Chapter IV

Excerpts from the writings of Mme Jacqueline Dubois
- Translated by Gay Talbot-Stratford

On the twenty first of September1945, a plane flew over Tientsin.This led to the belief that the town was about to be bombed. The only question to be asked was - by whom. No one knew, but everyone was speculating.

At the sight of the plane, Wang Nai Nai the amah, who had taken my daughter for a walk in the park, hurried home as fast as she could, pushing the stroller before her. “It is those devilish Japanese,” said she,”Having lost the war, they want revenge. They intend to kill us all before they die.”

In reality, it was a Chinese Nationalist plane with five Americans on board. These were the first representatives of the Allied Forces to arrive in North China, an area still controlled by the Japanese.
They flew in from Shanghai where they were part of a group consisting of Americans, and military and civil representatives of Nationalist China. The President of the United States had assigned General Arthur Worton , his aide de camp Walter Curley, and three other officers to a top secret mission. Accompanying them on this trip was a Chinese General, a close associate of Chiang Kai shek.

The task of the Americans was to put in place the details of the mission. An outline had to be prepared for the capitulation of the Japanese. The five were also responsible for the repatriation of all Japanese personnel and their families.

All this would take place after the arrival of the American army of occupation under the command of General Rockey, whose role it was to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in North China.

From the Japanese point of view, they preferred the idea of surrendering to the Americans rather than to the Chinese, since they feared reprisals from the latter. So the Japanese were actively engaged in maintaining order and avoiding violence in Tientsin until the arrival of the American marines.

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