Chapter 7

 

REPATRIATION

 

Late in the summer of 1943 rumors began to circulate about a pending prisoner exchange which would mean the repatriation of a large number of civilian P.O.W.s in China. One group had actually gone home while we were still in Peking so there was good reason to believe that a second exchange would be successfully worked out.

 

The list of internees selected for repatriation on the Swedish ship S.S. Gripsholm included the names of 200 Americans and 89 Canadians. With throbbing hearts we scanned that fateful manifesto for names of OMS missionaries. The names of Annie Kartozian, Mary Maness, Harry and Emily Woods and their children leaped out at us, and there were others. In fact, every OMS American missionary held in all three of the China internment camps was on that page with the exception of the three Helsbys!"

---"A British family, the Richard Hassels, also remained in the Shanghai camp for the duration of the war.---

 

Our hearts sank. How to account for this omission? One possible answer was that since I was of military age I was to remain in prison to keep me out of combat. And Christine had made it clear that under no circumstances would she and Sandra go home without me. Yet this was not entirely plausible since other young men in their 20s were, in fact, on the list. Another explanation was that camp authorities were aware of my over-the-wall business and had black-listed me. Whatever the reason, we must believe that God, in His gracious wisdom and kind providence, had willed that the Helsbys remain prisoners of war in Weihsien for two more years.

 

It was a poignant moment when we remaining internees waved a solemn, tearful farewell to the parting friends and colleagues leaving the old camp for Shanghai, the Gripsholm and blessed freedom in their homelands. The Japanese permitted us to sit on top of the wall (the extra strands of electrified, barbed wire had not yet been put in place) as we watched the repatriates crawl up into the military trucks. Not long afterwards they disappeared down the dusty, unpaved road. We waved to them as long as they were in view, tears coursing down our cheeks.

 

How we would miss Harry and Emily Woods — our leaders, mentors, confidants and friends. With them gone we felt suddenly like small, frightened children who had been abandoned by their parents. "How is it possible," I wrote in my journal, "to feel lonely in a camp of 1600 people?"

 

"Although our friends and fellow missionaries had left and we felt very alone," Christine remembers. "The Lord spoke so clearly to me and said, `Just because they have gone, doesn't mean I've gone. I haven't left camp. I'm still here with you.' "

 

Japanese guards, sensing our crushing disappointment, sought to cheer us. "Don't be sad," they said. "There will be another repatriation soon. You'll be in the next group." Cheering words that bolstered our spirits a bit, but it was a blessing that we did not know we had just witnessed the last Weihsien repatriation until the end of the war.

 

The camp population was further reduced when the following month our 380 Catholic clerics, fathers and nuns, were relocated in Peking. Rumor had it that a special agreement had been worked out between Tokyo and Rome whereby Catholic missionary P.O.W.s in war zones would be accorded preferential treatment.

 

But the vacancies left by the departing groups were soon filled by the arrival of two additional contingents in October and December. The first group numbered 230 and was the entire student body, staff and faculty of the CIM (China Inland Mission) school for missionary children in Chefoo. This throng of students made for a lively addition to camp life. Since most of the youngsters had been separated from their parents by the war, missionary families in camp agreed to "adopt" a student, providing parental love, guidance and emotional sup-port. Our adopted kids were two delightful teenagers, Ruth and Clifford (not brother and sister), who became very dear to us.

 

The second group of new arrivals consisted of 120 Italians, who living and working in China had refused to support the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and took an oath of loyalty to King Emmanuel. The Italians were assigned the smaller, and in our eyes preferred, number three kitchen and dining hall which had up to this time been our domain. Reluctantly we joined the much larger community assigned to kitchen number one.

 

Before leaving Harry Woods had asked me to take over leadership of the weekly church services he had started. And as the last OMS missionaries in China from the U.S., we were to be the guardians of OMS' interests in that field, whatever that meant. To my 27-year-old mind, these were sobering responsibilities. I resolved to keep a journal to serve as an official record of our activities which I would, hopefully, present to mission authorities at the end of the war. So as our narrative continues we will quote entries from it, interspersed with commentary and words of explanation.

 

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