Museum LOndon hold the 30 Jun 43 and 30 JUn44 list
of Weishien inmates found by me in the SWiss Foreign Office Archives ( this is
only British and British Commonwealth as the US Lists had been destroyed in
1995 and the document I found had been scehduled for destruction but
overlooked.
> There is also a Sp 44 edition in the Japanese National Archives Tokyo. IS
this the LM Burfitt you are looking for:
>
> Lewis Mills BURFITT born Eeter Devon England 20Dec1894 Wharf Godown
Supt Butterfield and Swire Tientsin travelling on British Passport C17965
issued at Hankow China on 23Jan37. Next of kin Mrs CM Burfitt
15 Portland St Ilfracombe Devon. IN Weihsien he was
in Block 51 Room 3
>
> I do not put detailed info such as this on the Topica Chat line
>
>
> ex Weihsien my data base is over 60,000 names 40,000 civilians and the HK
Garrison
From:
"Mitch Krayton" <mitch@digital-res.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, July 18, 2008 7:21 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien Captives in National Archives LM Burfitt
> Ron,
>
> Thanks for your clarification.
>
> Mitch
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 10:32 PM
Subject: Eric Liddell -- 84 years ago
This week in the 1924 Paris Olympics, Eric
Liddell won the gold medal in the 400 meters ,
capturing an Olympic and world record. It took 35 years for anyone
to beat his world record.
Having already won
the bronze in the 200 meters, he was the only British athlete to win two
Olympic medals that year.
If you haven't read ERIC LIDDELL: PURE
GOLD by David McCasland, give yourself
a treat. Get a copy.
"Uncle Eric" as we called him was so
much in demand by teenagers in Weihsien that his dorm
mates posted a sign on their door to indicate Eric
Liddell, IN or OUT.
Weihsien gave us heroes.
Mary Previte
From:
Ron Bridge
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 9:11 PM
Subject: RE: Eric Liddell -- 84 years ago
Can echo Mary's recommendation of Pure Gold ISBN
is 0-57293-051-9 published by Discovery House publishers
Ron Bridge
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 4:22 AM
Subject: Interview with American pilot downed near
Weihsien, 1945
Here's
transcription of an interview with an American pilot who was shot down
near Weihsien. You can listen to the full interview on the WEIHSIEN web
site: www.weihsien-paintings.org
Mary Previte
INTERVIEW with
Lt. William Zimpleman, September, 1945
From the
ANNOUNCER: At Weihsien, the DUCK team received word that
a downed American flyer, Lt. William Zimpleman, was being hidden in the area by
Chinese patriots. Lt. Hannon immediately
made effort to contact Lt. Zimpleman, and on September 6, Lt.
Zimpleman reached
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I am William V. Zimpleman. On February the 20th of this year, I left on
a fighter sweep from a base in Free China.
While over the target, I had the misfortune of getting… hhh…
ANNOUNCER: You came when you arrived at the target,
Lieutenant … You came down in a dive to strafe the target. Is that right?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: That’s right.
Uh. Diving my last pass, I had steam come up in the cockpit, so
I immediately knew that I had been hit and had only a few minutes to plan my
escape.
ANNOUNCER: That’s when you were pulling out of your last
pass.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: That’s right.
That’s right.
ANNOUNCER: And what is that an indication of – steam
coming out from the cockpit?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: That I’d received a hit in my cooling system.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
And that meant what? What would
happen with a bullet in the cooling system?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: That my engine would soon be out of coolant
and would be too hot to run. It would
freeze.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
And about what altitude were you when you made this realization?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I was on the deck.
ANNOUNCER: Uh, you were on the deck?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Yes, I was
on the deck. I was near the ground just
a few feet.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
I see.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I pulled up to about 2,500 feet and headed in
the direction that I figured was the safest.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
And what did you see underneath you?
What was the condition of the terrain under you?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: It was a bay.
All water.
ANNOUNCER: A bay.
All water. What did you do then?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I prepared to bail out ‘cause I knew I had
only a few minutes --
and headed for the nearest land, the nearest terrain that I
figured the safest.
ANNOUNCER: That was across the bay?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: That was across the bay.
ANNOUNCER: About how wide was the bay?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: About ten miles.
ANNOUNCER: That must
have seemed the widest ten miles you ever saw.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: It looked very bad.
ANNOUNCER: And you
moved the hell out until you got across the bay.
LT.
ZIMPLEMAN: Just as I got to
the edge of the land, it started spitting and froze …right
near the patch of land.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
And then what happened?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I started losing altitude, but I still hadn’t
reached the part I had intended to… started for.
ANNOUNCER: What is the sensation of a plane without
adequate landing? What’s the sensation
of going down and out?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Like a rock.
You go down very fast.
ANNOUNCER: You’re really conscious of falling.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Yes, gliding, but a very steep glide down.
ANNOUNCER: I see. And what plan did you have in mind then?
LT.
ZIMPLEMAN: Well, uh, to bail out when I got to the least altitude
to be safe.
ANNOUNCER: You had to
open up your hood… of the…
LT.
ZIMPLEMAN: I had released my
canopy sooner…
ANNOUNCER:
Yes.
LT.
ZIMPLEMAN:
Sooner.
ANNOUNCER: You released the canopy immediately.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I released the canopy before my engine
stopped.
ANNOUNCER: I
see.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: To be safe.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
And then you waited to what altitude before you jumped?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: About a thousand feet.
ANNOUNCER: You were watching the altimeter. At a thousand feet you went out. Did you fall clear of the plane?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Yes, it was very … it worked out very
fine. The plane went straight down. I missed the tail. It went right over me.
ANNOUNCER: And did you wait ‘til you had seen the tail
passed before you pulled the rip cord?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: That’s right.
ANNOUNCER: Uh.
And then did you see the plane handing?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: No, I didn’t.
No, I didn’t. I was watching… (laugh)…
ANNOUNCER: You were busy.
LT.
ZIMPLEMAN: …other things.
ANNOUNCER: Uh, did you see the plane afterwards?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Yes, I saw the plane afterwards. It was burning.
ANNOUNCER: Yes.
And, uh, were you aware of an opening shock?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Uh, yes.
I… But not much…very slight.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
And hen you had only a few hundred feet to fall.
LT.
ZIMPLEMAN:
That’s right.
ANNOUNCER: What was your sensation coming down as far as
expecting trouble?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I expected enemy troops – Japanese. I could expect nothing else. I was near water and everything.
ANNOUNCER: In that area there’s nothing but
Japanese.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Right near
the target.
ANNOUNCER: And as you came down, did you notice anyone
below? Had anyone seen you?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Yes, I could see many people. Many people who had seen me were coming out
of the village.
ANNOUNCER: Uh, these were villagers.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Yeh, that’s right.
ANNOUNCER: And, uh, when you landed, did you land
safely? Did you hurt yourself?
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: Uh, I landed…when I landed, I pigeoned my
ankle. I started running, but it was
impossible for me to get away.
ANNOUNCER: I see.
And people came crowding around and said, “Ding hao.” And then you said, “Ding hao.”
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: No, I… No, I…
Not long I was rescued by friendly troops.
ANNOUNCER: Oh, Gol.
They came right on up!
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: And kept the civilians away. I had no contact with civilians. They didn’t know where I went.
ANNOUNCER: That must have been a relief to you…to know
what happened.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: For the
full length of time I was with them – which was 6 ½ months – they kept me
safe.
ANNOUNCER: And then Lt. Hannon, who had come with the Duck Mission in
Weihsien, contacted you and you came
back.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: That’s right.
After this time, my first contact with my own people –
with the Duck Mission at Weihsien.
ANNOUNCER: Lieutenant, nice having you back. I hope you’ll be home.
LT. ZIMPLEMAN: I’m very glad to be back.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you very much.
#
From:
Ron Bridge
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 5:37 PM
Subject: RE:
Pamela.
I do not know if you can help as you were active with Gil Hair in
ex internees in the
As you may be aware I seem to be the end of the line when people
are trying to trace their kin who were Internees or PoWS.
Certainly I get steady inquiries through both the UK National Archives and the
I have had an inquiry this time from a Lady Doreen Massey, Baroness
Massey of Darwen, in the House of Lords from the
and also through Greg Leck asking after her aunt, Helen Sharrock, and her
cousin, Elizabeth Helen Sharrock, Helen’s daughter. They were in
Yangchow C. She is attempting to trace what became of them.
I did
check that 1991 OCH directory and neither Helen nor Elizabeth is listed.
Helen was a White Russian and married a British member of the SMP. He was
killed by armed robbers in the Shanghai Badlands in the early days of the
Japanese occupation of
All that
I is that Helen Sharrock was born 1905 thus
unlikely to be alive now. The daughter was born
16Oct1927. I have the husband/father Samuel Sharrock b 1905 who was
shpt by amred robbers while working in the Shanghai Municipal Police in 1942
and his death is recorded in the British Consular Death Registers kept during
the war by the Swiss Consulate on HMG's behalf. The daughter in some lists is
shown as Eleanora Helen and she and her mother were interned on 13Mar1943 being
released in early September from Yangchow C.
I have no
trace of what happened to the Sharrocks post war, there was a lot of toing and
froing, many in Helen Sharrock's position went to the
Thanks
Ron
From:
"Christine Talbot Sancton" <sancton@nbnet.nb.ca>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, August 01, 2008 1:42 PM
Subject:
Eric
Liddell
> Last night, my family and I were going
through some old photograph albums of
> Ida Jones Talbot.
>
> We found a photo of Eric Liddell with another runner, ?
Cerrino and his daughter, Betty. Who was Cerrino? When
was this taken? in the late 20s?
>
> I haven't been able to find any infomation about the Cerrino family on the
web.
>
> I have asked Leopold to post it on his website.
>
> Interesting to find this photo particularly at this time.
>
> Christine Talbot Sancton
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 2:57 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell
Here in the
Mary Previte
From:
Mitch Krayton
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell
Thank you Mary for this
update. If and when you can determine a
date and time that NBC will air this piece, we can all set our recorders and be
certain to watch it.
Best,
Mitch
From:
"
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, August 01, 2008 7:25 PM
Subject: RE: Eric Liddell
Ø NO
trace of a surname Cerrino in the Italians in WEihsien, it could have
> been a forename. Eric would have moved more in missionaary circles in
>
> was ERic's photo.
> Ron Bridge
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 2:39 PM
Subject:
Rich Swingle, who plays the part of Eric Liddell
in a one man show that has appeared Off Broadway in
. http://richdrama.com/NewsBlog/2008/08/running-race-in-china.html
Rich will also play the part of Eric Liddell in
the docu-drama still in production in
Mary Previte
From:
Gay Talbot
Stratford
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 7:19 PM
Subject: Arthur Jones
Arthur
Jones, uncle to Peter Talbot, Christine Talbot Sancton and to me Gay, had the
honour of accompanying Eric Liddell on a victory lap around the track at the
Ming Yuan sports field. He spoke of the occasion with great pride.
As I
think about Eric, I can only marvel at the difference to the world one man can
make. This is a source of hope for the planet...
Good
wishes to all.
Gay Talbot Stratford .
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 2:48 PM
Subject: Thank you to Tad Nagaki, Libetrator of
Weihsien
The August 17 anniversary of our liberation is
almost here.
Only one of our American liberators is still
living -- Tad Nagaki. Tad, who will be 89 in January, still farms
beans, wheat, and corn on his farm in
If you'd like to drop him a note of
thanks, tell him what your remember and
felt about Liberation Day. Here's his address:
Tad Nagaki
Tad says he's not a hero. He says he did
only what any American would have done.
Mary Previte
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 3:26 AM
Subject: Message from Rich Swingle, actor who plays
ERIC LIDDELL
Here's a message from Rich Swingel, the actor who plays the
part of Eric Liddell in the one-man show about Eric Liddell. Rich wrote this letter en route
to China.
Mary
Previte
We're bringing the story of Eric Liddell, the first
person born in
Most of the itinerary is at http://RichDrama.com/Olympics.
Then I'll perform the play between the closing ceremony of a sports camp and
before the opening ceremonies of the Olympics at 08/08/08, 8:08:08. The next
night Jim Hudson Taylor
will tell of his remembrances of Eric Liddell when they were interned together
during World War II.
I'm finishing this note while I wait for my flight which has been delayed four
hours. That puts me into the
Follow our adventures at http://RichDrama.com/NewsBlog.
Thanks so much for Hoping with us!
Rich & Joyce Swingle
http://RichDrama.com
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 3:42 PM
Subject: Fwd: "Olympic Hero in
From: elaine@gnci.org.hk
To: mtprevite@aol.com
Sent: 8/6/2008 2:15:59 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: "Olympic
Hero in
Dear Mary,
Greetings from HK!
By the grace of our Lord and supports
from many people, especially Rev. James Taylor III and you, the 45 min.
documentary of Eric Liddell, "Olympic Hero in China - the Story of Eric
Liddell" is ready for broadcasting/showing during the Olympic period
at churches and through different channels. DVDs will be distributed
during this period online or through various channels.
The documentary is in Cantonese and
Putonghua (except the interviews in the original languages
spoken) with English and Chinese subtitles. We pray that we can
continue the production of the docu-drama once the Olympic is over and you will
be kept updated.
We are also working on the website www.ericliddell.tv and hope that we can get it finished soon. Please feel free to let me
know if you have any suggestions or comment. Thanks!
God bless,
Elaine
Elaine Yau
General Secretary
Goodnews Communication International
Email: elaine@gnci.org.hk
Tel. (852)2409 1233, 6017 7531(Mobile)
Welcome to visit our websites
=====歡=迎=瀏=覽=我=們=的=網=站======
真証傳播 http://www.GoodnewsCom.org
基督教資源庫
http://www.NeighbourOnline.com
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 6:32 AM
Subject: Eric Liddell from the
- Oliver
Holt pays tribute Beijng hero: Chariots of Fire's Eric Liddell
By Oliver Holt 7/08/2008
Beijing Olympics 2008
The
Olympic torch will be carried into the Bird's Nest stadium tomorrow night with
the eyes of the world upon it.
But
yesterday I found the spirit of the Games burning at its most fierce in a
quiet, peaceful place where a concentration camp used to be.
Eric
Liddell, one of
Some
will always remember this profoundly religious man, a Chinese-born son of
Scottish missionaries, for refusing to compete in the 100m at the 1924 Olympics
because the contest was held on a Sunday.
Even
though Liddell was the hot favourite to win the gold medal in the sprint in
So
he switched to the 400m and won the gold medal in that instead, setting an
Olympic record that was not broken until 1960. In the process, Liddell, whose
parents had worked in the Far East as missionaries, became the first man born
in
But
others revere him for what he did after he gave up athletics and became a
missionary in
The
grounds that weave around the lazy river are tended lovingly now as part of a
Chinese initiative to turn them into a memorial to those who lived and died
here.
Peach
trees and bamboo line the driveway into the park, cicadas tick and chatter, and
in a shady corner outside the building where Liddell died, his headstone, hewn
from a one ton block of
But
when Liddell and more than 1,500 others were brought to the camp early in 1942,
soon after the Japanese attack on
The
prisoners, many of them children, lived in dormitory blocks that looked like
stables and were penned in by electrified fences, guarded by soldiers in
watchtowers and kept close to starvation.
Liddell's
spirit was not quenched, though. He took charge of recreation for the children
and organised daily games of rounders, hockey and football in the camp's
cramped grounds. Few of the inmates had any idea he was a famous runner because
he never mentioned it, but the children soon grew to love him for his kindness
and his patience.
One
of those children was Mary Previte, now a member of the
Advertisement - article continues below »
"He
was 5ft 9 inches tall with a dimpled chin and a receding hairline. He wore a
shirt made from curtains. You would need a wild imagination to picture him
winning an Olympic gold medal. I suppose there were clues now and again.
Sometimes, he organised running races around the small open space near the camp
gate. He would give everyone a big head start, but he always won.
"We
children became his priority. When we had a hockey stick that needed mending,
it was Uncle Eric who would truss it up with strips made from his bed sheets
and with stinking glue melted down from horses' hooves. It was him who made
sure that we did not give up hope.
"He
taught us from the Bible, too. He told us to love our enemies. To Uncle Eric,
that meant praying for the Japanese who were our captors.
"Here
was a man who gave up the chance to become the fastest man in the universe and
he was binding up hockey sticks with stinking glue for kids. Nothing was
beneath him." The extent of Liddell's quiet heroism in the camp is only
just starting to emerge. When a British Olympic Association delegation headed by
Sir Clive Woodward and Simon Clegg visited the memorial park recently, they
were humbled by the stories of Liddell's selflessness.
To
the kids in the camp, Liddell's relentless good humour and concern for others
made him seem invincible. Someone they depended on. Larger
than life despite his modesty.
But
at the beginning of 1945, just a few months before the camp was liberated by US
paratroopers, Liddell fell ill. He wrote to his wife, who was safe with their
three daughters in
In
fact, he had a brain tumour and no access to treatment. As he lay dying in the
stern three-storey camp hospital that still stands today, a group of camp
inmates improvised a small band and stood under his window, playing his
favourite hymns.
He
died in February, aged 42. The children were devastated. "It was
unbelievable when he died," Mary Previte said.
"A
man who was also interned in the camp turned to me and said 'Jesus has been
walking among us here and now he is gone'. That was what Eric Liddell was to
us... Jesus in running shoes."
Some
Olympic records still to be beaten
American
long jumper Bob Beamon, right, set a new record of 8.90 metres at the 1968
Mexico Games - and 40 years on it has yet to be beaten.
Portugese
Carlos Lopez's marathon record of 2h 9m 21s at the 1984 LA Games has also never
been beaten.
American
sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, left, set unbeaten records in both the 100m
and 200m at the 1988 Seoul Games.
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 6:43 AM
Subject: Eric Liddell from Sunday Daily Mail
Olympic Games have
come home for sprinting champion
Aug 10 2008 By Sally
Magnusson
He is a sporting legend whose extraordinary influence has not faded in
84 years. The story of champion sprinter Eric Liddell, one of Britain's
greatest Olympians, has been brought back into focus as the 2008 Games take
place in the land of his birth...and death. The Chinese see him as their first
Olympic gold winner. For Scots, Liddell was immortalised in the Oscar-winning
film Chariots Of Fire as the Christian who refused to
run on a Sunday. BBC newswoman Sally Magnusson wrote the best-selling The
Flying Scotsman in 1981, just before the release of the movie. Today she
reveals how the Olympics have finally come home to Liddell's last resting
place.
IN the Chinese city of
For Eric Liddell, the Olympic Games have come home.
Liddell was imprisoned there for two years during the Japanese
occupation of
He was laid to rest near the Japanese officers' headquarters on a
bitingly cold February day.
At the graveside, his friends recited the Beatitudes: "Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
The wind lifted their hair and tugged at their coats as they lowered his
coffin.
It was more than two months before Liddell's wife, safely evacuated to
Her Eric was too full of life, she said. Too bouncy to die.
Liddell's reputation has continued to shine for more than 60 years but
his grave has gone largely unvisited.
For a long time no one was even sure where it was.
Now it's known to be in the grounds of
Perhaps when the Olympic sailing events are held in the neighbouring
eastern
As far as I'm aware, Liddell's precise grave is still unmarked.
But in 1991 the
The authorities in Weifang prepared a garden of inspiration in his
honour and the stone was unveiled there in a ceremony eccentrically marked by
Chinese firecrackers and bagpipes.
Liddell is considered a Chinese hero, too. He was born in
Just as Scots do, they relish how he refused to compete in the Olympic
100-metre heats in 1924 because they were on a Sunday and then took
Young Chinese film-makers told me recently how much they appreciate the
way he then left
There he taught science for a while, before heading into one of the
country's most perilous war zones to care for Chinese peasants caught in the
fighting.
One of the many schoolchildren later interned with him remembers the
Olympic hero arriving in 1943 as "a strong, athletic-looking man in baggy
shorts down to his knees and a shirt made of curtain material".
"Who's that?" young David Michell asked.
"That's Eric Liddell," said his pal with awe, "the
Olympic gold medallist who wouldn't run on a Sunday."
In the
He organised games and even broke the Sabbatarian principle that had so
infuriated the British athletic authorities in 1924 - to referee a kids' hockey
match on a Sunday.
In an era when sport has been sullied by drug-taking, commerce and
politics, Eric Liddell is still widely hailed as an embodiment of the Olympian
ideal.
He compellingly combined a drive to win with the grace to give in,
charisma with modesty, deep faith with utter humanity.
In camp one day he spoke of the thrill of having once watched a hurdler
refuse to take advantage of the gap left by a fallen hurdle. He swerved to jump
the adjoining one instead and lost the race.
What was wonderful about sport, Liddell added,
was "not the almost superhuman achievements, but the spirit in which it is
done. Take away that spirit and it is dead."
That message from the Scotsman who lies in a little garden in Weifang is
one that bears hearing again this week.
Sally Magnusson's updated biography, The Flying Scotsman, has been
re-issued by Tempus.
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 1:21 PM
Subject: from THE HERALD,
Did
Eric Liddell turn down freedom to help another prisoner-of-war?
|
August
11 2007 |
It was a typically selfless act. Eric Liddell, the iconic Scottish
Olympic athletics champion, turned down an offer of liberation by Winston
Churchill from a wartime internment camp in
Simon Clegg, chief executive of the British Olympic Association, and
elite performance director Sir Clive Woodward were laying a wreath on Liddell's
grave in Weifang when they were told about the move by Chinese officials.
Weifang, in
The pair are in
advertisement
Mr Clegg said: "We had lunch with the vice-mayor of Weifang and
some of her colleagues. I was told by a senior official that Eric was given the
opportunity of being exchanged while he was still alive, and he turned it down
in favour of someone else.
"If that's the case, it's entirely in keeping with the way he led
the rest of his life. Talk about a role model - someone who had achieved so
much in the sporting environment and then effectively to walk away from that,
not for any personal advancement, but to devote his life to working with other
people. He really is an inspiration to us all.
"What was said related to Winston Churchill arranging a prisoner
swap, but Eric let somebody else go in his place. It would be hard to
substantiate the details now, but the Chinese are not known for elaborating in
this way."
Liddell died of a brain tumour in February 1945, just months before
liberation. His grave was marked with a plain wooden cross, his name written in
boot polish. However, on the 60th anniversary of the internment camp a memorial
park was built, and in 1991 a one-ton block of
"It's in a quiet and very dignified setting of a courtyard,"
added Mr Clegg. "We laid a wreath of brightly-coloured local flowers
there, on behalf of the BOA and athletes past, present, and future.
|
"Torrential rain fell before and after the ceremony, but there was
a glorious break in the weather when we were at the memorial. There is still an
old missionary building, which during internment had a hospital on the second
floor, offices on the ground floor, and accommodation units on the third. It's
in the courtyard of this building that the memorial stands.
"There's also a small museum to the internment camp. Liddell does
feature, both in terms of his athletics prowess and contribution to the camp
and society. There's a log book with his name, Liddell, EH, and a reference to
where he was accommodated in the camp.
"The people of Weifang have done a fantastic job in terms of
keeping his spirit alive today. I hadn't realised just what an outstanding
human being he was. It was quite emotional being there."
The Chinese are making a documentary about the internment camp, and have
interviewed survivors as old as 103. This will also feature Liddell, because of
the role he played in the camp, and they are coming to the
Numerous biographies of Liddell have made no mention of a prisoner
exchange. His late sister, Jenny Somerville, never spoke of it, nor did his
daughter, Patricia, who accepted Liddell's induction to the Scottish Athletics
Hall of Fame two years ago. An attempt to contact her at her home in
Bob Rendall, chief executive of the Eric Liddell Centre in
Two other films are currently being made. Caithness-based screenwriter
Murray Watts has collaborated in one of these, being made by Toronto-based
Windborne Productions.
"Funding is still being put in place, but we look like going into
pre-production at the end of next month with Bruce Beresford as director,"
said a spokeswoman.
Beresford won four Oscars with Driving Miss Daisy. David Puttnam's
Chariots of Fire, which featured Liddell's life as an athlete, won five.
A life more worthy of a film than
Chariots of Fire
THE life Eric Liddell had after the Chariots of Fire era may prove more worthy
of a film than the athletic achievements which Ian Charleson famously
portrayed.
Liddell, who gained seven rugby caps on the wing for
He risked his life, smuggling money for church work, hidden in bread, or
tending typhoid victims.
A man whose execution the Japanese had bungled lay dying in a derelict
temple. Fearing reprisals, nobody would go to him, until Liddell rescued him on
a handcart.
Another man was cleft from the back of his head to his mouth, and left
for dead. Liddell ferried both 18 miles to a hospital. Both recovered.
Many Britons were interned when the Sino-Japanese war erupted, Liddell
among them. He had sent his pregnant wife to
Inmates of the camp included the elderly, children separated from their
parents, a touring jazz band, and a white Russian prostitute.
The Edinburgh University BSc wrote a chemistry book for the camp
children, inscribing the cover: "The bones of Inorganic Chemistry. (Can these dry bones live?)"
One lad, David Mitchell, became a minister, and wrote a book on his
childhood. He recalled Liddell mixing glue from fish bladders and scales,
mending hockey sticks, and doing so by night, to spare inmates the smell.
The man who had declined on Sabbatarian grounds to run the 100m at the
Olympics, refereed youngsters' football on Sundays. He mixed coal dust with
clay to make crude briquettes for the elderly, and when the prostitute was
ostracised by other women, he rigged a shelf for her. She said he was the only
man to do her a favour without seeking other favours in return.
When he died on February 16, 1945, the camp was devastated. He had seemed
invincible. The kids whom he
had walked with earlier were the cord bearers at his burial in the snow of
north
From:
Tapol
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 4:24 PM
Subject: Re: from THE HERALD,
Hello,
--- try clicking on this URL,
Best regards,
Leopold
From:
Albert
de Zutter
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: from THE HERALD,
That apocryphal story is resurrected once again.
Many missionaries were repatriated or allowed to return to their former places
of residence. There was no quota and no "places" for people to give
up. For example, there were originally 300 Catholic priests in the camp, but
all but 11 (who volunteered to stay) were allowed to return to their stations.
Eric Liddell was a fine man and no doubt a father figure to many of the Chefoo
boys and girls whose parents were not with them, but there is no reason to gild
the lily.
Albert de Zutter
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 3:56 PM
Subject: from Jim Taylor re. Eric Liddell
repatriation story
I have always tried to play down this story about Eric Liddell
forfeiting his opportunity to be repatriated in favor of someone else. As far
as I can recall, the repatriation option was never open to subjects of
Jim Taylor
From:
Ron Bridge
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 6:36 PM
Subject: RE: from Jim Taylor re. Eric
Liddell repatriation story
There was a rumour around Weihsien after
the Americans and Canadians left in late August early September 1943 that
there would be another exchange and that would be for the British. It was just
that a rumour. I have done extensive research into the
subject at the UK National Archives Kew and can find no trace that it was ever
organised or trying to be organised. One reason why it could not be organised
in any case was that whilst there were from know records at the time
16856 British civilians in Japanese Camps there were no Japanese in any
British Camp so the question of a swap never arose. Indeed when the diplomatic
exchange was made on the
Back to Weihsien -I have a copy of the Swiss
Government records of the British inmates of Weihsien Camp and the entry
on one sheet for Eric Liddell is:
LIDDELL Rev Eric Henry born Tientsin (
The other document lists the same basic data but
adds Missionary employed by London Missionary Society Shanghai and that
employer in the home country was London Missionary Society
I support Jim Taylor whole heartedly and felt I
must chip in before another fable was cast in stone.
Rgds
Ron
From:
David Birch
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 11:26 PM
Subject: Re: from Jim Taylor re. Eric
Liddell repatriation story
|
This is how I also understood the
matter. Eric Liddell was a good man, a very good man. But it does him a
disservice to fictionalize his life in an effort to make him what he was not! |
From:
rod
miller
Sent: Sunday, August 17,
2008 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: from Jim Taylor re. Eric
Liddell repatriation story
I was never an internee and unfortunately never had the honour of meeting Eric
Liddell. I do however have a little knowledge of the
the British exchange from the Australian (Australians being classified British)
point of view. I started reading this Topica group
due to the fact that people from Weihsien had been part of the second American
exchange.
It should be kept in mind that the exchanges were all politics and in
the early days of the negotiations both the Allies and the Japanese,
as they were wining, thought they would be ongoing. However a lot of bureaucracy
on both sides made things very difficult after the first exchange took place.
Ron I understand how much work you have done in the British archives but there
is evidence of the British pushing for a second exchange.
From
Ron Bridge:
There was a rumour around Weihsien after the Americans and Canadians left in
late August early September 1943 that there would be another exchange and that
would be for the British. It was just that a rumour.
I wasn't in Weihsien but isn't it possible that the Japanese
were talking of a second British exchange?
The reason I pose this question is because the Australian nurses that escaped
you can see that it was very close to where they were being held in the Malacca
straits.
I
have done extensive research into the subject at the UK National Archives Kew
and can find no trace that it was ever organised or trying to be organised.
There was never a second British exchange but there
were negotiations.
Even the Swiss minister in Tokyo M. Camille Gorge, who had been in charge of
American interests in Japan since 9 December 1942, in early 1944 reported to
the Americans that the Japanese were favouring a second British exchange before
a third American
One reason why it could not be organised in any case was that whilst
there were from know records at the time 16856 British civilians in Japanese
Camps there were no Japanese in any British Camp so the question of a swap
never arose. Indeed when the diplomatic exchange was made on the
The first exchange was a debacle for the Australian government.
As the war progressed the Japanese had lost so many ships it wasn't easy to
find one for exchange purposes.
From:
"Mitch Krayton" <mitch@digital-res.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, August 15, 2008 8:35 PM
Subject:
Re:
from THE HERALD,
Ø Mary,
>
> Thanks for sourcing those great Eric Liddell articles. They are good
> reading and a great memory to Eric.
>
> Hope you find out when the segment on Eric will air on the NBC Olympic
> coverage. Eager to watch it...
>
> Best,
>
> Mitch
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 10:36 PM
Subject: Eric Liddell and BBC
BBC completed interviews today for a segment on
Eric Liddel that will air in the next few days, maybe as early as Sunday in
They have promised to let me know air
time. We'll all be able to hear it via computers.
Mary
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 8:35 PM
Subject: Eric Liddell and youth in Weihsien
When the Chefoo schools arrived in Weihsien in
September 1943. Eric had already been there over six months. He
was already actively involved in the teaching and other activities of the
children who were not Roman Catholics, who with all their priests formed their
own circle.
Stephen A. Metcalf
From:
Pamela
Masters
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell and youth in Weihsien
I
am afraid that's not quite correct. The primary grades might have been taught
by Catholic nuns and priests, but students from
Pamela Masters-Flynn
From:
Albert
de Zutter
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell and youth in Weihsien
Pamela,
What you say may be accurate with regard to the
particular groups you mention, but my brother and I had our high school
teaching done by American nuns (Sister Hiltrudis comes to mind) and Mrs. Moore
of the
Albert de Zutter
From:
Pamela
Masters
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell and youth in Weihsien
Thanks
for that info. I'd totally forgotten that the American kids had their own
school in camp. I gather from your posting that you were American. I got my
Have a good one -- Pamela
From:
David Birch
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 12:14 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell and youth in Weihsien
|
RE. BRITISH SUBJECT STATUS |
From:
Pamela
Masters
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 1:30 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell and youth in Weihsien
Thanks
David --
I
guess the recent article I read on the subject, confirming my belief, was
in error. Regardless, I'm glad I'm a citizen and not a subject,
although Lillibet (as she was known as a little girl) is a pretty neat
Queen. I sent a copy of The Mushroom Years to her a while back, addressed
to
Of
course, my old British passport has me listed as a British Subject. I haven't
seen a recent British passport ... that would be interesting.
Pamela
From:
Albert
de Zutter
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 7:52 AM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell and youth in Weihsien
For the record, I was Belgian. Our family spoke
English because my Belgian father didn't speak Russian and my Ukrainian mother
didn't speak French. Also, all my schooling was in English in
Albert de Zutter (a Flemish name)
From:
Lennart
Holmquist
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2008 6:49 PM
Subject: English Speaking School in
Hello Albert,
Where did you go to school in
I am writing a book about the family's
experience in
http://www.switzerland-traveler.com/Family-Archives/Rinell-Book/005Table-of-Contents.htm
Lennart Holmquist
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2008 2:10 PM
Subject: Today is LIBERATION DAY
Hello, Everybody,
Today is LIBERATION DAY.
Remember the joy? Remember the madness?
Leopold, would you post the link to the
photo showing the euphoria of Liberation Day?
Mary Previte
From:
Tapol
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2008 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: Today is LIBERATION DAY
With pleasure ---
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/liberationDay/leftFrame.htm
--- and click
on the pictures ---
Best regards,
Leopold
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 12:35 AM
Subject: BBC about Eric Liddell
Subj: BBC interview about Eric Liddell
BBC aired a segment about Eric Liddell
today. You can access the interviews with Eric Liddell at the following
site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7567000/7567819.stm
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 3:26 PM
Subject: Eric Liddel segment on NBC in the
NBC -- National Broadcasting Corporation -- will
air its segment on Eric Liddell on Saturday, August 23, between 8 a.m. and
6 p.m. Their representative says she will let me know if and when
they get notice of the hour of this telecast.
For this segment, NBC
interviewed the daughter of Eric Liddell;
and Sally
Magnusson, author of The Flying Scotsman.
They interviewed me to give an American
connection to this story. For supporting art, they copied all of my
Weihsien photographs and posters.
In a thank you message this week from Oliver Holt, sports columnist for the
London Daily Mirror, Mr. Holt writes, "The
Olympics are nearing their end now and I've had a fantastic trip but the visit
to Weifang was the most rewarding part of all of it."
Mr. Holt wrote a beautiful story about
Eric Liddell and Weifang at the beginning of the Olympics. My special thank you to Mr. Sui Shude in Weifang for hosting Oliver
Holt and showing him around the site of the concentration camp in Weifang.
Mary Previte
From:
Mitch Krayton
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 2:14 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Eric Liddell Vignette
The segment aired in LA at about
3:15pm on Saturday Aug 23. You, Mary were featured along with Eric's daughter
and several others. The piece was very thoughtfully produced and lasted about 7
minutes. I was so engrossed I did not actually time or record it.
Also saw this posted online today:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/countries/country=gbr/olympictradition/index.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=reu-liddell_feature&prov=reuters&type=lgns&print=1
http://geoffng.wordpress.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPB7r0UpNIE
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/1453062/12605/Eric-Liddell-at-the-1924-Olympic-Games-in-Paris-where
Many thanks to Lyvonne Briggs of NBC for giving Eric proper recognition at
these games.
MTPrevite@aol.com
wrote:
From: lyvonne.briggs
To: mtprevite@aol.com
Sent: 8/23/2008 3:54:17 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Eric
Liddell Vignette
Dear Mary
Greetings from
This piece never could have been completed without your guidance
and assistance. Thank you so very much for all of your help! I
hope you enjoy! God bless!
Lyvonne Briggs, NBC Olympics
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 5:41 AM
Subject: Re: Eric
Liddell Vignette
NBC's Eric
Liddell segment aired on the
Brian T. Brown is an award-winning
producer at NBC. Try googling his name.
I was especially pleased that Brown focused
on the faith and values that inspired both Eric
Liddell's running and his life -- even in a Japanese
prison camp. News stories like BBC's broadcast this week told
the anecdote of Eric Liddell's giving his running shoes to
There's a post script to Stephen's story.
After the war, he went as a missionary to
For this vignette, NBC pulled
together segments from around the world: from the Eric Liddell
monument in Weifang, Sally Magnusson and
Pat Moore, widow of Weihsien liberator Jim
Moore, phoned me from
Getting NBC's permission to post this Eric
Liddel piece on the Weihsien web site is the next project.
Mary Previte
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell Vignette
I believe the Eric Liddell vignette
was scheduled to air only once. I've inquired if CDs are
available.
Mary Previte
In
a message dated 8/24/2008 12:19:08 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, tksweaver@verizon.net writes:
NUTS! Due to hurricane
"Fay" our power went out for a
couple of hours and I missed it! Does anyone by chance
know if/when this will be aired again? I searched the
NBC schedule and could not find today's feature.
Terri
From:
"Terri Stewart" <tksweaver@verizon.net>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Sunday, August 24, 2008 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: Eric Liddell Vignette
Ø Thank
you, Mary. I know you will keep the list posted
> on this information.
>
> Terri
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 12:28 PM
Subject: Brownies and Girl Guides in Weihsien
Janie Hampton, an author in
She writes: "In the archives of
the Girl Guide Association across the road from
Janie, who authored a dozen books, has been commissioned to write this book. She
would like to include a full chapter about Brownies and Girl Guides in
Weihsien.
She found me through Google.
What Brownie and Girl Guide memories do you
have? Who were the troop leaders?
How well I remember practicing
our semaphore and Morse Code while waiting for roll call on the quad
outside the hospital in Weihsien. I can still sing Stephen Foster's
"Way Down Upon the Swanee River" (OLD
FOLKS AT HOME) which I learned for my Girl Guide folk music badge in
Weihsien.
Leopold, would you give us all the markers to
she the photos you have on the Weihsien web site of photos of Brownies and Girl
Guides -- and Boy Scout troops in Weihsien?
Ron Bridge, do you know when these photos were
taken?
I've asked Janie Hampton to let us know exactly
what she wants -- paragrahs? essays? photos? She promises
to give full credit for all contributions.
Mary Previte
From:
Ron Bridge
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 8:19 PM
Subject: RE: Brownies and Girl Guides in Weihsien
Dear All,
The dates of the Photographs I am not sure of it
could have been for propganda purposes in late summer 1943. Leopold may know.
I do knwo that soemhwere in the house I have a
WEihsien Cubs badge but nothing on the girls.
Rgds
Ron Bridge
From:
Gay Talbot
Stratford
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: Brownies and Girl Guides in Weihsien
Mary,
I was proud to be a Girl Guide in Weihsien. It was a novel
experience as my family had always lived in mining districts where I had only
one or two playmates.
I do have a few memories: Mrs Lawless was our Leader. She
was Swiss, and I remember learning "La haut sur la montagne il
est un vieux chalet." A round which was not
particularly appropriate in the circumstances. Still, we sang it with
gusto.
We worked hard at earning badges. The one I remember
best was Invalid Care. Much attention given to drawing the
ideal sickroom, with attention given to the placement of windows. Again,
purely an academic exercise.
To our sorroow, Guider Lawless died of typhus fever in the camp,
and my last view of her was through the window of the morgue. It was a
great shock.
Hope this helps .
Gay Talbot
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:01 AM
Subject: Re: Brownies and Girl Guides in Weihsien
Gay:
Wonderful! Wonderful! I've forwarded
your memories to Janie Hampton, but I suggest that you connect her directly
with as many details as you can. hampton.oxford@dial.pipex.com
Thank you so very much.
Mary Previte
From:
Tapol
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 8:49 AM
Subject: Fw: Brownies and Girl Guides in Weihsien
Father Hanquet also explains the Boy
Scout Weihsien episode in his book. All in French. The
Weihsien chapter was translated for us by Michael Canning. The rest of the book
could also be translated. Any volunteers? My English
is not good enough!!
http://www.lycee-moliere.org/spip.php?article339
All the group-pictures visible in
Have a look in Albert de Zutter's chapter for more documents &
badges.
Best regards,
Leopold
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:03 AM
Subject: Weihsien Camp memories of Brownies and Girl
Guides
From: hampton.oxford@dial.pipex.com
Dear Weihsien survivors,
Mary Previte has very kindly offered to send this round to you.I have been
commissioned by the London publisher Aurum Press to write a social history of
Girl Guides, for publication during their 100th anniversary in 1910. As with my
recent book on the 1948 London Olympics, this will be the stories of the
ordinary people involved, told by them.
I found the Log Book from the Chefoo/Weihsien Brownie pack in the London Girl
Guide archives, and realised that Weihsien Concentration Camp is an extra-ordinary
example of how being a Brownie or Guide can help in any circumstance. I plan to
make the story of Weihsien a chapter, after a chapter on Guides in the
I would love to see either fully written articles of your experiences or notes
and paragraphs - whatever you can manage. For example, what badges you got as
Brownies or Guides? Can you remember the Brown Owl 'I.E. Phare', or Tawny Owl
'R.E. Grening', or Guide Captain? What did you
do for uniforms?
What you did when you grew up? Do you think that being a Brownie or Guide helped
your adult life?
Everything will be fully acknowledged, and within the international laws of copyright.
My email address is hampton.oxford@dial.pipex.com
Or write to me at
All best wishes, and thanks, from Janie Hampton
Tel 00 44 1865 395857
----- Original Message -----
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
To: hampton.oxford@dial.pipex.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 12:07 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien Camp
Your composing a message for me to send to our Weihsien group is the best plan
because you can clarify exactly what you want. Keep in mind that there
are very few of us left and our memories are from more than 60 years ago.
Mary Previte
In a message dated 8/26/2008 9:55:13 A.M. Eastern
Daylight Time, hampton.oxford@dial.pipex.com
writes:
Dear Mary ( may I?)
Thank you so much for replying so quickly to my air mail letter. I am so delighted
to find you. I read your article to my husband (he teaches pastoral care at a
theology college in
In 1980 we took our three children ( then aged 2 to 7)
to an Anglican Mission school in
always together.
Yesterday I was reminded of Eric Liddell (still a huge hero in
Back to my book about Brownies and Guides. I plan to
make the story of Weihsien camp a chapter, after one on
Guides in the
it will all be fully acknowledged, and within the international laws of copyright.
It would be extremely helpful if you could send
an e-mail blast to your Weihsien network around the world asking for memories
and photos of Brownies and Girl Guide activities in Weihsien. Would you
like me to compose the email? I am happy to share my email address.
Can you remember what badges you and your sister got as Brownies or Guides?
And I would love to know what you did when you grew up.
Now I will go and look up the books you recommend. Many thanks for that.
All best wishes, Janie
Janie Hampton
80
Tel 01865 395857
----- Original Message -----
From: MTPrevite@aol.com
To: hampton.oxford@dial.pipex.com
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 10:45 PM
Subject: Weihsien
Dear Janie Hampton,
Many books have been written about the Weihsien camp.
The best references are
Langdon Gilkey's SHANTUNG COMPOUND, published
by Harper and Row
David Michell's A BOY'S WAR,, published by Overseas Missionary Fellowship
Books
( OMF BOOKS)
Norman Cliff's COURTYARD OF THE HAPPY WAY, published by
Arthur James
Limited, The Drift Evesham Worcs, WR11 4NW
The WEIHSIEN web site holds a wealth of information:
www.weihsien-paintings.org
I believe it includes photos of the Brownie and Girl Guide troops at Weihsien.
I do not fully understand your air letter request. Are you requesting fully-written memory articles to be
included with full credit to the authors or do you want memories in notes and
paragraphs?
If it would be helpful, I can send an
e-mail blast to our Weihsien network around the world asking for memories and
photos of Brownies and Girl Guide activities in Weihsien.. Please let me
know.
Mary Taylor Previte
From:
Mitch Krayton
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:24 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien Camp memories of Brownies and
Girl Guides
I would be terrific if Janie Hampton
would contribute scanned images of those Girls Guides to Leopold for posting
online. It would make a great addition to the photo archive.
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 4:10 PM
Subject: Chefoo/Weihsien/Kuling Brownies and Girl
Guides
Forwarded from: alfyb@bigpond.net.au
Subj: RE:
Chefoo/Weihsien/Kuling Brownies and Girl Guides
I was in
Weishien for a few months before being transferred to Chapei in
Being a boy I
had no experience with the Brownies or girl guides. I was however a scout until
I was court martialed for being involved in the black-marketing of stove pipes.
This was a bitter blow to me.
I have written
a book about my experiences as a child in the last war in
Please let me
know if you are interested.
My address is
Alfred W Binks
7 Nero Close,
Joondalup,
Very best
wishes
Alf
From:
Tapol
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 4:50 PM
Subject: The Weihsien Symphony Orchestra
--- a message from Peter Bazire ---
The Weihsien Symphony Orchestra – 1943-45, and other music
By Peter Bazire,
In September 1943 the Chefoo
contingent arrived in Weihsien. We soon heard the Salvation Army band playing,
and later that month some of us went to a concert given by the Weihsien
Symphony orchestra. Boy, what an experience! In Chefoo we had a school
orchestra that played simple, light classic pieces. But here in Weihsien was an
orchestra of a much higher standard, and with a good range of instruments.
The only work I remembered that
September was the first movement of Beethoven’s 1st piano concerto. That music lived with me during camp and afterwards. To this
day if I occasionally hear the concerto on the radio, memories of 1943 come
flooding back.
The W. S. O. did not play very
often. For one thing, the only music available was some musical “scores” (i.e.
the conductor’s part), from which the individual parts were written out in
camp. The S. A. band had a book of marches for each player, with lots of
marches in the book.
The S. A. band provided what
brass instruments were needed for the orchestra. Other internees had brought in
flutes, clarinets, but no oboes or bassoons (if my memory is correct). There
were violins, violas and cellos, bu no double basses. Altogether there were
twenty-something instruments; enough to make a pleasing sound, even if small in
number compared with a full symphony orchestra of 60 to 80 players.
Curtis Grimes was probably the
solo pianist in this September 1943 concert. Curtis Grimes was repatriated to
the
Earlier in 1943 there was a
concert in which a number of nuns played in that first orchestra. Later, the
nuns were moved to Peking (now
In the last few years I have
made a few phone calls to Nelma (Stranks) Davies, who lives in
I am attaching some posters my
mother made of concerts and recitals. You will see the W.S.O. playing for the
cantata “Far Horizon” on 3rd and 4the November 1944,
and for the cantata “Crucifixion" on 25th and 26th March 1945.
In July 1945 the W.S.O. gave a
concert which had a profound effect on me. The main work was Mozart’s piano
concerto n° 20 in D minor, K466. Nelma (Stranks) Davies was the soloist. She
had been taught the piano in
|
1st violins: |
|
Violas |
|
‘Cellos |
1st Cornet |
2nd cornet (trumpet) |
|
Trombone |
Eb Bass |
Flute |
|
1st Clarinet |
2nd Clarinet |
|
Sometimes when I visited my
parents in their room, I saw my mother drawing music lines on plain paper, and
copying music from an orchestral “score” for individual players, or for some
recitals, e.g. for singers. If an orchestral work included oboes and bassoons,
of which were none in camp, she would adapt these parts for e.g. flute and
clarinet. Singers in camp would write out their parts for choral works, e.g.
“Messiah”.
Let me turn now to music
practising, and choir and orchestra rehearsals. I know next to nothing about
this, except that my mother happened to keep a week’s practicing schedule for October
16th – 21st (probably 1944). This gives an indication of the range of
musicians. You may remember names better than I do. Percy Gleed was an
accomplished musician. He had a fine baritone voice, and could play “by ear” to
a very high standard. Some time after the war he was working in
I think the above practicing
schedule took place in church. There was a second piano in some other large
room. Nelma said that one was a grand piano. One came from Peking and the other
from
I include this photo as an
attachment.
(click
on this link for the photos) http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/PeterBazire/WSO/p_WSO-01.htm
I also include 6 posters of other concerts, where some of you may recall some
of the names of musicians. I remember the leader of the orchestra, Vincente de
Legaspi: a musician to his fingertips. It was said in camp that he had been the
finest trumpet in the Far-East, before he had lung trouble. Lopez Sarreal was a
trumpeter I admired. I remember him playing Celest’Aïda (Verdi) at a concert,
but cannot recall other items.
A long time after the war my
mother wrote an account of her life. Here are a few excerpts from Weihsien.
There was one music job and
somehow I got it. I had to arrange concerts and assign practice and rehearsal
periods in the church which was also used for concerts, and another large room
which, like the church, had a piano.”
“I walked into camp carrying my
‘cello and a suitcase ……. Orchestral scores had been brought in from
“A fine coloratura singer,
Jacqueline de Saint Hubert, nearly always wanted a flute obligato. George Foxlee obliged.
I enjoyed writing the part.”
“The Brigadier’s daughter Nelma
played the piano beautifully for Mozart’s D minor concerto which I had
orchestrated. Shireen Talati, a gold medallist from the Royal Academy, gave
piano recitals. Other instrumentalists played solos. I did most of the
accompanying including playing for the choir who performed ‘the Messiah’,
'Hiawatha' and the other oratorios and cantatas. I probably had more music than
if I had just been a housewife in
Do any of you have memories of
the dance band? In my post-war Weihsien diary, Monday 20th August, I referred
to the “Gala Super”. After this there was dancing. I
go on, “Once after a dance Mr Adams played his clarinet in and out of the
dancers very beautifully.” So there was Mr Adams on clarinet. Lopez Sarreal
played the trumpet. Mr Jones (aka ‘Jonesy’) was a bass player, but did he have
his double bass in camp? There was at least one guitarist. Any further help,
please?
***
A footnote:
Before coming to Weihsien, we in Chefoo were interned for 10 months. My mother
later wrote about our experiences there, including:
“The sound post in my ‘cello had come loose and I was unable to mend it. I
don’t know what made me take the problem to the Japanese guard, but he kindly
managed to fix the sound post firmly into its natural habitat from whence it
never strayed again.”
#
From:
Pamela
Masters
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 6:45 PM
Subject: Re: The Weihsien Symphony Orchestra
I
believe I can help. There were two guitarists known as "The Two
Pineapples": George Kalani and George Alawa. In happier times they'd
played at the Lido Ballroom. Kalani had a ballistic temper, and one time he got
so mad at Alawa (who played Hawaiian guitar as it was known in those days) he
broke his own guitar over George's head. That was dumb, as now Kalani had no
guitar. Then someone remembered I had a huge concert guitar that I hardly
ever got to play, so Kalani, all contrite, came over and begged me to sell him
mine. I did -- for $5 American.
Pamela Masters-Flynn
From:
David
Birch
To: Weihsien
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 12:18 AM
Subject: William (Bill) Shell
|
A friend who tells me
that one of his heroes is Eric Liddell, asked me today if I knew a man named
William (Bill) Shell who claimed to have been in the same internment camp in |
From:
mark chang
To: weihsien@topica.com
; gdavidbirch@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:58 AM
Subject: Re: William (Bill) Shell
Hi David,
Actually, I meet one of Eric Liddell’s student in TACC (Tientsin Anglo-Chinese
Colleage) in
However, William is already 80+ yrs old and almost lose
the sight, so he can not see. He still very sharp in
his mind. His does speak English!!.
His contact number is +86 13652143940
Regards,
Mark Chang
From:
Ron Bridge
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:25 AM
Subject: RE: William (Bill) Shell
I can find no trace of a Shell in Weihsien
Rgds
Ron Bridge
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, October 17,
2008 8:19 PM
Subject: 5-part TV documentary about Weihsien aired
across
Attached are segments of a remarkable, 5-part
documentary about Weihsien that has been broadcast
throughout
The quality of this production reflects the same
world-class effort of the celebration that the government of Weifang
created for us in August 2005 in
their commemoration of the 60th anniversary of our
liberation. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude.
My thanks to Douglas Sadler for forwarding these
links to me.
Mary Taylor Previte
My brother, James Taylor, writes from
I just had a long chat with Sui Shude. He informed me that the
Weihsien Camp Documentary was shown on the Beijing Central Channel 10 in a
5-part series produced by the
I later found Ms. Li Jiuhong's (Maggie) calling card and
spoke directly with her. She was thrilled with the tremendously positive
nationwide response there has been and promised
to send me copies of the entire 5-part production. I will forward a
copy to you as soon as her package arrives.
Love, Jim
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 8:53 PM
Subject: TV documentary about Weihsien
Forwarded from Jim Taylor:
The response I have been picking up following
the showing on national TV of the Documentary on Weihsien has been quite
stunning. Mr. Sui Shude told me today that it has put the Weihsien
concentration camp on the map. He is thrilled. He said it is the best work on
Weihsien and the Camp that he has ever seen. He was given prominent mention as
one who helped to do translation. Ms. Li Jiuhong, who did the interviewing,
also told me that the feedback she has been picking up has really
blown her mind - all positive.
Jim Taylor, Hong Kong
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 8:37 PM
Subject: Re: TV documentary about Weihsien
Here are three parts. I don't yet
have the full set.. Mary
.http://space.tv.cctv.com/act/video.jsp?videoId=VIDE1223860275605181
http://space.tv.cctv.com/act/video.jsp?videoId=VIDE1223907524476953
http://space.tv.cctv.com/act/video.jsp?videoId=VIDE1223994568842362
From:
Tapol
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 6:47 AM
Subject: Re: TV documentary about Weihsien
Hello,
Try this link: (the complete set)
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/CCTV/p_CCTV_01.htm
--- and let me
know if it works for you?
Best regards,
Leopold
From:
bob.sanders
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 10:40 AM
Subject: RE: TV documentary about Weihsien
Leopold
That is working very well. Thanks.
Regards
Bob Sanders
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 10:00 PM
Subject: How did the Japanese round you up for
internment?
Where were you
when the Japanese rounded up all "enemy aliens"
in
In the 1940s,
editor of the
Last week's
documentaries aired in China gave me the first insight that
Chefoo School Head Master P. A. Bruce successful negotiated after
many hours to stop a demand by the Japanese to use the older Chefoo
School girls as "comfort women" for their
troops. I've been shuddering ever since I saw that interview in the
documentary. . My sister, Kathleen Taylor,
would have been one of those girls.
Here is the
account of our internment that appeared in the July,
1943 Chefoo School Magazine.
Mary Previte
Letters
from Gordon Martin and the Misses Broomhall, Stark, Woodward and Hills have
given us close-up pictures of Chefoo, before and after the compulsory
evacuation of our premises. Needless to
say, the accounts are both jolly and pathetic, but the prevailing note in each
is cheerful courage, deep thankfulness, and a ready recognition of God’s
goodness in what were and are hard circumstances. Here are some extracts:
“For a long time we expected to leave; one building after
another was being commandeered and ‘visitors’ were always coming. We had to pick our way about the compound
over new wires, holes, heaps and among buildings going up apace around us.
“Suddenly in the first week of
November, sentries, posted at our gates, prevented anyone leaving. The same day, all foreigners outside the
compound were ordered to Temple Hill. We
thought we should be sent for next day, and most of us kept busily planning and
packing, feeling that it would be a question of how much we could transfer in a
given time. We waited breathlessly to
“start the race.” But a car was sent to
take Heads of Departments to see the houses at Temple Hill. Amazing, this! and a
“billeting committee” was soon hard at work.
Finally we were given two days to move and had the loan of army trucks
for our baggage. I wish you could have
seen us. The doctor’s cart looked like a
gypsies’ caravan, with all kinds of parcels, baskets, pots, pans, and two babies
slung around it. The Preparatory girls
looked a rather pathetic little procession, with their favourite dolls in their
arms.
“The weather was just right for packing
and moving. The loan of Japanese
military lorries carried many loads across the city for
us and supplemented the labour of the multitudinous coolies we employed. The amount of private School and
“The next days were a busy time of
adjustment. You know we are in three
houses, well-built and spacious, about sixty to a house. Boys old enough to be useful have been
subtracted from the school and appended to the San house and the Prep
House. Adults have been similarly
portioned out so as to give brains and brawn in fair proportions, and brawn has
been more in demand than brain. But the
effective adult strength is barely sufficient to carry the weight of tasks,
which cannot be shared by boys and girls, however willing.”
(Two servants per house were promised,
but the promise has not been fulfilled to date.
No furniture was granted from the Schools, so mattresses on the floors,
and boxes or lockers for seats, have taken its place.)
“Have you tried making beds on the
floor? My muscles are hardened now, but
at first it made shoulders ache after the first few. I have not heard anyone complain that they
were not comfortable sleeping on the floor.”
“We are short of water, so most folk do
very little washing! Superintending a
crowd of little children washing thoroughly in a basin of water is not the
easiest job! You cannot imagine how much
mending there is, and mending parties are part of the daily routine. Can you imagine me with a little boy across
my knee while mend the seat of his trousers? , , , The staff have improvised
all sorts of nooks and crannies for sleeping, there are rooms in outhouses
which were servants’ quarters, and these make better rooms than many get inland.” “Greatly to our relief we can now get laundry
done out. The man comes to the gate,
where we hand it to him, as we are not allowed outside the compound, but
exercise by strolling round the garden.”
“You who remember Chefoo classrooms,
would grieve to see forty boys, and a few girls seated on lockers in a two
chien room in the servants’ quarters without blackboard, desk, or convenience
for writing,--but the room has been whitewashed. A stove and the south aspect keep it warm,
and teaching goes ahead. At present the
teaching is admittedly a makeshift affair, at least for the senior school; we
hope we shall do better after Christmas.”
“News of the outside world leaks
through to us and occasionally we get B.B.C. time. Buying of food and other supplies is
difficult. One man has the
monopoly. Mr. Seaman has a difficult
job, but he keeps serene and we are feeding well and keeping warm.”
(Later news says: Fuel and food always come just in time. Stood winter well. All children healthy.)
“The one possible room for Sunday
services in our house is not quite big enough and the crowding in is
uncomfortable and undignified. Yet our
services have been happy and profitable.
Some of the happiest times have been the Sunday evenings, with hymn
singing round the fire.:
“Mr. Bruce goes daily to the other
compound, heavily freighted with letters to sisters, and twice a week he leads
an expedition whereby brothers and sisters meet.”
Later news, presumed to be sent at the
end of February, tells that further accommodation was being prepared, giving
hope of expansion for the summer, making regular classes possible. Architects were planning repairs and
improvements to present buildings, beds were promised, maintenance guaranteed,
and access to the adjacent hospital granted in cases of urgent need. Further letters have given the opinion that
they can carry on under present conditions “for the duration.” #
The
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Saturday, October 25, 2008 12:08 PM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
We were in Kiaohsien. The only Americans in the village
of thousands. We were put under house arrest the morning, Monday
Dec 8th early. Swedish Baptist missisonaries would come over a and we talk from our apartment on the 2nd floor and they
would give us news, not better off than we were, just free in a nation at war.
Then in Feb we were told we were going back on a ship. They took us into
Then we were bussed to the train when we left for Weihsie. I think we
were the first to get there. It was really a mess. No humiliation
like yours, just kept moving us till we got to
Weihsien.
Georgie (Reinbrecht) Knisely
From:
"Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Sunday, October 26, 2008 11:40 PM
Subject:
Fw: How
did the Japanese round you up for internment?
Dear Georgie.
My family's home was right at the rear of the hotel in which you were incarcerated
in
My family was not told where we were going, or for how long. While at the lIltis
Hydro Hotel we were waited upon by Chinese servants who served our meals and I
remember our Russian friends Katie Maevsky and family occasionally bringing
Russian delicacies to the big green gate at the front of the hotel for our
family. The quality of food very sharply deteriorated when we arrived at
WeiHsien of course. Regards. Joyce Bradbury (Cooke)
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Monday, October 27, 2008 1:19 AM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
Ø Joyce,
> Thank you. I should have known the name of the hotel, but did not
remember it. You were probably closer to Janet's age. And at the
60th reunion, I remember your saying how often you were clean up to your wrists
because you did dishes after meals. I don't have your book, but I do have
your speech on a CD from one of your children. I will check out your
book. Thanks so much for that information. Keep informing me.
I do not remember tatami, but i don't remember much abut the trip. I
remember the beggar boy being beaten - poured hot water in him? Were we
the first people in Weihsien - those of us from
From:
"Gay Talbot Stratford" <stillbrk@eagle.ca>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Sunday, November 02, 2008 5:38 PM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
Ø
Georgie,
> I cannot answer your query entirely, but when we came from
> surrounding areas, we were greeted by nuns who were already there.
> Gat Talbot
Ø
From:
"Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Monday, October 27, 2008 8:52 AM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
Ø We
certainly were the first internees to arrive in WeiHsien. In fact we had
> to try and tidy it up for the next batches. The boiling water was on a
chair
> that a servant had to continuously hold over his head with the Japanese
> tellinga us if we misbehaved we would have to do the same. I remember the
> servant straining to keep holding the chair with the boiling water above
his
> head and his arm veins were bulging with the effort. Joyce.
From:
Dwight
W. Whipple
To: weihsien@topica.com
; weihsien@topica.com
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2008 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: How did the Japanese round you up for
internment?
Thank you Gay and Georgie for your
recollections. We were interned in our own home,
~Dwight W. Whipple (known as Didi, little
brother in Chinese)
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Tuesday, November 04, 2008 7:30 PM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
> Dwight or Didi,
> I remember spending time with you all in the Scott House in Iltus
Huk. I have a picure of us all dressed up in mom and Dad's clothes.
I also remember one of the girls being slathered with white stuff. There
had been a huge jellyfish in the water, circled her body - not a happy
camper. I also remember being nasty. You all were allowed two
things on your toast. We had no restrictions and so we ate butter, peabut
butter AND jam on our toast - not nice children???? Funnuy the things you
remember and awful how much we forget. Good to hear from you.
Georgie Reinbrecht Knisely 38
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 5:36 PM
Subject: How did the Japanese round you up for
internment?
Just as you describe in Kiaohsien, Georgie, Japanese appeared on the doorstep of our
Japanese gunboats had been in Chefoo harbor long
before that -- bombarding Chinese guerillas in the hills behind the city.
But the day after the attack on
Chinese friends stood beside the road and wept.
The Japanese interned
us -- crammed us -- into two small Presbyterian missionary compounds
in the Temple Hill section of Chefoo (Yantai). We slept on the floor, one child's bedding almost overlapping the
next. In a residence designed for one
family, about 70 of us younger children
were crammed together. Crowding in Weihsien was
NOTHING compared to the cramped quarters we suffered in Temple
Hill. Our teachers worked miracles. There in Temple Hill, our
Brownie troop learned to tie knots -- reef,
bowline, round-turn-and-two-half-hitches. I remember learning proper way to bandage a sprained ankle or injured
knee. And, bless my soul -- yes, doing a good deed every day! Can you believe
it?
We had the good fortune
to arrive in Weihsien in September 1943 after earlier groups
had cleaned the place up.
Mary Previte
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:19 PM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
Mary, isn’t it amazing looking back and recalling these things. People
say I suffered so. I say I was too young to know, Mommie and Daddy were
taking care of me. And in Weihsien, everyone was in the same boat, but I
cannot imagine, maybe some now, what Mom and Dad were going through. My
poor Mom, when they came to put us under house arrest, Dad was not home and
they wanted our telephones and radios. Well, we had none that caused
trouble for awhile, till they believed us. Dad was Dad was at Tsimo,
another mission station and didn't come home till Feb. Poor Mom!
But I know my sister three years older than I and her age youth were angry and
upset. I had a class, not home schooled in camp and I thought it was
wonderful. My sister remembers things very differently. I was born
in 1933, how old are you?
Wish we had had time to share at the 60th reunion, but that might have been
overload? Thanks for asking, Georgie
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:54 PM
Subject: Re: How did the Japanese round you up for
internment?
Georgie
I think we who were children in Weihsien have a
very different perspective on the Weihsien experience -- perhaps because we
were shielded from the horrors that grown-ups knew about the war and what the
Japanese had done in places like
We children didn't have those images in our
heads. We even played with some of the guards who were stationed in the guard tower near the hospital where we stayed.
Before I wrote the cover story for the
Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the
ending of World War II, I went to England and visited/interviewed a
few of our Chefoo teachers who had cared for us throughout the
war. Remember, most of us
Never! Not in my wildest imagination had I
envisioned such a scene.
Yet look at photos of the hospital taken from
outside the camp and you can see trenches beyond the camp walls.
I wrote my Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine story,
"Song of Salvation at Weihsien Prison Camp,"
from my own perspective as a child. (Leopold has the story on the
Weihsien web site.) I was 9 when the Japanese
invaded our school in 1941 and 13 when the Americans liberated us.
Even older students in our school had a
different perspective.
It NEVER occurred to me that I might not
get out of Weihsien alive. Never!
Stephen served God as a
missionary in
Mary Previte
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:42 PM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
Mary,
You are so right. I was 8-12. Weihsien was a good experience for
me. Good education, best friend whom I am still in touch with. Great programs. Miss Rudd, taught us elementary
children Greek alphabet and silly Latin jokes as we studied The one I still
know and laugh at is on a Latin verb test a student wrote - slippo, slippery,
falli, bumpus. The teacher wrote back. Failo, faiere,
fluckus, suspendus. We had good times there and no I never thought
about how long it was, and how terrible. We were protected. My
sister who was three years older still talks in terms of how her life was
affected and how awful it was. Age is very important. I cannot
imagine being separated from parents for 5 or more years, but have known
some. Does the name John Hayes mean anything to you? Georgie Thanks for sharing your background, I don't feel like
such a naive little kid!
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 8:32 PM
Subject: Re: How did the Japanese round you up for
internment?
I certainly remember John Hayes as one of the
leaders we admired in Weihsien.
What do you remember of John Hayes? Did
you have contact with him after the war?
His wife dropped me a note after my Weihsien
story appeared as the cover story of in the Philadelphia Inquirer
Magazine. Do you know where is wife was during the war?
Mary
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, October 31, 2008 3:49 PM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
John Hayes and his parents lived next to us in camp. After we returned
home I saw much of him. He had been imprisoned by the Communists in South
China, a spy of the
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, October 31, 2008 3:52 PM
Subject:
Re:
How did the Japanese round you up for internment?
John Hayes went to
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 10:02 PM
Subject: Weihsien library
Internees created amazing morale boosters
in Weihsien -- schools, plays, religious
services, Weihsien Orchestra concerts, Salvation Army Band,
debates, athletic competitions, lectures, White Elephant Bell
Exchange, bird exploration walks.
Can anyone provide information about the
"library" in the Weihsien camp? Where was it? And where
did the books come from? Who organized it?
Mary Previte
From:
grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 2:45 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien library
Dear
Mary, I do not know where all the books came from, but those of us from
From:
Pamela
Masters
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: Weihsien library
Dear
Mary, Joyce and All --
I'll
put my oar in for what it's worth: Somewhere I read (maybe in my Dad's journal)
that the books came from
Pamela Masters-Flynn
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien library
Phyllis,
Where in the camp was the library located?
Mary
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:22 PM
Subject:
Re:
Weihsien library
Interesting question, where was the library???? I have no clue, but there
was a one, because I remember reading a lot!!!!! Most
of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott. And the books smelled
very British. I am a Librarian and have always smelled books - You can
tell where they were published by the smell!!!! Where was the library? Georgie Reinbrecht Knisely
From:
"Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:42 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien library
Was it possible that the library was located in
the same building as the post office?
Donald
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:44 PM
Subject:
Re:
Weihsien library
Where was the post office? I remeber a couple of Red Cross 25 word
letters and my mother saying when Eric Liddell died that his letters from his
wife were his gift from God. I think he received a couple of couple page
letters. Stories to tell, huh? Georgie Reinbrecht Knisely
From:
"
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 8:21 PM
Subject: RE: Weihsien library
Ø
>
> Dear All,
> The library was near the Guard Office and the
Camp Commandants Office it is
> clearlt marked on the map in Langdon Gilkety's Shantung Copmound page 147.
I
> seem to recall that the post office was adjacent to it which would be
> logical as censorship prevailed hence it wold be near the Japanese
Offices.
> Havinfg said that I think that the library intially was in what became the
> White Elephant Store behind block 24.
> Rgds
> Ron Bridge Block 42/6 and then 13/11
From:
grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:14 PM
Subject: Re: Weihsien library
O>K> the
library was in a small room, fairly near the hospital, not near the kitchens
or rows of barrack rooms most of us lived in by twos or threes If I
remember right. the room was bigger than the
regular living quarter rooms It had a smallish table and a chair
the rest was books on shelves. If you can recall where the japs erected
long tables to go through any packages that arrived from outside for an
internee, they were in front of the library, the tables were
removed after the guards had taken everything out of the packages they wanted
and kept for themselves. Pushed the remainder over to the
recipients. Usually not much left. After
my fathers Masonic funeral our boxes were often just pushed over to
me and I took them to mother. I used the room a lot. Did
you? Phyllis . Davies
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 29,
2008 9:48 PM
Subject: Triumphs I remember in Weihsien
As a grown-up thinking about my Weihsien
experience, I am profoundly moved by the
triumphs of the human spirit in such a place. Yes, I've read a few
reports of Weihsien internees who gave up or who
soured. But the stories that grab me are
the triumphs. Look at the art that flourished in Weihsien. Think of
the athletic events. I remember a Nazarene missionary, Mary Scott, who had
been a tomboy growing up in a family of boys in
the state of
For more than three decades in one
of my careers, I administered a residential program
with thousands of delinquent teenaged boys and girls, and discovered
along the way that I had shaped my program with high expectation and
structure, structure, structure that our teachers had used to shape us and
that had made us feel safe in Weihsien. Those gifts anchor children. They
anchored me.
I give my eternal gratitude to such grown ups
who shaped me in Weihsien -- and for ever.
Mary Previte
From:
<jknisely@paonline.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, October 31, 2008 3:43 PM
Subject:
Re:
Triumphs I remember in Weihsien
Ø
Mary,
> I believe that is why I look back on Weihsien with joy - I believe it
molded me by the adults who taught me and the adults who kept us entertained
beautifully and we did not feel like we lacked - we all ate the glop so what
difference did it make. I didn't fel needy or forlorn because there were
so many people building us up and keeping us going. Thank you so much for
making us remember and see this and as you said, thanks so much to Leopold for
all the memories jarred back as we communicate with each other. Thanks
for sharing. Appreciate to all who keep communicating. Regards,
Georgie Reinbrecht Knisely
From:
"MonikaA" <monikakey@Hotmail.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, November 05, 2008 9:42 PM
Subject: Researching Rev. Clare Scratch
Ø I've
just discovered this list and I am so glad! A friend's relative
> (great uncle) was interned at Weihsien from 1941-1943. His name was
> Clare Scratch, a Canadian Pentecostal missionary. He was 39 when he was
> taken to Weihsien.
>
> I have a transcript of a presentation given in his honor, written in
> ~1969 that says he and four others were elected to bargain for daily
> food. He wore an armband to show his position as food supply man. From
> the pictures I have, he looks like he was average-to-tall, and had a
> receding hairline. Of course he was very thin by the end of his time
> there.
>
> In 1943, he left on the Gripsholm in the third wave of prisoners
> released/exchanged. He returned to
> a newspaper photo of him registering at Rio De Janiero.
>
> I'm writing a story for children/pre-teens about Rev. Scratch and am
> looking for anything I can to make the story come alive. Did any of you
> know of or see him? Or have recollections of the food supply men? Or
> were on the Gripsholm with him?
>
> He had sent his wife and daughter (about 11 yrs old) to
> of months before he was interned. I don't know enough about his
> personality or habits yet to know if he would have played with the
> children much. All I know is he was recognized for his leadership and
> diplomacy.
>
> Any help you can give me would be fantastic. Thanks so much!
>
From:
Tapol
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: Researching Rev. Clare Scratch
Dear
Monika,
A
suggestion:
Go to our
website, http://www.weihsien-paintings.org
then,
click on the chapter: "Norman Cliff"
then
click on "a brief history"
then
click on "documents & archives"
---- there are quite a lot of very interesting official documents
about our life in camp.
---
also:
when
you are on the "home page" --- insert "food" in the search
engine ---- quite a lot of info about food (a major conversation in those days
---- my dad always dreamt of making himself a "fricassé de lard" )
----
You can
also insert "Clare Scratch" in the search engine --- Brian Butcher
mentioned him. Have a look at his chapter too.
Hope this
helps you,
Best regards,
Leopold
From:
"MonikaA" <monikakey@Hotmail.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, November 07, 2008 8:49 AM
Subject:
RE:
Researching Rev. Clare Scratch
Leopold,
Thank you! This is very helpful. The website has quite a lot of
information! I see that I have my work cut out for me :) Thank you for
pointing me to a good starting point.
~ Monika
From:
"Tom Ulrich" <TUlrich218@aol.com>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, November 05, 2008 11:53 PM
Subject: Item comparing internment camps
>A friend who has followed my wife, Susan's,
discovery of her birth
> mother Ada Foxlee and her time in Weihsien sent us the link at the end
> of this e-mail.
>
> The item describes research conducted by a professor of economics at
>
>
> a
> internment camp for persons from the west - Weihsien.
>
> Mary Previte suggested we forward the link to the study to the Weihsien
> topica group, as folks may be very much interested in the details about
> food, sanitation, and condition of housing in 1943 since quite a few on
> the topica network arrived in Weihsien in 1943.
>
> http://www.foitimes.com/internment/compare.htm
>
> We hope it is of interest.
>
> Tom and Susan Ulrich
> Swanton, Maryland
>
From:
"Kim Smith" <kim5888@sbcglobal.net>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Friday, November 07, 2008 4:37 PM
Subject:
My
father, William A. Smith...
Ø ...came
with the
> Probably next week, and article on the blog
"Today's Inspiration" will focus on the drawings and accounts
of my father's time there. I am looking for as much information as
possible on this subject; very happy to have come across the site. I have
a large number of photos from the liberation to be posted (eventually).
>
> I am looking for information on Art Hummel, who escaped with Laurence
Tipton in advance of the liberation, especially photographs of him, if anyone
has such a thing. Art Hummel ec=ventually became Ambassador to
>
> I also am looking for a copy of Asia and the
>
> Very best to all
>
> Kim Smith
From:
Tapol
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: My father, William A. Smith...
Dear Kim,
Hello,
I'd be
glad to add the photos concerning the liberation of Weihsien Camp to
the Weihsien_Paintings' website. You can send them to me by e-mail (tapol@skynet.be ) or by post to
I think
that I will start a new -- interesting -- chapter with all you will be sending
my way ----
Many
thanks for sharing your data with all of us ---
the ex-prisoners of Weihsien 1943-1945.
Best regards,
Leopold
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 6:20 PM
Subject: Re: My father, William A. Smith...
|
|
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 10:42 PM
Subject: Tad Nagaki -- fractured pelvis
Tad
Nagaki, the only living member of the American
team that liberated Weihsien in August 1945, is recuperating at
home after fracturing his pelvis in a fall from his truck. He's home now
and in good spirits after six weeks in the hospital. Still farming corn
and beans in
Tad
was the Japanese-American interpreter on the Duck Mission that liberated the
camp. Born in America and growing up in a farm
family in Nebraska, he had starred as a high school
athlete -- basketball, football, track (hurdles) -- and played
with a Japanese-American baseball team in the Nebraska-Denver area during his
summer vacations, which explains why he delighted teenagers in Weihsien
by playing baseball with internees. (See the following entry from
14-year-old Peter Bazire's diary entry for
August 23, 1945.)
"Thursday 23rd
The 3 schools ― Chefoo ― Weihsien ― American
school were photographed with a small Kodak camera ― 2 photos each.
|
|
|
)
)
In the evening there was a softball
After Tad graduated from high school in
1938, he went to
His
is a remarkable story -- a Japanese-American fighting for
In
my interviewing Tad for over a year -- month after month after month of
questions in 2001 as I prepared to write a
magazine story about him --never once did I hear him complain about America
or of his treatment for years during the war -- mistrusted as a
Nisei, sidelined with about 40 other Japanese-American soldiers in Ft.
Thomas, Kentucky, limited to pruning trees and loading trains --
when he was itching to be out front fighting for
America. When he passed his physical and collected recommendations to be
an air cadet, his commander sent him a personal
letter: They could not accept him because he was
Japanese-American.
No
matter how I dug to find his feelings -- Did he resent being sidelined and mistrusted? -- Tad's
answer was always the same: "I am
American."
In
the astonishing turn of events when Tad was accepted by
the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) for a special Nisei combat unit to
operate behind Japanese lines in
I prodded
Tad: "What would the Japanese do to you if they caught
you?" Of course he knew.
"I
never gave it any thought," he
said. "I am American."
"And
in
He
made it sound so simple. " In war, if you think
about that, you're not going to be a very good soldier. I am
American."
On
August 17, 1945, carrying in a sling over his shoulder a .45 made into a
sub-machine gun, Tad Nagaki parachuted from a B-24 called the Armored Angel and
landed among the graves and
gaoliang stalks outside the barrier walls of
Weihsien. This Japanese-American helped
liberate 1,500 Allied prisoners behind those
walls.
Tad tells
me he's not a hero.
If
you'd like to drop him a get well card, a note of appreciation, or a holiday
greeting, his address is:
Tad Nagaki,
Tad
was one of about 25,000 Japanese-American men and women who served in U. S.
Armed Forces during World War II.
On
Liberation Day this year, I asked Tad how the
war changed him. It didn't really change him, he said. Like
so many Americans, he returned home and picked up where he had left off.
He married the girl he had met in
Mary
Previte
From:
Albert
de Zutter
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- fractured pelvis
|
Mary, Thanks for your feature on Tad Nagaki. One
thing: as I remember, some of the rescuers carried .45 caliber submachine
guns, and I wonder if that's what you are referring to when you say "a
.45 made into a machine gun?" Albert de Zutter |
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 1:22 AM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- fractured pelvis
Hello, Albert:
I know nothing about guns. A few months
ago, when I asked Tad Nagaki about the weapons they carried -- if any -- when
they parachuted to liberate Weihsien, my notes
from the conversation say "Tad carried .45 made into a machine
gun." Tad said some the team carried a
"side arm pistol."
Liberator Jim Hannon told me several years ago
that the DUCK MISSION team had considered arming themselves heavily for the
parachute drop. He told me he advised against it. Because
these August 17 rescue missions were supposed to be strictly
"humanitarian," Hannon thought that
their carrying too much armament would send the wrong message to the
Japanese. He told me that that the team
took his advice.
Researcher Troy Sacquety,
who has written extensively about the
Mary Previte
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:06 AM
Subject: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
Albert has asked about
Tad Nagaki's description of the gun he carried when he parachuted to
liberate Weihsien.
When I phoned last night to check up on how
Tad's recuperating from his fall, I asked him about it again. He
said his weapon had been "modified"
with an extended barrel and a rifle stock so he could fire it either
from the hip or the shoulder. It fired .45 bullets He
said they called them Tommy guns -- like the gangsters used to use -- capable
either for shooting rapid fire or shooting off a burst of three at a
time.
He said he had used the weapon in
After he said that, he paused and said he wasn't
certain if that was the weapon he had carried when he parachuted. He said
he might have carried a. 45 pistol. Time plays
tricks on our memories.
Tad said each member of the team chose his own
preferred style of weapon for the parachute jump.
Does anyone have recollection about these guns?
Tad discussed again a fascinating dispute that hasn't been discussed here very much. This was a WHO'S
IN CHARGE? dispute.
He said that a few days after Major Staiger and
the DUCK
Tad said Major
Staiger would have none of this. The DUCK team had done its job and they were
not turning Weihsien over to Byrd. Major
Staiger contacted headquarters about the dispute.
Headquarters supported Major Staiger and ordered Byrd and his team out.
I've heard a member of the DUCK team say that
Byrd should have been court martialed for failing in his team's rescue mission.
Major Staiger eventually turned the
Weihsien camp over to Colonel Weinberg,
who, Tad says, was assigned to handle evacuation of
internees.
Jim Moore, Nagaki, Ray
Hanchulak, and Major Staiger moved on to Tsingtao (today spelled
Mary Previte
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
|
I hve some photos with someone purportedly
named "Gus Kraus", who also has been named as "in charge"
of OSS at Weishsien. I will send these photos to Tad Nagaki (one has a
picture of someone I think is Tad; very handsome) to see if he can identify
the people. I believe the third person in the photo may be... is it
Commander Izu? Did I get the name correct? Obviously the person
in charge of Japanese troops at Weishsien. |
From:
Albert
de Zutter
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
|
The most common submachine gun carried by Albert |
From:
Tapol
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
Dear Kim,
I'd love
to add your photos to the Weihsien-Paintings' website. Just scan them at 4M or
5M pixels (more or less) and send them by e-mail ---- I have Photoshop and I'll
do the rest of the work with pleasure! :-)) Once the picture is on
the website --- everybody can give his opinion --- could be very interesting!
Best regards,
Leopold
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
Kim,
I'd love to see the photo. Because I have
1945 photos of the liberation team -- all posted on Leopold Pander's Weihsien
web site -- and because I've visited Tad Nagaki in his home town, I think I might be able to recognize Tad.
Mary Previte
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 8:58 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
|
I'll be glad to send them. I have to
clean up the photo a bit more. I may send them to you snail mail, maybe
burnt onto CDs... |
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:02 PM
Subject: PS:Re: Tad Nagaki
-- what weapon did he carry?
|
Somehow I think I'm missing some of the photos
of the liberation team on Leopold's site. i
see a lot of Cub scouts etc. I know I found a few photos a couple of
weeks ago, but not today! Can you send me the whole link? I'm not
usually so lame... |
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:52
PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
Kim,
Try this link in the Weihsien web
site
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/The7Magnificent/indexFrame.htm
It's a section called The Magnificent Seven that
includes 1945 photos of each member of the liberation team.
Mary
From:
Ron Bridge
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:17
AM
Subject: RE: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
For those of you who do not know the gun that
keeps beiong talked about is tghe Thompson Sub-machine gun a standard weapon
that fired .45 calibre bullets, The ammunition was heavy was trained to use
them 50 plus years ago but they feel out of favour in the mid fifties you had
to almost lean forward to fire nit and the ammuition was in a long magazine pushed
into the bootom a true tommy gun had a round magazine and that is what most
gangster movies of the era featured.
Rgds
Ron
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
|
You are definitely on my list of people to
send the photos to. They are scanned, but a few are from tiny contact
sheets at 2400 dpi so I can blow them up. There was 60+ years of dirt
on the contact sheets, so they require more than a little work. I have
a packet to send to Tad when I get a couple of the essential photos fixed up,
and will send off all of it to you all. Might be Saturday when I send
them out. |
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
Thank you so much, Kim. Where did you get
these photos? That's part of the story, too?
Mary
From:
Tapol
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: PS:Re: Tad
Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
Dear Kim,
When you
click on http://www.weihsien-paintings.org --- you get to the "home page"
At the
left, --- in the left frame, --- click on the 7th line = The Magnificent Seven
---
Hope you
manage :-))
Best
regards,
Leopold
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
|
I'm William Arthur Smith (The "War
Correspondent")'s daughter. He was actually |
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 5:14 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
|
Anyone who looks at this blog should feel free
to comment on the blog; it would be so appreciated by all who see this site
(thousands of illustrators, graphic artists, collectors, and interested
people). Personal recollections by those at
Weihsien would be invaluable. |
From:
Tapol
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
Dear Kim,
Fantastic ! ---- what an interesting discovery ---
Now we
have the colour of the Japanese's uniform in the guard tower
!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leifpeng/3021614675/in/set-1604960/
Thanks
for the link to your website (blog) and do keep us informed as to when the
new photos of Weihsien will be published in your blog. I would like to connect
your blog to the Weihsien-paintings' ---- which link should I use? Wow! your dad is really a geat artist!
Best
regards,
Leopold
From:
Kim Smith
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: Tad Nagaki -- what weapon did he carry?
|
Thanks! I sent an alert out a couple of
times on the Topico message board while this was all going on a couple of
weeks ago, and nobody said anything in response, so somehow it did not get
out to everyone. |
From:
MTPrevite@aol.com
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 11:38 PM
Subject: Weihsien story about Beryl Buist
The
following story appeared on Veteran's Day in The Intelligencer,
Mary
Previte
Saved from hell by
angels with parachutes
For 21/2 years during World War II, Beryl Buist and her family were
prisoners in the belly of hell.
One moment, 3-year-old Buist and her two siblings were tagging along
with their British parents, Salvation Army missionaries who were performing
God's work in
The next, they and about 2,000 others, including many from the missionary
movement, were being thrown into
Inside their 200-by-150-yard prison compound framed with 10-foot-high
cement walls, an electric fence and armed guard towers at each corner, they
would subsist mostly on insufficient food and water and second helpings of
faith.
Weeks became months. Months became years. The prisoners huddled together
in their tiny stone huts to fight the cold and desperation. When the sweltering
summer heat arrived, they cooled themselves with a shower they were afforded
once a week. The Buist children — 5-year-old Kathleen, 3-year-old Beryl and
1-year-old Gordon — amused one other by playing with tomato can labels in a
garbage pile.
While the professionals among the missionaries organized makeshift
schools and hospitals, daily living was abysmal.
When would it end, they wondered?
How long must we endure such inhumane conditions?
When, dear Lord, will we be free?
“I'll never forget that glorious day — Aug. 17, 1945,” said Buist, now
Beryl Rogers, 68, who has lived in
“My most cherished memory is of American soldiers floating out of the
sky in white parachutes like angels to set us free.”
Freedom's fuse had been lit. The prisoners stormed the gates and rushed
to meet the soldiers who had landed in a nearby field after leaping from a B-24
bomber named “The Armored Angel.” The male prisoners, despite their frail and
weakened condition, carried on their shoulders their liberators, who met no
resistance from the Japanese jailers. The Salvation Army band played
triumphantly. Beryl Buist was given a swatch of a parachute that she tied like
a ribbon in her hair.
“We were free,”
They were also unaware of how much danger their lives were in near the
end. The war came to an end three days before the prisoners were freed, news
that had not reached them before they were saved. The
To Rogers and thousands of fellow liberated prisoners of the nine
internment camps throughout
|
|
“I appreciate the sacrifice young men — and today young women — make for
this country,”
“When Veterans Day comes around on Tuesday, I will fondly remember those
men.”
Yes, those men. Army Maj. Stanley Staiger, Navy Ensign James W. Moore,
Army 1st Lt. James J. Hannon, Army Sgt. Tad Nagaki, Army Sgt. Raymond Hanchulak
and Army Cpl. Peter Orlich.
“They are true heroes, and I will never forget them,”
On Veterans Day,
The rations that prisoners received proved less than adequate in quality
and quantity, so they were left to supplement their meals. Some boiled animal
grain for food. Some insured calcium intake by eating ground-up egg shells
obtained on the black market.
“The hardest part was not having enough food,”
But nothing was in shorter supply than freedom.
The detainees, who included Olympic track and field gold medalist Eric
Liddell of
“Sometimes the Chinese coolies — they were hired by the Japanese to
clean the septic tanks — would smuggle notes to us to tell us what was
happening out there,”
“I don't remember a lot of what happened; I've talked to my older sister
about much of it. It was a horrible experience. I never talked to my father
about it, which I regret. Years later, my father suffered a nervous breakdown
that I believe was caused by being in the camp for so long.”
“I really haven't spoken much about this through all these years,”
Phil Gianficaro is a columnist for The Intelligencer. He can be
reached at 215-345-3078 or pgianficaro@phillyburbs.com.
From:
"Sarah" <sarah_kn1@yahoo.com.au>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 11:27 PM
Subject: Intro & seeking information
>I found myself at your website during a
search for information regarding
> William Gordon Parkin, a South African of British nationality, working
> in
> I'm piecing together a family tree.
>
> I have found a 'certificate of remembrance' with the Commonwealth War
> Graves Commission, stating that he died in Weihsien 29 August 1944, and
> it lists his then wife, a Canadian national named Phyllis. Finding your
> site, I see that they had three children with them in the camp - Daphne,
> Elizabeth & Phyllis. Your Weihsien website listing has him down as
> William 'George' Parkin but his 2nd forename was actually Gordon - and
> certainly during the 1920s in
> Gordon, rather than his first forename, William.
>
> I guess the sort of answers I'm looking for at the present are what
> might have been the cause of his death. The CWGC has listed him as aged
> 50 at death, but I believe that to be a bit out. Based on other
> certification I have the year of birth that is on the camp listing,
> 1889, is likely to be more accurate, making him about 55 at the time
of
> his death.
>
> Of course, this may be all a bit too late for there to be people still
> around who may remember him (or his family) at the camp (they have been
> listed as in Block 41, rooms 3 & 4) - but I felt it was worth a try.
Any
> small fragment of information would prove useful in putting together the
> pieces of his life's story.
>
> I do hope you might be able to offer a suggestion or two as to where I
> might look next. I must also say that the information that's been put
> online re Weihsien has been impressive, and has kept me engrossed for
> hours at a time!
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Sarah
> in Victoria, Australia
From:
"Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 9:19 AM
Subject: Re: Intro & seeking information
Ø Hi
Sarah. You have certainly sent your query about William Gordon Parkin to
> the correct site because there is a great mass of information therein and a
> lot of ex internees can tell or guide you along. I was only 17 when we
were
> released after the war ended and I did not know him. I think there is a
good
> chance someone will know something about him. Good luck. Joyce Bradbury, nee
> Cooke.
From:
"
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 10:32 AM
Subject: RE: Intro & seeking information
Ø
Details sent direct Leopold check the listing it
should be William Gordon
> Parkin
> Ron
From:
grannydavies@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 9:29 PM
Subject: Re: Intro & seeking information
Dear
Joyce, have you checked Greg Leck's book CAPTIVES OF EMPIRE
It has Weihsien in it. Phyllis (Evans) Davies
From:
Natasha
Petersen
To: Bradbury, Joyce
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 5:28 AM
Subject: Your book
Dear
Joyce,
Joan
Walle Eglis and I would like the following info about your book - the title and
where she and I could purchase it.
Hope
that you and family are in good health.
Sincerely,
Natasha Petersen
From:
Joyce Cook
To: weihsien@topica.com
; Natasha
Petersen
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 12:18 AM
Subject: Re: Your book
Dear
Natasha. My book is out of print (sold out) but can be read in its entirety on
the net by typing in search, quote:
book, Forgiven but Not
Forgotten.
It
can also be found on weihsien topica.
Please
give my very best regards to Joan Walle. In fact she is on the front page
of my book, upper left next to Jimmy Basket and I am directly in front of her
to her lower left. She would of course know everybody in that photo which was
taken in the Iltis Hydro Camp in
I
hope you and Joan enjoy my book. Is her sister Leila still with us?
Yes
we are going along quite well consistent with our ages and tomorrow celebrate
our 50th wedding anniversary with our three married sons, wives and four lovely
grandchildren aged 20 to 12 with more to come we hope. I still play mahjong and
do a lot of voluntary work and guest speaking. Husband Bob is
my prompter at my talks, (brain jolter) and chauffeur
Love. Joyce
From:
"Iain Lourie" <iain.lourie@ihug.co.nz>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Monday, December 29, 2008 12:46 PM
Subject: James Muir
Ø
Hi,
>
> I am looking for any information about my grandfather, James Muir, who
> worked for the Chinese Customs, captured by the Japs and was interned in
> Weihsien Camp.
>
> Cheers
>
> Iain
From:
"Tapol" <tapol@skynet.be>
To:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Sent:
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: James Muir
Ø
Hello Iain,
> Try this website:
> http://www.weihsien-paintings.org
> --- in the search engine (on the home page) type: "muir"
> --- he is mentionned quite a few times and I read that he was a terrific
> piano player ---
> Best regards,
> Leopold