[Excerpt] ...

[...]

About twice a week, we would all gather in this building and have music.

Miss Budd, the beefy, ruddy‐faced Scotch woman who also ran the Girl Guides, led us in song. Harry hated to sing, so he would just mouth the words and Miss Budd would put down her baton and move as close as she could to him. Then, cupping her ear with a fleshy hand, she would bend down to his face to hear his voice. The group would all titter, and poor Harry was so embarrassed his face would turn red.

“You take the high road and I’ll take the low road and I’ll get to Scotland before ye.”

It was August 17, 1945, and Miss Budd had us in full swing in our school building when it came:
the sound of an American plane, different from the broken‐down lawn mower sound of the Japanese air force, came steadily booming, louder and louder.

We all dashed to the playing field, tumbling over each other in excitement and jumping up and down.

Looking up to the sky with shaded eyes, we were enthralled by the sight of a huge, silver aeroplane as it swooped several times over our heads. It flew so low that we could see the pilots sitting in the cockpit.

Everyone was jumping, waving, and cheering, holding on to each other and laughing, then crying.

This was it! We knew this was it!

Then out of the bowels of the B‐24, seven parachutes unfolded one at a time.

Armed American soldiers, looking like toy dolls, drifted into a cornfield next to the camp. Unfortunately, one of the men thought the top of the corn was the ground and with this misjudgement, broke his leg.

Throwing open the gates, the internees rushed out to meet U.S. Army Major Staiger and the six paratroopers who liberated us.

Tom recalls that the Marines packed away their parachutes and, as he approached, they lay with weapons drawn, ready to tangle with the Japanese.

The Japs, however, knowing the war was over, had piled their rifles in neat stacks and were standing in front of the guardhouse by the front gate, with their hands held over their heads. They gave in very passively and weren’t about to argue with the U.S. troops!

The only one missing was General Gesundheit. He evidently ducked out the back door, fearing reprisal. Triumphantly, the jubilant internees carried in our ‘rescuers (the Marine with the broken leg was given medical attention at our crude little hospital) and we stood up to give our heroes three “hurrahs!” before smothering them with questions and stories.

To our surprise, who should turn up during that week but the two men who had jumped camp about six months before? They had joined the Communists and, with dirt‐smeared faces, proceeded to give us accounts of their escape, narrowly being caught by a band of Japanese reconnoitres, and their induction into the Communist army. They also told us that the Communists had chased the Japanese out of most of the cities and were all around the camp. Evidently, they stayed on after that and fought with the guerrillas.

[further reading]
http://weihsien-paintings.org/books/OneLeafInTime/OneLeaf(WEB).pdf

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