[Excerpts] ...

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Arriving at Weihsien, Fred described what they saw: “Bare walls, bare floors, dim electric lights, no running water, primitive latrines, open cesspools, a crude bakery, two houses with showers, three huge public kitchens, a desecrated church and a dismantled hospital, a few sheds for shops, rows of cell-like rooms, and three high dormitories for persons who are single ― out of this we set to work to organize a corporate life.” Frances’ description of the camp supplements Fred’s: “The Presbyterians had two mission compounds that they were particularly proud of, one was a big college on the Bosphorus, and the other was at Weihsien in the Province of Shantung. This compound which covered several city blocks was a wonderful example of mission strategy and Christian foresight. Inside the outside walls were several smaller compounds, each with its own walls. One was for the hospital, the Nurses’ Training School and the doctors’ residences, one for the Bible Women’s Training School and the dormitory for the Bible women, another for the Middle Schools. There were elementary schools as well with their dormitories, row upon row of them. It was ideal for a prison camp.

[excerpts]

Frances reported that in camp Fred first volunteered for the meanest jobs, such as cleaning the toilets and showers. Later he became coordinator of the wells which meant that he was responsible for getting pumpers to man the pump handles at all times. Then he worked in the carpentry shop.

“At mealtime we found yellow slips on the long pine tables in the kitchens asking each to indicate experience and preference regarding various kinds of camp labor. There was work for all and those who refused were few. The Yenching University contingent of teachers, doctors of literature, philosophy and science worked beyond their strength. The Catholic fathers and sisters won golden opinions by their cheerful assumption of disagreed tusks. Frank Connelly of the Baptist Mission managed a kitchen for eight hundred people. He was a born leader and people of all sorts worked with him gladly.

“Next we found white slips at our places indicating procedure for electing camp committees. When the Japanese imprisoned us, they imprisoned democracy, democracy ― that was the watch word. Yet they seemed pleased to have the details of camp management left to the prisoners, while they laid down general rules. These were: no traffic with the enemy, no black market, no effort to escape, no vandalism, no insubordination.

[excerpts]

Frances, who worked in one of the kitchens for a time, recalled how everything had to be dumped into huge cauldrons which could hold sixteen buckets of water. Under them were fires of coal balls which were made from coal dust and clay. The resulting stews were enough for a meal, twice a day, which the cooks tried to stretch to three times a day. They tried to make the stew taste a little better by putting up on a blackboard the name in French or in Spanish or in Italian or German or some other language. No one was fooled. Then one day they put up an “S.O.S.” and the hungry internees thought it meant nothing to eat. However, they soon discovered that it instead meant “Same Old Stew.”

[further reading]
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/NormanCliff/Diary/WhiteWolves/p-WhiteWolves.htm

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