Westeners could not use the Chinese mail. They got round it by writing in Chinese as letters between Chinese people. This is a postcard written in 1942 from Howard Cliff from Henan to Norman Cliff at Chefoo.
DIARY ...
kept by Evelyn Davey (Huebener)
from Nov. 1942 to January 1945.
- Chefoo (Temple Hill) and
- Weihsien, Shantung Province, China
November 6th
Well, here we are in our internment? (or concentration) camp. I brought the Prep Girls over yesterday morning. We left the C.I.M. compound accompanied ...
"It must be weeks since you heard of the children, for no mails are allowed in or out these days. Can you imagine the bitter disappointment of the children with all boxes packed, when news came that all British ships ...
"What a long, time it is since I was able to write you a normal letter! I'm not sure just how long. I am not even yet in a position to post such a letter, but I am writing this in the faith that before long we shall be free to post uncensored mail. Such news as comes to us suggests ...
"Soon after morning roll-call, the queues began to form outside the Assembly Hall. I remember that I could not credit it when I was told that each parcel weighed 50 lbs., but it was true, and ...
"The camp lights had been extinguished at the usual hours, 10-p.m., and most internees soundly sleeping.
Just before 11-p.m. the startling sound of a rolling bell customarily used as the signal for roll-call, broke the stillness of the night and aroused the sleeping community. This was followed at ...
" ... it was our church in which different Christian groups worshipped. Who can forget the Catholic services of the early months, with five bishops on the platform and an audience of hundreds of priests and nuns, trained in chanting the mass; or the meetings at which our ...
"The Assembly Hall half filled with Scouts, Guides, Brownies and Cubs always made a deep impression and brought home the realisation of how much the Camp owes to youth. How well we have been served by the Scouts and Guides – what a desolate place it would have been without the laughter and ...
"To give first the most recent impression – it is that of a friendly company. This was especially bought home to me during my recent indisposition. All kinds of folk came to see me to cheer by game or friendly talks, the many weeks I could not leave ...
"Plucked from his solitary Trappist monastery in the mountains, one would expect his retirement in this camp, as far as possible from this heterogeneous humanity among whom he was thrown, but not Father Scanlan !!
With untiring energy and with great personal risk, he conducted a black market, supplying ...
" ... two Catholic Fathers gave us a fine example of the power of moral courage. As they were passing by the Guard House they saw an old Chinese peasant woman being cruelly ill-treated. She had been caught selling black-market eggs over the wall. Instead of passing quickly by, they went over and stood staring in at the window.
The guard, seeing them, stopped beating their victim and ...
"On August 17, 1945 ---
When, around ten in the morning, out of a beautifully clear sky, a B-24 began circling over our camp, the excitement increased and came to a climax as we watched white parachutes opening over the grazing fields outside, and could hardly realize that there were men, seven in number, attached to them hanging from ...
"Experience has taught us that it is – at least, that it is under the pressure of life in an internment camp. But the conditions of such success have also been made clear, the chief one being the complete autonomy given to various groups ...
"During the early spring of ’43, after a too long period of inactivity in Tientsin I was asked to propose various schemes to cover the possible internment of Enemy Nationals residing in the port city. Internment was, at that time, only a possible alternative to repatriation and not a certainty, however in March we were informed that ...
" ... The Tsingtao group was the first to arrive at Weihsien, Courtyard of the Happy Way and to them fell the task of getting the camp ready for the others who would follow from other parts of North China. They were to be there for two and a half years. Food was not scarce, but there was little variety. They were kept going on bread. Extras could be obtained - but at a price. Eggs for example. A Chinese dollar pre-war could have bought 100 or 120 eggs. Now they cost $60 each! So bread ...
" ... après des adieux « très humides », nous quittions Suan-Hwa : l'abbé N. Wenders, trois trappistes, un Anglais qui se rendit célèbre plus tard au camp, le Père Scanlan, un Canadien et un Hollandais qui attrapa le typhus un peu après son arrivée à Weihsien et moi-même ; le tout escorté par des policiers consulaires japonais. Au moment où les pousses démarraient, je criai aux séminaristes : « Revenie. mus cum Victoria » (1) ; la coquine de victoire m'a précédée. ...
Looking back on Weihsien
By GORDON MARTIN
March – April 1946
'GOD meant it unto good,' as He means all things to work together for good for His servants. Hard times are not something for us to dodge, not something to get through as soon as possible; they are a rough field to be tilled for a harvest: they are something which GOD can train us to welcome. But GOD's purpose of good is for us to attain, and afterwards we must not let it slip away ...
The Test Of Internment
By Stanley Houghton
THE ENGLISH CHURCHMAN AND ST. JAMES CHRONICLE
APRIL 25, 1946
Nestling at the foot of the hills surrounding the port of Chefoo in North China lies a large estate ...
" ... the Nip commandant refused to confirm or deny the news ― which action on his part was really confirmation enough. About nine o'clock the morning of August 17, a large transport with an American flag painted on the body circled the camp uncertainly, finally dropped seven paratroopers. Weihsien tenants, imprisoned two and a half years, stormed the gates to swoop down upon their "rescuers", an unarmed AUS peace team.
#
" ... Wasn't she Marina? I immediately said to myself, "This is impossible? Was it really a coincidence?" Besides Marina was an American, so how could she be introduced as a South African? When she was talking about her suffering in the concentration camp she produced from her handbag a yellowish badge as large as her hand, which she had worn ...
" ... For an egg, she would give away such a treasurable thing that had accompanied her in such a horrid time, her kindness was so touchy. I loved music, the moment I saw it, I started to play it, the music was beautiful. I nearly bursted into tears. It was such a delicate present that I held it tightly.
The love of human being is without boundary of ...
" ... It seemed as if the whole camp were lined up to welcome us. Kindliness and cheeriness helped to revive our spirits, “cheer up, it’s not so bad here when you get used to it.” We started to chat straight away. We were herded into the main yard in front of the officer where we stood while the Camp rules ...
“HIGHER GROUND”
Chapter 26.
Internment
Biography of Wiley B. Glass, Missionary to China,
By: Eloise Glass Cauthen.
In October even our limited liberties ended.
All "enemy aliens" were confined in the Chefoo Civil Assembly Camp. Only one man escaped from it, and he was caught and returned.
The Presbyterian compound on Temple ...
Many years ago, when I discovered the excerpts of "The Call" stored in Norman Cliff's scrapbooks about Weihsien I wondered if this story was "true" or "fiction"?
Leopold.
CHAPTER 10
... PRISONERS OF WAR
When our youngest was only three years old, war was declared. The Japanese were already in occupation of Chefoo. Sentries marched in the streets and stood at street corners demanding identity cards and ...
Chapter Twelve
"Comes now the last step. It is March, 1943. About noon of the 14th a messenger from good Dr. Hoeppli of the Swiss Consulate comes with the fateful word. We are to be taken to internment camp in a neighboring province. We have ten days in which to dispose of our personal and household effects, packing what we think we will need for an indefinite stay in Weihsien."
"On a blistering hot day in August, 1945, away in the countryside of the northerly Chinese province of Shantung, 1500 civilian prisoners of the Japanese were doing their normal manual tasks in a former mission compound 200 yards long by 150 yards wide, and surrounded by two ranges of electrified wires.
Their community work included pumping water by rota ...
"There were other casualties as you describe, some survived and some whom time never healed. One of them is my ex-husband Bali, who sustained three severe beatings at the hands of the Japanese. He was unable to get over these horrible ...
She said: "Seven Americans parachuted down and we rushed out to greet them. There was great rejoicing but we had to stay in the camp and wait to be evacuated.”
"We made clothes out of their parachute silk. You can imagine the state of our clothes after being in the camp that long. We had no new clothes only hand-me-downs - we were shoeless in summer.”
Within a month Kathleen moved ...