Mother and I were naturally interesting people in the small town.

One day there was a headline in the newspaper: "Grimstad lady tells of her stay in the Weihsien camp in northern China."

The text read as follows:

"Mrs Inger Danielsen, widow of missionary Gerhard Danielsen, has returned home after three years of captivity in a Japanese camp in Weihsien in northern China, together with her little daughter Astrid Gro.

We meet Mrs. Danielsen, who is the daughter of customs office manager Jørgensen and his wife, and ask her to tell us a bit about her time there.

I was in Shanghai in the summer of 1941. My husband had then died, and I tried to come to America as a nurse.

It did not work. I did not get an entry permit because my family lived in an occupied country. I was then asked to travel to Little Norway in Canada as a nurse. But while I was sorting this out, the war came, and the Japanese closed the gates to Canada.

Then little Astrid Gro and I travelled up to Tsingtao, where I was to be a manager at a hospital. There was a native doctor and staff there. In Tsingtao we lived in our own homes, but we were only allowed to move within a certain area. We were five people there and had 30 soldiers to guard us.

In Tsingtao I was once interrogated for several hours. They thought I was a spy because I had travelled quite a lot in recent years. I had been to such places that just had special interest for the Japanese. But it went well.

When I came out of the interrogation, I remember my people looking at me with horror in their eyes. We had often heard about how the Japanese behaved during interrogations. It was in the same way that we now hear and read that the Germans advanced.

We stayed in Tsingtao for approx. one year. Then we were moved some distance outside the camp. We were here for approx. six months. Then we were moved again. The Japanese said that the Americans had moved their prisoners further inland; therefore they wanted to do the same to us.

Then we came to Weihsien. Prisoners from all over Northern China eventually came there, so in the end we were gathered approx. One thousand seven hundred people of all nationalities. We were 16 Norwegians. Later an old skipper died there, so there were fifteen of us.

In Weihsien there were long barracks, divided into rooms with room for four. Regardless of whether it was women or men, there should be four. Later it became easier, so that a family got one room. Thus my little girl and I got a single room.

— And how was the food, there?

It was rather rubbish. We got potatoes, mostly sweet, and Chinese cabbage. We didn't taste butter for three years. But we picked up some peanuts, which we made a topping out of. The children were supposed to get two glasses of milk a day, but it was rather blue then.

By the way, it was rare that they got so much. Then there was rotten meat. They had plenty of meat in stock, but didn't show it to us until it was spoiled.

"It's not rotten enough", they liked to say.

We had to boil all the water, so cooking was so much more difficult.

We got dry bread, but we were lucky enough to get some kind of flour all the time. Further south in the country, they only got rice.

The sick were given eggs, and we collected the eggshells, which we broke and washed, and later ate. That way we got some calcium in us.

In Weihsien, by the way, the food was better than in Tsingtao, because here we could cook a little ourselves. And then we often made something we called stew, it's a kind of soup stew. We had three large communal kitchens to begin with.

Later, an exchange was made with Japanese and American prisoners of war. Consequently, we lost quite a few Americans, and then it was enough to have two kitchens.

But we couldn't get enough of the food we got in the shared household, so we made something ourselves. We set up ovens outside our rooms out of an old biscuit tin, which we built a fireplace in. These ovens became finer as the technique was developed among the prisoners. It did happen that the guards were in a bad mood and kicked the whole thing down, but then it was time to wall again.

— "But did you get food to cook, then?"

Yes, some food then entered the camp. Once we received a Red Cross package, and at Christmas 1944 the Swedish consul in Tientsin sent packages to us Norwegians. But the packages were always opened, and part of the contents removed before they reached us.

But then there was trade in tusks with the Chinese over the walls, then. And there wasn't much that came in that way.

And we got hold of something, shared with others.

An electric fence was put up, but they still continued to trade. Then a further electric wire was set up, but there were still some who were able to sneak between the wires. Later bloodhounds were acquired in the camp.

Back then it was quite dangerous with this bartering, but there were still some who dared and who communicated to others. But it was dangerous if someone got caught. Then they were thrown into a dark cell with some wooden objects between their fingers. Once a Chinese man was hanged and remained hanging from the gallows for quite a long time.

Otherwise, we probably weren't looking for the worst prison guards in our camp. One had the impression that the further the Japanese got away from Tokyo, the worse the treatment of the prisoners became. In Java, it would have been absolutely horrible.

What took us the most was the constant uncertainty. We were afraid of anything. After the peace, there was a boat that went to Europe with traumatised nurses on board. They were simply requisitioned by the Japanese. We luckily escaped that.

We felt the power of intercession and noticed that God helped us many times.

— How did the days go in the camp?

We had to work, and we were divided into different parties. Some pumped water, because all the water had to be pumped.

Others baked bread, some cleaned, others made coal for heating, etc. We were given coal dust, mixed it with water and earth, and shaped it into lumps which we dried in the sun. There was an English coal mine not too far from the camp. Of course, the Japanese had taken it over. But they kept some Belgian workers there. By the way, they occasionally sent us packages. It was strange to see that the director of the mines also had to struggle to make coal for heating.

— What did you work on?

I first sorted through frozen vegetables, a kind of leek that was so strong that the tears flowed non-stop. Later I scrubbed borders and benches in the dining room. The last few months I was at the hospital as a nurse. Kindergartens were set up in the camp, so we put the children there while we went to work.

Besides work, we also had to find time to stand in queues to get hold of the various things we needed.

Clothes were the worst. We turned around and patched up the old rags we had. No shoes and no socks. We changed into some kind of sandals.

But strangely enough, health was good in the camp. It was probably because we were out so much. In winter it is quite cold there, so you should dress well. In the summer it is quite hot, and then it can often rain quite heavily.

I remember Americans' Independence Day on the 4th of July. Then it rained so that a piece of the wall fell down. We took that as a good sign.

One night, by the way, I got a piece of the roof on my head. On the roofs, the Chinese brick a kind of clay under the roof tiles. One night it rained so violently, the clay got soaked, and the result was that the whole roof fell like puddles on my head. It took quite a long time before the roof was repaired.

— How was the mood of the prisoners?

We kept it up as best we could. We arranged meetings and other entertainment. We had an assembly room where this took place. But everything had to be controlled by the Japanese. At 10 in the evening the light went out, it came back on when it started to get dark in the afternoon, so it wasn't long before we had the light.

Incidentally, for a while we had the light in the morning, without us realising why. But then it turned out that a Catholic priest had arranged it. He had discovered that at that time none of the guards were present. He then took the opportunity to switch on the light.

It was discovered, of course, and the man received his punishment.

Best of all, we were informed about the war situation. A man came into the camp to empty ashes. He was, of course, examined by the guard. But this man had a piece of silk in his mouth, and on that piece of silk was written in code. He spat the rag out so that some of his few initiates got hold of it. Two men had once escaped from the camp. They were probably not that far away. And when peace came, the man who emptied the ashes trooped up in a fine Chinese officer's uniform with the two fugitives. But then the Japanese didn't like it.

Later we learned that there had been Chinese troops not too far from the camp, keeping an eye on us. If something special had happened, they would have come to the rescue.

Among other things, there was talk of our camp being moved to Manchuria. Had it happened, they would have come. But we didn't know anything about that while we were sitting there.

I remember the day we heard about the peace in Europe.

Then there was cheering. And the day was to be celebrated. On a tower was a bell, and on it two of our men took the opportunity of ringing the bell.

It was an agreed sign that when the bell rang at that hour, a message was sent to a nearby Japanese camp that reinforcements were needed with us. Therefore it was a terrible life.

We had to appeal at once ― at night with the children. We stood there for a couple of hours waiting to be shot. We had not heard the bell ring, and therefore we did not know why there was such a commotion.

Then came the 15th of August when we found out that there was peace. But it wasn't until the 17th that we heard the call for a flight.

It circled over the camp for a while, and then descended. And we rushed out of the camp in wild excitement. It turned out that there were seven men on that plane. There was a military commission to see how we were doing. They had radios with them and sent messages from the camp.

Astrid Gro — AnWei Jensen back in Norway.

On 27 August, the first large shipment of food and clothing arrived. It was men's clothing, taken out of a military depot. Later, reinforcements arrived, and primarily the sick were transported away. The rest of us were divided into three parties according to where we were going. Two batches were sent to northern China.

On 25 September we left the camp, after two years and eleven months of captivity. We left by rail. Those who travelled after us had to fly, because then the communists had destroyed the railway.

Everywhere we were received with great enthusiasm. Those of us who were going abroad travelled south. In Tsingtao, a large bathing hotel was requested, where we received extra meals. Entertainment, informative lectures, etc. were also organised.

We were there for two weeks before we were allowed to proceed with two troop transport ships to Hong Kong. We were here for six weeks. Then it was on board again and on the way home. We were approx. 30 Norwegians among the passengers, most of them seamen. We celebrated Christmas on board.

Just as we passed Malta, we had a children's party. On 30 December we were in England. It wasn't until a week later that we came aboard Fred. Olsen's Brittany. It was wonderful to arrive on a Norwegian boat, and then to stand on Norwegian soil again. On 7 January we arrived in Oslo.

It's good to be home again. We have lost practically everything. Some were taken and some were stolen, so there were few clothes. In Suez, the Red Cross took us ashore and gave us clothes to come home in.

But we have then arrived home, and that is the main thing!

— Would you otherwise like to tell us something about your impression of the Chinese people?

While my husband was alive, I visited the homes with a Bible woman. The men could not work among or talk to the women in that way. They had their men to go to.

Otherwise, the women were better off now than before. It has been a long time since it was forbidden to lace the feet. The hair whip is also a completed stage. The costume has become somewhat simpler. The work uniform for the women is still long leg clothes and the side jacket made of cotton or silk. The thicker the silk, the richer the people, of course.

The information is good. Even people further up in the highlands have good schools now. It probably came largely from the war. Because as the Japanese advanced, schools and the administration that used to be located on the coast also had to move further inland.

It is open to God's word. And if the missionaries are allowed to work in peace out there, there are probably great opportunities for the mission's cause in China. It also bodes well for the Chinese people that there are men of faith in the government who will govern the vast country, Mrs Danielsen concludes.

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Map of eastern China, with names from the 1930s.
Father came to Hong Kong and was placed in Linhsien in the north. Then he traveled south — over on the west side of the Yellow River to meet mother in Hankow.
There was the wedding in June 1938. The honeymoon was a arduous one trip back to Linhsien.
In 1940, the family went to the coastal city of Tientsin, where AnWei was born.
After returning to Linhsien, we went to bond to work in the south.
In the town of Shenkiu, just south of Kioshan, where Father was shot and buried.
Mother and I later arrived at the coastal town of Tsingtao and we were then interned in the Weihsien prison camp.