CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

LIBERATION ...

Liberty at last
We got plenty to eat ...
August 1945

In January 1945, it was bitterly cold; the snow lay on the ground and the ground was like iron. Out of nowhere, American Red Cross parcels arrived on donkey carts. Each parcel was huge and contained mainly food. Each family was allowed one parcel and any that remained were passed to other camps. These parcels had to last each family into spring and beyond.

By May of 1945, the internees knew that the war in Europe was over and by June everyone was becoming increasingly nervous as they sensed the Japanese would take the law into their own hands and kill them all before relief was at hand.

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later a further atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki but it was not until August 17th that the inmates of Weihsien heard of these raids.

On Wednesday August 15th, 1945, armistice was announced. The war was officially over but the Weihsien internees did not receive confirmation until two days later. On a lovely summer's morning a USA B-24 Liberator crisscrossed the camp several times. On each run, leaflets in English and Japanese were dropped, telling them that the war was over and that the Japanese guards were staying to protect them from marauding Chinese warlords. Prisoners streamed out of their quarters, shouting, laughing, crying and hugging each other.

Dorothy was at the White Elephant with the door open when she suddenly noticed seven red and white and green parachutes slowly floating down:

'We all rushed into the street and the small boys ran to the gates which were wide open and not a guard in sight. We ran into wasteland where the parachutists were landing; an American armed soldier stood up from behind a haystack and approached. He was followed by five or six more as they replaced their revolvers in the holsters.'

The American soldiers were prepared to shoot if the Japanese attacked them; they were carried shoulder high back to the camp where the Japanese commandant surrendered.

'We were informed that the war was over; Germany, Japan and their allies had surrendered.' Dorothy had heard rumours to this effect but it seemed to be too good to be true so she hadn't believed them. But now the Americans were there it changed everything. No one knew what to do; everyone talked, laughed or cried, as rules or regulations all went by the board.

Almost immediately, cartloads of food of all description were being delivered. It was at first shared out slowly because the internees were suffering from malnutrition and had to be careful of what they ate to avoid being sick. As they grew stronger, they were given more.

Dorothy was ecstatic: 'We got plenty to eat, as many eggs as we wanted, not just one egg per person a week.' There was also chewing gum, chocolate bars, sports equipment, C-rations and even medical supplies.

Meanwhile, their living quarters were made more comfortable and pleasant. Reels of current films and projectors were brought in and a makeshift radio station using loudspeakers brought music throughout the camp. The older generation put on their finest shirts and skirts and danced the nights away with beer, bourbon and cigarettes, all courtesy of the USA. There was enough sports equipment for four baseball teams which brought hours of enjoyment.

Because the internees had little or no idea as to how the war had progressed, the American soldiers gave them all a history lesson on the war, finishing with an account of the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which more than anything else contributed to the ultimate surrender of the Japanese.

John became the hero of the day when he made his way into town and, using his fluent Mandarin, was able to bargain for fresh fruit. He sold his last pair of gold cufflinks and all the family cheered when he brought back a luscious watermelon.

In September, a British colonel visited the camp to interview all British personnel. It was a sad story for many of the internees. All their businesses had been destroyed in the fighting, Chiang Kai-shek's government was in power and all foreigners were now subject to Chinese law. He suggested that they should as soon as possible return to Britain or move to other Commonwealth countries. For those who had been born and brought up in China, this briefing came as a dreadful shock. They literally had to start their lives again from scratch. It took about three weeks for things to calm down and life became more normal. Eventually steps were taken to return home all who had been in the camp. John's brother Dan and his wife Olive, who had been interned in Shanghai, took the first opportunity to fly home to Missouri.

It was toward the end of the year before Dorothy, John and their children eventually left the internment camp. The date of their departure kept being postponed, but the fact that they would leave eventually made their days more bearable. The place was being dismantled and the prisoners got much more to eat - eggs galore and many tinned foods provided by the Americans - so that in that sense, life was easier. When the time arrived they left in groups: the Peking-British, Tientsin-British, Tsingtao-British, the Americans and so on. All their luggage, such as it was, had been packed and forwarded days before so they had no bedding, no change of clothes and few eating utensils. They slept on the bare floors with a sweater each, which they used as a pillow or as a cover if they felt chilly.

The big gates of the internment camp were now open and although many prisoners went for walks to the town, Dorothy never did. When the time came for her and the family to leave she had an odd feeling as they passed through the gates after a total of four years of internment by the Japanese. A feeling that the life she had known had come to an end and they all would have to start again. A new life into a blank unknown.

Dorothy remembers that they were driven out in an American truck and then flown out on a Douglas-C-47 to an airport near Tientsin and finally on another truck into Tientsin itself. Here the family were met by kind smiles and greetings of the Chinese peasants and others as they drove to the Tientsin Club to be registered and told where they would live and fed until they had decided to make their own arrangements.

Dorothy's parents continued on to Lausanne, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

John not only lost his job of twenty years but also his pension and life savings. He got a position with the United Nations Relief Rehabilitation Association, guarding cattle and food, as it was unloaded from Victory ships.

Dorothy and the family were billeted in the house of the manager of the Standard Oil Company, as were several other people. Their room contained a number of camp cots with two US Navy blankets each: 'We had a pretty green bathroom - plumbing and all!! Having been used to living in one little room for three years, I could not settle down anywhere but in one room. All our meals were provided (I wonder now - by whom?) in the US Marine's Mess Hall and were splendid.'

The only snag was that it took forty-five minutes to walk each way from where they lived. Money was very scarce but Dorothy did manage to get a pair of navy-blue socks and some running shoes, as her other shoes were worn out.

The Dan McLorns had also been released from camp and were back in Shanghai. Dorothy never learnt of their experiences while interned. Dan McLorn sent Dorothy and the family a number of things he thought they might need, as all the family possessions had been looted and other people were using the postal furniture and household equipment:

'Thus, we got volumes of the Book of Knowledge for the children, a large set of table flatware and an old mink jacket for me that belonged to an old dinner-jacket suit which I had made into a suit for myself, some brown velvet draperies which were made into a garment for one of the girls, and so on.'

The Chinese shopkeepers charged absurdly low prices so they existed for the time being. When the family left the Standard Oil Company house, they lived in a flat above the Victoria Road Post Office and shortly after, moved to another flat in the ex-German Concession. Here they lived in two large rooms and a kitchen upstairs; a Chinese man lived downstairs with his family and friends. All their luncheons were had at the Russian Club, clean wholesome, adequate and dull. For dinners and special occasions they were invited to the Padeshankos'.

Dorothy was anxious to track down Takaloi Amah, so-named as she had owned a lighting shop on that road. She found her in the deserted Postmaster's house which had been the family home in Tientsin before the war. It was a happy and cheerful reunion. She was wealthy and lent John much-needed funds until he got settled. She had buried all the family silverware and precious objects before the Japanese could take them and these she dug up and gave to Dorothy and John, who were destitute. Amah had used the house as a red-light destination for Japanese officers. The prostitutes were called 'singsong girls'. She had always remained faithful to the family and did what she could to survive the Japanese occupation.

They hired a cook who had been with a German family for years and came to join Dorothy when the Germans could no longer afford to keep him. After Dorothy and the family left for Canada he returned to the German people. He felt that they needed him although they could hardly pay him at all. He spoke no English and only a few words of German but between them, they understood each other. His fondest memories seemed to have been of the time he went to France during the First World War in the Chinese labour corps. The Sergeant Major was his hero, a stern but fair person whom he admired immensely. The food they were given, he thought marvellous, so delicious and plentiful. The British soldiers' amusements, sports, games and practical jokes made him laugh as he told Dorothy about them — his memories of thirty years ago. He begged Dorothy to take him to Canada but they had to refuse; he would have been too homesick and lonely without his wife and family. In any event, Dorothy had no idea what it would be like in Canada as she had never been there before, or when or how they would settle down eventually. He was too old to learn new ways but a nice faithful person.

While Dorothy and her family lived in Chekiang Lane, the children attended school. Philip was a boarder at the Roman Catholic St Louis College, run by Franciscan Brothers. The school distilled brandy and cognac which they sold throughout the community. Philip had a difficult time since he hadn't attended regular classes for four years and the availability of brandy and cognac didn't help.

Sally was a boarder at St Joseph's Girls' School, run by sisters, while Marjorie attended as a day girl. It was a long and unpleasant walk for Marjorie, particularly as the Chinese youth, trained by the Japanese to scorn white people, used to make rude remarks, spit on the schoolchildren and blow their noses on them.

Dorothy and her children remained in Tientsin for two years after the end of the war. It took John months to get together enough money for a berth on the Liberty Ship - the USS Boulder Victory - carrying cattle, leaving for San Francisco where it docked in April 1947.

From San Francisco, they took various trains to St Thomas in Ontario, Canada where John's uncles were living. John joined them two years later in 1949 after he had finished his contract with the Chinese Postal Service and fleeing the Communist Regime.

John McLorn died in December 1959, in Canada.

Dorothy McLorn had a stroke in 1987 from which she never regained consciousness and died at the age of 90 in 1990, also in Canada.

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