Remember eating gao liang and lu dou for breakfast in Kitchen #1?

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Jun 11, 2000 12:53 PDT 

 


From Mary Previte:

I hope you've all read Desmond Power's book, LITTLE FOREIGN DEVIL, which includes several chapters about Weihsien. Order it through pan-@bookwright.com

Another wonderful book about Weihsien:
The Mushroom Years by Pamela Masters.
Order it through      Pam-@hendersonhouse.com 
 Memories from Mary Taylor Previte, New Jersey
Remember when we lived on gao liang (broom corn) and lu dou for breakfast?   (Can you believe I've found lu dou here in a health food store?)   Lunch in KITCHEN #1 was always stew, stew, stew. "S.O.S" we called it: Same Old Stew. I remember one day when the menu board listed T.T. Soup for lunch. TT Soup turned out to be turnip top soup.

My stomach was much too shrunk for fancy food. Cooks in Kitchen #1 saved the sugar -- I think it was for Christmas -- and created pudding for a holiday treat. When my tummy rebelled at anything so rich, I took the pudding back to our Lower School Dormitory (LSD) in the hospital and put it on a shelf.
The pudding died there on the shelf. When it gathered dust, I threw it out.
When our Taylor family took a nostalgia trip to Weihsien several years ago, I made my daughter take a snapshot of me standing with my tongue out by the door of our dormitory in Block 23.   That's where our teachers made us stand while they spooned powdered egg shells onto our tongues. I remember gagging and coughing and trying to wheeze the grit out. Remember? Oh, horrors!   Prisoner doctors made everyone save egg shells (from eggs bartered through the black market) and grind the shells up for us children to eat as pure
calcium.
I was weeding my garden today, pulling up pig weed. Pig weed always makes me think of Weihsien. Late in the war, our Chefoo Schools teachers taught us to identify and pick pigweed and burdock. We ate it boiled -- sort of like spinach. It has a very iron-y taste. We were weed eaters!
No matter what, our Chefoo Schools teachers insisted on good manners. There  is no such thing, they said, as one set of manners for people in the outside world and another set for the concentration camp. You could be eating the most awful-looking glop out of a tin can or a soap dish, but you were to be as refined as the two princesses in Buckingham Palace. Sit up straight. Don't stuff food in your mouth. Don't talk with your mouth full. Keep your voice down. And don't complain.
We were God's representatives in the concentration camp, our teachers said, and God was not represented well by rudeness or grumbling.

Bless my soul! No wonder we survived!

Mary Taylor Previte, USA

 

website and photo                      Natasha Petersen

                     Jun 14, 2000 07:33 PDT 

 

By: Date Email Name
                                                       (1 - 6 of 6)



                          nata-@roanoke.infi.net
                          mtpre-@aol.com
                          jebry-@yahoo.com
                          pag-@bookwright.com
                          bea-@xtra.co.nz
                          albertd-@worldnet.att.net
The above are the names on list. I found a website - weihsien - that has interesting material that can be downloaded. I printed one titled Light & Darkness that compares the conditions at Weihsien to an internment camp in Texas. I have not had time to go through all that is offered at the site. I also wondered what you think of the following idea.
Each one on the list to give a short bio along with scanned photo taken shortly after release from Weihsien. I do not have a scanner, but Kinko's here in Roanoke charge $10 for one photo scanned onto a disc. I will try to get mine done within the next few days.
Natasha
to subscribe    blank e-mail to weihsien--@topica.com
to post message        send to         weih-@topica.com

 

 

hope that this helps!                      Natasha Petersen

                     Jun 15, 2000 09:50 PDT 


                        LIST INFORMATION


                        To post a message: weih-@topica.com
                        To subscribe: weihsien--@topica.com
                        To unsubscribe: weihsien-u-@topica.com

                        For more information about this list, visit:

                            
http://www.topica.com/lists/weihsien


                        NEW OPTIONS FOR READING AND POSTING


- Read and receive your messages online - unclutter your inbox! - Post messages online - so you don't have to remember the list address- Put your account on vacation hold- Choose individual messages or digestsTo edit your list preferences, go to:
http://www.topica.com/lists/weihsien/prefsTo read and post online, or search the archives, go to http://www.topica.com/lists/weihsien/read Definitely check these out! You can either login to your existing account or set up your free new Topica account at: http://www.topica.comThen, click on "Your Lists" and select this list!
Enjoy!
Regards, Natasha
Let me know if there still is a problem

 

looking for clinkers                      jebry-@yahoo.com

                     Jul 01, 2000 20:27 PDT 

 

   Does anyone remember getting up before daylight and
going to the ash piles to look for clinkers, coal that had not burnt completely? I also  remember that we were all in groups of six or eight and we collected can  labels from the cans that came in packages or from the trash the  Japanese soldiers threw out, which could still be the cans from packages  to the internees. The group I was in had collected 650 labels by the  time we were liberated. Perhaps, after the drops if we had continued to  collect them we would have made 5000, huh? Love to all , Emily.




Attachment: image/pjpeg

 

Re: message from Weihsien                      Pamela Masters

                     Jul 04, 2000 16:23 PDT 

 

Natasha, Natasha! -- You'll have to read The Mushroom Years, my book on Weihsien, which covers dear Amelia, and a heck of a lot of other things.
Most of the questions you've asked to date on the Weihsien web page – which incidentally, I think is excellent -- I've covered in that zany little opus. Both Major Stan Staiger (who lives close by me in Reno, Nevada) and Des Power said they couldn't put the darn book down. Incidentally, Staiger's comments on the Amela Earhart saga finally put Jim Hannon's story to rest. Hannon, if you recall, was the lieutenant who parachuted in and banged up his shoulder on landing. He wrote a movie script covering his conclusions on a wasted woman, called "The Yank", that he found in camp, and who was spirited away (according to him) in a Japanese Betty Bomber! Very Hollywood, and very intriguing. Trouble was, there wasn't a scrap of truth in it! I don't know about you, but I feel our own lives have so much intrigue already in them, who needs Hollywood?!? All the best for now.
Pamela

Natasha Petersen wrote:

Hello!
I have been reading documents found on the site 'Weihsien'. I found the following, that is part of a document sent to the State Department.
Apparently, there was some question of Amelia Earhart being at Weihsien.
Weihsien was not a prisoner of war camp. It was a Civilian Assembly  Camp - an internment camp. According to a 1995 letter by one of the American soldiers who liberated Weihsien on August 17;, 1945 there were no Japanese military personnel in charge of the camp. It was run by a Mr. Izu of the Japanese Consular Service. All internees were well documented. Amelia Earhart was not there.
On the 18th a general inspection was made of the camp and twelve internees were hospitalized and selected for early departure due to poor health. They were evacuated by C-47 on the 28th.............
My memory is certainly of a number of Japanese soldiers and officers at our camp.
I am probably misreading the whole document. The document is about Amelia Earhart, and perhaps part of this was a hoax.
Comments anybody?
Natasha


Re: message from Weihsien                      Beard

                     Jul 05, 2000 19:40 PDT 

 

On 4 July, Natasha Petersen wrote:

             <snip>
Weihsien was not a prisoner of war camp. It was a Civilian Assembly Camp - an internment camp. According to a 1995 letter by one of the American soldiers who liberated Weihsien on August 17;, 1945 there were no Japanese military personnel in charge of the camp. It was run by a Mr. Izu of the Japanese Consular Service.

< <snip>

 

 

For clarification, I refer you to 'Shantung Compound', Langdon Gilkey (1966) p44. "Strictly speaking....we were in...'puppet' territory, held by the Japanese since 1937...Thus we were under the Consular Service...Our guards were a part of the [Japanese] consular guard rather
than soldiers in the regular army."
I was interested to read on at p34 about Izu, the Japanese official in charge of housing and engineering, whose 'boss' was Koza - p44. This raises an interesting question which relates to Natasha's quote, stating that "It [the Weihsien Civilian Assembly Centre] was run by a Mr Izu of the Japanese Consular Service". Were there in fact two officials named Izu, or could it have been that the one and the same Izu had by the end of camp been promoted to the position of Camp Commandant? Can anyone throw light on the matter?
In 'Chinese Escapade' (1949), Laurance Tipton (who together with Arthur Hummel -later to become US Ambassador to China - were the two June '44 escapees), makes reference on p.232 to the Japanese airfield at Ershilipu, some five miles from the camp. There was also a Japanese garrison at Fangzi, five miles to the s.w. These regular troops would have backed up our 50 or so guards should there have been any mutiny in the camp. It appears that the bell up on Block 23 belltower would have been used by the Japanese guards as a call for assistance in an emergency - hence their palpable anger when the bell was rung by pranksters on VJ Day. Does that ring any bells for anyone!!        
David Beard

 

Weihsien and Amelia Earhart.                      mtpre-@aol.com

                     Jul 07, 2000 23:43 PDT 

 

The Amelia Earhart controversy rages on. After Associated Press articles appeared across the USA about my finding our liberators, someone from the Amelia Earhart Society tracked me down. He contacted me again and again and again. He quizzed and he quizzed and he quizzed. I told him I was 12 years old when we were liberated. I most certainly did not know names of all the grown ups in the camp. I knew of no Amelia Earhart. No answer I gave him satisfied him. I felt that he wanted only one answer -- that Amelia Earhart was in Weihsien. I referred him to members of our liberation team. I referred him to grown ups in the camp. I referred him to all the books. As far as I know, he contacted none of them. I finally stopped responding to this man's inquiries.
This man told me that Jim Hannon had released a book about Amelia Earhart last year with Pacific American Books. I asked Jim Hannon about it. (I keep in regular touch with each member of the rescue team.) Gin Hannon (Jim's wife) told me she wished it were true. The book has not yet been released.   

I believe they hope to release the book this year, timed with the 55th anniversary of the ending of the war. I believe the title will be: Amelia Earhart, 1945.

When I visited Jim and Gin Hannon in Palm Springs in February , they showed me the planned cover of the Amelia Earhart book in a portfolio of Jim's writing. Jim is a prolific writer.

Several years ago, The Amelia Earhart Society published an interview with one of our liberators -- no real name given -- telling about his finding this woman whom the Japanese kept doped in Weihsien. Jim Hannon was the source of this interview.   He said the Japanese kept her under guard and separated from the rest of the prisoners in the camp.   She was cared for by a nun, he says.   They called her "The Yank."   Jim Hannon has not been able to tell me exactly where in the camp "The Yank" was detained.

Jim himself has told me this story.

No other member of the rescue team knows anything about Amelia Earhart in Weihsien. Langdon Gilkey, author of Shantung Compound, says there was no such person. Amelia Earhart is not on any prisoner list I have seen.

After National Public Radio broadcast the story about the liberation of Weihsien on May 11, Gin Hannon wrote to me that they were deluged with dozens of e-mails from the Amelia Earhart Society people. Most of these letters challenged the validity of the facts in the broadcast. I have not been able to find out from Gin Hannon what facts these people challenged. For certain, not one of them was there on August 17, 1945.
I agree with Pamela Masters. Yes, yes, yes. You must read her book, The Mushroom Years. You will not be able to put it down. It's wonderful.   You can order it from Pam-@hendersonhouse.com She discusses the Amelia Earhart controversy extensively in her Author's Note.

Mary Taylor Previte, New Jersey

 

Re: Weihsien and Amelia Earhart.                      Pamela Masters

                     Jul 08, 2000 08:25 PDT 

 

Dear Mary --
So you went through a hounding too! Don't Amelia's fans and followers ever give up? I probably will regret writing this, but I must. My sister Margo knew who the Yank was. She always has. The woman was a very close personal friend of our family who went through a nervous breakdown in the camp. `She contacted Margo as soon as they both hit the States. She was still in dreadful straits, but over a couple of years, with lots of therapy and help from her loving husband and children, she pulled out of it and can now look back without the trauma of those
years grabbing at her guts. They're a beautiful family, and none of them deserves to be hounded at this date. Why, oh why, can't the AE Society, Jim Hannon, and all the others out there stop dishing up this baseless story!?!
Sorry, Hon, didn't mean to get so worked up on this, but it seems so pointless, and almost cruel to those who really cared for Amelia Earhart.
Thanks for the kind remarks on The Mushroom Years -- you're a real friend.
Best love -- Pamela


reflections                      Natasha Petersen

                     Jul 09, 2000 07:49 PDT 

 

Hello everyone!
I am groggy not as a result of drinking, but from memories of Weihsien.
They came flying into my mind, and my head is about to burst from thoughts of the past. Pamela, thank you so much for sending me your book. I, as other readers, found it difficult not to finish the book in one sitting.    Helping the cooks of Kitchen 2 I remember as hard work, but fun. Cooking in the Diet Kitchen taught me to cook without a recipe. Laundry duty at the hospital was horrible - bloody sheets etc., and not enough soap. My hands were red and rough for the duration of my laundry duty. I believe that the most unpleasant duty was to wash out and to disinfect the latrine. I smoked my first cigarette up at the bell tower. I enjoyed school, but am amazed that our teachers were able to hold classes and teach us.
I remember the first night in Weihsien. Some slept on tatamies (?) some on the floor. I know that I was not with my father that night, and cried myself to sleep. I remember scrounging for partially broken furniture that had been piled up somewhere in the compound. The early spring was very cold, and I kept my head under the blanket. For a very short time, my father and I supplemented our camp diet with tinned food that we had brought. Unfortunately, our supply soon ran out. I remember the outdoor dances. I did not go to many of the ones held indoors.

    I must not ramble on and on. Thanks Pamela. I am looking forward to seeing you again.
I have found through a local bookstore, that the one and only copy (they say) of Tipton's book is $120 I have written to the UK and Colorado. I hope that I will be able to get a copy for less. I have also requested a copy from the Library of Congress.
David Beard, describe the gardening. Perhaps I worked there too.

Desmond, have you been in touch with Arthur K. and ? Clark?
Natasha

 

 

Gardening                      Beard

                     Jul 10, 2000 03:11 PDT 

 

Hello all!
Natasha asked me to describe the gardening. Well, Natasha, firstly, you wouldn't have worked there, because it was just a leisure occupation – a fun thing, tilling a plot af land right by the hospital. Looking at the map in 'Shantung Compound', adjacent to p.146, the plot was probably between No 59 and the hospital.

It was basically 'social gardening'. I can't remember who else was involved, apart from the teenage White Russian girl from N.E.China. We enjoyed messing around with seeds and plants, trying to get things to grow.
There was some sort of thatched enclosure nearby, in which we took breaks from gardening if the sun was too hot, as it was quite often. Jim Taylor has informed me that some of our school staff, keeping an eagle eye, it seems, on our activities, were concerned lest there was some sort of hanky-panky going on in there at these times!
Can anyone else better describe the 'thatched enclosure'?
David Beard

 

Re: Gardening                      Pamela Masters

                     Jul 10, 2000 06:34 PDT 

 

Hi David -- I remember the garden patches out that way, as I often visited my Dad who did the book binding. Don't tell me you never got a wiff of that horrible fish glue he used? Just before you came to 58 and 59, there was the women's sewing room, if memory serves correctly, and Dad's stinky little workshop was either attached to it, or very close by. Incidentally, I thought the vegetable gardens looked great. Of course, it could have been because anything green and edible looked great to me in those days! – the memories keep piling. Have a great day! -- Pamela


Re: email list of internees                      mtpre-@aol.com

                     Jul 21, 2000 19:48 PDT 

 

Welcome, Stanley Nordmo,
Where are you writing from? And who told you about our wonderful Weihsien memory bulletin board?
You have a couple of months of catching up to do. This memory link started following   National Public Radio's May 11 broadcast in the USA about the liberation of Weihsien. Former Weihsien internees began connecting with memories.

I do hope you'll start cranking out your own Weihsien memories right away.
So far we've chattered away about liberation day, Boy Scouting, bird watching, gardening, gaoliang and ludo for breakfast, and much, much more.
I've sent a few of the memories to the Chefoo Magazine.
I'm so glad you've joined us. Please pass the word to other Weihsien people who have e-mail addresses.

Mary Taylor Previte, New Jersey, USA

 

 

Re: email list of internees                      Stanley Nordmo

                     Jul 21, 2000 22:28 PDT 

 

Hi, Mary
I am writing from Phoenix Arizona. Natasha Peterson sent me an e-mail about the Weihsien bulletin board. We are both registered to attend an Old China Hands reunion in Scottsdale this October. The organizer Peter Stein has been communicating with us via e-mail and did send out a an e-mail list.
The reunion is now at full capacity so the waiting list has been closed.
Close to 90% of the OCH registrants have bonds with Shanghai and the 9 internment camps in the vicinity   Other places represented include Tientsin, Peking, Harbin, Tsingtao, Macau, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Kuling, Taming, Hankow. Weihsien and Chefoo. Many of the registrants listed more than one place particularly with reference to schools attended.
There will be six of us from Weihsien including Pamela Masters . In the 1999 issue of The Chefoo Magazine, you mentioned in your whole hearted endorsement of her book The Mushroom Years that Major Stanley Staiger had read it through non-stop and felt that it should be a best seller.
As a retired pathologist I recall some of the medical aspects. It seems that 'yellow' jaundice was prevalent. In retrospect I assume that what we had was only hepatitis A which ordinarily does not lead to long term liver damage. This did however keep me from becoming a blood donor. With the footwear that we didn't have, it was easy to stub a toe and get a secondary infection. Antibiotics of course were not available to us. I was on the trainload out of Weihsien since I had come down with typhoid and was then treated at the German hospital in Tsingtao. It is really surprising that we never had a polio epidemic. The theory is that people exposed to unsanitary conditions are in a sense protected by building up immunity. As a senior medical student at Boston University School of Medicine, we had a polio epidemic in the city. The patients who came down with polio were . usually from the affluent suburbs and not from the slums.
Stanley Nordmo, Phoenix, Arizona. U.S.A.

 

 

Re: "yellow" jaundice in Weihsien                      mtpre-@aol.com

                     Jul 23, 2000 15:16 PDT 

 

Welcome aboard, Stanley Nordmo,

    Yes, I remember "yellow" jaundice. I'm another Weihsien student who was  alleged to have had "yellow" jaundice in the camp. That's one of my memories  of the Chefoo Lower School Dormitory (LSD) in Block 23. And because of it I,  too, have never been allowed to give blood.
    Does anyone else remember the makeshift stoves prisoners built inside  these rooms? Our teachers -- Miss Carr, Miss Stark, Miss Lucia --  constructed a stove for cooking right in the middle of the LSD dormitory.
When eggs were available, they cooked scrambled eggs on that stove. I suppose  the fuel was coal or coal dust or coal balls.
    Eggs also supplied egg shells -- for calcium. As decent food diminished  and threatened our health, I remember the Chefoo teachers lining us up at the  door of the dormitory and spooning powdered eggshells onto our tongues -- a  primitive calcium supplement. Horrible! Horrible! It felt like chewing sand.
We used to cough out and wheeze out as much of the powdered eggshell as we  could. I was fascinated to see Weihsien reports in the National Archives  verifying our eating egg shells - "very poor quality." When our Taylor  family took a memory trip to Weihsien, I made my daughter take a memory  picture of me with my tongue out on that very spot by the door of the  dormitory.
    That building is gone now. Actually, not much is left of the Weihsien we  knew except the long rows of rooms.
    But Shantung officials recently passed along an inquiry to me: Is anyone  in America --government, church -- interested in re-constructing the site of the concentration camp? (Through roundabout channels, these Shantung authorities had gotten a copy of my book. The part about Weihsien has been translated into Chinese. Can you believe it -- an article quoting from my book appeared in a Chinese newspaper this year! Amazing!)
    Mary Taylor Previte, New Jersey, USA

 

 

State of Weihsien CAC site to-day                      Beard

                     Jul 23, 2000 21:06 PDT 

 

Mary Previte's info. about the reported interest of Shandong authorities in reconstructing the site of the '43-45 Weihsien CAC site is fascinating. But is it in any way realistic? Mary, what strings can you pull? Bill Gates?!
When I visited Weihsien in June '86, Block 23 had just been demolished.
The hospital and the nearby water tower, where I had pumped zillions of gallons of water, still stood, as did the former Japanese guard quarters which in '86 was Weifang No 2 Middle School building.
Some time before I visited Weifang (Weihsien), a memorial plaque to Eric Liddell was unveiled at the No 2 Middle School building.
Regrettably I didn't know about it at the time and wasn't shown it.
Since then, of course, as many of you will know, a memorial walled garden, with moongate, was built by the Chinese on the site of the internment camp, providing a beautiful setting for Scotland's memorial to it's greatest sporting son Eric Liddell - a red Mull granite monument, engraved in gold in both Chinese and English. A V-J Day 50th anniversary celebration ceremony was held there on 17th Augusst 1995.
So, who has been at the old camp site recently? Any comments?
David Beard
mtpre-@aol.com wrote:

 

<snip>    
     That building is gone now. Actually, not much is left of the Weihsien we knew except the long rows of rooms.
     But Shantung officials recently passed along an inquiry to me: Is anyone in America -- government, church -- interested in re-constructing the site of the concentration camp? (Through roundabout channels, these Shantung authorities had gotten a copy of my book. The part about Weihsien has been translated into Chinese. Can you believe it -- an article quoting from my book appeared in a Chinese newspaper this year! Amazing!)

 

State of camp                      Stanley Nordmo

                     Jul 24, 2000 02:05 PDT 

 

I was there in September 1989 after David Beard's 1986 trip and did see the room set aside for the history of the compound with photographs and memorabilia portraying the Presbyterian missionaries with one display case honouring Eric Liddell, and many others featuring the exploits of the school in the decades. since the war.
The original hospital building was still intact in1989 and had been converted into student housing. After getting permission, albeit given rather reluctantly, we climbed to the room on the top floor where we had bunked as teenage internees,.The accommodations for the current occupants were just as primitive and short of space as they had been 44 years before..

In 1995 Neil Yorkson reported that the old hospital was too squalid for them to be allowed to enter. A new hospital building was about ready to be opened 100 yards away. .

Stanley Nordmo

               

memories                      WMJ-@cs.com

                     Aug 08, 2000 04:11 PDT 

 

It's great to be on the Weihsien list and I have enjoyed the notes already  sent in. To answer the question by Stanley Nordmo, Mary Taylor Previte, and  David Beard, let me share impressions from June 20, 1999 when I went back to  China for the first time since, Oct. 1945!

My Husband, Walt Jackson, and I went with Impact International to work with  the English department of Ocean University in Qingdao. It was a wonderful  experience and we had some excellent contacts with students and I was able to  give one lecture to a class of about 50. I began by dating myself and giving  my history in their province from 1938-1945. I wrote out on the black board  how we spelled the names of the towns during that era and then wrote them as  they are today. After that I told about the Japanese invasion and subsequent  3 years interned first at Temple Hill in Chefoo, and then at Weihsien. Told  about our deliverance by the 7 valiant American paratroopers on Aug. 17,  1945...and then about the time in their town Qingdao. Showed them the  picture the girls in our class had taken with our gifts of 1,000 yuen from  the mayor of Qingdao. I wore my badge and told them all about roll-call,  counting in Japanese. etc.

Walt and I had the delightful privilege of spending a day visiting Weihsien  [now Weifang]. It had all been pre-arranged with the authorities there and  we were met by the Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and given a  tour guide for the day. He directed us to the former site of the camp. I  had my home-made map with me and my name/number badge pinned to my dress. Ha!
The modern city streets gave no hint that this had ever been the location of  the former Presbyterian Mission Station turned Weihsien Civilian Assembly  Center

I was awed and thrilled to be walking on that location and took in all I  could. Walt was designated photographer for the day. We were taken to the  beautiful 2nd Middle School building on the site of the old Block 23-former  school building. The front gate faced the front of the school so I was  confused when later former building did not fit my map...finally figured it  out that the building faced a different way and then everything fell in place.

We were given a royal welcome at the school by the Principal or President as  he is titled there. He led us up to the 2nd floor and a lovely sitting room  where we were served hot tea and fruit. I gave my greetings and appreciation  for being allowed to visit the place where I had been interned by the  Japanese in WW11 and liberated 54 years ago, [55 this summer] and expressed  my desire to see the former hospital building and any other that was still  standing and, of course, the Memorial garden featuring the beautiful Eric  Liddell memorial stone. There were 6 people in our party, and I had at least
2 Chinese speakers to interpret for me. However, the President leaned over  and told me in perfect English, "We are very proud of the 2nd Middle School  of Weifang because it is one of the finest schools in all of China, having  been founded 117 years ago by American missionaries!." He also said they are  4th in soccer.

The President also explained emphatically that they were glad to have us, but  the time needed to be short as the students were taking their examinations  that day. Knowing the importance of these exams, I assured him that we would  keep to the time limits set. There were several reporters [?] taking videos  and pictures during the entire visit. On the way to the Memorial Garden we  were informed that I am the 41st internee to return to Weihsien. Could we
  have some feed back on that? I would love to know if that is accurate.

The trip to the garden was fast and I was overwhelmed to be there... lots of  pictures and then final greetings-exchange of gifts/remembrances with the  President. [One gift he gave me was a copy of Mary Taylor Previte's "Song of  Salvation" article from 8/85 Philadelphia Sunday News Magazine]

As we walked toward the gate we passed a large gray house, our tour guide  pointed out was one of the original buildings... I was sure it must have been  one of the former missionary houses occupied by the Japanese during camp  days. I asked to see inside and was refused permission as "It is now  occupied by some of the teachers and off bounds."

We were reluctantly preparing to leave, but as we came near the gate, some of  the President's men came behind us and said to me. "Mrs. Jackson, we  understand your disappointment in not being able to see more of the  properties, we have changed our mind and we want to take you to the old  hospital building." Excitedly, we got in our van and followed the leader out  through the main entrance, driving left and then left again... very short  distance.

Getting out of the van they pointed to a very dilapidated building, much  smaller than I remembered, and said this is the old hospital. We were not  allowed inside and the time was very short, but it could have been about half  of the hospital, because I have heard from another recent visitor to that  site, that half the hospital is still standing, but will probably soon be
gone if not entirely by now.

I said, "Well if this is the hospital", pointing to the 2nd floor, "that was  my dorn room and this must have been where we had roll-call", and proceeded  to give them a demonstration. All enjoyed that and we quickly left the area.
Our tour guide was happy to take us to get some Weifang gift items, and we  found a beautiful Butterfly kite [Weifang is the Kite capital of the World],  and some good picture post-cards. Enjoyed a delicious dinner in an  air-conditioned restaurant. Remember how hot Weihsien got in the summer?

I will always be most grateful that the Lord made all this possible. Even  now a year later it still seems like a dream. Doubt that I will ever get  there again, but will read with interest any further information that is  gleaned from the former internees. Of course, I have kept up during these
years through the Chefoo Magazine, put out by the alumni of the former Chefoo  School. I had the joy of visiting Chefoo, now Yantai, the next day, but  that's another story.

I did not see the "History Room", and with the area so closely built up all  around the camp site, I wouldn't know where a re-construction could take  place.

Matters of health have been touched on. I have a few ailments that could  date back to that experience, but was recently diagnosed with Osteoporosis  which could very well date back to that time as we were so short of calcium  during bone growing years. It's serious enough that I have "fracture risk"  at any time...treatment is helping to strengthen the bones, but there is no  cure. But I often praise God that we were protected and kept well and strong  physically, spiritually and mentally, through those years. Marjorie Isobel  [Harrison] Jackson    (Brother James Paul Harrison was also interned)

 

 

Weihsien Liberation Day                      mtpre-@aol.com

                     Aug 08, 2000 20:17 PDT 

 

Hello, Everyone,

    This evening I dug out Langdon Gilkey’s memory of the liberation of Weihsien. Langdon, who lives in Virginia now, wrote SHANTUNG COMPOUND in  1966. It’s still in print. August 17 will be 55 years since seven American  heroes liberated us from Weihsien.

    “...the boy who spread the word made it clear as he ran through the  kitchen yard screaming in an almost insane excitement, ‘An American plane, and headed straight for us.’ We all flung our stirring paddles down beside the cauldrons in the kitchen, left the carrots unchopped on the tables, and tore after the boys to the ballfield. At this point the excitement was too great for any of us to contain. Suddenly I realized that for some seconds I had been running around in circles, waving my hands in the air and shouting at the top of my lungs. This plane was OUR plane. It was sent here to tell US

. To tell us the war was over. The plane’s underside suddenly opened. Out of it floated seven men in parachutes. The height of the incredible!   
Without pausing even a second to consider the danger, we poured like some gushing human torrent down the short road. The avalanche hit the front gate, burst it open and streamed past the guards. Some of the more rational internees were trying to fold the parachutes. Most of us , however, were far too ‘high’ for the task. We just stood there adoring, or ran about shouting
and dancing...”
--Langdon Gilkey, VA

    I hope this inspires you to sit down this very day and drop a note of memory or thanks to the team of “SEVEN MAGNIFICENT MEN”as Desmond Power calls them. Please, please, PLEASE drop them a note. They are now all over 80. Most of them will not be alive to thank on the 60th anniversary of their heroic rescue of Weihsien.

Mary Taylor Previte -- New Jersey, USA

 

 

Addresses of Weihsien liberators                      mtpre-@aol.com

                     Aug 08, 2000 20:25 PDT 

 

WEIHSIEN RESCUE TEAM (DUCK MISSION) -- current addresses

Mrs. Raymond Hanchulak (Helen)   (widow of Raymond)
                       Birthday of Raymond Hanchulak: August 23, 1916
                       Birthday of Helen Hanchulak: April 18
Phone: 717-472-3520
P.O. Box 4
243 Laurie Lane
Bear Creek Village, PA 18602

James J. Hannon    Birthday: November 12, 1919
Phone: 760-364-4580
P. O Box 1376,
Yucca Valley, CA 92286

James W. Moore     Birthday: October 5, 1919
Phone: 214-341-8695
9605 Robin Song Street
Dallas, Texas   75243

Tad Nagaki          Birthday: January 25, 1920
Phone: 308-762-2968
RR 2, Alliance, NE 69301

Mrs. Peter Orlich (Carol)   Widow of Peter)
                                Birthday of Peter Orlich: May 4, 1923
Phone: 718-746-8122           Birthday of Carol Orlich: June 13, 1921
15727 20th Road
Whiteston, N.Y. 11357

Stanley A. Staiger     Birthday: December 30, 1917
Phone: 775-825-3766
Village of the Pines
700 E. Peckam Lane, Apartment 259
Reno, NV   89502

 

 

Re: Weihsien Liberation Day                      jim bryant

                     Aug 09, 2000 14:37 PDT 

 

Dear Mary,

Thank you for replying to my letter. I still have things to talk to you about when you have time.
Yes we are getting your messages, including last nights.
I wanted to ask you, are there two web cites? Before Natasha started the Topica one you had started the one for Weihsien memories. I wondered if they were combined or are still seperate.
We are heavy into getting ready for Jim to retire. We are trying to get rid of a lot of excess baggage via yard sales,Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Etc. He will be retiring in October and we will have to make some kind of a move about November 1st. I really am not looking forward to another move, but I believe this should be our last for many years to come. We have a R.V. and hope to travel and visit all my Weihsien buddies. We will see.
Get a lot of rest when you can, we cannot have you under the weather. Love Emily
 

 

Fwd: Weihsien]

 Natasha Petersen

 Aug 12, 2000 05:07 PDT 

 

Our latest subscriber: ? Thompson    Can anyone help him with accessing the previous messages. I did not go through the subscribing process, but have tried to help. I am not sure whether I am correct.
Natasha

 

 

Re: [Fwd: Weihsien]                      mtpre-@aol.com

                     Aug 13, 2000 06:01 PDT 

 

Natasha,

If you give me ? Thompson's e-mail address, I can send him a lot of the  earlier Weihsien memories.   I believe he is Dr. Stanley Thompson from Iowa.
Last week I mailed out about 30 letters to Weihsien people, mostly in the  USA and Canada, telling them about the WEIHSIEN BULLETIN BOARD and urging  them to send thank you notes to our liberators on the August 17 anniversary  of our liberation. My guess is that he's responding to my letter. I hope other will also respond. I've sent past memories to quite a few Weihsien people who contacted me. I  keep trying to get them to sign onto the bulletin board.

Thank you SO much, Natasha, for this beautiful gift you've given us.

Mary Previte

 

 

Aug 17th 1945                      Thompson

                     Aug 14, 2000 12:17 PDT 

 

Since Mary wants a "memory from Aug 17th 1945" here goes:

"Although I was as thrilled as anyone else when these guys dropped from the sky, I never connected with any of them personally. I was a shy 13 year old. My friend and classmate David Birch tells me that he and I were playing ping pong in Kitchen #1 when the sound of an airplane drew us outside. When we got to the front gates they were open and we went out. I followed the kids ahead of us at a run. Thats when I was stopped by a weed patch. I don't know what they are called but they grow prostrate along the ground and produce lots of tiny little thorny tetrahedral stars that always have one thorn facing the sky. I was of course barefoot ! I lifted one foot and saw perhaps 20 thorns up to the hilt in my calluses. I knew there must be a similar number in the other foot. I wanted very much to sit down and pull them out, but that would only have put another 50 of them in my bum. I walked on the thorns for 15 or 20 steps till I got out of the patch, sat down, pulled all the blankety-blank things out of my feet and took myself home to treat my bleeding soles. As you can see, this little experience has completely colored my memory of Liberation Day !
We heard that one of the parachutists had been slightly injured, and wondered if he had known that the kao liang was 12 feet tall when he made a landing.   I remember hearing that one the guys had his 45 out as he listened to the noises converging on him and only put it away when a crowd of jubilant kids burst through the kao liang."
Stan Thompson

 

Natasha,

If you give me ? Thompson's e-mail address, I can send him a lot of the
earlier Weihsien memories.   I believe he is Dr. Stanley Thompson from Iowa.
Last week I mailed out about 30 letters to Weihsien people, mostly in the
USA and Canada, telling them about the WEIHSIEN BULLETIN BOARD and urging
them to send thank you notes to our liberators on the August 17 anniversary
of our liberation. My guess is that he's responding to my letter. I hope
other will also respond.

I've sent past memories to quite a few Weihsien people who contacted me. I
keep trying to get them to sign onto the bulletin board.

Thank you SO much, Natasha, for this beautiful gift you've given us.

Mary Previte

 

 

liberation photo

 Thompson

 

 Aug 14, 2000 16:21 PDT 

 

Does anyone know the source of this photo ? There must be quite a few copies around. Who had a camera with film in it in Aug 1945 ? On the back is a note in my mother's hand "Liberated from Weihsien Camp, Aug 1945". I have had this photo since Weihsien. It doesn't look like people, it looks more like 55 gal drums of DelMonte canned peaches, powdered coffee and the like !
Stan Thompson

 

 

Re: Aug 17th 1945

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Aug 14, 2000 18:04 PDT 

 

Great job , Stanley! Thanks for a lovely memory.
Will you please e-mail me -- now -- your telephone number?
I'm trying to get Associated Press to do an August 17 story about our  memories of the rescue. I'd like to have your phone number handy in case  they nibble.

Our rescuer, Jim Hannon, gave me a picture of the B-24 bomber dropping  supplies over Weihsien. He said a former prisoner gave it to him.
Have you a picture of yourself from around 1945?

Mary Previte

 

 

Re: Aug 17th 1945

 Thompson

 Aug 14, 2000 21:01 PDT 

 

Mary,
Here's my info.

H. Stanley Thompson M.D. (a retired professor of Neuro-ophthalmology at U of IA)
2096 Kestrel Ridge SW
Oxford, IA, 52322
Tel: 319-683-2822
Fax: 319-683-2823


 

 

Re: liberation photo

 Albert de Zutter

 Aug 15, 2000 14:02 PDT 

 

With regard to Stan Thompson's query: No, I don't know the source of the photo, but it is quite obviously a B-29 dropping supplies. The B-24 that dropped the rescuers is a two-engine job that flew much lower and dropped its supplies (the first few days) quite accurately, mostly on the ball-field. The B-29s flew much higher and spread their bounty widely over the landscape.

Al de Zutter

Does anyone know the source of this photo ? There must be quite a few copies around. Who had a camera with film in it in Aug 1945 ? On the  back is a note in my mother's hand "Liberated from Weihsien Camp, Aug 1945". I have had this photo since Weihsien. It doesn't look like people, it looks more like 55 gal drums of DelMonte canned peaches, powdered coffee and the like !
Stan Thompson

 

Douglas Finlay

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Aug 15, 2000 19:28 PDT 

 

Dear Mary,

     I have a piece of sad news to report. Yvonne Finlay phoned last night  to tell me that her husband Doug died of a heart attack. The thing I remember  most about him in Weihsien and in Tientsin right after liberation was the  overwhelming crush he had on your sister (or was it you?) while in camp.

    Desmond

Douglas Finlay, 6' 6 1/2", was one of Weihsien's superstar athletes. He and Eric Liddell used to compete. When I tracked Douglas down in Canada a year or two ago (thanks to Desmond),   Douglas told me that he had been racing on  the ballfield when this young gazelle of a girl came running after him. It  was my sister Kathleen. To the horror of our Chefoo teachers, they fell in  love. Chefoo School students were not supposed to fall in love with  non-Chefoo School people. Come to think of it, Chefoo School students  probably weren't supposed to fall in love. PERIOD.   Douglas told me that  someone -- a Chefoo teacher, I think -- even spoke of having Bishop Scott  marry them. We four Taylor children-- Kathleen, Jamie, John, and I -- were  flown out in the second planeload released from Weihsien. Kathleen never saw  Douglas again. We stayed with our missionary parents in northwest China for  about a year before returning to the United States. Douglas and his parents  returned to Tientsin for a while. He became a magazine publisher in Canada.
In the last couple of years, he had been shuttling back and forth to China in  a couple of international business ventures.

In Weihsien, Douglas's parents lived in Block 16, I think. Douglas had  lived in the Hospital until the escape of Hummel and Tipton. After the  escape, the Japanese moved all those young adult men -- and Douglas --from  the Hospital where they could see too easily over the camp wall and  transplanted them to Block 23.
I loved Douglas's mother. My own mother was too, too far away. And I hadn't  seen her for 5 1/2 years.   I remember giving Douglas's mother one of my  chocolate bars from the Red Cross.
I'm feeling so sorry that I did not talk and write more frequently to Douglas  to capture more of his memories.
Does anyone else have Douglas Finlay memories to share?

Mary Taylor Previte

 

More sad news

 Stanley Nordmo

 Aug 15, 2000 20:58 PDT 

 

Dear Mary

I do not know if you receive the China Connection or not. I just got the summer issue which carried the obituary of Marcy L. Ditmanson who died in Green Valley, Arizona (date not given) at age 81.
He attended American schools in Kweiteh, Tsingtao and Kikungshan in the class of 1936. Following graduation from Augsburg College he returned to China for graduate studies at Yenching University.

He was then interned in Weihsien where he met Joyce Stranks. (Since they were not from Chefoo, they fell in love) They married in 1948. (His parents were Lutheran missionaries in Honan province and her parents from Australia were with the Salvation Army in Peking
.
Marcy graduated from the University of Michigan medical school before he and his wife went to Taiwan where he started a clinic in Chiayi which grew into a large hospital.
He spent part of 1972 in Bangladesh treating the victims of the war with Pakistan.
In 1981 he returned to Michigan where he practiced orthopedic surgery.

I met them in 1990 at the Old China Hands Reunion in Anaheim, and again at a 1994 Northwest Regional China Council symposium held at :Linfield College, McMinnville , Oregon. As an orthopedic surgeon he had just returned from one of his many trips to China taken between 1993 and 1997 where he conducted seminars on the rehabilitation of disabled children.

I had no idea that they had moved to the retirement community of Green Valley, Arizona, located south of Tucson. .

Joyce's address: Joyce Ditmanson
2035 S. San Bay,
Green Valley AZ 85614

So long for now
Stanley Nordmo
snor-@amug.org

 

 

Re: More sad news

 Stanley Nordmo

 Aug 16, 2000 09:01 PDT 

 

Mary

Joyce Stranks is the daughter of Brigadier Stranks of the Salvation Army.
I'm sure you're right about her singing like an angel, given the musical heritage of the Salvation Army.

Oscar V. Armstrong is the editor of The China Connection which is published quarterly. The annual subscription is $12.00. He is a retired diplomat who served in China.
Address: The China Connection
4831 Drummond Ave.,
Chevy Chase MD 20815-5428
telephone 301-654-0480
The China Connection averages 16 pages per issue and covers commentary about recent events in China, past history and culture, announcement of future reunions of the many schools which operated in China, (Chefoo Schools excluded), personal reminiscences, reviews of books related to China, and an obituary column. There is virtually no overlap between the information in The China Connection and The Chefoo Magazine.

Stanley,

    Thank you for the news about Marcy Ditmanson. Do I recall correctly that Joyce Stranks ( who married Marcy) sang like an angel?   Isn't she the daughter of Brigadier Stranks of the Salvation Army in Weihsien?

    Please post details of how to sign up for the CHINA CONNECTION.

    Thanks. Mary


 Today is Liberation Day

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Aug 17, 2000 04:23 PDT 

 

Hello, everyone,

    Today is LIBERATION DAY. Fifty-five years ago, seven brave men  parachuted from a B-24 bomber named "The Armored Angel" to liberate us from  the Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center.

    I'm going to phone each one today to say thank you again. You in the  Americas, I hope you will, too. If you're too bashful to say thank you,  just call them to tell them your memory of that day. It will mean SO much to  them.

    Just a reminder:   at the age of 80, Tad Nagaki still farms his land  in Nebraska so is rarely at home before dark. Call after dark, Nebraska time  -- which is two hours later than my time here in New Jersey.

    Here are the telephone numbers.   Mary Previte, New Jersey, USA

WEIHSIEN RESCUE TEAM (DUCK MISSION) -- current addresses

Mrs. Raymond Hanchulak (Helen) widow opf Raymond Hanchulak
                        Birthday of Helen Hanchulak: April 18
Phone: 717-472-3520
P.O. Box 4
243 Laurie Lane
Bear Creek Village, PA 18602

James J. Hannon     Birthday: November 12, 1919
Phone: 760-364-4580
P. O Box 1376
Yucca Valley, CA 92286

James W. Moore      Birthday: October 5, 1919
Phone: 214-341-8695
9605 Robin Song Street
Dallas, Texas   75243

Tad Nagaki              Birthday: January 25, 1920
Phone: 308-762-2968
RR 2, Alliance NE 69301

Mrs. Peter Orlich (Carol)   widow of Peter Orlich
Phone: 718-746-8122        Birthday of Carol Orlich: June 13, 1921
15727 20th Road
Whiteston, N.Y. 11357

Stanley A. Staiger    Birthday: December 30, 1918
Phone: 702-825-3766
Village of the Pines
700 E. Peckam Lane, Apartment 259
Reno, NV   89502

 

 

P.S. on Weihsien liberation day

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Aug 17, 2000 04:50 PDT 

 

POST SCRIPT ON THE RESCUE DROP:

Rescuer Tad Nagaki was the first to tell me he remembered that August 17 was  a windy day.

Rescuer Jim Hannon says that Eddie Wang, the Chinese interpreter, froze when  his turn came to jump from the B-24 bomber that morning. Jim says he had to  push Eddie Wang out of the plane. As a result, Jim says, he himself got a  bad start on his own jump and injured his shoulder in the drop. Jim was an  experienced parachuter. Indeed, he had trained troops in parachuting.   Jim  knew all about prison camps. He, himself, had been captured by the Germans  and held in German POW camps in Europe in 1944 and had escaped.

Before they set out from Sian that morning, Jim Hannon, who was in a group  called the Air-Ground Assistance Service, advised the team that seven men  would be no match for whatever Japanese forces would meet them on the ground.  He says the team had at first planned to come heavily armed. He says he  felt that would invite disaster. As a result, each man parachuted, carrying  only one side weapon apiece.

Major Staiger says they used faster-opening Bristish parachutes. He ordered  the drop at about 400 feet -- astonishingly low -- to leave less space and  time for the Japanese to shoot at them as the team drifted to the ground.

Jim Moore, who was the son of Southern Baptist missionaries to China, had  attended and graduated the Chefoo School in the 1930s. He told me that the  first person he asked to see when he got inside the walls of the camp was  "Pa" Bruce, the headmaster of the Chefoo Schools.

Mary Previte, New Jersey, USA

 

 

Re: P.S. on Weihsien liberation day

 Albert de Zutter

 Aug 17, 2000 09:50 PDT 

 

I am attaching a column I wrote on the 50th anniversary of Weihsien Liberation Day. It appeared in The Catholic Key, weekly newspaper which I edit for the Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

Albert de Zutter

 

 

Happy Memories...and Wet Blankets!

 Pamela Masters

 Aug 17, 2000 10:50 PDT 

 

Hi Friends --
I don't know if this is the time or place to pass this on, but the date is right. Actually, this happens every August 15, to commemorate the day the Emperor surrendered 55 years ago. For all of us it's good to remember there is a flip side to our happy celebration. Japan honors
this date in quite a different way...

I received this message from Gil Hair, executive director of The Center for Internee Rights, and it shows there is still a pot simmering on the back burner, and that we'd better take the time to see if we can't turn down the heat under it. Gill wrote --

"It is that time of the year when Japanese officials make their annual pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. This event always raises the level of indignation on the part of Japan's WWII victims and survivors, for it exemplifies once more the duel standard that exists
between what the world tolerates on the Part of the WWII Axis nations -- Germany and Japan.
    "The Yasukuni Shrine is where the Japanese WWII war criminals are interred and revered. Do you think the world would tolerate a cathedral in Germany dedicated to the Nazis and the Nazi WWII war criminals? I don't think so, and rightfully so.
    "Having visited the Yasukuni Shrine three time, I'm always amazed at the special building at the shrine containing the artifacts and history of the war criminals and the glowing commentary of the Shinto priests on how the Japanese war criminals killed and butchered their enemies. It
reflects again the attitude of the Japanese that there is pride, not shame, in what was done. It further reflects the growing element of the ultra-nationalists in Japan and its support by many members of the Japanese government. This is the opposite in Germany, where the Neo-Nazi movement is strongly opposed by the German government. Isn't it time to end this dual standard of morality and to hold Japan and Germany to the same standards?"

    An article in The Japan Times, dated August 9, entitled "Eight Ministers Plan to Visit Yasukuni Shrine," listed the eight members of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's cabinet who were going to make the pilgrimage. Mori, at that time, had not made up his mind to go with the
group, or go separately...

    I am amazed at the complete dedication of Gil Hair -- who spent his war years in SantoTomas in the Philippines -- for his unending battle to see we receive an apology and reparations from Japan. Possibly, that is the only way we'll be able to cool the pot that is still slowly simmering on the back of the range...
    I started out as a member of ABCIFER, but now am also a member of CFIR, the Center for Internee Rights in Miami Beach, Florida, the organization that Gil heads. Instead of my going into all CFIR's accomplishments, maybe it would be better if you logged on to www.netcom.com/~expows and pulled up the info yourselves. Their e-mail address is exp-@bigfoot.com. For any of your friends who are not on the internet, here are some additional addresses:
The Center for Internee Rights, Inc., 6060 La Gorce Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33140 Phone: 305-864-2558;   Fax: 305-861-8550

Now, let's get back to celebrating! The past 55 years haven't all been a bowl of cherries, but I'm sure glad I was around to live them to the hilt!


-- Pamela (Bobby Simmons) Masters

 

 

Address for Joyce Ditmanson

 Stanley Nordmo

 Aug 17, 2000 12:21 PDT 

 

Mary
I just talked with Esther Ditmanson, Marcy's sister. who lives in Minneapolis.
Joyce is visiting her sister in Australia and will not be back in the States until sometime in November. Joyce will continue to make her home in Green Valley her base, but will be visiting her sons, daughter and grandchildren in California and Minnesota.
The address: Joyce Ditmanson
2035 S. San Ray,
Green Valley AZ 85614
Telephone number: 1-520-648-1163

So long for now
Stanley Nordmo
snor-@amug.org

 

 

Re: P.S. on Weihsien liberation day

 Natasha Petersen

 Aug 17, 2000 13:16 PDT 

 

Albert,
I cannot open your attachment.
Natasha

Albert de Zutter wrote:

 
I am attaching a column I wrote on the 50th anniversary of Weihsien Liberation Day. It appeared in The Catholic Key, weekly newspaper which I edit for the Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

Albert de Zutter

 

Liberation Day glimpses

 Stanley Nordmo

 Aug 17, 2000 14:18 PDT 

 

Salutations to all

I was on the top floor of the camp hospital along with fellow students, when one of us heard a faint burred humming sound. As this grew louder, our first thought was that it was just another Japanese plane. We crowded to the window and realized that the drone of the plane was unfamiliar to us, and hoped against hope that it was an American plane.
As the plane circled over the camp, we were thrilled to see the American markings and then witness the heart stopping descent of the parachutes.
One analyst concluded that the parachutes were actually deployed with attached dummies in order to draw enemy fire. Should this have occurred, then the plane would have returned to its base without completing the mission.
Fortunately for all of us, the 7 heroes risking their very lives on our behalf, gloriously fulfilled their mission
We joined in the stampede to and through the gate. to welcome our liberators. As I recall there were no casualties.
The leaders in our camp had prepared for the possibility of such a wild chaotic exuberant exodus from the compound on the day of actual liberation by creating their own police unit with the members sporting a red armbands. Their immediate task was to get the women and children back into the camp and allow only the able bodied men to recover the support supplies that had been air dropped by the rescue plane. Without their efforts, we might still be roaming the countryside.

Stanley Nordmo

 

 

Re: P.S. on Weihsien liberation day

 Albert de Zutter

 Aug 18, 2000 09:27 PDT 

 

Here's what I wrote in 1995, the 50th anniversary of Weihsien Liberation Day. It appeared in The Catholic Key, weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in
Missouri:

LIBERATION CAME AUGUST 17, 1945, ON THE WINGS OF A B-24

By Albert de Zutter
Catholic Key Editor

IT WAS A HOT August day.. From our second-story room we could look over the 10-foot brick wall topped by electrified wire into the field of grain outside the compound. That day Aug. 17, 1945   there were no peasants in coolie hats tending their crops.

We heard the drone of an airplane engine. The Japanese had a two-seater bi-plane that they flew in the area occasionally, so the sound of the engine aroused no immediate interest.

But the sound persisted, and, as we listened more carefully, we realized it was different   more powerful than the putt-putt of the single-engine bi-plane.

I remember standing at the top of the outside staircase leading up to the room where our family of four had spent the last 2-1/2 years in that Japanese prison camp in China,
and seeing the sun sparkle off the aluminum body of this unknown airplane as it turned in the
distance and started back toward us, dropping altitude. It grew larger and larger and the roar of its engines grew stronger and stronger, until finally it was almost directly overhead and we saw the insignia on its wings.

"IT'S AMERICAN! It's American!" we shouted to one another, needing one another's assurance after all that time of uncertainty about our fate and the progress of the war.

Every one of the 1,500 civilian prisoners who could walk must have come out to see this airplane, this symbol of hope and a power that perhaps could match or surpass the power of the Japanese Imperial Army of Occupation that had ruled in China for the last eight years f our lives.

Having made a low flight over the center of the walled compound, the silver bird   which, we ere told later, was a B-24   circled back and gained altitude. As I stood at the top of the outside staircase, shirtless, barefooted, my spindly legs brown from the sun sticking out from my khaki shorts, I saw the silver bird out over the field again, this time going from right to left. I was afraid it was leaving.

Then objects began dropping out of the plane and parachutes began to open, and I could see arms and legs moving!

Without further thought, I and hundreds of other prisoners rushed toward the main gate of the concentration camp and hurtled past the startled Japanese guards standing there with bayonets on rifles. We turned left on the dirt road and then pounded into the fields, heedless of the brambles and stones and thorns under bare feet.

The seven Americans were crouched down, .45-caliber Tommy-guns held ready when we reached them. It must have been a strange experience for them   and perhaps a great relief   to be rushed by a ragamuffin crowd of undernourished men, women and children instead of an armed enemy.

Those six army officers and men and one naval officer were carried triumphantly on the shoulders of the men of the camp back through the main gate. The American contingent was led by a major, to match the Japanese major who was in command of the prison camp at Weihsien. American intelligence about the camp was supplied by two young men in their 20s who had escaped and joined Chinese Nationalist forces close by. One of those men   Arthur Hummel later became the American ambassador to Beijing, appointed to that post by President
Ronald Reagan.

In the commandant's office just inside the camp gate there was a short, tense confrontation between the two majors. Following the American major's demand that the Japanese major surrender, they eyed one another for a few seconds before the Japanese commandant unbuckled his sword and laid it on the desk. The American major then requested that the Japanese forces (which numbered about 70) function as a security guard against the Communist forces, which they did until a company of American Rangers was flown in several days later.
THE DAY OF OUR LIBERATION was August 17. We found out that Japan had surrendered on August 14. The Allied Command had been worried that with the end of the war, the Chinese communists might want to make hostages of the Americans, British, Belgians, Canadians, Australians and Dutch inmates of the camp, and so had wanted to take over the camp as quickly as possible. The navy officer was a young man who had been born in China of American parents and had studied at the Chefoo school. Boarders and teachers at the school had been brought to the camp as a group.
We found out, also, that America had dropped two bombs on two Japanese cities   Hiroshima and Nagasaki   and that those bombs had destroyed those cities. We hadn't even known about the so-called "block-busters," much less about bombs that could annihilate an entire city and its people.

The atomic attacks brought an abrupt halt to World War II in the Pacific. How many lives were spared by averting the need to invade Japan will continue to be a matter of speculation. I choose to think that from their point of view President Harry S. Truman and his advisors did what they thought best under the circumstances, and that it took time for the world to come to an acute realization of the horrendous potential of nuclear warfare.

Unfortunately, during the last 50 years, the world has amassed tens of thousands of nuclear warheads, multiplying the potential for disaster and the need for responsible action to abate the threat.

Meanwhile, we have perhaps come closer to a realization of the unacceptability of all war as a means of settling disputes. We are reminded once again in the situation in Bosnia that there can be no war without atrocities, and that serial injustices accumulate into horrors of massive proportions just as surely as nuclear attack.

In retrospect, the experiences of a boy in a Japanese internment camp during World War II pale by comparison to the harsh injustices that rob life and hope from children in so many poor countries today. That fact makes all the more urgent the pleas of our popes and our bishops that we urgently apply ourselves to the task of building peace through systems of economic and political justice.

It was a commitment to fairness and justice that helped sustain life in the prison camp despite worsening scarcity of food, fuel and clothing through two bitterly cold winters. That commitment and a spirit of community which taught us to laugh and sing about camp conditions and to help one another was largely attributable to the 300 Catholic missionary priests who shared our fate for the first six months. Most of them were then repatriated in a prisoner exchange, but some 15 volunteered to stay with us for the duration.

There were impressive Protestant missionaries too. Among them was Eric Liddell (pronounced LID-ul), the Olympic champion portrayed in the movie, "Chariots of Fire," who died of a brain tumor in the camp. He coached us kids and refereed our games and repaired field hockey sticks, among other things.

I thank God for the priceless gift the example of those missionaries gave me. For a boy in his 11th, 12th and 13th years it was a practical lesson in the life-giving power of Christianity.
Nevertheless, the reality is that another winter of even more severe scarcity would have spelled the end for many. The war ended none too soon for us.

I have considered myself free and blessed ever since that liberation day of Aug. 17, 1945. But my own freedom is not enough. I thank God for America and for the spirit of freedom and equality which continue to flow through it like a strong undercurrent to the distortions of greed and self- indulgence that often beset us. I believe we can and must take responsibility for one another both within our borders and on a world-wide scale.

The End

 

China-Burma-India Veterans Association

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Aug 19, 2000 19:17 PDT 

 

Hello, Everyone,

    This Friday, August 25, I'll be speaking in Houston, Texas, to the  evening banquet of the China-Burma-India Veterans Association National  Convention. It was this veterans' group that got me started on my successful  search for our six Americans that liberated us.

    Our liberator, Jim Moore, and his wife will also be there at the  banquet. So I shall publicly honor Jim again. I'll tell them this miracle  story of our rescue and of my tracking down these heroes.

    In May 1997, when I was running for election to the New Jersey state  legislature, my two running mates asked me to substitute for them at a  banquet of an All-East Coast of the USA reunion of a group called the  China-Burma-India Veterans Association. They wanted me to present a  proclamation from the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly to honor these  veterans for their World War II service to America.   This banquet was to be  held in a hotel ten minutes from my home. Imagine it! As soon as I heard  the name of the group, a lightbulb went on in my head. China-Burma-India --  our rescuers might be at that reunion! From my treasures, I dug out their  names and carried the list to the banquet that Saturday night.

    When my turn came on the program, I read the proclamation from the  Legislature. And then I told them, "I know it was not an accident that I was  invited to substitute tonight for Senator Adler and Assemblyman Greenwald."
I briefly told the story from the eyes of a twelve-year-old -- of Americans  parachuting from the sky to liberate the camp. "I've brought their names," I  said. And I read the names to a very hushed room.

    "Is any one of my heroes here tonight?"

    I was greeted with silence and with old-timers weeping.

    But after the banquet they embraced me.   They told me I must write an  article in the CBIVA "Sound-Off" Magazine to say that I was searching for  these heroes -- to list their names, to list my own name, address, and phone  number.

    May 1997: That was the start.   The first break came in September. By  December I had found them all.   Saying thank you by telephone and letter  didn't feel quite enough, so I criss-crossed America to visit each one. I  visited the last one this February in California.   Believe me, it's been as  much a gift to me as a gift to them.

    I'll tell this story to several hundred China-Burma-India veterans on  Friday in Houston.

    Arthur Kerridge, since you live in Houston, I hope you'll come, too.

    Mary Previte
    

 

 

China Burma India Veterans Association magazine, SOUND OFF

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Aug 21, 2000 17:22 PDT 

 

Hello, Everyone,

    Dr. Stanley Nordmo asked me how to get in touch with SOUND OFF, the  magazine of the China Burma India Veterans Association. Stanley's parents  served hot meals to some downed American pilots during World War II And  veterans from the China Burma India theater flew his parents out of China.  This group may be able to provide pieces of his family history.
    They may be able to provide pieces of yours, too. Here's the address:

    Editor David Dale      Phone: 314-961-1113
    Sound Off
    P. O. Box 190374
    St. Louis, MO 63119

    The magazine is always looking for good material, so your inquiries  should be welcome. My article in SOUND OFF in 1997, brought me my first  break in tracking down the men who liberated Weihsien.

    Mary Previte

 

 

The Thompson Photograph

 R.W. Bridge

 Aug 29, 2000 12:58 PDT 

 

The photo is definitely the drop of a number of two 55gall drums welded together containing peaches, Navy pea soup or whatever. They are being dropped from a B29 Super fortress, the relief team under Major Steiger were dropped from a B24 Liberator.
The film was probably obtained from the photographers or film that was left by them as major re-supply did not start until 27th August although there were isolated drops before that date. The photographers were part of Col Bird's group that diverted into Weihsien on 20th August three days after the Steiger drop. They had been on a mission to Korea but failed and ran short of fuel and diverted to the airfield near Weihsien. The party contained both a press representative and a photographer. It is known that he took photos in the camp ( Record in a scrap of contemporary diary) They also took out their aircraft the following day for a low fly past on the Tuesday 21st August.
The Col Bird group left on Wed 22nd August 1945, on departure they did a low pass over the Camp. The same day that Lt Hannon gave a talk on prison camps of Italy and Germany.
Has anyone any evidence re Hepatatis in Weihsien, I have read Stanley Nordmo's report and I would be grateful for any information. Has anyone medical journal authority published anything on this. The info is needed because the UK Pensions Agency steadfastly refuse to believe that hygiene conditions in Japanese Camps were bad enough to allow Hepatitis to have occurred. I am fighting on behalf of a coupe that were not in Weihsien. Perhaps Stanley Nordmo could communicate directly. IF it is R W Bridge Chillies Oast, Chillies Lane, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 3TB England.
I learnt of the Memory board from Norman Cliff. My Weihsen address was Block 13 Room 11/12 although when we first arrived in March 1943 it was Block 42 Room 6
Rgds
Ron Bridge

 

 

Humanitarian Rescue Missions

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Aug 29, 2000 20:00 PDT 

 

Welcome to our Weihsien bulletin board, Ron Bridge,

    Our Chefoo teachers said I had "yellow jaundice" in Weihsien. I've never  had proof of that diagnosis. But for sure, here in the USA, because of that  diagnosis, I've never been allowed to give blood.

    I was also interested in your note that Lt. Jim Hannon had lectured in  Weihsien on POW camps in Italy and Germany. Lt. Hannon had been captured in  Italy in 1944 and was held in several POW camps. He has described to me how  he escaped and walked across Europe until he bumped into US troops. After a  de-briefing in Washington, he was sent to China in a group called the Air  Ground Aid Service (AGAS) -- a group that specialized in rescuing downed  pilots. The other members of our team were all in the Office of Strategic  Services (OSS) -- which was affectionately called Oh, So Secret or Oh, So  Social -- because some of the OSS were from Ivy League schools. On our  rescue team, Jim Moore was the only college graduate (Harden Simmons  University in Texas). Major Staiger was snatched out of University of Oregon  after his third year.   He never finished college.

    To this day, rivalry continues between Jim Hannon and the OSS members of  our rescue team.   Late in August, 1945, the OSS members were sent to  Tsingtao to establish a Marine base there. Jim Hannon remained to help  evacuate prisoners from Weihsien.

    Have any of you read THE DEFEAT OF JAPAN? I got it from our public  library. Threaded through this book is the fascinating story of the American  humanitarian rescue teams that liberated Weihsien and the other civilian  internment camps dotted around China and Manchuria. These were supposed to  have been do-or-die missions. One of these teams was, indeed, almost  executed by the Japanese.

    Our own rescue team had a few tense moments when they got inside the  camp. One of our liberators, Jim Moore, says the Japanese at Weihsien said  that the Americans should have brought official papers notifying the Japanese  of their assignment.

    Our liberators tell a strange story about Colonel Byrd. The Byrd team  had been assigned to liberate another civilian camp, but failed in its  mission. Our liberators tell me that Colonel Byrd then came into Weihsien  and wanted to take over the camp from Major Staiger. Sort of a save-face  move. Major Staiger would have none of it.
Weihsien was his.

    
The winter 1999 issue of Sound-Off, the quarterly magazine of the  China-Burma-India Veterans Asociation, included the following article by Joe  Shupe: Wedemeyer: "If You Fail, It's a Court-Martial"

    Here are exerpts:

    The noteworthy accomplishment of MGen George H. Olmstead, 92, West Point  graduate, "was the rescue of some 30,000 POWs. Shortly before the Japanese  surrender, China Theater Headquarters got the word that a Japanese collapse  was imminent and that the POWs had to be rescued immediately to save them  from possible harm.

    "With insufficient resources to rescue them, Olmstead laid out a rescue  plan to his superior, Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer: the latter's response was:  'That's the craziest scheme I have ever heard of in the U. S. Army. Try it.  If it fails, remember we are readying courts-martial charges against you.'

    "Olmstead first ordered leaflets dropped. Then he sent a single plane  carrying six unarmed men to parachute into each camp with a letter to the  camp commander. It said the Allies knew the number of POWs in each camp and  would hold the camp commander responsible if harm came to any POW.

    " 'It worked,' he said later. 'But I had some sleepless nights.' "

    Mary Taylor Previte, New Jersey

 

 

Honoring liberator Jim Moore

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Sep 03, 2000 18:51 PDT 

 

Hello, Everyone,

    The China-Burma-India Veterans Association (CBIVA) national convention  honored our Weihsien liberator Jim Moore with the on-their-feet, clapping,  weeping, flash-bulb-popping recognition Jim deserves. More than 400 CBI  veterans attended the weeklong event held in Houston, Texas, last week.

    What an extraordinary experience to honor Jim in this way in front of his  peers!

     If I had had my wish, I would have arranged just such a public honor for  each one of the heroes who liberated the camp. Yes, I've been successful in  getting newspapers or Associated Press in each one of their communities to  spotlight their heroism and to tell their astonishing story. But as I've  crosscrossed the USA, I've been able to honor only three of the team (or  their widows) -- Jim Moore, Helen Hanchulak, Carol Orlich -- by having them  with me when I told the story publicly to their peers.

    A public display didn't work out or didn't seem appropriate for the other  three --  when I visited Major Stanley Staiger (Nevada), Tad Nagaki (Nebraska), and Jim  Hannon (California). Major Staiger is very frail. What suited THEM was the  proper way to honor them -- not what suited ME.

    So the private reunions were lovely in their own way
    Real heroes don't think of themselves as heroes. Our rescuers don't. In  fact, they get down right embarrassed when I call them heroes. They usually  say something like, "I only did what any other American would have done."

    I spoke to the Friday night banquet of the China-Burma-India Veterans  Association -- a packed house of World War II veterans and their spouses in  Houston. Men and women wept as I told the story of Weihsien and America's  rescuing angels parachuting from the skies, the miracle of our family reunion  after not seeing our parents for 5 1/2 years I told them the miracle of my  finding these heroes more than 50 years later -- one hero at a time.

    "My silent weeping turned into sobs when you introduced Jim Moore," the  banquet hostess told me later that night.

    I didn't think the flash bulbs and the requests for autographs and hand  shakes and tears would ever stop around Jim and his wife Pat on Friday night.  It was absolutely beautiful.

    The daughter and son-in-law of Emily Bryant (a Weihsien internee and one  of our Weihsien bulletin board members) drove from Waco, Texas, to Houston to  attend the banquet also.

    Jim Moore's story is one not even a skilled novelist could match. Jim is  the son of Southern Baptist missionaries to China who attended and graduated  from our very own Chefoo school. He returned to America in 1937, graduated  from Hardin-Simmons University and joined the FBI. Jim read about the capture  of his/our school in the Chefoo School's alumni magazine -- that his  teachers and little brothers and sisters of his classmates had been marched  into concentration camp. He read of classmates dying in the war. FBI  members were deferred from military service. But Jim resigned from the FBI,  joined the Navy and the Office of Strategic Services -- which was looking for  people who could speak Chinese -- and was in Kunming, training 15- and  16-year-old Chinese paratroopers-in-training when the OSS started pulling  together these hastily-constituted teams to liberate the civilian internment  camps. Jim volunteered to join the team that liberated Weihsien.

    What a story!

    Nothing I have done in the last three years -- not even being elected to  the New Jersey state Legislature -- equals the joy of finding and honoring  these heroes and in reconnecting with you who shared the Weihsien experience.

    Mary Taylor Previte

 

 

Article in Houston Chronicle, September 4

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Sep 03, 2000 19:01 PDT 

 


    A story and picture about the Weihsien liberation is scheduled to appear  on Monday, September 4, in the Houston Chronicle. The reporter is Robert  Tutt. You may be able to read it on the Houston Chronicle Internet site on  http://www.chron.com

    Mary Previte

 

 

Today's Houston Chronicle has a story entitled Former Prisoner Recalls  Liberation of Concentration Camp. It is a follow up of the recent  China-Burma-India Veterans Association convention in Houston.   This story  was to have appeared last Monday.
You can read the story on the internet via
http://www.chronicle.com//     or  on HoustonChronicle.com
The reporter is Bob Tutt.

Mary Previte

 

 

 

Re: article

 Beard

 Sep 12, 2000 15:28 PDT 

 

I think we are mostly in the same boat when it comes to articles from the Houston Chronicle. Maybe someone who can access them, could copy them and paste them into the main body of an email message and send them to the List that way.
Margaret Beard (David's wife)
Pamela Masters wrote:


Ditto and likewise -- Pamela

Natasha Petersen wrote:

 

Help!
I am unable to access the article in the Houston Chronicle.
Natasha


Weihsien, location...Re: Houston Chronicle

 Frank Otto

 Sep 13, 2000 08:01 PDT 

 

Mary,
I've had people ask me for the exact location of the camp. Thanks.
Frank
 

Re: article on: Former captive recalls U.S. liberation of camp

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Sep 15, 2000 17:12 PDT 

 

Hello, Natasha, and everyone on the Weihsien bulletin board,

Several have written that you couldn't find the article in the Houston  Chronicle.
I was able to get the Houston Chronicle article on Monday, Sept 11. Look  for www.HoustonChronicle.com     Then click on metro section and it's there  A friend also sent me a print out from the Internet. At the bottom of the  print out is:
http://www.chon.com/cs/CDA/strory.hts/metropolitan/662647
Good luck.

Mary Previte

 

 

Re: article on: Former captive recalls U.S. liberation of camp

 Beard

 Sep 15, 2000 18:05 PDT 

 

Mary, www.HoustonChronicle.com didn't work. We can't get into the Houston Chronicle Archives without being paid up subscribers.
There are two spelling errors in the URL you copied from the bottom of the article your friend gave you and computers are VERY fussy about spelling! The errors are: chon should be chron; strory should be story.
If these are corrected you get an accessible page at:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/662647
In case anyone still has problems, I will paste the story below.

Margaret Beard
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sept. 11, 2000, 11:00AM
Former captive recalls U.S.liberation of camp
By BOB TUTT
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle

    By the morning of Aug. 17, 1945, Mary Taylor Previte, the 12-year-old daughter of missionaries in China, had been a Japanese prisoner more than 3 1/2 years.

    When she awoke that day in a prison camp near the city of Weihsien in a coastal area of northeast China, she was still recovering from a bout with dysentery and diarrhea.

"I can remember lying there feeling horrible," Previte recalled,  "and then I that was getting closer."
    She sprang from the top of a steamer trunk serving as her bed,  and through a barrack window she glimpsed a low-flying four-engine aircraft.
    Appropriately enough, it was an American B-24 Liberator bomber, and she shortly spotted six parachutists dropping from the aircraft's bomb bay. 
"Believe me, that was an instant cure for diarrhea," Previte recalled. 
    She shared the story of her camp's liberation at a recent gathering here of veterans who had served in World War II's China-Burma-India theater.
"I decided to run for the prison gate and be one of the first ones to welcome whoever it was," she said, "but it seemed that everyone else got there first."
    The camp's prisoners had had no way of learning that Japanese leaders had agreed to surrender unconditionally three days earlier. 
Similarly unarmed, six-man teams like the one coming to Previte's prison camp were in the process of going to other Japanese camps.
Altogether about 30,000 prisoners, military and civilian, were being successfully freed.

In her camp, she recalled, "Everyone went berserk, weeping, hugging each other, pounding the ground.Men were taking off their shirts and waving them because they wanted to be sure those in the plane had spotted the camp."
Ignoring the Japanese guards, she said, "people just pushed out the camp's gate, something that previously could have got them shot."
Men who were "just skin and bones, who had lost 100 pounds" lifted these "six beautiful, young Americans on their shoulders and carried them into the camp."

There, Previte says, a Salvation Army Band welcomed them with a specially prepared "victory medley" that it had been practicing for a long-hoped-for day of liberation.

It was an amalgam of Happy Days Are Here Again, strains of the national anthems of the Allied powers and excerpts of hymns.

She says that as the band played the part of the American anthem, Major Stanley A. Staiger, leader of the rescue team, slid from the shoulders of the prisoners to a standing salute.
And then, she added, "A young American trombonist in the band crumbled to the ground and began to weep. He knew what we all knew. We were free.
"There were some brief, very nervous moments,"Previte said, "but the Japanese must have known the war was over and turned over the camp. 
"And did we love those American men. They were like the Pied Piper.
There was a trail of children wherever they went. Those guys went gaga over older girls like my sister, Kathleen, who was 17. (The girls) got insignias as souvenirs; younger children got pieces of parachutes."

Previte regards the camp's six rescuers as "guardian angels" who saved her life and notes that the name given the B-24 that transported them happened to be Armored Angel. 
She stays in contact with all of them or their widows.
In addition to Stanley Staiger, who lives at Reno, Nev., they were the late Raymond Hanchulak of Bear Creek Village, Pa.; James J. Hannon of Yucca Valley, Calif.; James W. Moore of Dallas; Tad Nagaki of Alliance, Neb.; and the late Peter Orlich of Whitesen, N.Y.

Previte notes the special significance of Moore's participation in the operation. The son of Southern Baptist missionaries to China, he was born there and learned to speak Chinese.

He had attended the same school in the city of Chefoo as had Previte, her sister and two brothers and their classmates being held at the Weihsien prison camp. It was set up for the children of missionaries and was called the Chefoo School.

The Japanese had claimed ownership of that school the day after their Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and later moved the students and faculty to the Weihsien camp.

Moore had gone to live in America, graduated from Hardin Simons College in Texas, then became an FBI agent. That made him exempt from military service, but he felt a duty to contribute directly to the war effort.
So, over the objections of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, he joined the Navy and became an officer.

Because he spoke Chinese he was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. He volunteered to participate in the rescue of prisoners at the Weihsien camp because he knew people from the Chefoo School were there.

When he arrived at the prison camp he immediately asked to see P.A. Bruce, the school's superintendent.

Previte, 67, who resides at Haddonfield, N.J., is director of an agency that assists juvenile delinquents in mending their ways. She also serves as an assemblywoman in the state legislature.

She speaks with reverence of the teachers and other adults at the Weihsien prison camp. They nurtured the children there and strived "to keep hope alive" that ultimately the Allies would win the war.

Of some 1,300 prisoners, mostly British and Americans, held there, she estimates that about a third were children.

Their teachers stressed that the Chefoo students continue their studies so as not to fall behind children in the free world. Thus they provided these youngsters a very structured life. 
The prison camp was set up on what had been the campus of a Presbyterian school. A wide variety of people were held there, including businessmen, academics, physicians and entertainers. 
The prisoners promoted cultural events ranging from plays to musical programs to philosophical discussions. 
As time went on, Previte said, doctors in the camp became alarmed about how the camp's poor diet, especially insufficient in calcium, was affecting the health of children.

Those able to get eggs on a black market were asked to save the shells so that they could be roasted, ground into a powder and administered to children as pure calcium. 
Previte remembers how awful spoonfuls of that powder tasted. 
About 15 years years ago Previte gained an insight into what a brave front so many adults in the camp must have been putting up for the sake of the children. 
This came when she visited the headmistress of the school, who was then living in England.

"I would pray every night," she confessed, "that when the Japanese would line us up and make us dig death trenches before shooting us, that God would let me be one of the first they would shoot." 
Previte's parents, James Hudson Taylor II and Alice Taylor, Free Methodist Church missionaries, had been working in the Yellow River basin in central China before managing to escape advancing Japanese forces.

After liberation, Previte, her sister, and two brothers, James Hudson Taylor III, 16, and John Taylor, 10, and their grandfather, Herbert Hudson Taylor, 80, a retired missionary with them in the prison camp, were reunited with their parents for the first time in 5 1/2 years.
First, fighting between Chinese and Japanese forces, then the internment of the Chefoo School students and teachers had kept the family apart.

 

 

Re: article on: Former captive recalls U.S. liberation of camp

 Pamela Masters

 Sep 18, 2000 06:59 PDT 

 

Thanks Mary --
What a fabulous article! I've printed it out in its entirety and now is part of my Weihsien file -- along with the other stories of all you neat "survivors".
Best to you always -- Pamela "Bobby" Masters

 

 

people-dates-happenings of 7 year old.

 Dave Allen

 Oct 16, 2000 22:29 PDT 

 

       NAME      | CATEGORY | DATE |         OCCASION
============================================================Mrs Fitzwilliam    Teacher     02/24/41 Reading stories at supper       
Paul Grant         Student     03/18/41 Compete in reading books        
Byron Kohfield     Student     03/18/41 Compete in reading books        
      McLorn       Student     03/18/41 Compete in reading books        
John Taylor        Student     03/25/41 Leads drill formation           
Dr Henri           Doctor      03/25/41 Says I had whooping cough       
David Birch        Student     04/06/41 Dresses with girls hat          
Miss Alicia Carr   Teacher     04/06/41 Trick played on her by kids
Mr Baehr           Missionary 05/05/41 Spoke at school commencement
Paul Dunachie      Missionary 05/05/41 Showed moving pictures
Mr Oleson          Missionary 05/05/41 Spoke at Sunday service
Mrs Fitzwiliam     Teacher     06/02/41 Reading stories at supper
Miss Carr          Teacher     05/25/41 Took school to old prep
Mr Houghton        Teacher     06/23/41 Lead Foundation Day service
Granny Wright      Missionary 06/30/41 Provides Choc. sauce for party
Raymond Moore      Student     07/07/41 Played ball with me
John Birch         Student     07/07/41 New boy at school
Miss Young         Teacher     08/11/41 Takes me out on a boat ride
Miss Lassen        Teacher     08/11/41 Takes me out on a boat ride
Mrs Hanna          Teacher     08/18/41 Take Yunnan children for picnic
Miss Lassen        Teacher     08/18/41 Picnic breakfast
Mr Young           Teacher     09/02/41 Leads new term opening service
Miss Stark         Teacher     09/08/41 My class teacher (Upper I)
Byron Kohfield     Student     09/02/41 Both of us sick with flu
Paul Grant         Student     09/15/41 Went to his birthday party (9/13)
Miss Davey         Teacher     09/15/41 Taught us Sunday School
Robert Clow        Student     11/03/41 He has scarlet fever
Letters missing                          11/03/41 - 04/13/42
Wally Desterhaft   B.S.Student 04/13/42 Wins high jump 5'3 1/2
Mr Bruce           Headmaster 04/13/42 Leads new term opening service
Paul Thompson      Student     05/25/42 Broken arm - Temple Hill
Dr Howie           Doctor      05/25/42 Leads Sunday School meeting
Mr William Taylor Missionary 05/05/42 Spoke on God's deliverances
Dudley Woodberry   Student     06/01/42 Leave Chefoo for America
Grace Woodberry    Student     06/01/42 Leave Chefoo for America
Eddie Lindberg     Student     06/01/42 Leave Chefoo for America
Paul Grant         Student     06/01/42 Reading Aladdin's lamp
Eleanor Glazier    Student     06/08/42 Leaves for Tsingtao on bus
Murray Davies      Student     06/08/42 Are coming to be boarders
Paul Davies        Student     06/08/42 Are coming to be boarders
Miss Carr          Teacher     06/21/42 Took us to the beach
Miss Hess          Teacher     06/21/42 Played music on a saw
The Japanese                   06/29/42 Inoculated us for cholera
The Japanese                   08/25/42 Tell us: leave Chefoo by 9/22
Miss Davey         Teacher     08/25/42 Set up a treasure hunt
Mr Rouse           Missionary 08/25/42 Leader at CSSM
Mr Martin          Teacher     08/25/42 Lead 5 services of CSSM
Miss Priestman     Teacher     08/25/42 Gave me Morning Bells hymnbook
Stuart Goodwin     Student     08/25/42 His team won sand modelling
Miss Young         Teacher     09/01/42 My teacher for Lower II
Thoughts from 7 year old in letter to parents - extracted from letters.
Dave Allen         dan-@fidalgo.net

 

 

people -dates -happenings Pt 2                      Dave Allen

                     Oct 16, 2000 22:29 PDT 

 

       NAME      | CATEGORY | DATE |         OCCASION
=======================================================================                    Continuing from 09/01/42

The Japanese                   09/01/42 Build wall through dining room --------------------------------------- to make garage and stables for  --------------------------------------- horses.
John Bell          B.S.Student 10/05/42 Ride bicycles over 60 kilometers
John Hoyte         B.S.Student 10/05/42 & get caught by Japanese        
Paul Grant         Student     10/05/42 Digs a 2 ft deep pit
Karl Nafe          Student     10/05/42 Digs a 2 ft deep pit
Philip Paulson     Student     10/05/42 His team has best spellers
Theodore Welch     Student     10/05/42 Had a party for Lower I's
                   All
Chefoo schools     students    11/XX/42 School moves to Temple Hill

Facts from letters written by David Allen in Weihsien Internment Camp 1943
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Hoyte and I    S THill Nov ?? 1942   Talk to Chinese Students         
All students        S THill Nov ?? 1942   Sleep on the floor              
Primary students    S THill Nov ?? 1942   Finding bamoo for making kites   
Jack Graham         S THill Nov ?? 1942   play game of hiding the football
Valwynn Nichols     S THill Nov ?? 1942   play game of hiding the football
Dave Allen          S THill Nov ?? 1942   put footall to high for Jack     
Murray Sadler       S THill Nov ?? 1942   Got the football down            
Brothers & Sisters S THill Nov ?? 1942   Allowed to meet.                 
School begins       S THill Mar 9, 1943   We are going barefooted          
Dr Howie & Mrs      D THill Mar 9, 1943   have baby girl Margaret Ruth     
Mr Martin           T CAC5   May 24, 1943 concert & shows funny pictures   
Metcalf (B.S)       B CAC5   May 24, 1943 workout on parallel bars.        
Students            S CAC5   May 24, 1943 use stoves made from cans        
Mr Bruce            H CAC5   May 24, 1943 sings Irish songs                
Mrs King            M CAC5   May 24, 1943 told us about lepers             
Elizbeth Hoyte      S CAC5   Jun 27, 1943 to light campfire for girls      
Japanese Censors    J CAC5   Jun 27, 1943 bring old letters (12/22/43r)    
Chefoo people       S CAC24 Sep 12, 1943 Wed arrive in Weihsien           
Chefoo people       S CAC24 Sep 12, 1943 ride on a bus to the steamer     
Chefoo people       S CAC24 Sep 12, 1943 eat picnic meals on board*       
Weihsien            S CAC24 Sep 12, 1943 is 21 acres in size (12/26/43r)
Teachers            T CAC24 Oct 8, 1943 make doughnuts on little stoves
Lessons learned     S CAC24 Oct 8, 1943 in dorm room; also in cubs now
Service held        S CAC24 Oct 8, 1943 in church building (1/13/44r)
Collecting stamps   S CAC24 Oct 24, 1943 from letters (1/29/44r)
Christmas presents S CAC24 Dec 29, 1943 described in letter (2/4/44r)
Treasure hunt       S CAC24 Jan 24, 1944 fruit for prizes
Memorizing Bible    S CAC24 Jan 24, 1944 verse (prize) 10 texts
Mrs Lawless         T CAC24 Apr 21, 1944 teaching us French
Campfire songs      S CAC24 Apr 21, 1944 Acting & singing
Boys not wearing    S CAC24 Jul 30, 1944 shirts
Robert Clow & I     S CAC24 Jul 30, 1944 are studying ants.
Footall matches     S CAC24 Oct 24, 1944 on ball field
Philip Paulson      S CAC24 Oct 24, 1944 birthday today
Torge Torgeson      S CAC24 Oct 24, 1944 celbrated his birthday also.
Requirememts        S CAC24 Oct 24, 1944 passed for athlete's badge
Thoughts in letters of 10 year old in Weihsien Internment camp
Dave Allen              dan-@fidalgo.net

 

People - dates - events Pg 3                      Dave Allen

                     Oct 17, 2000 05:24 PDT 

 

Facts from letters written by Dave Allen in Weihsien Internment Camp
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Girls in next room S CAC24 Jan 25, 1945 Party in which boys acted.
Jr children         S CAC24 Jan 25, 1945 Party for boys 9-13
Jr children         S CAC24 Jan 25, 1945 Party Thursday after Xmas
Soccer Ball loaned S CAC24 Jan 25, 1945 Chefoo boys challenge
Soccer Ball loaned S CAC24 Jan 25, 1945 Weihsien boys
French lessons      S CAC24 Jan 25, 1945 11th in French:32/40 pts
Red Cross parcels   - CAC24 Feb 25, 1945 Received red cross parcels
*** Chocolate, chewing gum, butter, cheese, milk, raisins, prunes, ***
*** Sugar and soap                                                 ***
Mr Huebener         B CAC24 Feb 25, 1945 Helped make bamboo flute
Mr Brown            M CAC24 Feb 25, 1945 Comes to tell evening stories
Eric Liddell        A CAC24 Feb 25, 1945 Died 7th Feb night
Students            S CAC24 Feb 25, 1945 Have slept on floor 3 years
Dave Allen          S CAC24 Mar 25, 1945 Weighs 78 lbs/ 4' 9" tall
Robert Clow & I     S CAC24 Mar 25, 1945 We are sharing gardens
John Birch          S CAC24 Mar 25, 1945 Got parcels
Philip Paulson      S CAC24 Mar 25, 1945 Got parcels
Students            S CAC24 Mar 25, 1945 Holiday on Mar.30th
Douglas Findley     S CAC24 Mar 25, 1945 Invited by us out to tea.
Students            S CAC24 Mar 25, 1945 We have chocolate each Sunday
Dave Allen          S CAC24 Apr 30, 1945 Sprained ankle in long run
Robert Clow & I     S CAC24 Apr 30, 1945 Corn is up ... our is biggest
Jr students         S CAC24 Apr 30, 1945 Just starting to learn Latin
B.S. students       S CAC24 Apr 30, 1945 Sports Day results:
*** Chefoo ...130 points |   Weihsien ... 85 1/2 points ***
Mr Pryce & Miss Greenin       Apr 30, 1945 Have married/have yellow roses
*** This letter received in Mitu (Dec 24, 1945) ***
Dave Allen          S CAC24 May 27, 1945 Heart conversion experience.
Robert Clow & I     S CAC24 May 27, 1945 Growing cosmos, sunflower, corn
Jr boys             S CAC24 May 27, 1945 Two waffles with tangshi (dinner)
Jr boys             S CAC24 May 27, 1945 Half holiday Thursday)
*** Reason: we had earned 6 optimes ... know what that is? ***
Mr Hayes            T CAC24 Jun 15, 1945 Leads Foundation Day service
Students            S CAC24 Jun 15, 1945 10 AM Softball game
Students            S CAC24 Jun 15, 1945 3 PM Tenniquoit?
Jr Boys & Girls     S CAC24 Jun 15, 1945 Have a treasure hunt
Jr Boys play acting S CAC24 Jun 15, 1945 The miller, his son & donkey
Jr boys             S CAC24 Jun 23, 1945 Camped out on rollcall field.


WAR IS OVER!        S CAC24 AUG 25, 1945 YEA! YOWEE!

Last Wed heard war was over Friday a plane came over Friday men came down with stores.
Monday soldiers distributed sweets and candies
Tonight Jr boys & Senior boys have gymnastics display 25 Aug 1945
Selling tin cans for food: tomatoes, corn, apples, pears, crabapples.
We made stewed apples
First meal of split pea soup tasted really good but stomach couldn't keep it. It came up again. (I couldn't eat real food for at least 2 weeks)
Some GI soldiers give boys penknives.
Now cooking lots of things on stove in bedroom, living room, classroom.
Making a small parachute 25 Aug 1945

This was the last letter written from Weihsien.(Received in Mitu, Yunnan
Oct 11, 1945) I flew out from Weihsien airport with Raymond Moore and
John Taylor on top of scores of parachutes being returned. We flew to Sian. From there I flew on to Kunming on a B-17 called the "Homesick Angel."
    These are the experiences of a 10 years old boy, not a grownup!
               Dave Allen         dan-@fidalgo.net

I have experiences later at Shanghai on Sinza Road if any one is interested.

 

 

Memories of Aug 17th, 1945 V I Day

 Dave Allen

 Oct 17, 2000 14:03 PDT 

 

Memories of Aug 17th 1945: V I Day (Victory over Internment.)
     On Wednesday we heard that the war was over by our underground canary.
News was also passed by coolies trading cigarettes with internees.
     On Thursday we were showered with pamphlets telling us the what to expect.
     On Friday the Jr Boys were down on the playfield not far from the main  gate. We were either playing soccer or watching a game, when we heard the  sound of an airplane. Looking over the barbed-wire fence which carried high  voltage electricity we expected to see a single engine Japanese plane.  Instead, to our surprise we saw a four engine B-24 circle once, determine the  wind direction and then make an Immelman maneuver and come back over the  fields outside the camp. Slowly 7 men parachuted out of the plane. Before  any had touched the ground we were running full tilt for the front gate. They  were opening as we arrived and we headed out in mass. There were about 1700  people in that camp.
     Our feet were hardened to the ground but not the puncture weeds and their  barbs. As soon as we left the motor road we found them. Some of the Chinese  field workers, seeing us take the stickers out of our feet, volunteered to  take us piggy back to the motor road. They were so glad to be free of Japanese  oppression. We walked so proudly beside the American GI's, so glad to be free at last.
     Within 2 days we had B-29 bombers flying outside the camp and dropping food  and clothing supplies. The sky was filled with parachutes, plane after plane coming  and dumping food, clothing and pamphlets. It was an exciting time.   
     On Monday the American GI's handed out sweets and chocolates. The first  meal of split pea soup tasted awful good, but made an abrupt return. I could  not retain rich food for up to 3 weeks after that. They started giving us  vitamins etc from packages dropped from the B-29's. That evening the Jr boys  and Senior Boys and Girls gave a gymnastic display. The GI's gave some of the  kids penknives as gifts, or pieces of ripped parachutes.
     We salvaged the tin cans from the food drops and traded them for tomatoes,  corn, apples, pears and crabapples. Only the adult men and women were allowed  to go outside the camp to make trades, but the kids would trade over the wall.
The electric barbed-wire fence turned off. The apples we got in trade we made into stewed apples.
     The stoves we cooked on were made from KLIM cans (milk spelled backwards.  The cans were mudded inside and wires placed through them and a door for  proper ventilation.
     Adults were selling old clothes and anything that was salable for fresh fruit.  Everyone had a craving for fresh fruit.
     Within 2 weeks John Taylor, Raymond Moore and I were taken by bus out to the  Weihsien airport and climbed into a C-46 Cargo plane. We flew to Sian, and from  there on I flew on to Kunming on a B-17 bomber called "The Homesick Angel."
*** The last letter was written from Weihsien Aug 25, 1945 and received in  Mitu, Yunnan on Oct 11, 1945 *** Now you know why missionary kids didn't go  home to see their folks at Christmas time.   Transportation was too slow and  distances too far and a war was on. I didn't see my folks from Sept 1940 - Sept 1945.
                             
Dave Allen                    dan-@fidalgo.net

 

 

Living quarters

 Dave Allen

 Oct 17, 2000 14:15 PDT 

 

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS:
   There were 10 of us boys crammed in a classroom 12 ft long X 10 ft wide.
All the mattresses had been rolled up against the wall where the bedbugs  lived. This gave up 2 to 3 ft of walking space because in the middle of the  room were steamer trunks (our seats). In the opposite corner from the door to  our room were Red Cross boxes stacked over by John Taylor's side.
   Starting from the door and going around the room were: Raymond Moore,  David Allen, Robert Clow, John Birch, ////////////, on the other side, Philip  Paulson, Paul Grant, ////////, John Taylor, Val Nichols. I will have to  confer with John Taylor, and Paul Grant, and maybe we can figure it out  together.   We were all about 10 - 11 years of age.
   In the room next to us were the girls of approximately the same age. I couldn't remember one of their names, but I think there were 8 of them. I  wasn't interested at that time. We were housed in Building 24 which had the  bell tower.
   There are other memories of roll call ... learning to number off in  Japanese ...learning the caws of rooks in the trees and what they meant ...  making snowballs and snowballing the guards ... (this was a kids game, no  adults allowed)... making coal balls for our little KLIM (Milk spelled  backwards) cans, which we mudded and made into stoves ... walking through the  tunnel underground by the hospital, ... running long distance races through  the camp ... reddened buttocks from mouthing off to teachers, generously  applied by Mr Martin with hand, shoe, ... yellow jaundice and the utter  distaste for the smell or taste of food, that was when we were in Building 23  before getting moved into Building 24, ... roll call late in the evening after 2 men escaped from the camp and the bell was rung. We were outside a long for  that one .... sneaking out the window of our classroom, and getting caught by  Miss Priestman on her prayer rounds.


   What are your memories? Are they a little different? Let's compare.
   Dave Allen                dan-@fidalgo.net

 

 

David Allen's diary

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Oct 17, 2000 17:57 PDT 

 

Hello, Everyone,

    David Allen, welcome to our Weihsien Bulletin Board. What amazingly  detailed memories for a 10 year old! I bet everyone reading this wishes they  had kept notes like yours.

    Now listen to this. At this very minute I have a picture of you -- David  Allen -- on my refrigerator! Imagine it. Douglas Finlay sent it to me last  year -- a snapshot of you, Raymond Moore, and four Taylor children --  Kathleen, Jamie, John, and me (Mary) -- at Sian the night we flew out of  Weihsien in early September 1945. We six Chefoo children were the second  planeload flown out of Weihsien. Yes, yes, yes, remember our sitting on  heaps of used parachutes all the way from Weihsien to Sian? I had carried  on board with me that day a small bundle of treasures which I intended to  drop out of the airplane window to my Chefoo dorm mates below. Wrong!

    In the picture on my refrigerator, we six children are feasting on cake  with an O.S.S. officer in Sian.    

    . I have no idea how Douglas got that snapshot. But I'm thrilled that  he sent it to me. My sister Kathleen and Douglas Finlay were sweethearts.
You may not have heard that Douglas died a couple of months ago.

    Tell us everything your saw and felt the day we were liberated -- August  17, 1945. And tell us where you are now and what became of you after  Weihsien.

    Mary Taylor Previte

 

 

China Reunion in Arizona in October

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Oct 26, 2000 18:17 PDT 

 

Hello, everyone,

    China hands held a China Reunion in Scottsdale, Arizona, October 19.  Pamela Masters, I know you planned to attend. I hope you and everyone else  who was there will tell us all about it.
    If any of you have not yet read Pamela's book, The Mushroom Years,  please give yourself a gift. It's WONDDERFUL. Major Stanley Staiger, who  lead the Weihsien rescue mission, told me Pamela's book should be on the  best seller list. He said he read it non-stop and couldn't put it down.  e-mail Pamela for a copy at pam-@hendersonhouse.com

    Pamela, is Joyce Cook Bradbury's memoirs in print yet? Joyce and her  husband planned to attend the China Reunion in Arizona last week. Joyce is  from Sydney, Australia. Originally from Tsingtao, she and her family were  among the first to be interned in Weihsien. Her father worked in Kitchen #1.  Joyce finished her schooling in the camp at Peking American High School.

    Mary Previte

short bio

 Natasha Petersen

 Oct 27, 2000 09:31 PDT 

 

Would each subscriber give his full name and a very short bio. Please  badd your e-mail address to the bio. I know that you have mine and Mary  Previte's. Desmond, please let me know whether you received this  message. If I do not hear from you I will assume that you did not. I was  told that messages to you were not going through.        Natasha
The reunion was great. I hope that those who were there will write a  few lines highlighting your experiences.

 

All Aboard!

 Pamela Masters

 Oct 27, 2000 12:08 PDT 

 



Hi Mary, Natasha and all of you Weishien Friends!

I had a ball at the OCH Reunion -- only I had to cut my visit short due to a crisis at home. I left before I could make my little talk – that was scheduled for Friday evening -- and as it is very important to all of you if you'd like to receive reparations from Japan, I'm attaching it here. I cannot stress how important it is for all of us to get aboard and help our fellow-ex-POWs. We in Weihsien were lucky, tens of thousands were not. Let's not forget them like the rest of the world has. Here is a physical address for you to write to to get the necessary forms.

    The Center for Internee Rights, Inc.
    Gil Hair, Executive Director
    6060 La Gorce Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33140-2117
    Phone (305) 864-2558    Fax (305) 861-8550
    E-mail: exp-@bellsouth.net        Website:  www.netcom.com/~expows

A one-year membership costs $40, and to sign up for your deceased parents or next-of-kin, it's only $10. The more members we have in CFIR, the more clout we will have. All contributions are tax deductible.

At the present time we're trying to get on 60 Minutes, 20/20, and other major network programs. There's a lot of sympathy out there for our cause right now, and we must capitalize on it. I phoned a slew of Senators this morning to ask them to support the "Hatch-Feinstein POW Resolution" that's to be "hotlined" through the Senate today or tomorrow (before Recess is called) and hopefully passed unanimously!

Incidentally, Peter Stein said I could not mention the Raffle when I gave my talk, but I've included that paragraph here as we really need funds to pay for all our ongoing expenses. Again, remember all contributions are tax deductible.

The current web pages for CFIR are very readable, but not too spectacular. The old ones were fabulous but when we changed our ISP, the old server dumped everything so that we are having to start all over again. The links are great and well worth viewing. Haven't had any luck with the "baronage" link for some reason. I used to pull it up easily, but it's got a quirk in it now. Let me know if any of you are able to get it as the "Bamboo Shoots" articles and victims stories are "must" reading.
 

no subject)

 Natasha Petersen

 Oct 27, 2000 12:54 PDT 

 

http://www.baronage.co.uk/bambshoo.html
Pam,
The above is the website that I believe you were looking for.
Natasha

 

 

OCH Scottsdale Arizona

 Stanley Nordmo

 Oct 27, 2000 18:45 PDT 

 

Hello all:

Here is the OCH program held in Scottsdale Arizona October 19 – October 22, 2000
and some comments.
THE RAMADA VALLEY HO RESORT
 The Ramada Valley Ho Resort is located within walking distance to numerous restaurants, Fifth Avenue Main Street Galleries, Old Town Scottsdale and Fashion Square Mall. A shuttle service, Ollie the Trolley will make the rounds of shopping centers, tourist attractions and other hotels for $6 for the day.
The Resort is situated on 14 beautifully landscaped acres with 292 rooms/suites, 3 heated pools, 2 whirlpool spas and lighted tennis courts.
CONFERENCE CENTER PROGRAM   October 19-October 22, 2000 Registration: Joshua Tree Room Functions: Palo Verde Room and Lobby

Thursday Afternoon:
Hospitality Room for registration and get together starting at Noon (new)- 5 pm.

Thursday evening:
Welcoming Reception Buffet and No-Host Bar:
Bar, 5:30 pm; Buffet, 6:30 pm. ($28)

Friday:
8:00 am - 9:00 am (No charge but you must register)
Find-Old-Friends Breakfast:
Welcoming Ceremonies

9:30 am.
Slide Lecture:
Indian Arts and Crafts - Baskets, Pottery,Jewelry, in preparation for the Tours. Sandy Stein, Heard Museum Docent.

12:00 - 1.30 pm ($20)
Get-Together Lunch: Keynote Speaker: Dr. John G. Stoessinger, OCH, PTH.,Internationally Renowned Prize Winning Author, Lecturer & Political Analyst. China Odyssey: A Survivor's Journey

3 pm. No charge, but you must register.
Featured Speaker: Ms. Tess Johnston: Famous China documentary historian and author. "Our Beloved Shanghai" a slide-illustrated lecture:

Afternoon:
Ollie the Trolley to shopping centers *

Evening: 7:30 - 10 pm
Karaoke Sing-A-Long and Reminiscing: Tell us Your Own Story. Bring your
favorite stories! (No charge but register)
Saturday:

8:00 am - 9:00 am (No charge but you must register)
Find-Old-Friends Breakfast: 9:15 am.
Featured Speaker Frederic "Jim" Silva, noted author and historian: Our Colonial OCH Heritage . No charge but you must register.

Choice among four tours circulating continuously back to the Resort.
Schedule for Resort departures will be: 10:45 am, 12:15 pm, 1.45 & 3:15 pm.
Last one back at 4:45 ($6 for the day). *

No-Host Bar, 5:30 pm, dinner at 6: p.m.
Evening Banquet: ($42.50 meat, fish & vegetarian delight). Dancing only:
$20.00
7:30 pm
Entertainment: Surprise:
Dancing to DJ Tunes of the 40s and 50s.

Sunday:
8:00 am - 10.00 am ($15)
Joint Farewell Brunch: See separate brochure for all speaker biographies.

331 registrants attended the OCH reunion in Scottsdale, Arizona.
There were only 6 of us from the Weihsien camp. I had attended the Anaheim OCH reunion in 1990 and noted a much greater emphasis on the many camps than in the Scottsdale OCH reunion where school affiliations appeared to be more important. The official photographer took pictures of school reunions but as far as I could tell none of camp reunions.. This may just reflect the decreasing numbers of camp survivors.


The Weihsien contingent

Joyce Dorothy (Cooke) Bradbury,
Pamela (Simmons) Masters
Stanley Nordmo
Natasha (Natalie Somova/Somoff) Petersen
Zart (Zartousha" Sanosiam) Portnell
Mary (Shaw) Kuck Wanamaker.

Mu wife who has no China connection, and I thoroughly enjoyed the talks by Dr. Stoessinger and Frederic "Jim" Silva, and the slide presentation by Tess Johnston.
Even though we have lived in the Phoenix area for 34 years we learned a lot about Indian arts and crafts from the illustrated lecture by Sandy Stein. I did meet everybody in the Weihsien group albeit briefly as we were assigned to 5 different tables. Joyce Dorothy Cooke Bradbury did mention that her memoirs are not yet in print.
Since we skipped the Friday evening karaoke and story telling session, we do not know if we missed any Weihsien tales.
On Saturday morning after the talk by Frederic "Jim" Silva, several in the audience went to the podium and reminisced briefly. Mary Shaw Kuck Wanamaker recounted how well organized the Weihsien camp was, and how we even had a hospital on site. She remembered the concerts and plays such as Androcles and the Lion which had been put on.With all the executive talent in camp, it was no wonder that the place was so well managed by the internees.
The surprise after the banquet included two dragon dances. After the professional dancers had demonstrated the movements of the dragon in the second dance members of the audience who had been born in the year of the dragon were conscripted to propel the sinuous creature.
We did not attend the Sunday farewell brunch as we were obligated to be elsewhere.

Regards
Stanley Nordmo

 

 

bamboo shoots                      Natasha Petersen

                     Oct 28, 2000 05:59 PDT 

 

Hi,
Type in bamboo shoots. You will get two or three chinese dishes and then " Bamboo Shoots" - Japanese camps. See if this works.
Natasha

 

 

Once More with Feeling...or All Aboard 2

 Pamela Masters

 Oct 28, 2000 07:37 PDT 

 

Hi Everyone -- As Natsha said she couldn't open the attachment on my last e-mail to you, I've saved it to HTML. Hope you receive it. As I mentioned -- It IS important!
Best love -- Pamela

 

 

Memories of Kuling

 Dave Allen

 Oct 28, 2000 12:45 PDT 

 

               Memories of Kuling, China     12/15/91          DMA

               Raymond, Paul, and Christopher too
               Were part of the rotating amigos crew
               Known respectfully as chick, piggy and crow to a few.

               We ran and we hiked down many a lane
               Playing capture the flag, finding a new cane
               Building small shacks with bamboo out of the rain.

               We hiked on trails, always going in threes
               To see the immense, renowned, aged three trees
               And to bring back home those exotic gingko leaves.
         
               There were various kids that came to fame
               At various times we shall remember to name.
               To inquire from Simo about twigs and leaves
               To admire Raymond working with cubs in upper III's
               To flee from Paul's ingenious electrical devices.
               To see Keith win those long distance races.
               To ponder Ridley's name at the top of the class
               To walk behind John Pearce up to Hun Yang pass
               To hear Jim Muir make the piano keys fly
               To watch John Martin splice rope with a flemish eye
               To wish I was as smart as these other guys.
                 
               12/15/91              MEMORIES.TXT              DMA
         
The poem refers to Christopher Rowe, David Simpkin, Raymond Moore,
   Paul Grant, Keith Butler, Ridley Smith, John Pearce, Jim Muir,  John Martin, and Dave Allen.

 

 

After Internment

 Dave Allen

 Oct 29, 2000 00:42 PDT 

 

       Interlude between last letter from Weihsien Internment Camp,
    Aug. 25, 1945 and starting school again in Shanghai Sept. 12, 1946

     There were no letters written during this time because I was living with  my parents in Mitu, Yunnan China. I was just 11 at the time and remember the  courtyard which was on the wall of the city. We lived on the left wing of the  courtyard and in the back behind our living quarters was the garden. The water  table was very close to the surface and the garden could be irrigated by using  a long ladle and throwing it over the garden. Human fertilizer was used and  the growth of vegetable was abundant. We never could eat raw vegetables  however. After arriving there a carpenter was called in to make a bed for me.
The bed was made with twine strung on a wood frame. The bed was much more  comfortable than the mattress on the floor that I had slept for several years.
     I remember the many meetings that went on for hours, but I couldn't  understand a word of it. I listened to the Chinese believers sing "What can wash away my sin, Nothing but the blood of Jesus." They sang it with such  meaning, it affected me. Mitu, Menghwa, Tali, Erhyuen, Fengi, Tengchuan,  Yunnani, Hongai, Hsiaguan, Bingchuan and Bingchwee were some of the 14  churches that my father visited each year. We enjoyed 14 Christmas dinners  spread out over a month and a half.
     I remember walking to the top of the hill outside the city on which the  goats would be herded. It was here I learned to sled down the grassy slope on cactus with the spines cut off of them.
     I remember travelling on the horse road to Menghwa and climbing up into a  V in the mountains and looking down on all those green rice fields. It was  while I was in Menghwa that one of the neighbor girls a little older than  myself decided to teach this foreign kid how to speak Chinese. She started  telling me names for eyes, nose, teeth, hair, and I tried repeating them after  her. My folks tried to teach me geometry and literature but I think I had the  best course of social study anyone would want. This is when I truly came to  love the Chinese people and understand their ways.
     I went back to see the compound where I was born in Tali, and travel down  the Erhai Lake to Tengchwan, Erhyuen and Fengyi. It was here I learned to  pole a sampan through the marshes and watch them butcher pigs in the boiling  water that bubbled out of the ground, and then clean and shave them.
     While I was there I made a pop gun of bamboo. The sections in a piece of bamboo were hollowed out and a rod made to fit down this barrel. Paper was  wadded up and put in one end and then another placed in the other end and  forced out with a loud bang. It was lots of fun to play with.
    I remember the power of the medicine man. There was one occasion when  "Red" (the horse I rode), came down with a lump in its throat. The medicine  man gave it tobacco and oil. The next morning the horse was much improved.
There was another occasion when "Tojo" (the horse my father rode), came down  with a cold and they gave it some tobacco along with a dried frog ground up.
All I know is that the horses got better quickly and we were on our way.
    I remember helping my father shoe the horses, holding their hooves while  he cut back the hoof before nailing on the shoes. I remember racing the  horses along the dike to see which was the fastest. I think Dad's was fastest but the wind would blow all over the place while we goaded our horses to a faster gallop.
    Dave Allen          dan-@fidalgo.net        10/29/00    

 

 

WWII, kitchen #1...Re: China Reunion in Arizona in October

 Frank Otto

 Oct 30, 2000 11:54 PST 

 

Mary,
Thanks for the WWII info.
Frank

Prison camp statistics

 Dave Allen

 Oct 30, 2000 22:26 PST 

 

Hi Weihsien Internees: I've been asked to share some statistics
about Weihsien

 


                   THE WORLD OF THE CAMP PRISONER                     


        "There is no training for being a prisoner of war!"           
                                                                      
    7. Stresses of internment: (Continued)                          
        m. Poetry:                                                   
            If you lock a man up, he will eventually write            
            something. If he has no paper, he will write             
            on the walls of his cell or shirt or back of              
            a food can label.                                         
        n. Humor: This is the pressure release valve.                
            Occupation therapy for a doctor: Capture bugs            
            and lice, and slip them into Japanese soldier's           
            huts in vast quantities.                                  
            In camp there was always an abundance of ants,            
            fleas, lice and bedbugs. No insect was loathed           
            more than the bedbug.                                     
            Stealing by guards of apples in camp:                     
            One inmate who was always having his apple stolen         
            by guards decided to fix them. He took the urine         
            from a sick patient and injected it in near the           
            stem of the apple and placed it under his pillow          
            as usual. When the guard ate the apple he became         
            very sick and was taken off that watch. That             
            solved that problem.                                      
                                                                      
         o. Positive aspects of internment:                           
            1) I learned the meaning of comradeship.                 
                This is an indefinable bond among those who           
                have lived and suffered together.                     
            2) It is not what happened to you ...                    
                its your reaction.                                    
            3) Other lessons: patience, thrift, self-sufficiency     
                the essence of loyalty, duty, fairness, the mean-     
                ing of commitment, solid covenant relationships,     
                the value of freedom.                                 
            4) Courage and tenacity and indomitable fortitude        
                are more than a match for life's most difficult       
                challenges.                                           
            5) Their strength was in their ability to look back      
                to their survival during trying times and gather      
                the will to move forward.                             
                                                                      

     CIVIL INTERNMENT CENTERS: CHINA                                  
     CIC39: Tsingtao Dec. 41-Mar43 --> POW41 Weihsien                
     CIC40: Chefoo    Dec. 41-Mar43 --> POW41 Weihsien                
     POW41: 1,700 men, women & children from Peiping, Tientsin        
       W   CIC39 (Tsingtao), and CIC40 (Chefoo), and 400             
       E    Catholic Fathers and Sisters in American mission          
        I     Hospital. Rows of student rooms were used by the         
       H    Married couples and children. Classrooms were used       
       S    for single men. Food was prepared in large cauldrons      
        I     in a central kitchen; the food rations were adequate.     
       E    The internees ran a children's school, dramatic           
       N    society. In Sept 1943: 300 Americans were exchanged.      
                                                                      
                  12/03/97                 PRISON_4.118               DMA    

 

 

Camp prisoner Pg 1

 Dave Allen

 Oct 30, 2000 23:57 PST 

 

 

 

                   THE WORLD OF THE CAMP PRISONER                     
                                                                      
        "There is no training for being a prisoner of war!"           
                                                                      
    1. Stresses in being a prisoner of war:                          
        a. Obeying orders you don't understand.                      
        b. Living in an emotionally charged environment of          
            hate, anger, fear, frustration.                           
        c. You are perceived by captors as not worth saving.         
        d. Being riddled with disease; dysentery, malaria,           
            diarrhea, jaundice.                                       
        e. Being ridiculed for your unhealthy condition             
            through disease.                                          
                                                                      
    2. Traits indispensable for survival:                            
        a. Moral integrity                                           
        b. Love of God and country                                   
        c. Aptitude for reading the captor's culture.                
        d. Ability to establish a tactical defense.                  
                                                                      
    3. Effects of hunger:                                            
        a. It strips away a false front and exposes the              
            hypocrite.                                                
        b. It removes medicate and reveals the hidden               
            rock of noble character.                                  
                                                                      
    4. Two social controls in internment camps:                      
        a. Captors commands and regulations                          
        b. Internee policies.                                        
            1) Feeding of men, women and children                    
            2) Growing your own food.                                
            3) Collecting private funds for food purchases.          
            4) Individual riches vs. group riches.                   
            5) Distribution of left-over seconds.                    
                  (Never throw out any food)                          
                                                                      
    5. Areas of cooperation:                                         
        a. Work and Health: Joint responsibility.                   
            1) Men: carpentry, toilet sanitation, garbage            
                disposal, cooking over hot cauldrons.                 
            2) Women: Domestic duties, washing clothes,             
                care of the sick.                                     
            3) Children: cleaning up dining areas, making           
                coal balls, swatting flies & insects. My record
                was 22 at one swat over the garbage outside
                kitchen #1.
           
        b. Recreation, Religion and Communication:                   
            1) Recreation; baseball, horseshoe pitching,             
                soccer, dramatics, bridge, poker, holiday             
                celebrations.                                         
            2) Religion: Regular church services by various          
                religious groups.                                
                .                        
            3) Communication: No mail or limited to 150             
                words per month on special Red Cross forms.           
                                                                      
      
12/03/97                 PRISON_1.118               DMA       

 

 

Camp prisoner - Page 2

 Dave Allen

 Oct 30, 2000 23:57 PST 

 

                    THE WORLD OF THE CAMP PRISONER                     
                                                                      
        "There is no training for being a prisoner of war!"           
                                                                      
    6. Barbed-wire mentality:                                        
        a. A time of mental stress while being forced into           
            a lower plane of existence (breaking in period)           
        b. Recovery of morale and rearrangement of shattered         
            values. (convalescent period)                             
        c. Boredom (zombie survival state)                          
        d. Repatriation period.                                      
                                                                      
        Recipe for barbed wire mentality:                             
        2 cups of forgiveness | Make it in prayer to God            
        2 spoons of hope          | Need daily dose to survive          
        2 cups of loyalty            | Hope dies without loyalty           
        4 cups of love                 | "We're all in this together"        
        1 barrel of laughter        | Removes the sting of hatred         
        1 spoon of friendship   | Support system for the weak         
        4 quarts of faith              | Looks at possibilities not           
                                                      problems.                           
                                                                      
        Take love and loyalty, mix thoroughly with faith.             
        Blend with tenderness, kindness and understanding.            
        Add friendship and hope. Sprinkle abundantly with            
        laughter. Bake it with sunshine (gratefulness).             
        Serve daily in generous helpings.                             
                                                                      
    7. Stresses of internment:                                       
        a. Threats to life and health:                               
            1) Assaults by guards                                    
            2) Starvation                                            
            3) Disease                                               
            4) Threats                                               
            Dying is easy. When desires are thwarted, life           
            becomes meaningless. Its easy to reject life             
            and the pain it brings than to live. One has to          
            overcome the philosophy of "I mean nothing, there         
            is nothing, nothing matters, I live only to die"          
            Hope is the strongest character trait for survival.       
                                                                      
        b. Physical discomforts:                    These produce:          
            1) Poorly prepared food               | Mental fatigue          
            2) Overcrowding                             | Irritability            
            3) Absence of chairs and beds |                         
            4) Exposure to sun and rain.       |                         
        c. Lack of solitude and privacy                              
            1) Bare and Naked; stripped of all veneer.               
            2) No place to call your own.                            
        d. Loss of the means of subsistence for families:            
            Husbands unable to provide for wives in foreign           
            lands.                                                    
        e. Deprivation of Sexual satisfaction.                       
            Fear of infidelity of spouses.                            
                                                                      
           12/03/97                 PRISON_2.118               DMA          

 

 

Camp prisoner - Pg 3

 Dave Allen

 Oct 30, 2000 23:57 PST 

 

THE WORLD OF THE CAMP PRISONER

"There is no training for being a prisoner of war!"

7. Stresses of internment: (Continued)


f. Forced Idleness: these bring about lack of stimulation of thought and speech.
The past
è is brought up in an effort to satisfy thwarted desires of new experiences.
Thinking of the good times takes the mind off the present predicament.

g. Ridicule and Rejection by fellow prisoners.
The recalcitrant will break under ridicule.
The stubborn rebel will bow before ostracism.
The non-conformist bends to threat of expulsion.

h. Subjection to enemy propaganda:
1) Anecdotes about misdeeds of the captured
2) Misleading news reports - slanted cartoons.

i. Awareness of personal degradation:
1) The good people in camp get better and the bad ones get far, far worse.
2) The Pre-war cultural patterns to which internees had adhered were the most influential in the adjustment to internment.
3) "Self-respect was one of the essentials to survival.

j. Existence of Rumors:
1) The situation can change for the better with "real news".
             a) The "canary" (secret radio reports)
             b) Entrance of new prisoners with news.

k. Children and Young People:  There are very few toys or playthings:


1) Children's concepts are challenged:
Unselfishness    

The recognition of Human rights interdependence.
Fair play                Strength is in the group rather than in the individual
Honesty               
Possessions      .


2) Toys are made from stones, sticks, string bottles, empty tin cans, pieces of glass,  acorns, grass.

l. Promotion of Art and Poetry:
1) Impromptu talks, recitals, and concerts.
2) Shakespearean plays.
3) Circus acts.
4) Painting in charcoal, pen and pencil, ink.
5) Weekly or monthly newsletter as paper is available


12/03/97         PRISON_3.118            DMA     

 

Tsingtao, China, Mary Previte... Re: your mail     

 Frank Otto

Oct 31, 2000 09:36 PST 

 

Jim,
Thanks for using the WW2 Net. We will help you get the info.
Frank

 

 

RE: Tsingtao, China, Mary Previte... Re: your mail

 R.W. Bridge

 Oct 31, 2000 10:26 PST 

 

Re Tsingtao. This is the City located at 3605N 12010E.
It has a very natural harbour and was originally a Treaty port awarded to Germany it was captured by the Jpanese during World War 1 and became a Japanese Naval base. IT has been variously spelt Tsntao Tsingdao, Ching tao and is now generally known as Quingdao. IT was locate at the end of the Railyamn line that ran from Tsinan (now Jinan) and Weihsein camp was a fromer US Presbeyterian Mission Weihsien ids now called Weifang.
Rgds
Ron Bridge
Onetime Weihsien inmate Block 13Room 11
. Also one time Vice Chairman Royal Institute of Navigation London

 

RE: short bio

 R.W. Bridge

 Oct 31, 2000 11:31 PST 

 

Ronald William BRIDGE British Aged 10-12 in Weihsien lived first in Block 42 Rm 6 then Block 13 Rm 11/12 when the departure of the US citizens gave a bit more room.
Biogr. Born Tientsin (Tianjin) eldest son Leo and Margo Bridge after Weihisen spent to 1951 in Tientsin (Tinjin) then to the UK where spent 20 years Flying in the Royal Air Force then 20 years flying for British Airways charter then an aviation consultant. Currently Vice President Association of British Internees Far East regions fighting in parallel with CFIr and Gil hair See our Website www.abcifer.com
Rgds
Ron Bridge

 

Re: Tsingtao, China, Mary Previte... Re: your mail

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Oct 31, 2000 17:34 PST 

 

Located in north east China, Tsingtao is a thriving coastal city on the  Shandong penninsula, on the coast not far from Yantai (where I went to  school). We called Yantai Chefoo.

    I visited Tsingtao in the early 1990s. Visitors can still see buildings  in German architecture, built when the city was a German business concession.

    After Americans in the Office of Strategisc Services (OSS) liberated the  Weihsien (Weifang) concentration camp in 1945, four members of the rescue  team went to Tsingtao to start an American miltary base there.

    James W. Moore could tell you more about that. Moore was a member of the  OSS Weihsien rescue team who also helped establish the base in Tsingtao.  Unfortunately he does not use the computer or e-mail. You may reach him at  9605 Robin Song Street, Dallas, TX, USA   75243      Phone:   214-341-8695

Mary T. Previte

    Tsingtao

 

 

Birthday of Weihsien rescuer coming, November 12

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Oct 31, 2000 18:19 PST 

 

Hello, Weihsien friends:

    James J. Hannon, one of the team who liberated the Weihsien Concentration  Camp, will celebrate his 81st birthday on November 12. If you'd like to  send him a card or a note, you may reach him at:

    James J. Hannon
    P. O. Box 1376
    Yucca Valley, CA 92286

    Phone:760-364-4580

    Jim nowadays writes non-stop, drafting screen plays and polishing  manuscripts he has written in long hand on yellow pads over the last few  years. At least two of his books are available on Amazon.com

    Jim made writing his priority after he nearly died from an injury in an  auto accident. After that accident, Jim and his wife, Gin, moved to  California's high desert to write. Jim writes. Gin types.

    Jim Hannon suffered a fall and some health problems this year.

    Mary T. Previte

 

bio of Stan Thompson

 Natasha Petersen

 Nov 02, 2000 09:49 PST 

 

I was born in Chanxi in 1932. My parents were missionaries (from Ireland) with the CIM, and I started at the Chefoo Schools (in Yentai) in the autumn of 1938. My father was in West China for the duration, but my mother was visiting Chefoo at the time of Pearl Harbor, so she was packed off with a school full of children (including 4 of her own) too Temple Hill in Chefoo; and from there we were all shipped to CAC Weishien in 1942, and were there until (?) September 1945

 

 

access to archives

 Natasha Petersen

 Nov 02, 2000 09:52 PST 

 

To read previous messages go to:  www.topica.com/lists/weihsien/read

I hope that everyone is able to access the archives. In addition, please do not forget a short bio sent to everyone.
Natasha

 

 

Eve Goldsmith's books about Weihsien and China

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Nov 02, 2000 18:10 PST 

 

It is very interesting hearing about other people who have written about our  experiences in Chefoo and Weihsien. Perhaps I could mention the two books I  have written which tell a good deal about my family's experiences.
I wrote GOD CAN BE TRUSTED some years ago but it is still selling well. It  is my autobiography and starts with our exciting liberation from Weihsien and  then has several chapters flash-back to say how we got there and what camp  life was like. It continues with how God led my husband Martin and myself  into missionary work in Asia and highlights the theme of God's faithfulness.

ROOTS AND WINGS is the saga of five generations of our family who were all  called to be missionaries. It starts in 1846 with Greatgrandpapa and his wife  sailing from the States to India (it took them 4 months at sea!). Through  tracing each generation the history of world mission in the last 150 years  comes over in a very readable form. The description of my parents' work in  China from 1913-1945 gives many fascinating insights into life in China at  that period, the tremendous obstacles they were up against and their  forward-thinking plans for the local church.

Both books are published by OM/Paternoster and are available from
OM PO Box 1047, Waynesboro, GA 30830 - 2047, USA
 Paternoster PO Box 300 Kingstown Broadway, Carlisle CA3 0QS England

Please would you send these details to everyone on your Chefoo email list?  Thank you so much - I think many people might be interested to get hold of  them.

Many thanks for all you do     Elizabeth Goldsmith

 

 

news from Topica

 Natasha Petersen

 Nov 03, 2000 09:51 PST 

 

As many of you might have realized from our list address, we use the free services of a company called Topica to host this list. In addition to providing the email hosting services that we use, Topica offers a broad range of newsletters, tips, and discussions, as well as tools, such as searchable archives and "vacation hold," that help you manage your email list subscriptions. Over the next several weeks Topica will be sending you a message directly, highlighting the tools and content available on their site. I encourage you to explore Topica (at http://www.topica.com). Not only are you likely to find some great email  content, but this will also help Topica continue to offer the great free  list hosting service that we enjoy. Thanks!
 

Re: Tsingtao, China, Mary Previte... Re: your mail

 David Birch

 Nov 06, 2000 20:41 PST 

 

To Jim, Frank, Stanley and Mary et al,
On looking up the listing of the city in the World Book Atlas of the World (World Book Inc Chicago 1990),
I see that it is shown in the alphabetical index under both spellings (Qingdao and Tsingtao) and that the former is the current one.  I remember that when when many of us stayed there after the war, we pronounced the name 'Chingdow' with the second syllable rhyming with the word 'now.' Or with the whole name rhyming with the Chinese expression for 'very good.' (I don't know how one would spell that in English but I suppose it might be 'Dinghao.') Qingdao is shown as having the following geographical coordinates: 36.05N 120.21 E.
Sincerely,
 David Birch (George David Birch) (Chefoo Yentai, Temple Hill, Weihsien - 1938 to 1945)

Oh, and I must not forget to wish you a happy birthday, Stan Nordmo. Am I right in recalling from Temple Hill that your birthday occurs on November the twenty-eighth. If I am right, I think it must be because of the fact that that was also Miss B.M. Stark's birthday. She was one of my very favourite teachers. As a little boy, I loved her dearly, and still revere her memory. I was always in her 'holiday family' over those long two-month winter holidays, except for my first Christmas holidays  (winter of 1938-1939) when Ramsay Longdon and I were bunked in the same cabin with Miss Foucarr (sp?) and sailed down the coast; I to Shanghai for Christmas with family members and Ramsay I don't remember where.
--- Stanley Nordmo <snor-@sd.amug.org> wrote:

 

Dear Jim
The current name of Tsingtao is Qingdao.. Regards Stan Nordmo


Jim,

Thanks for using the WW2 Net. We will help you get  the info.

Frank


On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, DAVISSON,JIM (HP-Boise,ex1)  wrote:  

Frank
Hope you are having a fine Navy Day. I've read several of the emails on your network
 which refer to Tsingtao in 

China. I have been unable to locate that city on   the current maps of China.I was wondering if Mary Previte would be able to shed any light on what the name of that city is today.
Thank You
Jim Davisson

 

 


Re: Tsingtao, China, Mary Previte... Re: your mail

 Stanley Nordmo

 Nov 07, 2000 00:18 PST 


To David and all
Thanks for the birthday greetings and your memories of Miss B. M. Stark whose birthday did indeed coincide with mine. She exhibited infinite patience while tutoring me so I could catch up to the rest of my class in the Prep. School.
In 1939 our family celebrated Christmas in Tsingtao at the China Inland Mission home which was managed by Rev. & Mrs. Glittenberg. My next stay in Tsingtao was right after evacuation by train from Weihsien.in 1945. I had the misfortune of being a typhoid casualty and spent some time in the local hospital where the treatment consisted of the latest sulfa drugs, the wonder drugs of that day. Christmas in Norway in 1946 was our first complete family reunion after the one in Tsingtao in 1939..

The pin yin Qingdao transcription has the same pronunciation we used for Tsingtao
and you transliterated as 'Chingdow' with 'dow' rhyming with the English 'now'

The pin yin for 'dinghao' is 'tinghao' with the first and second syllables
both in the third tone. The 't' in ting is pronounced as 't' and not 'd' according to the instructor in "HyperChina" an interactive Chinese language course. Pin yin is the official Mandarin transcription used in mainland China. David Beard is the real sinologist in our midst.
Regards
Stanley Nordmo

Re: Eve Goldsmith's books about Weihsien and China                      Joseph R Cooke

                     Nov 07, 2000 17:13 PST 

 

Would you please take my name off your e-mail list. I don't even begin to have the time to read it all, much les reply or make my own comment.
Joe Cooke


HMG Statement this day      

R.W. Bridge

Nov 07, 2000 14:01 PST 

 

Herewith text of a statement in the House of Commons we are trying to really establish what they mean re Britons in Camps but now living out of the UK. Get your old Congressman/woman or Senator to go out with a question what is the US Govt going to do.

 

Japanese POWs

 Beard

 Nov 07, 2000 22:32 PST 

 

I copied the following from the BBC web site.
Margaret Beard
----------------------------------------------------
BBC NEWS      Tuesday, 7 November, 2000, 18:19 GMT

Former servicemen imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II are to receive compensation of £10,000 each.

A similar sum will go to the spouses of those who have died.

The announcement, made by defence minister Lewis Moonie was welcomed by PoW groups and the opposition.

Prime Minister Tony Blair also paid tribute to former British PoWs.

Speaking to a group of veterans after the announcement, he said: "This and future generations must never forget their suffering or their contribution to our country.

"This is, for me and my generation and those younger, just one small but significant way in which we can say to you `Thank you for your courage and thank you for what you did'."

Mr Blair said the one-off ex-gratia payment would go to 16,700 former PoWs or the spouses of those who have died.

Making an exception

Earlier, Dr Moonie told the Commons that it had been the policy of successive governments not to make payments in such circumstances.

The government was making an exception for the groups held by the Japanese "in recognition of the unique circumstances of their captivity".

He said in his brief statement: "We believe the country owes a debt of honour to them."

"Those who will be entitled to receive this payment, are former members of Her Majesty's Armed Forces, who were made prisoners of war, former members of the merchant navy, who were captured and imprisoned, and British civilians, who were interned."

Certain other former military personnel in the colonial forces would also be eligible.

Unique experience 
To further cheers, Dr Moonie said the payments will not be taxable and would not be taken into account for benefits.

They will be paid "as quickly as possible," with all the appropriate arrangements expected to be in place by February.

"The government recognises that many UK citizens, both those serving in the armed forces and civilians, have had to endure great hardship at different times and in different circumstances.

"But the experience of those who went into captivity in the Far East during the Second World War was unique.

"We've said before that the country owes a debt of honour to them. I hope I'm speaking for everyone here when I say that today, something concrete has been done to recognise that debt," the minister said.

Of the 50,016 British military personnel taken captive by the Japanese 12,433 died or were killed in captivity.

The survivors have campaigned for years for extra compensation for the horrors they endured.

Japan says the issue was settled when it made a token payment of £76 (the equivalent of £1,200 today) to the servicemen in the early 1950s, and has refused to meet their demands for further compensation and an apology.

The compensation payments announced today will cost £100m.
 Better late than never

The chairman of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors' Association, Arthur Titherington, said the UK Government's action was a case of "better late than never".

But he said the veterans would continue to seek an apology from Japan.

Mr Titherington said: "Today is a great day. The British Government has shown that it has fully understood the importance of these issues to today's society.

"My only disappointment is that the real culprits, that is the Japanese Government, has got away scot-free.

"The least they can do is recognise the gross errors of its past which it can do by providing a full, unequivocal apology," he said.

 

 

 

 

Dinghao and Tinghao

 Beard

 Nov 08, 2000 02:03 PST 

 

Hello, all you Weihsien list sinophiles, nihao!
   I've been quiet over the past month or two, owing to pressing 'business'. However, it's no doubt time to be heard again. I note that Stanley has commented that I am "the real sinologist in our midst".
'Sinologist' being 'an expert in or student of sinology', I suppose that I qualify for the latter, in that I have been a student of Chinese language-both Cantonese and Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin)- for many years. But the one really qualified to be called an expert is Jim Taylor.
   Both ding3hao3 and ting3hao3, as they are written in the current pinyin phonetic system used by the PRC today, mean 'very good'. Ding3 has numerous meanings, one of which is 'very, most, extremely'. Ting3 is listed as meaning 'very, rather, quite'.
   I lost all ability to speak Chinese quite early on at Chefoo, largely because I never got back to Jiangsi province where my CIM parents were stationed and probably also owing to the way we were discouraged from talking to the servants. I recall that after liberation from Weihsien all I remembered was - strangely enough - a very virulent Shandong swearword term referring to someone's mother-in-law's private parts which I must have heard used a lot by the coolies and a little ditty which went: 'Hai2you3 (or possibly it was hai2yao4) man2tou, haiyou shui3, haiyou mantou, wei4, wei, wei.' Mantou is steamed bread and shui of course is water. At least I can do a bit better than that now!
Regards,
       David Beard

 

 

Re: Dinghao and Tinghao

 Frank Otto

 Nov 08, 2000 10:54 PST 

 

David,
WW2 Net thanks you for the info.
Frank

RE: HMG Statement

 R.W. Bridge

 Nov 08, 2000 13:29 PST 

 

Wendy please pass on to Gil Hair I seem to have the wrong address.


1. HMGs statement is on www.parliament.uk then click House of Commons and then Publications. Statement by the Minister is on column 160 of 7th Nov beginning at 03:30pm.


2. The UK War Pensions Agency is handling matters and are publishing the way they are handling it on www.dss.gov.uk/wpa/index.htm This gives overseas telephone line as +44 1253 866043. They propose publishing a claim form on their web site shortly. Regarding civilians payment is Surviving civilians who are UK nationals and who were interned by the Japanese in the Far East during the Second world War and the surviving widow or widower of a deceased person who would otherwise have been entitled

 

POW, Jap, ...RE: HMG Statement

 Frank Otto

 Nov 09, 2000 12:50 PST 

 

R.W.,
Thanks for the info.
Frank, WW2 Net


 Re: Shandong delegation

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Nov 11, 2000 17:56 PST 

 

                                                    November 11, 2000
Hello, Everyone,

    What an amazing experience I had yesterday! At the University of New  Haven (Connecticut), I spoke to a group that included a large delegation of  municipal leaders from Shandong who are studying there. Among them was a  former mayor of Weifang, an official from Yantai, and another from Qingdao.

    The University of New Haven's Dean of Graduate studies invited me to  speak there after he heard the National Public Radio broadcast in May about  the liberation of Weihsien. He said he thought that the Shandong students  would feel more connected to America if they met an American who had lived in  Shandong.

    Some of those in the Shandong delegation told me they know the exact  location of the concentration camp. The official from Yantai (Chefoo)  confirmed that the former Chefoo School is now a military base.   By the way,  he told me that Yantai now has a population of 6 million!

    I told this group the whole miracle story of Weihsien and our liberation.

    I wish you could have watched the ripple of delight when I mentioned  Weihsien, Yantai, Qingdao. And you should have seen the smiles when I used  words like
gao-liang, bao-bay, poo-gai.

     You can guess it: Flash bulbs popping, cam corders rolling, business  cards changing hands.   What a hug-the-world experience!   As a thank you  gift they presented me a lovely box of Peking opera masks.

    I told them everything I could about Eddie "Cheng-Han" Wang, who was the  Chinese interpreter on the mission to liberate Weihsien. He's the only one  of the rescue team whom I have not tracked down. I'm still looking. They  guessed that if Mr. Wang was fluent in English, he would most likely be in  the USA now.

    They were fascinated at my piece of parachute silk, embroidered with the  rescue scene -- the B-24 bomber, the seven parachutes dropping from the  plane, and the camp's church steeple below. Each member of the rescue team  autographed the silk next to his parachute embroidered on the scene.
Yesterday, members of the audience passed the embroidered silk from hand to  hand. I had brought the embroidery along as my "show-and-tell." The widow  of Peter Orlich, the youngest of the rescue team, gave me this treasure after  I tracked her down in 1997. She and I are still trying to find out who  embroidered this amazing memento. A woman in the camp gave it to Peter
Orlich as a goodby gift when Peter left for Qingdao in late August 1945.
Pete Orlich's widow says she thinks Peter said a White Russian woman gave it  to him. Does anyone know anything about this embroidery? In addition to the  embroidery, I have a pattern of the picture on the embroidery. That makes me  think that other women may have embroidered this scene, using this same  pattern.

    What a day! Believe me, I don't usually travel three hours by train to  tell this story and then travel three hours back, but this was worth giving a  day.

    Mary Previte  

 

 

Re: Shandong delegation

 David Birch

 Nov 12, 2000 05:09 PST 

 

Dear Mary Taylor Previte, et al,

What an utterly amazing story! May God richly bless you, and continue to encourage you as he uses you to bring people together!
You have been and are a source of blessing and encouragement to the undersigned Chefoo School alumnus and I truly thank God for you, Mary!
I have the privilege to have inherited a number of my father, missionary George Alfred Birch's books, among them the Chinese Bible he used for years, and also his copies of the two-volume biography of your great-grandfather, James Hudson Taylor.
Just a few years ago, probably about four or five years, actually, I ploughed through these massive tomes  written by Howard Taylor and his wife, Geraldine Guinness Taylor. What a thrilling privilege to 'share' the adventure of such a life! What a mighty man of God!
What a truly inspired work of God!

(Jim H.Taylor, Herbert's grandson, if you get to read this note, though I've not contacted you until now, I recall you from the camp at Weihsien where we lived for a while in  a most impressionable time in our young lives. We did have a difficult time. I think an awful lot was expected of you, as a great-grandchild of Hudson Taylor and bearer of his name. But over the years, I believe, you have, by the grace of God, met the challenge.)

Mary, keep up the good work - but don't overdue it. At the rate you seem to be going - a 'mile a minute' I think the expression used to be (when sixty miles an hour was considered 'high speed"), you could burn out. Please be careful - we're going to need you for a long time yet - if we have a 'long time' to look forward to (eschatologically speaking, of course). Well, I'm rambling, so I'll quit for now!

Sincerely,
David Birch
(G. David Birch)

 

 

Re: Shandong delegation

 Pamela Masters

 Nov 12, 2000 17:30 PST 

 

Dear David Birch --
I echo your sentiments regarding Mary Previte -- she is a gem! And Mary...listen to David, that's sound advice -- don't burn yourself out!
By the way, David, are you related to John Birch??? I have always admired him and hated to see that ultra-conservative, right wing group use his name for for their organization. I read an astounding bio of his, but loaned the book to someone, and, as usual, forgot to write down the name. You do know, that he had a covert radio relay station just miles south of Weihsien throughout most of the war, and guided our downed pilots and crew to safety, and three days after hostilities ceased he was stabbed or bayoneted to death by a group of Communists, hence the Birch Society using his name as the first martyr to communism.
Take care of yourselves -- both of you.
Best always -- Pamela

Re: Shandong delegation

 David Birch

 Nov 16, 2000 07:49 PST 

 

Dear Pamela,

Thank you for your welcome e-note! How pleasant to receive a response from you! Especially as it was unexpected.
Pamela, although both John Birches lived in China, my brother, whom you will find mentioned by Dave Allen in one of the remarkable indexes he has provided for his Weihsien letters sent to his parents in 'free China,' my brother, that is, was only eleven years old in 1945 at the end of hostilities.  I, who was thirteen going on fourteen at War's end, was really bless'd to have John with me in the camp! I can recall walking with him of an evening around the promenade in the park behind Block 23 or was it 24, the building with the bell tower. John and the other Prepschoolers lived downstairs there in a couple of large rooms. Miss Carr and, I think, Miss Stark, had rooms adjacent to those of the children.
May God bless you, Pamela! And it was so good of you to drop me a line.
Very sincerely,

David Birch
G. David Birch

 

Re: Shandong delegation

 Stanley Nordmo

 Nov 16, 2000 20:52 PST 

 

Dear Pamela
Add my plaudits to the chorus for Mary Taylor Previte, as well as the wise caution regarding burn out.
The book you read about John Birch may have been The Secret File on John Birch, by James and Marti Hefley, Hannibal, MO: Hannibal Books, 1995, 203 pages, paperback. (The authors had access to recently declasssified files)
Birch's daring exploits in China are gratefully summarized in Claire Lee Chennault, Way of a Fighter: The Memoirs of Claire Lee Chennault, ed. Robert Hotz (1949), and in James H. Doolittle, with Carroll V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (1991).
Regards
Stanley Nordmo

 

 

B-24, rescue team, Aug 1945, Mary Previte...Re: Shandong delegation

 Frank Otto

 Nov 16, 2000 22:40 PST 

 

Mary,
WW2 Net thanks you for the information.
Frank


Nepal encounter

 Beard

 Nov 16, 2000 23:20 PST 

 

Our son who is in Nepal at the moment, met an American called Christiana Cooke while he was trekking. She said that her uncle was interned in Chefoo (I assume that means Weihsien) and her father was born in China.  Can anyone identify the family?
David Beard

 

Re: Camp prisoner - Pg 3

 David Birch

 Nov 16, 2000 23:54 PST 

 

Dear Dave,

Clear and concise. Excellent work. In your original, would you have footnotes to this material?
Some of the training for being an internee, for me at any rate at ages ten to thirteen (nearly fourteen) years of age, was contained in long (and helpful) series of meditations or presentations on the Israelites in Egypt and their situation both before and following that l o n g captivity.
Mrs. Dunachie, the mother of several boys who were with us at the Chefoo School shortly before we were interned by the Japanese, was our guest speaker at morning 'Prayers' in the Prep School. She spoke on this subject I have recalled (the memory is now just an impression, but a good one). Then in 1942, Alfie Binks, and I and our classmates who were moving from Upper One to Second Form (thus from the Prep to the Boys' School), received more of the same topic as our saintly  old headmaster, Mr. P. A. Bruce, led us day after day in worship, first at the Boys's School and then in the big Center House at the Temple Hill Camp (formerly home to medical doctors and their families in the old Presbyterian Mission days).
Also, when a cluster of us boys in the attic, where we lived, gathered around another wonderful man who had a lasting impact for good and for God upon our lives, we asked this much-respected schoolmaster of ours, "What would happen if the Japanese won the war?"
I clearly recall today Mr. Houghton's confident reply, "The Japanese won't win the war." "But what would happen IF they won the war?" we persisted. "The Japanese WON'T win the war," repeated Mr. Houghton. "But JUST SUPPOSE they DID win the war!" (We weren't ready to give up.) "Mr. Houghton's quiet reply to this third query was a simple repeat of his first two replies:
Quietly but firmly, 'THE JAPENESE WILL NOT WIN THE WAR!'
 I believe that all of us went to bed that night in that two-large-room attic apartment in the comfy old house on the hill comfortably convinced that the Allies were going to win the war!
Do you recall singing with Mr. Houghton leading us, "God is our Refuge, Our Refuge and our Strength!"?
And "God is Still on the Throne, And He will take care of His Own!"
And "The Lord is My Strength and Song, And He is Become my Salvation!"
And "The Lord hath need of me."
And "Only an armour bearer."
And "Dare to be a Daniel."
And so many other faith-building choruses and hymns!!!
Our Christian culture, and training and the example of parents, teachers and one another even was such a help to us.
Two of the older boys whose example helped me particularly were: JIMMY BRUCE and ROLAND STEDEFORD.
Also John Andrews and his brother. Jimmy Harrison was another boy who really encouraged me. He was three or four years older than I, I think. Alfie Binks's brother, Tommy, took me for a long walk one day at Temple Hill, and cheerfully encouraged me to be a truly  "committed" Christian. I have always remembered that walk and that talk with gratitude. Miss Monica Priestman, while a tad strict, was another good influence on my young life just prior to internment. I've had to learn to 'forgive' her for some strictness that may not have been entirely necessary, but the discipline I learned to accept under her tutelage probably helped me a lot to bear the discipline of camp life cheerfully.
Some of my happiest boyhood memories are of those days in internment.
To any of you who have watched Bob Crane, the American actor in the TV series, Hogan's Heroes, some of our experiences at Temple Hill and Weihsien may bear  a similarity. Remember Sgt Bu Shing! Remember King Kong! Not complimentary nicknames - but certainly nicknames that helped us to see our imprisonment with some humour.

 Must run now, gotta get to work in Point Grey tonight!

Warmest regards
David Birch
(G.David Birch)


 

China, POW,...Re: Shandong delegation

 Frank Otto

 Nov 17, 2000 02:53 PST 

 

David,
Thanks for the info.
Frank

Re: Nepal encounter

 Stanley Nordmo

 Nov 17, 2000 11:33 PST 

 

Dear David
That would have to be Joseph R. Cooke, who was only in Weihsien a short while before being repatriated to America... So the reference to his having been interned in Chefoo would be corrrect, since Weihsien was but a week long stopover . His older brother is David B. Cooke had already graduated from school in Chefoo, so was not interned.
Regards
Stanley Nordmo

 


Re: Nepal encounter

 Albert de Zutter

 Nov 17, 2000 11:37 PST 

 

David:

Joyce and Eddie Cooke were the daughter and son of Ed and Vera Cooke. They lived in Block 2 or 3, the same block where our family lived in the camp.
Joyce and Eddie live in Australia now. I can't figure out how Eddie could be Christina's uncle, however, as Eddie and his sister were the only offspring. Perhaps the Cookes will see this exchange and clear the matter up. They were from Tsingtao.

Albert de Zutter

 

Re: Nepal encounter

 Beard

 Nov 17, 2000 19:17 PST 

 

Thanks Stanley, this fits in with the data I was given.
David

 

Re: Nepal encounter

 Beard

 Nov 17, 2000 19:20 PST 

 

Thanks for the suggestion Albert. I think it's more likely to be the Cookes that Stanley Nordmo mentioned as his Cookes fit my data.
David

 

 

RE: Nepal encounter

 Thompson

 Nov 17, 2000 19:21 PST 

 

Here is a picture from Chefoo (probably 1941) of a bunch of lads hoisting  Jack Bell in celebration of his victory (in a foot race). In trying to name  the five faces below, the best I can do is: L>R, Hayman, Cooke, (? )  , Robin Hoyte, (?) .
Speaking of Cookes, was this Joseph R. Cooke ? and if so, was Athene Cooke  his kid sister ?
                 - Stan Thompson –

 

 

RE: Nepal encounter

 Stanley Nordmo

 Nov 17, 2000 23:06 PST 

 

Dear Stan Thompson

Athene Cook had two brothers, Calvin and Luther Cook. They were the Cooks minus the e.
Joseph R. Cooke had an older brother David B. Cooke.. In   November 1938 Joseph was in class !VA when I was in class 11A. His brother David was in class V!A.
Luther Cook was in my class while his brother Calvin Cook was in the same class as David Cooke..
I am not sure who is in the picture besides Hayman and Robin Hoyte.. If it isn't Joseph Cooke, it might be David Harris who was in the same class as Bell. .
Regards
Stan Nordmo.

 

RE: Nepal encounter

 R.W. Bridge

 Nov 17, 2000 13:35 PST 

 

Re the Cooke family from what I have read from exchanges there is a danger of two or more families being muddled. From the list of inmates of Weihsien The following emerge with the surname COOKE
Cooke E J British <1898> M Company Employee Tientsin
Cooke V Mrs British <1909> F Housewife Tientsin
Cooke Joyce D Miss British <1928> F Student TientsinGrammarSch
Cooke Edward J C British <1932> M Child TientsinGrammarSch
Cooke Robert (Bob) J British <1902> M Office Employee Tientsin
Cooke F V Mrs British <1908> F Housewife Tientsin
Cooke Margaret V Miss British <1936> F Child TientsinGrammarSch
Cooke Joseph R American M Student Chefoo School
Cooke E J British <1876> M Company Employee
The American Joseph R Cooke was in Chefoo School moved to Weihsien and almost immediately evacuated, in Sep 1943. He is listed as arriving in New York on the SS Gripsholm and in the NY Times of October 14 1944 shown as landing and that his home town was San Jose California. His age is unknown but was probably 12 + or - 3 years. In printing the names above I have cut off relationships but they tend to list down as families. E J and RJ were well known Ice Hockey players for Tientsin (Tianjin for those with modern maps) in their spare time I believe they went to Australia with their families post war. I am building up a data of all British Civilians in the Far East Camps and also everybody that ever went near Weihsien of what nationality. If anyone would like to let me have anything to add to the data base either publish it on this Weihsien chat line or send to rwbr-@freeuk.com if you want to mail let me know and I will send postal address. I may not get back to you straight away as I am very busy re the British Governments decision to pay those that were in Japanese Camps published last week.
Rgds
Ron Bridge

 

 

For those in Kuling

 David Allen

 Nov 18, 2000 14:21 PST 

 


                Events at Chefoo School in Kuling Sep 1948

08/31/48...Allen family arrives in Kuling to go back to school.
08/31/48...Gordon Allen & Dave sleeping in Martin House until resettled.
08/31/48...Peter Gray and Glen Nelson are my roommates in Martin House.
09/04/48...Raymond, Paul, Christopher and I go for hike up Monkey Ridge.
09/04/48...Martin house boarders had an indoor picnic.
09/06/48...Students receive class schedule for next term. My schedule...

............Mon........Tue..........Wed.............Thu........Fri............Sat
0910...Script.....Eng Lit ...Eng Lang...Script....Math........Math
0955...Math.......Science...History.... ..Math......Science...Eng Lit
1100...Latin.......Latin.........Science.....Latin......Latin.........Science
1145...French...French.....Math...........French...French....Geography

1230...to...1330 Dinner

1400...Eng Lan...Singing.....Off........Chinese..Singing....Off
1445...Eng His....Geog.........Off........Craft.........Art.............Off
1530...Chinese...Math..........Off........Craft..........Art............Off
1615...Sports......Sports.......Off........Sports......Sports.....Off

1700...to...1800 Supper
1800...to...1900 Play time

........................Homework Schedule....................
.............Mon.........Tue.........Wed.........Thu..............Fri.............Sat
1900...Science...Math.......Englit.......Hist..............Latin........Off
1930...Latin.........Scrip......Science...Geog...........French.....Off
2000...Math.........French...Math.........EngLang...Science....Off

2100...Off to bed.

Saturday evenings are for student concerts, special events.

09/02/48...Glen loaned me book "Austin Boys Adrift" to read.
10/02/48...Upper School boys hike to Paradise Pools and swim.
10/05/48...Mr Hayes, Old Chefooite (1905) shows pictures of USA.
10/06/48...Students given initial shots of tetanus.2 More before Nov.
10/07/48...Jeffrey family arrives in Kuling to start school.
10/07/48...Austin family arrives in Kuling to start school.
10/07/48...Boys get new soccer boots and play first game.
10/08/48...Students have 1/2 term tests.
10/08/48...Their team wins first game.
10/09/48...Our team beats them this time.
10/09/48...Mr Welch, school teacher from Weihsien show pictures.
10/09/48...Those pictures are of Bob Mathias in the Olympiad.
10/09/48...Boys find swimming pool filled with leaves and green scum.
10/11/48...Ruth Allen ends up in sickbay.

 

 

Weihsien - Kuling -3

 David Allen

 Nov 18, 2000 21:01 PST 

 


...........November 1948 at Chefoo Schools in Kuling.

11/07/48...Seven table boys and two women sent away ...
...................$4 and œ12 = 1 Gold Yuen
11/07/48...My job is to wash up dishes after supper.
11/09/48...Kuling Chefoo school played Chinese Kuling school soccer,
...................Score 2 - 0 our favor but they did not have soccer boots.
11/13/48...Ruth Allen has just received her glasses she was waiting for.
11/13/48...Mr Carlburg showed pictures of N.E. USA
11/14/48...Christopher, Paul and I go to Nanking Pass on a hike.
11/14/48...Mr Martin spoke on "Slavery and Freedom"
11/18/48...Took our final exams
11/20/48...Desks piled up and space made for home room for holidays
..................We played spin the platter, Charades
11/22/48...Upper IV boys presented concert
11/22/48...I acted in play "The Miller, his sons and their donkey."
11/23/48...On Thanksgiving we had turkey...arrived 11:40 ...gone 1:40
11/26/48...We had our first snowfall.
11/27/48...John Pearce and I go up Monkey Ridge...Snow .75 to 1.5 "
11/28/48...Telephone wires are covered with ice
11/28/48...Upper Boys and Girls go to Monument past the Gap; 30 or
...................more telephone poles are down
11/28/48...Listened to the "Messiah" played on the gramophone.
11/29/48...Girls from Bruce House move into McCarthy to conserve heat.

12/01/48...We started playing field hockey. My Houghton and Mr Brailey
...................play on different sides.
12/02/48...Those not going home for the holidays go on hike to Lion's
Leap. It is very steep at the top and there is a precipice there. Mr
Houghton, Mr Brailey, Mr Conway, Miss Elliott and Miss Dixon were the
teachers that went along. On the side of the precipice were some
characters carved in stone telling of the person who was the first to go
there. He had endured great ilness because of rain, so he erected a
pavilion and a kiosk so that others coming up might have the pleasure of
these things. There were caves there but we were not allowed to go into
them because it was too dangerous. On the way home we yodeled and listened
to our echoes.
12/04/48...It was Ruth Allen's birthday. The cake was delicious.
12/04/48...We had our last shots for tetanus.
12/05/48...Mr Houghton gave us three verses to memorize. Ps.119:67,71,75.
12/05/48...I've read about 4 - 5 books since holidays started.
12/05/48...Lowest temp last week: 23 Fahrenheit; This week: 57 degrees.
12/06/48...Holiday time we are exploring downstream from Kuling and hiking
all over the mountains. We have been singing Christmas Carols, wrapping
Christmas presents, listening to readings by the teachers. LIstened to
"39 Steps" by John Buchan; I've been reading "Greenmantle"; now its "The
Three Hostages"

 

 

Weihsien - Kuling 2

 David Allen

 Nov 18, 2000 21:01 PST 

 

...........October 1948 at Chefoo schools in Kuling..............

10/02/48...Upper School boys hike to Paradise Pools and swim.
10/05/48...Mr Hayes, Old Chefooite (1905) shows pictures of USA.
10/06/48...Students given initial shots of tetanus.2 More before Nov.
10/07/48...Jeffrey family arrives in Kuling to start school.
10/07/48...Austin family arrives in Kuling to start school.
10/07/48...Boys get new soccer boots and play first game.
10/08/48...Students have 1/2 tern tests.
10/08/48...Their team wins first game.
10/09/48...Our team beats them this time.
10/09/48...Mr Welch, school teacher from Weihsien show pictures.
10/09/48...Those pictures are of Bob Mathias in the Olympiad.
10/09/48...Boys find swimming pool filled with leaves and green scum.
10/10/48...Paul and David take observations at MOP: max, min,
10/11/48...Ruth ends up in sickbay.
10/17/48...Observations + wet bulb and rain for 1 week.

...................6.30..W.B. 6.30..W.B....Rain...Rain
OCT......Min..Max..a.m...a.m..p.m...p.m....a.m....p.m    
Sun 10...51...76...61....52...59....50.....0
Mon 11...59...79...60....55...60....53.....0
Tue 12...56...66...58....56...52....50.....0
Wed 13...46...50...49....47...49....48.... .75... .25    
Thu 14...47...55...50....49...50....50.... 0..... .05
Fri 15...44...65...49....47...56......52.......0
Sat 16...47...64...52....48...52............
Sun 17...51........50.......................

10/17/48...Boys & servants dig up potato patch to make basketball court.
10/19/48...Table servants get into hubbub, strike and leave.
10/19/48...Upper school boys and girls, serve tables,
...........wash and dry dishes.
10/21/48...I'm reading a book "Twelve Famous Evangelists".
10/23/48...Mr Joyce showed us pictures of Palestine.
10/24/48...Mr Joyce spoke about the Moslems and their religion.
10/24/48...Children wake up with spots on faces...chickenpox
10/24/48...Dorothy Allen is one of them.

11/02/48...We celebrate our monthly holiday
           The Upper Boys were divided into two teams. The team I was  in set a trail with chalk marks, sticks, stones and using our symbol an arrow with an "R" at the side. We did this so we would know if the Chinese had set a false trail and were monkeying with our trail. After a prearranged time the second team followed. We watched them with field  glasses. When they found us we split up into four groups. Mr Brailey was  our chef. Mr Martin, Mr Brailey and Dr Pearce were the adult supervisors.
We had boiling hot soup, some sandwiches, two or three squirt (tiny)  oranges, and 2-3 candies. We had to clean up our fireplaces, so we  buried it and covered it with a large clod of grass. After lunch we  played attackers and defenders. It was our job to take their flag and  get back to our fireplace before they swiped our tails. In our little  group was Paul Grant, Freddy Wilhelm, Alan Moore and myself. We were  the attackers first. When the time was up and it was their turn to be  attackers they said it was our small regiment that had turned their hairs gray. We had disappeared and they lost track of us. We were only 100  yards from the flag when the whistle blew for us to change.

 

 

Weihsien - Kuling 3

 David Allen

 Nov 18, 2000 21:02 PST 

 


...........November 1948 at Chefoo Schools in Kuling.

11/07/48...Seven table boys and two women sent away ... ...........$4 and œ12 = 1 Gold Yuen
11/07/48...My job is to wash up dishes after supper.
11/09/48...Kuling Chefoo school played Chinese Kuling school soccer, ...........Score 2 - 0 our favor but they did not have soccer boots.
11/13/48...Ruth Allen has just received her glasses she was waiting for.
11/13/48...Mr Carlburg showed pictures of N.E. USA
11/14/48...Christopher, Paul and I go to Nanking Pass on a hike.
11/14/48...Mr Martin spoke on "Slavery and Freedom"
11/18/48...Took our final exams
11/20/48...Desks piled up and space made for home room for holidays ..........We played spin the platter, Charades
11/22/48...Upper IV boys presented concert
11/22/48...I acted in play "The Miller, his sons and their donkey."
11/23/48...On Thanksgiving we had turkey...arrived 11:40 ...gone 1:40
11/26/48...We had our first snowfall.
11/27/48...John Pearce and I go up Monkey Ridge...Snow .75 to 1.5 "
11/28/48...Telephone wires are covered with ice
11/28/48...Upper Boys and Girls go to Monument past the Gap; 30 or ...........more telephone poles are down
11/28/48...Listened to the "Messiah" played on the gramophone.
11/29/48...Girls from Bruce House move into McCarthy to conserve heat.

12/01/48...We started playing field hockey. My Houghton and Mr Brailey ...........play on different sides.
12/02/48
...Those not going home for the holidays go on hike to Lion's  Leap. It is very steep at the top and there is a precipice there. Mr  Houghton, Mr Brailey, Mr Conway, Miss Elliott and Miss Dixon were the  teachers that went along. On the side of the precipice were some  characters carved in stone telling of the person who was the first to go  there. He had endured great ilness because of rain, so he erected a pavilion and a kiosk so that others coming up might have the pleasure of these things. There were caves there but we were not allowed to go into  them because it was too dangerous. On the way home we yodeled and listened to our echoes.
12/04/48...It was Ruth Allen's birthday. The cake was delicious.
12/04/48...We had our last shots for tetanus.
12/05/48...Mr Houghton gave us three verses to memorize. Ps.119:67,71,75.
12/05/48...I've read about 4 - 5 books since holidays started.
12/05/48...Lowest temp last week: 23 Fahrenheit; This week: 57 degrees.
12/06/48...
Holiday time we are exploring downstream from Kuling and hiking all over the mountains. We have been singing Christmas Carols, wrapping Christmas presents, listening to readings by the teachers. LIstened to "39 Steps" by John Buchan; I've been reading "Greenmantle"; now its "The Three Hostages"

 

 

Weihsien -Kuling 4

 David Allen

 Nov 18, 2000 21:02 PST 

 

...........December 1948 at Chefoo Schools in Kuling.

12/11/48...Miss Elliott invited the older boys and girls to a house warming. We played games and had a thoroughly good time.
12/06/48...Writing letters to relatives and friends in Johnsondale, CA; People I had worked for in Greenhorn, CA, and Glennville, CA.
12/15/48...Mr Brailey took the Older Boys and Girls down the bottom of the. thousand steps. There we cooked our meal.
12/15/48...I went to Gordon Allen's birthday party. I sawed wood for the . campfire that evening and we sang camp fire song and negro spirituals.
12/16/48
...We hiked to Hun Yuang Peak, the highest peak in the Lushan  .Range...10 miles there and 10 miles back. We ran and walked it. in 2 1/2 hours. We baked our potatoes, ate sandwiches, one  orange, made a pig in a blanket, some cocoa and ate some candies. One third of the way is Temple in the Clouds which as kind of dilapidated now. Returned in 2 hours.
12/18/48...I hiked to the cave of the Immortals and saw the Buddha in.a glass case.
12/22/48...Presents given to our servants for appreciation of their work.
12/23/48...Teachers created a commissary. I bought scissors for Gordon,. Wool cap for Ruth, purse for Dorothy, pencil for Raymond.
12/24/48...Middle and Upper School boys go caroling. We sang to the Chinese school across the valley and resident foreigners.
12/25/48...Mr. Carlburg came dressed as a Chinese Coolie carrying Christmas. for students. After breakfast and our jobs we went to the  .................Assembly Hall to open our presents. For Christmas dinner the Chinese helpers bought us some oranges and candies, and lit off some firecrackers. Father Christmas came along about 5 pm on a sled with reindeer. I was given a game of Bible riddles.
12/29/48..We awoke to the ground covered with snow. The older boys assisted Mr Conway to pile up snow on the ramp and runway.
.................The road slopes downhill from Tyng's to the playing field.
12/30/48...We went up to the cemetery to find pine cones. We played capture the flag without being tagged with a pine cone.
.................If tagged three times you had to go to home base and count to 100 before going out to battle again.

 

 

British internees in Chefoo/Weihsien camps

 Beard

 Nov 19, 2000 01:08 PST 

 

   The subject 'Nepal Encounter' spawned some interesting data which I'm here following up. Many thanks to Ron Bridge for his very useful contribution.
   Ron, as I should come into the category of British national held prisoner by the Japanese during WW2, I'm interested in your build up of data of British civilians in Chefoo/Weihsien camps. I need factual verification of my being an internee at both camps for attachment to my British ex-gratia payment application form. Would be most grateful if you could e-mail me anything relevant.
   In addition, I need the date when the Chefoo School left Yantai in Sept 1943, and the date when our party arrived in Weihsien. Can anyone assist?
     

"R.W. Bridge" wrote:

 

I am building up a data of all British Civilians in the Far East Camps and also everybody that ever went near Weihsien of what nationality. If anyone would like to let me have anything to add to the data base either publish it on this Weihsien chat line or send to rwbr-@freeuk.com if you want to mail let me know and I will send postal address. I may not get back to you straight away as
I am very busy re the British Governments decision to pay those that were in Japanese Camps published last week.

 

Re: British internees in Chefoo/Weihsien camps

 Stanley Nordmo

 Nov 19, 2000 15:12 PST 

 

 

 

Dear David
In "A Boy's War" David Michell gives the date of departure from Yantai as September 7, 1943. The arrival in Weihsien was two days later. In "Chefoo School 1881-1951" S. G. Martin wrote about arriving in Weihsien on the second day at about 5:00 p.m. From other sources all agreed that the trip took about two days. One stated 48 hours, while another mentioned two days and two nights. It would seem that September 9th would be the date of arrival of our contingent from Chefoo to Weihsien.
An advance group made up of American and Canadian students and teachers had left Chefoo for Weihsien before the rest of us. These were among the ones who left the camp on September 14, 1943 as part of a prisoner exchange.
According to Martha Philips in her book "Behind Stone Walls and Barbed Wire" the route home was convoluted. From Shanghai to Hong Kong, across to San Fernando in the Philippine islands, up through the Mekong river to Saigon, back and through the Straits of Java, over to Mormugoa, a Portuguese port on the west coast of India. They arrived there on October 15th.. July 22, 2004, message from Norman Cliff: This was published by: Bible Memory Association, P.O.BOX 12000, Ringgold, LA 71068-2000. Tel: 318-894-9154
This is where the prisoner exchange was made, and they transferred from the Teia Maru to the Gripsholm. The next stop was Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Then around the Cape of Good Hope on to Rio de Janeiro before finally docking in New York City on Dec. 1st 1943. The headline that date Gripsholm Brings Freedom to 1500.
Regards
Stanley Nordmo

 


MSN Chat

 Beard

 Nov 20, 2000 15:01 PST 

 

Hi Frank
The 'help' you got from MSN Customer Support sounds like the usual useless information provided by customer support groups!!
I have never tried to access MSN Chat and don't know much about it, but I do know there is a plugin called ichat that some people need to participate in online chats. You may wish to explore if you have that or need it. If you are using Netscape, it could be that Microsoft have made it difficult for Netscape users to connect, so you could try using IE and see if you get any joy.
Margaret Beard (David's wife)

 

 

Re: MSN Chat

 David Birch

 Nov 21, 2000 13:14 PST 

 

Hello David and Margaret,

I quite clearly remember David Beard at Chefoo. Not many details - but a definite memory. I'll send you a private e-letter right away. I've already prepared it in draft form. It's a bit rambling, but I'm sure that with a little e-dialogue we'll be able to solve the insoluable (is that a word?) problems. As Winston Churchill is supposed to have said, "The difficult can be done at once. The impossible will take a little longer."

David Birch
George David Birch (b. 1931)
(Interned with the Boys School at Temple Hill from November the fifth, nineteen forty-two . . . then taken with my fellow students (plus staff and other  adults) by Japanese ship (the Kyodo Maru Twenty-eight) down the China coast, then by land to the Presbyterian Mission Compound near the town of Weihsien. I recall our liberation by the US servicemen in August of ineteen forty-five.)
--- Beard <bea-@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

 

claim

 Natasha Petersen

 Nov 23, 2000 05:19 PST 

 

Hello all,
Is anyone filing a claim for Ex-Gratia payment for Ex-Far East  risoners...... or Civilian Internees?  www.dss.gov.uk/wpa/htmldocs/exgratia.htm
The above will give you the information.
What proof would be acceptable? I am asking for advice.
Thanks
Natasha

 

 

Re: Claim for ex-gratia payment

 Beard

 Nov 24, 2000 04:00 PST 

 

Hi, Natasha,
   I'm in the early stages of preparing a claim. Your birth certificate will help show that you are you, and the daughter of your father. Have you got his former British passport? Make contact with someone who has a list of Weihsien internees. If you go back to the subject 'Nepal
Encounter' of 17.11.2000, you'll see a reply from Ron Bridge, who is a Vice Chairman of ABCIFER, the Assn of British Civilian Internees Far East Region, saying that he is building up a data base of all British civilians in the Far East Camps. <rwbr-@freeuk.com>
Good luck! Regards, David Beard



 RE: POW, Jap, WWII....Re: British internees in Chefoo/Weihsien camps

 R.W. Bridge

 Nov 27, 2000 09:10 PST 

 

Complete the claim form with copies of what you have got, those that are not in the UK the need is proof of British citizenship at the time. AS was said a couple of days ago once British always British, you can sin and go astray to the US or wherever but you can always comes home to UK. The War Pensions Agency has UK Govt lists from which they can verify. If there is a problem they will come back to you the word from Prime Minister is pay if you can and they know that I will give them a very hard time with ABCIFER contacts of half House of Commns if they try to prevent Parliamnets will.

 

 

RE: POW, Jap, WWII....Re: British internees in Chefoo/Weihsien camps

 R.W. Bridge

 Nov 27, 2000 13:30 PST 

 

Complete the claim form that was the attachment with copies of what you have got, those that are not in the UK the need is proof of British citizenship at the time. Remember you had to be British at the time of internment either have or be on your parents British Passport. Payment is only to those that were in a camp or those that are the widows or widowers(who can be of any nationality) of someone that was British in a camp. As was said a couple of days ago once British always British, you can sin and go astray to the US or wherever but you can always comes home to UK. The War Pensions Agency has its website www.dss.gov.uk/wpa/index.htm which has the claim form to down load, complete and send to Norcorss. The WPA UK Govt lists from which they can verify. If there is a problem they will come back to you. However, I have or have access to the lists of those in camps and the WPA will pass the name to me for help in verification if necessary. The sources of names is endless, for instance I am in the War Museum tomorrow deciphering a shirt which was embroidered by inmates of one camp with their names and signatures. There are quite comprehensive British Government lists and there is always the International Red Cross in Geneva. the word from Prime Minister is pay if you can and they know that I will give them a very hard time with ABCIFER contacts of half House of Commons if they try to prevent Parliaments will. The key is get the claim in even if you plan to send additional evidence at later date.
* Ron

 

 

Let's all send holiday greetings to the team that liberated Weihsien

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Dec 03, 2000 08:56 PST 

 

Hello, Everyone,

    The holidays are approaching, bringing another lovely opportunity to
remember the team of heroes who risked their lives to rescue us in 1945.

    Let's greet them with holiday cards or letters from around the world.

    Major Stanley Staiger will celebrate his 82 birthday on December 30. I  hope you'll also send birthday cards. Major Staiger is in extremely frail  health and suffers failing vision at a time when he is very much alone.
Remember the dizzy euphoria you felt on August 17, 1945, when these angels  dropped out of the sky into the fields beyond those barrier walls? Now  please, please, please send Major Staiger a birthday card or letter. I can't  think of a nicer way to say "Thank you; we remember."

    Here's the list of addresses:

WEIHSIEN RESCUE TEAM (DUCK MISSION) -- current addresses

Mrs. Raymond Hanchulak (Helen) widow of Raymond Hanchulak
                        Birthday of Helen Hanchulak: April 18
Phone: 717-472-3520
P.O. Box 4
243 Laurie Lane
Bear Creek Village, PA 18602

James J. Hannon     Birthday: November 12, 1919
Phone: 760-364-4580
P. O Box 1376
Yucca Valley, CA 92286

James W. Moore      Birthday: October 5, 1919
Phone: 214-341-8695
9605 Robin Song Street
Dallas, Texas   75243

Tad Nagaki              Birthday: January 25, 1920
Phone: 308-762-2968
RR 2, Alliance NE 69301

Mrs. Peter Orlich (Carol)   widow of Peter Orlich
Phone: 718-746-8122        Birthday of Carol Orlich: June 13, 1921
15727 20th Road
Whiteston, N.Y. 11357

Stanley A. Staiger    Birthday: December 30, 1918
Phone: 702-825-3766
Village of the Pines
700 E. Peckam Lane, Apartment 259
Reno, NV   89502

Mary Previte

 

 

Re: Let's all send holiday greetings to the team that liberated Weihsien

 David Birch

 Dec 03, 2000 10:43 PST 

 

21321 122nd Avenue
Maple Ridge BC
V2X 3W4

The Lord's Day
December 3, 2000

Dear Mary, et al

Thank you for the timely reminder. I, for one, will follow your suggestion. I'm sure many others will as well.
Respectfully

David Birch
(G. David Birch, b. Nov 1931)

PS I feel certain that God's blessing is resting on you, Mary. I pray that you will experience a refreshing like gentle showers in Alpine meadows full of many-hued flowers. "God is watching over you, today."
GDB

 

New address for Weihsien rescuer

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Dec 04, 2000 15:16 PST 

 

Hello, Everybody:

Weihsien rescuer, Tad Nagaki, tells me the Post Office has changed his  address. I have corrected the address list as noted below.   Please discard  the address I mailed you yesterday.
Mrs. Helen Hanchulak, widow of our rescuer/medic, Raymond Hanchulak, recently
suffered a heart attack.
Send your cards to the addresses listed here.
Mary Previte



WEIHSIEN RESCUE TEAM (DUCK MISSION) -- current addresses

Mrs. Raymond Hanchulak (Helen) widow of Raymond Hanchulak
                        Birthday of Helen Hanchulak: April 18
Phone: 717-472-3520
P.O. Box 4
243 Laurie Lane
Bear Creek Village, PA 18602

James J. Hannon     Birthday: November 12, 1919
Phone: 760-364-4580
P. O Box 1376
Yucca Valley, CA 92286

James W. Moore      Birthday: October 5, 1919
Phone: 214-341-8695
9605 Robin Song Street
Dallas, Texas   75243

Tad Nagaki              Birthday: January 25, 1920
Phone: 308-762-2968
5851 Logan Rd., Alliance, NE 69301

Mrs. Peter Orlich (Carol)   widow of Peter Orlich
Phone: 718-746-8122        Birthday of Carol Orlich: June 13, 1921
15727 20th Road
Whiteston, N.Y. 11357

Stanley A. Staiger    Birthday: December 30, 1918
Phone: 702-825-3766
Village of the Pines
700 E. Peckam Lane, Apartment 259
Reno, NV   89502

Chinese searching for Weihsien rescuer Eddie Wang

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Dec 07, 2000 17:18 PST 

 

Hello, Everyone:

    A Chinese official who was in my audience recently at University of New  Haven is pursuing my search for Eddie (Cheng-Han) Wang, the Chinese  interpreter on the Weihsien rescue mission. He wanted to translate my  Weihien story and post it on the internet. I sent him a small article I  recently wrote for the China Burma India Round-Up.   Here is Mr. Ma's most  recent letter to me. Mary Previte

Dear Madam Mary T. Previte,

Thank you for giving me this article and the authority to post it on the  internet. i am sorry i could not reply you earlier.
I have posted the story to  webking.online.jn.sd.cn , the biggest news group in  China, whose server is in Jinan, Shandong.
I hope we can find something about Eddie Wong.
thank you for the article again.
best wishes

 

 

Merry Xmas to all & a healthy NY!

 Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)

 Dec 13, 2000 03:38 PST 

 

Hello. My name is Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke). I live in Sydney,  Australia. I have just published a softback book (103pp)re: Weihsien (my  biography). It tells of my experiences in Tsingtao before, during and  after WWII. It contains some photographs, and names of people and places  are authentic and may bring back memories to ex-Weihsien camp-ers. Name  of the book is "Forgiven But Not Forgotten", and is available through my  email address which is:
bobj-@tpg.com.au
Cost is $22 Australian. This includes postage. My address is:
100 Coxs Road
NORTH RYDE NSW 2113
AUSTRALIA

It should answer a lot of questions I have read on this Email List re:  Weihsien (incl. the escape of Hummel and Tipton). I have not had time to  advertise it as yet, as I have been touring the USA (incl. China reunion  in Scottsdale) and have only recently returned to Sydney.
Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous Christmas and New Year!

Joyce

 

 

New Book on Young Woman Interned by Japanese

 Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)

 Dec 15, 2000 01:49 PST 

 

Hello all. Concerning the previous message about my book which tells of  my experiences in China and as a prisoner of the Japanese, I wish to  make a correction to the email address given. It should read:  bobj-@tpg.com.au  or  glb-@gos.comcen.com.au
Anyone who is interested can email me for more information, and I would  be only too happy to assist.
Regards
Joyce

 

 

Re: British internees in Chefoo/Weihsien camps

 David Birch

 Dec 16, 2000 20:40 PST 

 


To: Stanley Nordmo
From: David Birch (b.25Nov1931)

21321 122nd Avenue
Maple Ridge
British Columbia
CANADA
V2X 3W4

December 16, Y2K

Dear Nordmo,

Just a few friendly lines in order to try to establish contact with an 'older boy' than myself from those far away days when we lived 'on the shores of an Eastern Sea;' I do hope that you will take a few minutes to acknowledge receipt of this message. I too, with the providential help of chaps like Ron Bridge and others, am doing my own research to establish the precise history of the 'Chefoo Community' back in the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties.
As probably many of the rest of us did, over the years, I often told true stories to my children at bedtime. Of course, they enjoyed hearing the tales that 'Daddy' (I), had to relate about his (my) adventures when he (I) was a boy growing up in far-away China.
For a number of years, one of my two daughters, now an elementary school teacher in Richmond, BC, a suburban city in Greater Vancouver, this young woman, I say, persisted until I actually wrote several stories, which now form chapters in my autobiography, tentatively entitled, A Bedtime Storybook, by George David Birch.
Since I am a bit of a stickler for precision and accuracy, not perfect at it mind you, but since I am  concerned with being "bang on" when it comes to reporting history, especially where I am personally involved, I may be able to assist you at some time.
Of course, I sailed from Qingdao (then Tsingtao) on the U.S.S. Lavaca. I plan to write to the Department of National Defense, in Washington, D.C. to verify the precise dates. However, this I do recall, among many other facts concerning that (to me) historic voyage.

On leaving Qingdao, our first port of call was Shanghai, where we were permitted shore leave. The next immediate destination was Okinawa, where some eight hundred United States Marines (USMC) boarded the Lavaca clambering up the port side (if my recollection is correct) on nets from landing craft; then we headed out to sea again: this time to Pearl Harbor on the Hawaian island of Oahu. From Pearl Harbor, we steamed on to San Francisco (still accompanied by a destroyer escort-there were two (2) destroyers, and I recall my marine friends (Fritz, Ivan, Krug, and Jim (Hynes) spending a lot of time with us, also "Mr" because he was already thirty-five years old, Mr. Fisher. Anyway, one or more of these 'heroes' of my boyhood (I was thirteen going on fourteen), pointing out the destroyers as they prepared to shoot some mines that were floating in the water somewhere between Okinawa and Pearl Harbor. I was quite impressive to watch the plume of water shoot up into the air, though the destroyers were quite a distance from the U.S.S. Lavaca, and the sound of the guns was only a muffled boom. The San Fransisco newspaper reporters boarded our vessel when we docked there on November the fifth, nineteen forty-five, three years to the day since I had walked across the city of Yentai (Chefoo as I thought it was called) with a little blue packsack on my back containing my Bible and my treasured 'Robinson Crusoe' by Daniel Defoe, with a cardboard panorama in the center that depicted Crusoe on his island. (My packsack likely contained a few other 'necessities' such as a handkerchief, tooth brush, soap, maybe some toothpaste. I don't really recall anything except the important things: my British & Foreign Bible Society Bible, and my Robinson Crusoe book). On the journey, by foot, I clearly recall stopping in front of the Japanese military base, and being led by our teachers (including, I feel sure, Mr. Stanley Houghton) in the singing of two choruses. "God is Still on the Throne, and He will remember His own;" and "God is our Refuge, our Refuge and Our Strength, in Trouble, In Trouble, A VERY PRESENT HELP . . ."
All the dates that you and I are concerned about, are very readily documentable. Your destination may have been different from mine (I left San Francisco, where John (my younger brother, b. 1934), and I continued on by Great Northern Railway (now Burlington Northern), through mountain passes and fertile valleys, from California, through Oregon, and Washington State. We even passed through (I am almost certain) Vancouver, Washington (also named for Captain George Vancouver) until we reached Seattle, WA. Then we were almost home. Within another couple of hours or so, my brother and I, along with Miss Pearl Young our Upper One teacher, left the train at the Great Northern Station at Main Street and Terminal Avenue, in Vancouver. There, after several years of absence from one another, we were met by my dear mother, Mrs. Grace Lilian Birch (Dad could not get away from the farm at Agassiz, BC because of course cows have to be milked twice a day, and it was a long drive (about seventy-five miles) over snowy roads, including a winding mountain highway (only two lanes in those days) and we didn't even have a car in those days. The 'historic date' documented by the Vancouver newspapers, of our arrival that dark, snowy evening, was November the eighth, nineteen forty-five.
Anyway, Stan, I hope you had a great day for your recent birthday. May God's rich blessings, and encouragement be yours now and always.
Sincerely, (and with Christian love and respect)

Dave
(gdavid-@yahoo.com)
Saturday, December 16, 2000

 

memories

 Thompson

 Dec 17, 2000 10:24 PST 

 

David Birch,

David, old buddy !
It is good to hear your stories. My memories part company with yours at  Qingdao - apparently because I was being sent back to Ireland and you were  returning to Canada. In retrospect I had no idea at the time that you were of Canadian origin. We were just missionaries' kids. We must have been together in Quingdao. Until you reminded me, I had almost forgotten about the escapade on the pebbled roof of Edgewater Mansions, where I disappeared and left you and your little brother John to face Mr. Chalkley's wrath.I left Quingdao, bound for Shanghai, on a Liberty ship whose name I can't remember. I do remember with great clarity the mess hall where we had delicious food slopped on to steel trays, and I had never seen such soft, sweet and delicate white bread ( I thought it was cake). I wolfed it down with great gobs of peach jam from my steel tray. In the evenings they showed movies on deck ! The first movie I ever saw was on that deck (it was I believe called Hanover Square, a thriller in which George Sanders turned into a murderous fiend whenever he heard a shrill noise !). The weather was horrible (later we were told that it was the tail end of the famous Okinawa Typhoon " that sank more American ships than the Japanese did during the entire war"). I remember that the ship was fitted out as a troop transport, with bunks about 18 inches apart and stacked 5 high. I can remember feeling so sick that I wanted to go on deck, and as I emerged from the second bunk, someone in the 5th bunk vomited down beside me ! Does this sound like the ship that you were on on the way to Shanghai ?
I don't remember being allowed to go ashore at Shanghai. I suspect the same or similar ship took us on to Hong Kong, because it left no mark on my memory. We arrived at Kowloon, and housing was found for us near the KaiTak aerodrome. My brother Paul (b. 1931) and I started collecting coins. We discovered that the money changers - all along the same street in downtown Kowloon - each had a drawer filled with useless change, rupees and this and that. We made friends with American sailors docked in Kowloon and explained that we needed cigarettes to exchange for coins for our collection. After that, the destroyer was our first stop, and when each of us had packs of Lucky Strikes stuffed in all our pockets, we headed for the money changers street. When we were out of Luckies we took the bus "home" to gloat over our loot.

It was six weeks before we got places on a ship headed via the Suez Canal for Liverpool , where our Dad was waiting for us on the dock.
Stan Thompson

 

 

1.Repatriation 2.. ex gratia payments

 Stanley Nordmo

 Dec 18, 2000 00:10 PST 

 

Dear David Birch

1. Repatriation
Your homeward itinerary was very different from mine.
As Norwegians, my two sisters Kathleen and Audrey and I left Qingdao on the USS Geneva for Hong Kong the staging port for passage to Europe. We sailed out of Hong Kong on the SS Tamaroa in late November and disembarked in Colombo, Ceylon (Srl Lanka) on December 5th, 1945 . On December 11, we flew to Calcutta to meet my mother and younger brother Rowland who had been evacuated the first week of January 1945 with the CIM school from Kiating, Szechwan (Sichuan) to Kalimpong, India.

With Calcutta in the throes of the independence movement, a curfew was in effect for all foreign nationals. In the midst of the turbulence, the Indian Red Cross and RAPWI (Repatriation of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees) put on a fantastic spread on Christmas Day 1945. From Calcutta the family, minus our father who was still in Shanghsien (Shangzhou), Shensi (Shaanxi) waiting for missionaries from Norway to relieve him, flew to Karachi on January 8, 1946. We had fueling stops in Bahrein, Cairo Egypt, Augusta Sicily, and Marignane France before reaching Poole, U.K. on January 12, 1946. We spent 10 days in London before taking a train to Newcastle and then sailing for Stavanger, Norway.in very rough North Sea weather . Our father joined us a year later for Christmas 1946. I left to go to college in the States in early 1947.
As you can see, aside from both of us being in Qingdao after leaving Weihsien (Weixian), our paths have not crossed. I do have a Canadian connection now that my younger sister Audrey Nordmo Horton lives in Kamloops, B.C., where her husband is a Baptist minister. They have dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.


2. Ex gratia payments.
With the current discussion about the ex gratia payments for British citizens, it might be of interest to mention a parallel move by the Norwegian government which is considering paying a lump sum to every surviving Norwegian who was either a prisoner of war or a civilian internee during the second World War. The War Pension Office would handle the details of distributing the money if the government approves the plan. We are eligible for this program since we were Norwegian citizens at the time.
For many years the War Pension Office in Norway has been processing and accepting disability claims based on the post-traumatic stress syndrome, and various medical conditions attributed to camp conditions. This one time potential grant in Norway is unrelated to the current monthly War Pension   disability payments.
Best Regards
Stanley Nordmo

 

 

Re: memories

 David Birch

 Dec 18, 2000 00:59 PST 

 

Stan (or should I call you Thompson Three?): No, of course not! We share several years of rip-roaring memories! Boy, if I'd only known about the earlier 'plot' by Jack G. which somehow you were inveigled into, I'd have probably had it out with the 'rotter' instead of heading off for the hills, all alone, except for little David Allen, to find that "buried treasure chest" up at "Eve's Knob." My hat!!! Wow!!! And to think that I actually 'fell' for all that baloney!
Well, Stan, here's wishing you, and Jack, and David, et al, a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
May blessings abound!
Dave
GDB
--- Thompson <boo-@ginniff.com> wrote:

 

 

(no subject)

 alison holmes

 Dec 19, 2000 12:05 PST 

 

What an extraordinary couple of days...first to hear about the exgratia payment and then to read all these memories of Weihsien. This is the first time I have written to a bulletin board and I was wary about how to identify myself (hence the abbreviated signature!). I was Alison Martin, daughter of Gordon and Heather Martin,teachers at Chefoo School, sister to Elisabeth, John, and Richard. It's amazing to see how very vivid everybody's memories are...as are mine. I well remember that boat trip to Weihsien as I put my foot out through the railings of the boat and one of my shoes dropped off, good leather shoes, imagine!, and mum had to make me a cloth shoe in blue and white cloth for me to limp into Weihsien where we went through a moongate and had a welcoming tea. So many pictures, the Japanese dentist, that gritty eggshell on a spoon, making coal balls, planting our castor oil beans and morning glory seeds, listening to the nuns singing downstairs in Block 23 and having my parents horrified to find me lying in bed playing with a 'necklace' the nuns had given me and crooning songs to the Virgin Mary...oh rags of Popery! They made great donuts or at least donut holes. And then I had to return the rosary and kept away from the nuns though some bad boy and I stood under their window and sang rude songs just to show that we weren't going to get caught by theit wicked religion.. Of course the night of the escape stands clear in mind with the midnight roll call, and those horrid great Alsatians with their permangante streaks on them prowling around us. How did ma do it? She managed to give us all a square of chocolate to eat as we waited on the field under search lights with trucks bustling in with guards bristling with guns.Do you remember the funeral of the lad who jumped to touch the electric wire? I was not meant to go, but crept in behind others, climbing a tree to see what was going on. I remembering picking alfalfa with some girl and as we were laughing facing the setting sun, a Japanese guard went by and was so angry with us for laughing, rattled his sword and came to slap us on our faces. Real terror. Was there an underground tunnel on the east side of the camp...there are pictures in my mind but no clear context.   It's amazing to think we spent two years, six of us in two tiny rooms, Block 15, opposite Block 23. Elisabeth and I went back there in 89 and saw how tiny they were. Pa made it habitable for us by giving each of us a painting on the wall above our bunk beds that just belonged to us. Richard had a tiger and I had a copy of a picture by Ma Yuan of some venerable sage rocking quietly in his boat, paddle just touching the water, surrounded by bamboos. I have a copy of it in my bedroom now and it has always felt like an icon of place. Do you remember the smell of bedbugs sizzling in candle flames? And the wonderful taste of corn after liberation? And that very first Hershey bar? Pa always used to "Et haec olim meminisse iuvabit" (Some day we shall be glad to remember even this) How true! There is not a single August 17th that comes without my rejoicing at the memory of being in the church having a singing lesson and hearing someone say It's not a jap plane and then all of us taking off out of the church past a weakly protesting teacher, dashing on to the field, picking up those pamphlets and then seeing the seven men and the rainbow of parachutes, running out, bare feet ignoring mighty prickles and running, running to greet those heroes. I think my love of colour, the fact that I am now living and working in the States, all go back to that vivid moment of seeing a larger context around our grey world. Thank you all for bringing back memories.

 

 

Re: Alison Holmes recollections

 Albert de Zutter

 Dec 19, 2000 12:28 PST 

 

Alison:

Of course, I never knew you in Weihsien camp, as I was not a Chefoo student and, as I recall, all of you stayed mostly to yourselves. Your mention of your parents' horror at finding you with a rosary brought to mind the fact that, as a Catholic growing up in Tsingtao, I never experienced religious prejudice until our family was interned, first in Tsingtao in October 1942, and then in Weihsien in March 1943. My Tsingtao camp experience was that a 10-year-old girl who was the daughter of American missionaries was forbidden to play with me because I was a Catholic boy (also 10). And, of course, in Weihsien, there were many Evangelical missionaries who looked down on Catholics or considered them (us) outright evil. However, there were many positive spiritual experiences at Weihsien, and those outweighed the negative ones.

I'm sure, and I hope, you've gotten over your horror of Catholics.

Anyway, I enjoyed your memories.

Albert de Zutter

Re:

 Natasha Petersen

 Dec 20, 2000 05:25 PST 

 

Dear Alison,
Welcome to our site. Your e-mail goes on and on to the right. Would it be possible for you to re-write it, but within the margins of a page?
I do not remember you, but there is much that I do not remember about Weihsien. I am from Tientsin, and my father and I were in block 9, room 10. I was known as Natalie Somoff, now I am Natasha (my Russian name) Petersen. I am keeping all the "memories" in one folder.
Natasha

Re:

 alison holmes

 Dec 20, 2000 06:48 PST 

 

Help! I get a message telling me to download a Pan European Text Display support which I have no idea how or where to do. I have had a couple of replies from Albert and Stanley and they did not say I was going off the page and it didn't look lke it to my eyes..I apologize that .I am not computer savvy, so if you start  making URL noises at me I won't know how to respond!
 

Message wrapping

 Beard

 Dec 20, 2000 11:16 PST 

 

Alison, I use Windows and Netscape Navigator. In the Preferences Section it gives me the option of instructing the computer to 'wrap' outgoing messages. What are you using?
Margaret Beard



 

Christmas

 Stanley Nordmo

 Dec 25, 2000 02:12 PST 

 

Norwegian Christmas Greetings to all
Gledelig Jul og Godt Nyttår

For Natasha, we did celebrate Christmas in Weihsien. Norman Cliff describes buying small presents at the White Elephant, besides creating gifts out of wood, cloth and paper. He remembers games and parties as well as joint Christmas services in the camp church.
He was part of a group which went from block to block on Christmas Eve singing carols. They would conclude with "We wish you a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas ; We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, And hope it won't be here.!" From my own notes the highlight of the culinary year was Christmas Dinner when the menu skipped such staples as beet and turnip tops and eggplant in exchange for pork, peas and other vegetables, finishing with Christmas pudding and Christmas cake or stollen incorporating walnuts, Chinese dates and grated orange peel.
Best regards
Stanley Nordmo

 

 

Christmas gifts in Weihsien

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Dec 26, 2000 15:04 PST 

 

Hello, Everybody,

    A special thank you to Natasha Petersen for filling our lives with joyful  memories this year by starting this Weihsien memory board.

    Do you remember the year our Chefoo teachers presented us with small lap  slates and chalk for Christmas? I have no idea where they got the money or  the slates. But that gift of lap slates rescued us from having to use and  erase and re-use and erase and re-use the cheap notebooks we used to write  all of our lessons. As I recall, we each got only one notebook a month and  used and re-used until we erased holes in the pages.

    I have never stopped counting my blessings for those remarkable teachers  who saved our spirits. Like many of you, we Taylor children did not see  our parents for 5 1/2 years. I still speak with awe and admiration the names  of those teachers .

    Major Stanley A. Staiger, who led the team that liberated Weihsien, is  terribly frail and increasingly ill -- rarely able to be out of bed now. I  had difficulty hearing him yesterday during my holiday phone call to him. He  will celebrate his 83rd birthday, December 30. If you haven't yet sent a  birthday card, the address is
    Village of the Pines, Apartment 259, 700 E. Peckam Lane, Reno, NV 89502

    In California, the Hi-Desert Star filled most of a page in its Living  Section, December 2, 2000, with a story about Lt. James Hannon, one of our  rescuers. In the story headlined, STRANGER THAN FICTION, Lt. Hannon "claims  to have spent over five weeks with Amelia Earlart after she was reported  missing."

    Let me quote from this article in the Hi-Desert Star: In Weihsien,    Lt. Hannon says he was "asked to look after a semi-conscious woman who was  being kept in her own room and being given high doses of morphine. 'She was  so drugged she couldn't speak.' Hannon determined this woman was Amelia  Earhart."

    The article pictures the rescuing B-24 bomber dropping relief supplies  after the American team parachuted to the fields beyond the barrier walls of  the camp.

    I wish you all a Happy New Year.

    Mary Taylor Previte

 

 

RE: Christmas gifts in Weihsien

 Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)

 Dec 29, 2000 02:54 PST 

 

Hello Mary

Just read your interesting story. So sorry to hear of Major Staiger's increasing illness. Do you know if Amelia Earhart was really in our camp? And did Lt. Hannon actually look after her? This has been a rumour for a long time, and I would love to have it confirmed or denied. I read it years ago in an aviation magazine printed in the USA. Does James Hannon confirm this?
Please do ask him, to satisfy my curiosity!
Regards
Joyce Bradbury

PS: Btw, I hope you received my long letter.

 

 

POW

 Matt Sarah-Jane Yates

 Dec 29, 2000 15:49 PST 

 

HI there,
            I'm having troubles trying to get anything off your site. My name is Sarah-Jane and I am the daughter of a POW from Weihsien, we have been told that there is some information to be gained from your site, if this is correct could you please e-mail me exact instructions how to get it (help I can't drive the internet very well!)
                       
Thanks SJ

 

Amelia Earhart in Weihsien

 Pamela Masters

 Dec 30, 2000 13:24 PST 

 

Hi Joyce --
Thought you had a copy of The Mushroom Years, where dear old Lt. Jim Hannon's story was completely debunked by dear old Maj. Stan Staiger. No, AE was never in Weihsien. The lady Jim refers to was a personal family friend of ours (the American wife of a Brit whom we all lovingly called The Yank) and who suffered a traumatic breakdown in camp. She was flown out of Weihsien along with Lloyd Francke the day after our liberation. Anything else Hannon wants to dream up is just that – a dream. Good news about her: she completely recovered from her ordeal, has a family (both children and grandchildren) and they don't need this tragic episode in her life warmed up and rehashed after 55 years.
    By the way, if you don't have a copy of the book and want one, I'll be happy to send it to you with an invoice, and you can pay for it by credit card. Right now our web page, hendersonhouse.com, is being updated, and allthough you can pull it up, the secure ordering page doesn't respond. Should be back on line early in January.
    Happy New Year. It sure was great seeing you again at the OCH Reunion -- only wish I could have stayed longer, but my love had a heart attack and I had to hurry home on Friday.
    Fond regards -- Pamela Masters (nee Bobby Simmons)

 

 

Weihsien memories from Franciscan nuns

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Dec 30, 2000 20:19 PST 

 

Weihsien memories from Franciscan nuns

Most of us who post memories on our Weihsien bulletin board were children or  teenagers in the camp. We little kids were so sheltered from terror, I often  find my self thinking of Weihsien with the fond memories like those of a  pyjama party.

Grown ups had a very different view. Here are a handful of memories  collected by Franciscan nuns who were interned in Weihsien. I have culled a  few paragraphs from more than 300 pages of unpublished recollections  entitled: FRANCISCANS: Shantung, China 1929 - 1949

After America entered the war in 1941, there had been many rumors that  American and British nationals were to be moved from their homes and put in  prison.   Finally the day came when the Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels’  Community was to be sent to a Civil Assembly Center in Weihsien. Weihsien  was a small city 70 - 80 miles east of Tsinanfu.

Japanese authorities told the Sisters that each could take along a mattress,  a trunk and two suitcases. In fact, the Sisters took one trunk between two,  a suitcase each, sheets sewn into bags, later to be stuffed with straw for  mattresses, wooden planks and wooden horses for beds.

They arrived on March 21, 1943, about 4 p.m. They were “packed like  sardines” into buses and taken to a large Presbyterian Mission which had been  a middle school and University. They were assembled on the Athletic Field,  read the camp rules and given a camp number.

The first two months, all the Sisters were billeted in large classrooms. The  Sisters from Our Lady of the Angels were in a room with 52 other sisters.  There was absolutely no privacy. Mr. Tu., the Sisters’ business man, had  traveled to Weihsien and managed to buy straw to fill the Sisters’ mattress  bags and pillows.

Nourishment was the great problem. Large iron receptacles were built over  brick stoves in several areas designated as kitchens.   Meals, so called,  were served three times daily and usually consisted of vegetable soup with  small infrequent chunks of dubious meat floating around. At first there was  no bread but some millet thickened the soup. Later the men built ovens from  scrap iron and, procuring yeast through the Japanese, they were able to bake  bread and allow two slices of bread with each meal.    People lot weight very  quickly and easily and were always hungry. The men suffered the most as they  had much heavy work to do. Many developed sores and ulcers of skin and mouth  from lack of vitamins. Children of all ages perhaps suffered least as  everyone saved any scraps they could spare for them.


Black Market: Somehow the internees discovered that they could contact  Chinese from the countryside and nearby towns, procuring food “under the wire  and over the wall” at some risk to both parties.   The most successful  “blackmarketer” was a Trappist monk. There were four Trappist monks in the  camp. They had not spoken freely for many years, but certainly made up for  it in their captivity. The Trappist became famous for his procuring food  “over the wall.” He was caught sometimes and put in solitary confinement in a  little one room brick hut on the grounds. The Sisters would put his food  outside his door and sing camp news to him as though they were singing hymns.
The Father would always sleep during the day and sing his office in a loud  voice all through the night, thus keeping awake the Japanese officers who  lived in a house nearby. The officers soon got tired of this and his  “solitary” did not last for long.

Everyone had to give three hours daily to general camp work. The teachers,  mostly the Sisters of St. Francis, taught the children who had regular school  schedule.

The Japanese had installed a whole row of “squat” toilets but had not piped  in any water! The Sisters from Our Lady of the Angels were the first  contingent brave enough to undertake the necessary sanitary work. Later the  men were able to build showers with hot water used certain times a week.

Many people had not been able to bring eating utensils with them, and tin  cans became a very precious commodity. Prisoners also made stove pipes from  tin cans. Some ingenious people salvaged broken bricks and flattened tin  cans and made little stoves. Fuel for these stoves was “stolen” coal dust,  stolen at night from the Japanese quarters or from the amount allowed for the kitchens.

(Note: Several pages detail the repatriation of 500 Americans on September  13- via train to Shanghai, via a Japanese ship named the Teia Maru to Goa,  then on the Swedish Red Cross ship, the Gripsholm, to Port Elizabeth in  South Africa, to Rio de Janiero, to New York on December 2, 1943.)

Sister Reginald died in the camp hospital. By the time the war ended and  internees were released, there had been twenty-five deaths and about thirty  births in the camp.

Sisters Bede, Ludmilla, and Servatia were having a very difficult time as the  war dragged on into 1945. Food was poor and clothing was wearing out.
  People were getting despondent and finding it hard to face another cold  winter under such conditions. The Sisters were able to build a small brick  stove in their rooms. The stove pipe was made from 14 tin cans. By this  time they were getting bread and water for breakfast and not much more for  dinner and supper.

On August 15, 1945, it was rumored that the war was over; but not even the  Japanese seemed to know for certain. Finally, on August 17, about  10 a.m., the first American airplane hovered over Weihsien. The plane  circled lower and lower and eventually men parachuted to the ground.

Sister Ludmilla writes, “ The shouts and cheers of the internees were  deafening. After the airplane waved a last farewell, there was no holding  anybody -- the internees rushed out of the gate into the open fields to find  the men they had seen dangling from the parachutes, who were not sure of  their surroundings and had hidden themselves in the high grain, preparing  for an attack. From the shouts and cheers of the people, however, they knew  that they were safe. The Japanese were also taken by surprise and at first  tried to keep us within the walls of the compound, but no one bothered about  them; and all they could do was to remain in the guardhouse just looking on.”

“The guardhouse ceased to be a place of terror, and our meals were better.  We now received tomatoes, eggs, and apples as our portion. Chewing gum,  cigarettes, and chocolate bars were the first things given to us by the  Marines.”

First, the sick and older people were flown out. On September 25, 1945, the  Sisters had a fairly comfortable train journey to Tsingtao with boxes of food  provided by American soldiers. “The trains were all decorated with Chinese  andAmerican flags. There were many billboards with Chinese and American  writing bidding us a hearty welcome and a safe journey.” At every station  they passed, were cheering crowds of Chinese people bowing and waving. At  one station a band was playing for them. On arrival in Tsingtao, the whole  station, the rooftops, and all vantage points were crowded with cheering  people waving Chinese and American flags. From the station at Tsingtao, the  Sisters were taken to the Edgeware Hotel by bus. But the bus developed engine  trouble and some Americans who were passing, offered the Sisters a ride in a  jeep. This was the first time they had ever seen a jeep, let alone ride in  one.

Mary Taylor Previte, Haddonfield, NJ, USA

 

 

RE: Amelia Earhart in Weihsien

 Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)

 Dec 30, 2000 21:26 PST 

 

Dear Bobby. Thanks for the message about A.E. I have written in my book which is now out that I was quite satisfied she was never in Weishien simply because the inmates would certainly have known about it but nobody ever mentioned it. Her face was so well known to everybody at the time she could not have been In the camp without being identified.. You have put the matter to rest as far as I am concerned. I have a copy of your book and found it most interesting. I have correctly named all inmates to whom I refer in my book - Even Fr Scanlan who recently died at the age of 101 years. We, too, enjoyed the re-union. Sorry you had to leave early. I can post my book to USA by Air mail for (Australian) $22. Bank draft or money order. My home address is 100 Coxs Road, North Ryde 2113 Australia. Best regards, Joyce Bradbury.    

 Re: Weihsien memories from Franciscan nuns

 Pamela Masters

 Dec 31, 2000 09:27 PST 

 

Thank you Mary for sending on this material.
From your notes I gather that the Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels were an order from Tsingtao, but I'm not certain they were Franciscans. By far the biggest Franciscan order, known throughout China as the White Sisters, had the designation FMM after their names and were the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the gentle souls who ran the convent of St. Joseph which I attended. They had missions, schools, and orphanages all over China; one, in Chefoo, became internationally famous for the "Chefoo Lace" made by the blind orphans they took care of.
    Sister Servatia, OSF (Order of St. Francis) who was also in camp, wrote a book, A Cross in China (ISBN 0-9614659-4-8), and I read it with mixed emotions. I believe her order was known as the Grey Sisters -- this, of course, due to the color of the habits they wore. Her convent, or mission, was in Tsinan, not far from Weihsien, so her journey to the camp was not that distant.
In locating a copy of her book, I went through Cuchullian Publications in Fort Wayne, IN, and had the pleasure of corresponding with her brother-in-law (who edited the book), Robert Emmet Connolly, an attorney. In fact, if I recall, we exchanged books, He said he got a totally different slant on prison camp life from my "civilian" perspective, and after reading Sister's book, I had to admit I had no knowledge of the different missionary factions in the camp, Protestant and Catholic -- especially the lifestyle of the Sisters and Fathers at Weihsien. They were confined within a confinement.
    Mary, is there any chance I could get a full copy of those Franciscan papers?
If so, let me know the cost, and I'll send a check to cover.
    Thanks again for opening another door on our past. Happy New Year to you all -- and a Happy New Milllennium of Peace and Hope.
As always -- Pamela


RE: Weihsien memories from Franciscan nuns

 Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)

 Dec 31, 2000 22:04 PST 

 


Dear Pamela. Your message re the Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels from Tsingtao has prompted me to add some information which may be interesting particularly to ex-Weishien and Tsingtao people. I attended both Holy Ghost Convent and St. Josephs middle school from the age of about 5 years until the Japanese came when I was thirteen and a half years old. Quite a lot of the nuns from Tsingtao, were taken into Weishien and in fact travelled with us by train to the camp from Tsington. They consisted of British, American, Dutch, Portuguese and one from France. They did wonderful work in Weishien. I have the signatures of quite a few of these nuns and I list their names and any comments they made in my autograph book. I also have the autographs of many priests and brothers which I shall put into the net if there is anybody interested in their names The nuns I have are;
(The following are all from St Josephs) - Sr Verna OSF who wrote "Dear Joyce. If as you grow older you come closer to God your life will have been successful. Lovingly, SR. Verna" - :Sr.Hiltrudia, who wrote, "May God bless you and guide your footsteps to our Heavenly Goal, lovingly Sr. Hiltrudia; - Sr. Mary Elaine OCM(?) "May mother Mary ever keep you the sweet girl you are now is the sincere prayer of Sister Mary Elaine":   


RE: Weihsien memories from Franciscan nuns

 R.W. Bridge

 Jan 01, 2001 07:48 PST 

 

For Joyce Bradbury and Pamela Masters,
I have read your remarks re nuns. I have a copy of a Cross in China, there are some minor errors of fact in it regarding Weihsien not that they detract from the book in any way. IT is a very good description of the dedicated people that went out to help the Chinese. Pamela perhaps you can let me have R E Connoly's address either mail or web and I will straighten them out.
Re the nuns I have a complete list of all that were in and I am compiling a complete list of all that were in Weihsein for anytime. The areas I am having trouble with are:
The Catholic Priests and brothers that were shipped to Peking.
The Americans that were shipped out in Sept 1943.
I have a copy of the NY Times giving the names of all that were expected in the States but it does not give the camp that they came from.
Also the 30Jun44 Weihsien nominal roll has all those with names beginning S after Stevens missing and all those after Margerite Wulfson I have managed to put some names in but suspect that I am still missing some.
This exercise started when I realised a year ago how poor records were and that I f the ABCIFER legal case in Tokyo succeeded names would be needed. That case continues but of course the lists are useful for the UK War pensions Agency to verify claimants bonafides. At this stage I either have on disc or access on paper to about 90% of the British civilians that were interned by the Japanese. The main trouble areas other than above being Shanghai and Borneo.
Happy New Year to all my readers

 

Photos of heroes, 1945 and now

 mtpre-@aol.com

 Jan 01, 2001 15:49 PST 

 

Hello, everybody:

Happy New Year.

Natalie Peterson, who started our Weihsien bulletin board, has suggested that  we nudge our recollections by posting "then" and "now" photos of ourselves  and some information to bring everyone up to date. What a great idea! I  think only a couple of people have posted the snapshots.
Here are some of mine, in several e-mails, for ease of downloading.
I thought you'd enjoy some of the "then" and "now" photos I included in a  photo scrapbook I created a couple of years ago as a Christmas gift for each  of the heroes who liberated Weihsien. I tracked them all down in 1997 and  then criss-crossed America to visit each one -- survivors and widows.
In Weihsien, I was Mary Taylor, a student in the Chefoo School's Lower School  Dormitory (we called it LSD). My sister Kathleen, Jamie, and John and  grandpa Herbert Hudson Taylor were also interned in Weihsien. We LSD girls  lived first in Block 23 and then, after the escape of Hummel and Tipton, on  the second floor of the hospital. I was 12 years old when the Americans  parachuted from the B-24 to liberate the camp, August 17, 1945.
 I started my career as a high school teacher --English and journalism --  until our daughter, Alice, was born. Alice is an attorney who also helps me  take very elementary steps on the Internet. For nearly 27 years I've  directed a youth detention center that serves the toughest-of-the-tough  delinquent teenagers -- about 1,600 a year. My book, HUNGRY GHOSTS, tells
about Weihsien as well as the astonishing story of how a suburban housewife  (me) took over an exploding juvenile lock-up and turned it around. I'm now  also serving my second term in the New Jersey state legislature and continue  to speak to audiences around the country.

I hope all of you will also bring us up to date with your own stories and  snapshots.

Mary Taylor Previte