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Monday, August 20th
Marketing is going over the wall all the time. We gave tins & old clothing mainly & they mainly gave eggs, water melons, sugar, tomatoes, apples & sometimes cigarettes, corncobs, chickens, soap.

We sometimes gave money. Roughly 4 apples = 100 dollars P.R.B. One big water melon 500. Eggs 20-50$.

A Jap at the front gate lost his head & fired, after long manuvering (sic) with his pistol, at the Chinese selling. He purposely fired above their heads. About 4 p.m. the C of Police ran after the Chinese & fired above their heads & he came to the fence where there was a Chinese just the other side. It looked funny to see him purposely fire above his head with his small pistol.

At 4.00 there was chocolate for 1 – 16 or sweets. I drew chocolate.

In the evening there was a “Gala Supper” on the ball field. At 7.00 the band played a couple of marches & finished up with the victory march which contained the national anthem of :- England, America, China, Russia, Norway, Holland, France & finished up with the English one in 4/4 time instead of 3/4.

Saturday 25th
In the morning a radio message came to say that Tad Nagaki was to be sergeant instead of corporal.

When we went on duty as on previous days, we saw a Jap talking to the Chinese soldiers. This time a fuhny (sic) tall Chinese was teaching the J. bayoneting. Chinese go in for a lot of funny style. We got their food for them as usual.

We heard a rumour when on duty that a plane had left SIAN at noon &was expected between 4.30 & 5.30. I was about the first to see it coming in the West. I told the other people on the ball field tower & we yelled & in a few minutes the whole camp was gathering on the field. The plane flew from N to S over the field N of our camp & landed parachutes of supplies.

It came over about 5 times & dropped some in packages ― sections tied together & some containers.

The last time it flew over & dropped no parachutes & we knew it had finished ― it circled there as usual but before reaching the field ― it turned W & dipped its wings twice & went forever.

May I say that when the plane first was seen the major who was on the field with the other men, fired first a green then a yellow ‘Very’ light. Also he made some green then yellow thick smoke.

There were 14 drops in all. Some of the usual long packages & some boxes containing chocolate & cigarettes. The long containers had tin goods such as sliced bacon ― roast beef ― steamed fruit cake (3¾ ozs net) ― all these tins are different from the parcels we had months ago. The tins were of green-khaki colour.

The plane is called the “Armoured Angel” [sic]

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At about 9.15 the plane dropped some white parachutes. I noticed that some didn’t have parachutes. My father said that he would do my 9.30-10.00 pumping so I went out of the camp with a lot of other men & boys & helped roll the stuff along. It was terribly damaged – tins of fruit salad just half empty so we helped ourselves. On the pamphlets it said that supplies would be dropped in an hour or two. I saw a few planes appearing over the East horizon.

I had to go back & get some buckets for broken tins. In the meantime, the B-24s came over.

When I went out again, I found that it was very dangerous. They would land big drums about 2’x4’ & some larger ones about 2 times the length - also clothing & medical supplies.



The stuff might land within 10 yards of you – nearly get killed.

The B-29s couldn’t go slower than 200 m.p.h. so the stuff came down at a great angle.

“Heads up,” was what people would say when a plane came from E-W low.

The planes (which had 1°.W.SUPPLIES under their wings) made circles E-W-S-E-N-W-west always over us.

It was really dangerous.

We were told afterwards that there were 12 planes in all but it seemed like only 7. A plane would circle around a few times & drop its stuff & then go & another would come.

They came from OKONAWA (sic) except the ‘Armoured Angel’.

Some of the planes were supposed to be Flying or Super Fortresses.

If you saw a plane coming, you would have to make up your mind which way to go – N or S. The plane always seemed to follow you. It would face your way but go slightly side ways. I once had to go either N or S so I went N to find the plane doing as above & the stuff landed within 10 yards earth & juice hitting my face.

I expected to find a number of Chinese & us killed but there were evidently none. One Italian was grazed on the shoulder but was alright & went on working. Some people missed being killed by 3 foot or less.

All the time we were out there, we hogged away at tinned fruit salad & at tinned peach & milk.

There was also tinned grape fruit juice which was the most wanted for thirst. Also people helped themselves to packages of chocolate & chewing gum. They swiped enough to keep them going for the rest of the day. The men took cigarettes.

Around 10.30 I was on guard at the house where there was a temporary dump. There was a drum with only about 6” of cocoa in the bottom. Then I went & helped roll the drums to the dump. When a plane came over, we would say ‘all clear’ because the flaps were shut. But when it got over us, the flaps would open & the stuff would crash down the other side of the river. It wasn’t a very pleasant to see the huge drums crash amongst the Chinese although I found out after that one or two were slightly hurt.

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[excerpt]

Thursday August 30th

Theo’s birthday.

A plane, which Tad said was a Jap, flew over about 12.00.

Boots were tried on at KI for your size; 7, 7½, 8, 9, 9½, 10,10½, 11, 11½. Then you went in a queue & registered your size. I first took 8 then decided to take 9.

In the afternoon they were given out from 3 – 4.30. Soon after they began giving out, 9 and over were allowed to go to the head of the long queue & get theirs first.

I found after that mine were slightly narrow so (I had 9D) I changed for 9E.

I found in my boots a tin of Dubbing (sic) which I rubbed in. You can’t polish after D unless you get a smooth surface & rub all over. I only want mine for rough use so I’m not going to. I polished my black ones & wore them in the evening. Most people are wearing their boots. I’m not wearing them till the colder weather.

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The instalments of my post-war Weihsien diary are coming to an end. There is an unaccountable gap from Wed Sept 12th to Sun, Sept 23rd when there are no entries. I suppose it must have been during these 12 days that Ronnie Masters and I walked south to a little “secret” airstrip a few miles from camp.

It took a bit of finding.

There were 2 or 3 small Japanese fighter planes and a few pretty tough-looking Japanese pilots.



We had the nerve to climb up in turns and look into a cockpit.Ronnie, who could speak Japanese, said to me,”Peter, they are discussing whether to shoot us. Come down and we must walk calmly to the woods.” (More or less those words.) When out of sight, we ran some way to distance ourselves from them.

I vividly remember the sense of relief when our camp came into view.

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October 1st 1945,
Rainy.

Went to Kokusal opera most of which was uninteresting. There was one part in which a small Chinese acrobat did things such as standing on his hands then feet etc. very quickly.

The British sailors & a marine band came & some Yank sailors most of which thought it very funny. I was in a bus & a Chinese got out to crank up & the bus in front backed & hurt him badly on the hand & stomach.

[further reading] ...
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/PeterBazire/diaryBook/Wednesday.htm

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