Re: Boy Scout goup
alison holmes
Jul 19, 2002 19:30 PDT
No attachment came with this message!
----- Original Message -----
From: Zandy Strangman
To: Internment Camp
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 5:28 PM
Subject: Boy Scout goup
Hi Everyone,
Can anyone help identify the individuals in this latest Scout group
photo?
It apparently was shot at the same time and location as those previously
circulated by Christine. But this time we think we have 7 positive and 2
possible IDs. In my opinion, the abundance of trees suggests the location is
camps 'Main Road'.
The photo came to me per courtesy of Janette Pander. (my neighbour in
camp)
Joyce......Yvonne thought you would have a 'special' interest in this
photo copy I showed her, yesterday, and she intended to 'MAIL' you a photo-stat
of it. I convinced her this way would
be quicker and clearer but that was before I 'struck a snag' forwarding it on,
to the Weihsien site. Rejected for it's size or something to that effect! So, here goes a 2nd time.
Fred.......is your brother Bobby one of the boys on the right hand side?
Thanks for taking the time to look at it..............Zandy Strangman
Fred Dreggs
Jul 20, 2002 00:16 PDT
Hi Zandy,
Can't answer your question as there was no photo attachment. Perhaps it
is coming via Mars?
Regards,
Fred
Ron Bridge
Jul 20, 2002 00:58 PDT
The Copy of the photo was missing from msg received by me. I have 12
pictures Scouts/Guides/cubs/brownies but they are small and very faded if you
are talking about those with the trees and number on the wall behind the groups
they were taken in the grounds near the hospital.
Rgds
Ron Bridge.
Zandy Strangman
Jul 20, 2002 02:35 PDT
Thanks to all of you who came back informing me that 'no attachment
'came thru. but my ' sent box' for my 3rd attempt now shows it with the
proverbial 'paper clip' motif. Here's hoping!!!!
Be patient, I'll get it to you some how.!
Leonard Mostaert
Jul 20, 2002 02:55 PDT
All these little things
have become so vivid to me when the subject is mentioned in Topica. Someone
mentioned birds.....My father caught a dove, it must have been sick, and kept
it in a cage in our room. Soon there was another dove that showed up, they must
have been married, and Father placed it in the cage with the other one. These
were "Red Burmese" doves as we found out much later. How the doves
arrived from Burma I don't know, but there they were, and it is a wonder we did
not eat them. When we left the camp, Father took the doves with us and they
lived on happily in Tientsin. as they just did not want to leave us, even after
a few attempts to let them fly away far from the camp, they still beat us home
when we arrived at our block. There must have been a streak of homing pigeon in
those birds.
All the newcomers to this
site should view
www.netzone.com/~adjacobs/compare.htm
this is the comparison by Mr. Wagner of the living conditions of
Weihsien and Crystal City where the American/Japanese were interned. Makes
sobering reading !
Leonard Mostaert
Jul 20, 2002 03:00 PDT
Then there is another
one......
There was a bit of a joke
around camp on our constant diet of leeks, everyone seems to have become very sick
of them, except me and I still like them. Someone put up a sign at block 33 in
the form of a street sign....Leak Street. A surprise for all was when a
Japanese guard pointed out the correct spelling should have been L E E K ! How
embarrassing.
Ron Bridge
Jul 20, 2002 13:25 PDT
I have had an inquiry from Kay Canning in Scotland, she was Katherine
Margaret Allan ( B 1942) in Weihsien and was with her 2 brothers William
Douglas Allan and Robert Jeremey Allan ( Born 28Jun44 in Weihsien) they were
with their parents John and Mat Allan lived in Block 21 Room 5 ( same block as
Bobby Simmons) she seems to reacall playing with someone called Oliver who had
a slightly deformed hand. Anybody shed any light on this I have seracehd the
data base and cannot find a boy named Oliver.
Rgds
Ron Bridge.
Christine Talbot Sancton
Jul 20, 2002 18:17 PDT
Dear Ron: I can't answer your question, but I have been looking for Kay
Allan for years as our family was very close and she and I are the same age.
Please can you send me her info so that I can get in touch with her
myself.
This is great news for me.
Christine Talbot Sancton
Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)
Jul 20, 2002 18:53 PDT
Thanks Sandy. Yes Yvonne did tell me about the phto and my brother Eddie
is thrilled at the thought a getting an old boy scout photo. Unfortunately your
transmission to me did not work so I will wait for Yvonne to give it to me.
Thanks very much. Regards. Joyce.
Zandy Strangman
Jul 21, 2002 02:38 PDT
Hi David,
Your nice email of the 19th stirred up more fond memories of action on
the ball field and together with Mary Previte's contribution on Mary Scott and
reference to the " Priests Padres ", makes giving you both a brief
reply, sort of difficult.
First of all, could you please clear up in my mind, the date the Chefoo
kids arrived in camp? You see, I think
the Chefoo crowd only arrived sometime after the majority of the Nuns and
Priests had departed, and therefore 'unfortunately' you missed out on the best
and most spectacular Softball games that were played, particularly in our first
6 months of internment.
It is a well known fact that the Catholic 'Padres' were a 'pretty' good
bunch of softball players. With Fr Whellan pitching, Fr Joe Fontana 'catching',
handsome Fr Andy Penfold on 1st and the 'flashy' Fr. 'Windy' Kline ( played
some 'pro' baseball before joining the priesthood) playing 'short stop' etc.,
they were almost 'unbeatable'. The
biggest attraction, at that time, was the 'Padres' vs the 'Camp', and these
games were usually real tight and low scoring affairs.
One of the best, I think was the last one, which was nil all at the
bottom of the 9th and with 1 out, we managed to get a man(possibly speedy Aubrey
Grandon) on 3rd with a couple of stolen bases.
Up to the 'plate' stepped Jimmy Pyke (our P.E. teacher at old P.A.S. pre
1943.) and slammed the longest' sacrifice drive deep to Center Field, almost to
the guard tower, and you guessed it, brought in the winning and only run. What
a finish it was, it couldn't have been better scripted. I will never forget it.
Fred.....your room's rear window looked out over that field, do you
remember that game?
Mary Scott ....I must admit, I had forgotten the name but with your (
Mary Previte ) account and 'discriptions' , I most certainly can recall the
"5-foot ball of fire" 'character'. How could I put it without
sounding rude, she was sort of ' 5 x 5' ? (ooops)Let's say she was on the solid
side, ok? Have I got the right one?
I also remember watching 'this person' trying to organise a girls game
but was a bit short of players. For the fun of it, I put up my hand . Much to
my surprise, I was accepted but was made to play left handed. Throwing was a
real problem !
That's my 'silly' bit of trivia but it's true.
David, I'll have to defer answering the rest of your email, 'cause I've
just been 'paged' .
Bye the way, which email address are you using currently?
Cheers for now............Zandy
Zandy Strangman
Jul 21, 2002 05:04 PDT
Hi Joyce ,
Everyone must be 'sick to the back teeth' of reading about this photo
that stubbornly ' never appears'. I can't see any reason for it not getting
thru, as I had no problem sending it to someone else, not on the Weihsien site.
So this is my final attempt to get it thru electronically, I've asked
Janette to re-forward it from her end, again.
Zandy
Mary Previte
Jul 21, 2002 15:59 PDT
Mary Scott's book: Kept In Safeguard was published in 1977 by the
Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City. It was a missionary book...one of six
which was published that year and read by Nazarene for credit points in our
mission award system for the churches.
The toll free # of the Pub House: 1-800-877-0700
Mary Previte
Mary Previte
Jul 21, 2002 16:39 PDT
Mary Scott was a stocky five feet tall.
The Chefoo Schools contingent arrived in Weihsien in September 1943 --
about a week before a group of American
and Canadian prisoners were released in a
prisoner exchange. Among those released were Chefoo students Jack Bell
and Grant Hanna. They travelled home on
the Gripsholm.
In his book, COURTYARD OF THE
HAPPY WAY, Norman Cliff describes the day the
Chefoo Schools arrived. I quote a poem about that day directly from
Norman's book. By the way, I hope all
of you have a copy of Norman's fascinating
story. You can order it directly from him. He's a member of our
Weihsien Topica network. Norman writes on page 65:
" The story of our
arrival in Weihsien as seen by the local inhabitants is recounted in the following poem, entitled 'The Two Hundred
and Ninety-seven.'
"Hooray! The Chefooites have all arrived at last!
Right heartily we cheered them as through the gates they passed,
They tredged up Guardhouse Hill, their baggage in the lead,
We 'Servers' nudged each other, 'Great Scott, more mouths to feed!"
That's not a nice expression but our rations were so low
And they had come from what we'd call luxury, you know.
They joined the Tsingtao Kitchen, school-children big and small;
We fed them on bread porridge, and they ate it, one and all!
We felt sorry for them when we filled their cups with bitter tea,
But they said, 'If you can drink it without sugar, so can we.'
Then came the real calamity, the camp ran out of yeast.
Our manager said, 'Doughnuts! Make twelve hundred at least!'
The boys soon took to 'Pumping' and other hard work too;
Some girls became dishwashers, others joined the kitchen crew'
We've grown fond of these school-children who so bravely stood the test
And should they ever need our help, we'll gladly do our best!'
(G. E. Norman)"
Norman remembers that we were served leek soup, cornflour and waster
custard (didn't we call that blanc
mange?), dry bread and tea that day.
Mary Previte
alison holmes
Jul 21, 2002 16:49 PDT
What a pleasure it is to read people thinking and asking questions. How
right Dwight is to speak to the mixed bunch in camp and the significant
differences in experiences and what was gleaned from them. I was most touched
by Laura's account of her father's painting, a bleak landscape, no way in or
out of the house, no nourishment, no light...all good things unattainable. How
desolate...and yet how beautiful that she/you and your sister could give him
the materials to become more aware of where he was standing at that particular
moment of despair.
I think there is a lot to be said about the effect on children of their
parents' experience...how could this not be so? It is bound to have a bearing
on the field, though of course, need not control the field. You bet I tell
children and grandchildren about Christmases when we had no more than a balloon
and a cup of cocoa...but that doesn't have much effect on their Christmas
preparations!
I suppose what we are all talking about is the cruelty of unnatural
limitation........and to a certain extent, that limitation is experienced
everywhere. Just as the depression was an example of the extremities of supply
and demand, so the war and the camp was an example of taking limitation to the
extreme. And we struggled for survival more obviously, more aware, then, than
perhaps we are now that the organizing principle of current society is driven
by the concept of survival. This is probably not the place to enlarge on the
limitation we experience and impose in our unconscious and conditioned way in
twenty first century America..........but as for Weihsien, so for now. Healing
has to come to all who are scarred by limitation. It has to come on all levels.
On the physical level we will rejoice once again on August 17th. We are
doing it on the emotional level as we swap memories. On the mental level we do
it when we look at what qualities lead to that limitation, what qualities
developed in that situation, what qualities are being utilized now. There are
victims, there are survivors, and there are mediators, utilizing everything
sent our way in order to build awareness. I'd like to mention once again the
value of Victor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning" As a
psychiatrist who was a prisoner in a Nazi camp, he was able to discover and
formulate the structure of conscious living. He was so very aware of all the
different levels, even of the level of the Eric Liddell's in his world ('the
best of us did not survive'). I have seen this book work well with those with
Post Traumatic Stress. And on books, Joseph Chilton Pearce's "The Biology
of Transcendence" show both scientifically and humanly the wondrous
equipment we have been endowed with, the actual physiological sequence of
circuitry in the body which shows we are designed to handle experience in a
particular way. In demonstrating that it also shows that as members of the
human race we are handling it in a less than skilful way. Misusing the
equipment we have leaves us stuck in the interplay between the mammalian and
reptilian brain, in having emotional fixations on a physical focus. He
encourages us to use all that we have been given for life abundant.
My very best to all of us who are looking for pattens, potentials,
possibilities, who are using that kernel to make bread! Alison
Stan Thomas
Jul 21, 2002 18:03 PDT
A couple of used copies of May Scott's book are available on the
internet.
See below.
Stan Thompson
Scott, Mary L. Kept In Safeguard Mary Scott Tells Of Her Experiences In Old China Nazarene Publishing House 1977
paperback with 116 pages and b&w
photos. Tipped in author inscription. Fair. Cover has creasing, back
cover is soiled, tipped in note sheet
and owner's address label. Missionaries,
Nazarene, China ISBN 0-8341-0462-8 Bookseller Inventory# 8497 US$ 8.00
SellerPacific Rim Used BooksPhone360 293
9788 and 7919 Address1717 Commercial Anacortes WA 98221 Fax360 293 7824
Terms Credit cards, checks, money orders.
Please use e-mail for questions
concerning stock & shipping. Shipping for the first book of average
weight is $3 for insured 4th class book
rate with a delivery time of 5 to 7 days.
Priority mail insured shipments for the average book are $5 with a one
to 3 day delivery time. International
shipments range from $5 for the first book
with a 30 to 90 day shipment time to $9 for global priority with a 5 to
7 day shipment time.
Scott, Mary L. Kept in Safeguard Nazarene Pub. House, 1977 Very Good. First. vg,
paperback, 116 pgs, shelf wear Book #
1005671 Price: US$5.00 Conco
Books, 3421 Geary St. SE, Albany, OR, U.S.A.,
97322.
Phone: 1-541-926-0478. Fax: none. Email: concob-@proaxis.comIf you
would like to purchase a book: Send check to: Conco Books 3421 Geary St.
SE Albany, OR 97322 Allow 10 days for
shipping. We accept Visa and Mastercard.
We guarantee our books and accept returns within 10 days for any
reason. Postage $4.00 First book, $1.00
each additional More in-depth description
upon request. All orders are subject to prior sale. On completion of
a purchase with a credit card, your order
goes directly to the bookseller.
The charge is made to your credit card
only when the bookseller ships the book
to you. The book should arrive within the time frame that you choose (stated in "business days").
Purchases may be returned to the bookseller
within 14 days of receipt for a refund/credit for items that are not
as described or that did not arrive.
Customer satisfaction is guaranteed by
our booksellers.
David Birch
Jul 21, 2002 20:34 PDT
Zandy,
Boy, I can see I really missed out by not being better acquainted with
you at Weihsien! Do you remember Kenneth Bell? Or Torje Torjeson? They were
both my age (I was born in Nov '31) and were really athletic fellows. I was
okay when I worked at it. They were "naturals." Torje used to get me
away from books--I did a lot of reading--and got me really enthused playing
what might be called "sand-lot basketball." That is, we'd chase
around bouncing the basketball and trying to get it away from each other and
into the basket on that clay court outside Block 61. That of course was by the
hospital. And those of us who lived latterly in the hospital building had our
roll call twice a day in that location. I'm working on another story which I'm
calling, The Night the Stars Began to Fall. It's of my recollection of VE Day and the emergency,
middle-of-the-night roll call we had. Definitely one of the more unusual of my
boyhood experiences!
Zandy, you are welcome to any of my stories if you'll be patient enough
to wait for them to arrive one at a time. And so are any others of you who may
be interested. Right now I'm just sending them out to my friends for the
asking. I have a friend, however, who is has his degree in creative writing
from the University of Victoria (British Columbia) who says he would like to
help me get my material published. They are informally copyrighted with me as
the copyright owner. But I of course have the liberty to give copies to my
friends.
I think you should write up some stories too. From that brief account of
that fabulous game that went all the way to the bottom of the ninth inning, I'm
very sure you have something that would make a gripping chapter in a book for
virtually any age group. Tell you what! Let's trade story for story. I'll
polish mine up one at a time. You do the same. And after a while I'm quite
certain we'll have at the very least, a highly readable collection of each
other's memories of Weihsien compound when we were boys.
Keep the memories flowing. You're really "priming some pumps!"
David
ps I use either e-mail address. But when you send to me at
silver-@shaw.ca it will be private. When you send to weihsien@topica it goes out to anyone who wishes to
"tune in" as it were. I keep the yahoo e-mail address because so many
of my correspondents have it. However, Yahoo carries a lot of advertising, and
I get a bit tired of seeing it sometimes.
You can reach me privately at silverbirch or privately at
gdavid-@yahoo.com.
That may seem as "clear as mud" but anyway, the main thing is
KEEP IN TOUCH. I really enjoy hearing from you. If you send me your mailing
address, why not send it to the silverbirch location. It should be reasonably
private. And I'll mail some stories out to you. I do not yet have a scanner so
cannot send them the easy way.
David Birch
Jul 21, 2002 20:35 PDT
Mary,
Thank you.
I will try to contact Graham. I wonder how many know that he was a third
generation Graham in China, his father and grandfather both having served with
the CIM as missionaries. Graham's dad and my dad were contemporaries at the
Language School around 1928.
Jack, himself, my contemporary at Chefoo and Weihsien, and roommate for
a while across the hall from Patrick and Jessie (Cassells) Bruce, had a gentle
nature (down deep) and I clearly recall him kneeling beside his bed, earlier
on, when our room was across the hall one floor lower. Mr. Stanley Houghton had
come in to our room and had said, Boys,
if you've never prayed before, pray now. We all- about four to six boys in that
room got up and knelt beside our beds and prayed silently but with real feeling
for Brian Thompson who lay dying one floor below while the Weihsien medical
team kept up artificial respiration until around ten o'clock that night.
Graham also sang with a true alto voice in those days. I sang treble.
I liked Jack Graham and still do. He was fun-loving and a leader of
sorts although I did not choose to follow his lead. However, he seems to have
engineered one adventure in which I wound up bearing the brunt of it. The last
time I heard directly from Jack Graham was in about 1946 or 1947 when he sent
me a friendly handwritten letter from Wheaton where he was enrolled in the College
along with several other Chefoo alumni including Stanley Thompson and Torje
Torjeson. The three of us had been members of the same class all the way from
Primary (for at least some of us) to Lower One, some seven or eight years.
Thanks for letting me know where the retired colonel, US Army, now
lives. Graham, if you get to read this, please contact me at: silver-@shaw.ca.
Sincerely,
David Birch
Greg Leck
Jul 22, 2002 11:25 PDT
Is anyone planning to attend the Oct 4 and 5 opening of the Inaugural
Exhibition of Old China Hands Archive at the California State University at
Northridge?
Greg Leck
Laura Hope-Gill
Jul 22, 2002 13:25 PDT
Dear Everyone,
I have received an email forwarded by Des Power from a man named
Frederick Park. He tells Des that he is
working on an oral history of Weihsien
internees through Clemson University. However, this individual
"stalks" me from a distance
and I fear this is just another way he's invented to involve himself in my life. Please, if he contacts
you, asking for information about me or
my family, kindly withhold. I'm sorry to sour the list with this.
Sincerely, Laura
Dwight W. Whipple
Jul 22, 2002 13:30 PDT
Thanks for the heads-up, Laura. Will certainly comply with your wishes.
~Dwight Whipple
Ron Bridge
Jul 22, 2002 13:57 PDT
Sorry to hear Laura is being pestered.
There have been a couple of people usually claiming to represent an
obscure research project sometimes UNIV based in the UK who have contacted
ex-PoWs/internees asking after doing an oral history and then asking for money
usually around US$750 to "take the evidence" so all beware.
Jul 22, 2002 15:07 PDT
I will be on the look-out for this man. He will get no information from
me.
Natasha
Mary Previte
Jul 22, 2002 17:10 PDT
Please be careful, Laura. These weird-os can be dangerous. He will get
no information from me.
I was outraged recently by a
letter from a group claiming to represent my
interests -- yes, asking for money. The request gave me the uneasy
feeling that the group had taken my
name and address from one of our Weihsien
connections.
Mary Previte
Laura Hope-Gill
Jul 22, 2002 21:58 PDT
Dear everybody,
Thank you so much for your kindness-- it's terrible to hear of people
charging internees money to share their
stories.
Freaks are plenty, and it reminds me to be thankful for good kind people
like yourselves, which brings me to ask
about the acts of kindness you all
experienced and witness during the internment. I have my grandmother's
story of the tomatoes appearing
magically at her door when her children were badly in need of vitamins. And there's Gilkey's account of the monk's
pretending to pray while actually
gathering eggs under their robes. . . what others?
(if you should hear from bad
guy, please forward the msg. to me so I can add it to a file I'm advised to keep--as you know, no action can be
taken since there's no physical threat,
just eerie behaviour).
Best to you all,
Laura
Fred Dreggs
Jul 24, 2002 00:34 PDT
Hello Zandy.
Received your scout photo OK. It certainly came out clearly. No, my
brother Bobby is not in that photo.
As to the ball-game at camp. Yes, I seem to recall that particular game
as being very exciting and the talk of the camp for quite a while. As a matter
of interest, the window in our "cell" was busted by a softball a couple
of times and wooden slats had to be affixed but I have no idea how that was
arranged given how hard it was to get wood, also glass was impossible to get so
my Mum covered the window with cloth.
Just a bit more Weihsien camp trivia!
Cheers
Fred
David Birch
Jul 24, 2002 11:28 PDT
Zandy,
Do you remember the baseball ump known as "Pineapple?"
I recall him as a colourful, rolly-polly little man whom we all turned
to to see what he was going to call the play - in those marvelous 'big league'
games such as Britain vs America. Pinespple must have known what he was doing
because there wasn't a great deal of arguing with him! And yet he always had a
friendly, sort of mischievous little smile playing about his lips. He was, I
think, a bit of a 'legend' in his time.
David
Zandy Strangman
Jul 25, 2002 02:17 PDT
Thanks to ALL who have come back to me with their generous I.D.
contribution on the Scout photo which seems to have generated some further
interest. To Greg Leck.........Thanks for your 'Email and introduction' and
background info. I had not heard of
the Lincoln Avenue Camp, before.
Incidentally, Desmond Power 'spent some time' at both Pootung and
Lunghwa camps before joining us at Weihsien-----he would be a rich source of
info for your project. Getting
illustrative material for it, now, might prove difficult I'd imagine. The photo
came to me from JANETTE and LEOPOLD, so permission for it's use would have to
come from them, I feel. Good luck
with it , anyway.
Re.... answering your questions, on "when was it taken?......pre or
post Liberation?......anyone having a camera in camp? and the development there
of, etc ?
I'd like to call upon JOYCE and RON for some assistance here. Eddie Cooke (Joyce's brother) is one of the
scouts in the picture and therefore, the best person to tell us when it was
taken .
RON's recent email with attachment ( which I was not able to access ) is
probably the same series of photos that Christine Sancton kindly circulated
back in March.. If so, I agree they appear to be taken at the same session, and
at the same location. But the number 18 in the background certainly looks more
like a 13 in the Cub group.
As far as anyone having cameras in camp? That was a distinct
possibility, but I don't think they would have been foolish enough to use it.
As for developing the film? I think that unlikely, also, as I can't remember
any X-rays being processed in camp. Maybe JOYCE or FRED can throw some light on
that one.
Last but not least, DAVID.........
Yes, I remember the ' rolly polly ' ump. And I think he was one of our
Hawaiian band members? I think ? Once
again Joyce or Fred or Ron could confirm that .
I've got much more for you David
but I've just been called for supper, so will have to get back to you later.
Best regards.............Zandy
Greg Leck
Jul 25, 2002 09:24 PDT
As for photographs of the camps, one of the reasons they are rare is
that in 1942, at least in the Shanghai area (and I would presume in Tientsin,
Tsingtao, and Peking areas - perhaps you North China hands can confirm this)
the Japanese promulgated that all cameras (as well as radios, firearms,
binoculars, and other items) be turned in to them. Receipts were issued but for
the most part these items were never recovered. I have a copy of receipts
issued for a camera and an automobile.
Lincoln Avenue Camp was located in Shanghai on a compound formerly used
as housing for Bank of China employees. It was something of a hospital camp
with large numbers of ill, elderly, or infirm internees who where not rounded
up until very late in 1944.
Desmond Power knew my family in Tientsin when they lived there in the
1920s before moving to Shanghai. He is a rich source of information and has
been of the utmost help to me in my project.
There are photographs out there of the camps. Japanese photographers
took many photos for propaganda purposes but my efforts at tracking down any
information the Japanese hold has been unsuccessful to date. Photographers after
the war visited Chapei, Pootung, Lunghwa, Weihsien, Stanley, and Yangchow C,
and perhaps more. Photographs of Lincoln Avenue and ASH camp exist as well. In
Shanghai, photographers from the Bubbling Well studio of Oskar Seepold took a
large series of photographs of Lunghwa and Chapei.
In any event, if anyone can tell
me who took the photo and when, I'd appreciate it.
Greg
Dwight W. Whipple
Jul 25, 2002 11:29 PDT
Fascinating! The photos must be in government archives somewhere.
Anybody know a government official who could help out?
~Dwight Whipple
RE: Photos.
Ron Bridge
Jul 25, 2002 13:52 PDT
They are all of the same series and I am certain taken in 1944. I
believe that the camera issue is solved by them being taken by a Japanese
Photographer for an article on are we not doing a lot to keep them live their
normal lives. I have a copy orf a Peking Newspaper Article published about that
time extolling the virtues of the kind way in which the Japanese were keeping those
interned. The Numbers were on the walls on the south wall near the tennis
courts by the hospital.
Rgds
Ron
Re: Photos.
Zandy Strangman
Jul 26, 2002 00:57 PDT
Ron.....It's obvious the only ones in a position to answer the questions
of when, where and by whom the pictures were taken, would be Fr. Hanquet, Eddie
Cooke or yourself, who were actually at the scene.(And facing the cameraman.)
Upon closer scrutiny of the cub photo, the space and type of surface
seems to confirm the tennis court area but what is the reason for the number 13
or 18, being on a perimeter wall??? How many more numbers were there?
I can't recall any numbers anywhere, not even on the ends of our blocks,
so I've got no argument on that point.
Your theory of a Jap photographer taking the series of photos for
propaganda purposes sounds feasible but how did the photos get distributed
amongst some internees ???
Regards,
Zandy
Fred Dreggs
Jul 26, 2002 02:43 PDT
Zandy,
I hadn't given the person nicknamed "Pineapple" any thought
whatsoever for
50 odd years when now, suddenly, the name emerges and brings back
memories.
Yes, as I recall, he was a member of the band which played for our
dances.
Very enjoyable indeed. Do you remember Aubrey Grandon singing his
favourite song "South of the Border" accompanied by this band? In
1944 Aubrey caught up with Des Power, Tony Lambert, Brian Clark and myself when
we(Des,Tony and I) were sharing a flat at Notting Hill Gate, London, and we all
had a fantastic, unbelievable time reminiscing for hours and hours. Nostalgia
is certainly a wonderful thing!
Cheers
Fred
leopold pander
Jul 26, 2002 04:22 PDT
Hello,
A short message I've just received from Janette,
We will keep you informed --- as soon as we've seen Father Hanquet
Best regards,
Leopold
----- Original Message -----
From: LEY Pierre
To: PANDER LEOPOLD
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 12:22 PM
Subject: photo Hanquet
Could you send word to "topica" that we are now asking Father
Hanquet for all the details concerning his photo, and any others,also if he
remembers anything about Japanese photographers in camp (?!)
As for Father Verhoeven, we'll ask him too, and we are trying
elsewhere...
In his book "The Enemy Within" F. de Jaegher tells about
Japanese propaganda photographers active and very present when the Allies were
waiting at Peking railway station (chapter 8, 3rd. paragraph)
Till next!.... Janette
Greg Leck
Jul 26, 2002 06:16 PDT
I have photographs of Allied internees at the huge Santo Tomas
internment centre in Manila, Philippines, but have yet to uncover any from
China. In Shanghai the photographers climbed trees to get better shots as
internees were marched from the Anglican Cathedral to the Bund.
Greg
Fred Dreggs
Jul 26, 2002 22:56 PDT
In my message toZandy, the date catching up with Aubrey Grandon should
have read 1947 and not 1944.
Fred
Zandy Strangman
Jul 28, 2002 03:47 PDT
David and Fred,
I had also forgotten all about ' that character ' called
"Pineapple" until David mentioned him, the other day, as a ' no
nonsense ' type of umpire. And I've since been 'wracking' my brains trying to
recall the name of ' The daddy of all NO NONSENSE umpires ' we had in camp
(until the US repatriation in '43.). He was a real 'rough and tough' ol' US
Marine from the Peking legation detachment, who also played a 'wicked game 'of
Ice hockey on the same 'interport team' my father played in, in the 30's. (
Those of our age group would remember the 'interport' series between the 3 main
Chinese cities, but Tientsin and Peking seemed to figure in it the most.) Carl
or Karl RUMF (no relation to Hazzie Rumph.)is the closest I can get.
He would have been aged about 50, then.
Well, the big game I can recall, was not a softball game but a true
baseball game. Yes, ' a few' went over the wall, but solid 'hits' were few and
far between, that afternoon.
I was just 14 and managed to look inconspicuous up against the
centerfield guard tower. And even from that distance his piercing '
sstttrrikke' or 'baaalll' and accompanying actions, is something I have never
forgotten.
David ....those 'big league' games you mentioned were actually referred
to as the 'major league' with teams that were most prominent, being known as
'the Stokers' , the 'Cooks' and the 'Bakers', 3 that come to mind. And earlier
in our internment we had the 3 Kitchen teams. But when the Peking kitchen was
vacated to accommodate the Italian contingent, we were reduced to the Kitchen 1
playing Kitchen 2, as the 'main game in town'.
Of course I must mention we had the 'minor league' as well and also the
junior games, where I started .
You are not the only ones to enjoy a bit of reminiscing! And more than
enough from me.
Oh! By the way Mary.... 'TOUCHAY' " stocky' WAS the word I was looking for!
David......
I haven't forgotten about finishing that email reply to you. It's just
that I've go to get SOME 'shut eye'.
Cheers......Zandy
Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)
Jul 28, 2002 20:35 PDT
Zandy,
The boy next to John de Zutter was called "Porky" and the boy
next to Father Hanquet is "Sotolongo". My brother does not know their
real names, nor does he know the date of the photograph. Also, he said the
baseball umpire was in fact Huzzi Rumph's father. The other umpire
"Pineapple" was so-named because the Weihsien band was called
"The Pineapples" .
All this info comes from my brother Eddie.
regards to all
Joyce
Zandy Strangman
Jul 29, 2002 00:45 PDT
Joyce,
Thanks for that bit of info. I thought that was 'Porky', as well. But
without his trademark ' slouch cap ' , I wasn't sure.
Many-is-the-time he demanded, "Don't call me Porky, my name is
George Watts! " So he kept getting Porky to the end.
Never heard of Sotolongo!
Besides Haazi's immediate family of 4, there were 2 other Rumpfs. I
presume a couple. (she was W. Russian.)
Neither of them was the baseball umpire, I mentioned . As I said I
wasn't sure of his surname. It was something like Rolf or Ralph. It could have
been Karl Roulf and closer to 40 than 50 in age. And definitely one who was
repatriated in '43.
After nearly 60 years, I guess we can expect to be some what ' foggy' in
our recalling powers.
Cheers.........Zandy
alison holmes
Jul 31, 2002 08:12 PDT
Is there anyway that you can scan the sketches for us? I have checked in
via the Internet to issue no 20 of the Bamboo Wireless and found no pictures.
We are getting a wonderful collection of visual reminders together. Tremendous!
Thank you. Alison
Greg Leck
Jul 31, 2002 08:27 PDT
I think that photographic material often disappears from web pages that
are designed to be temporary, such as a newsletter issue.
I do have a copy of the issue which has the sketches - they are all
children if I recall correctly. I don't have a scanner but could try to take a
digital photograph of it and send as a jpeg to those who are interested.
(You can't send attachments via Topica, can you?)
However, Ron Bridge, editor of The Bamboo Wireless, may have an easier
way to post them. What say you Ron?
Greg
Dwight W. Whipple
Jul 31, 2002 08:36 PDT
If you find a way, I would love to have copies sent. These are
marvellous reminders of camp and are ringing so many memory bells. Last night I
showed the ones I have to my 97 year old father who could identify them
readily.
Keep them coming!
~Dwight Whipple
Ron Bridge
Jul 31, 2002 12:48 PDT
There is no problem re scanning except time and that is in very short
supply at the monet due to the Court Case in the UK High Court over those that
HMG have denied being Brtiish. I do no plan to fall off my perch fpor a while
so I will get to it but I fear that the tpica site may not handle the size of
sketches as problems over Leopold panders paintings.
Rgds
Ron
Ron Bridge
Jul 31, 2002 12:48 PDT
Further to my previous having read Greg's letter due to ABCIFER Site
limitation we take out the pictures after three issues.
Simplest thing is for anyone intersted to sedn me their mailing address
by e-mail and I will photocopy what I have and send it to you they are all of
children and not have been properly identified thus I do not think that they
would help too much. I do not think that they are children who were at Chefoo
School.
Rgds
Ron
alison holmes
Jul 31, 2002 13:01 PDT
Are photos and sketches the same thing? I am interested in sketches, in
any artistic representations that came out of the camp. If they can come now or
later that's just fine...we Brits are so grateful for the work you, Ron, have
done for us and are doing for others. So don't let this turn into the last
straw that knocks you off your perch. Best, Alison
Dwight W. Whipple
Jul 31, 2002 16:30 PDT
No hurry, Ron, but I am one that would like photocopies of what you
have.
~Dwight
leopold pander
Aug 01, 2002 23:48 PDT
Hello Ron,
Janette is very interested in getting the pictures ... So am I ---
Thanks in advance,
Leopold
Dwight W. Whipple
Aug 02, 2002 20:54 PDT
Thank you for the great story and pictures!
~dwight whipple
leopold pander
Aug 03, 2002 00:23 PDT
Thanks for the tip. We got it "loud and clear" !
Leopold
---
(c) 1996 Corel Corporation Limited
TAD NAGAKI: Japanese-American Hero Behind Japanese
Lines in World War II
by Mary Taylor Previte
Tad Nagaki was full of
memories when I tracked him down fifty-two years later. I cupped the long distance phone to my ear
and listened to his voice. Wave after wave of memories blurred my eyes. I was a wide-eyed 12 year-old again
listening to the drone of the airplane far above the concentration camp. Racing to the window, I watched it sweep
lower, slowly lower.
It was a giant plane, emblazoned with an American
star. Weihsien went mad. I raced for
the entry gates and was swept off my feet by the pandemonium. Grown men ripped off their shirts and waved
them at the sky to flag down the low-flying plane. Prisoners ran in circles and punched the skies with their
fists. They wept, cursed, hugged,
danced as the B-24 circled back, its
belly open. Americans were spilling
from the skies, drifting into the
fields tall with ripening gaoliang
grain beyond the barrier walls of the Weihsien Concentration Camp in
China. The Americans had come. 1945, I was a child prisoner in that
concentration camp. Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center. That's what the
Japanese guards called it. Tad Nagaki
was an American hero in the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS), one of the seven-man Duck Mission that liberated
1,400 Allied civilian prisoners there.
For five and a half years, my brother and sister and I had not seen our
missionary parents. August 17,
1945. I shall never forget that
day. Tad Nagaki was the
Japanese-American interpreter on the rescue team. In a cross country search I
tracked him down -- I found them all -- in 1997, fifty-two years later. By then, Tad was a widower, 78 years old and
farming corn and beans and sugar beets in Alliance, Nebraska. I had to pull. Tad is comfortable with the
solitude of his tractor and his fields. These
OSS men were trained to keep secrets. I was not. I was a woman from New Jersey-- full of
questions. So I pulled -- with half a continent between us -- trying to be
polite,but tumbling the questions like a breathless child. Today, I call that rescue a suicide mission
-- six Americans and one Chinese interpreter against how many armed Japanese
guards in 1945. Slowly, slowly, Tad Nagaki talked about that windy day, the
low-flying drop using British parachutes so the Japanese would have less space
and time to shoot the rescue team. It
was only his second parachute jump, he said. I remembered out loud the crowds
of child prisoners. Oh, yes, we trailed
these gorgeous liberators around, begged for their insignia, begged for
buttons, begged them to sing the songs of America.
They were sun bronzed American gods with meat on their
bones. My 12-year-old heart turned
somersaults over every one of them. We
followed them day and night like children following the Pied Piper. What did it feel like? I asked Tad Nagaki.
Like being put on a pedestal, he said. That was the understatement of the
century. We made them gods. Tad remembered a girl cutting off a chunk of
his hair so she'd have a souvenir. What Tad Nagaki didn't say -- that's what
surprised me. Didn't he know that as an
ethnic Japanese, if the Japanese caught him in 1945, he'd be the first they would
torture and would kill? Didn't he know
their most ghastly interrogation techniques would come first? Didn't he know -- of course, he did -- the
ritual executions of Americans, would follow -- oh, yes by the Japanese
warriors code of Bushido, which prescribed execution by beheading? I shudder still to think of it. And in Burma or in China, what if American
soldiers thought you were the Japanese enemy?
I asked. I never gave it any thought, he said. I was American. He made
it sound so simple. I was
American. I kept prodding. In war, he
said, if you Àre going to think about
that, you Àre not going to make a very good
soldier.
So how did a Japanese-American soldier -- mistrusted
as a Nisei and limited to pruning trees and landscaping the grounds on a
wartime military base in World War II -- arrive in an elite team of Japanese
Americans serving in the China-Burma-India theater? How did he becomepart of the first espionage unit the United
States used behind Japanese lines? Minoseke Nagaki, Tads father, emigrated from Japan to Hawaii in theearly
1900's when American employers were
recruiting Japanese to work inthe mines, forests, and canneries.
Tads father worked first on plantations in Hawaii then
moved to the mainland to work on the railroad. By 1906, 13,000 Japanese were working on the railroad. Pay was 95 cents to one dollar a day. The Central Pacific Railroad climbed the
High Sierras, wound through the Donner Pass and stretched through Nevada. Along the way, small groups of Japanese
remained inland to open restaurants, laundries, and slaughterhouses, to mine
coal and copper, and to farm. Minoseke
Nagaki settled in a valley with forty or fifty Japanese families near
Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and, like many Japanese men, he sent to Japan for a
picture bride. The law then said Japanese were not permitted to become American
citizens. But he started farming. He grew a family. Tad and other
Japanese-American children started speaking English when they went to the two
and three-room schools around Scottsbluff, but someone started a Japanese
language school in the summers so Nisei native U. S. citizens born of immigrant
Japanese parents -- would also read and write Japanese. This gift of two languages would shape his
future. War was brewing across the ocean.
Tad Nagaki was drafted into the Army in November, 1941, the first of the
Nagaki brothers to go. Born in
Nebraska, he was America. His
Japanese-born parents considered it Tad's duty to go. Tad was 21. Men of the
Scottsbluff Elks Lodge sent him off and the other 18 draftees from the valley
with a buffet supper. The Nagakis
celebrated with a good by get together. Tad would defend America. It was a
simple equation: You love your country, you must be willing to fight for it.
But for Japanese-American soldiers it was more than that. Military service would prove their patriotism. It would show America. Tad Nagaki's mother
posted a proud sticker in the farmhouse window, boasting that her boy was
serving his country.
Pearl Harbor
Any American who was alive on December 7, 1941,can tell you where he was
when he heard the news. Joseph Harsch
of The Christian Science Monitor wrote from Honolulu, Planes with red balls
under their wings came in through the morning mist today and attacked America's
great mid-Pacific naval base and island fortress here.
If Japan's sneak attack at Pearl Harbor shook America
with anger and shock,
Japanese-Americans felt instant terror.
Many smashed their Japanese recordings and burned or buried letters from
kin folks, books, ceremonial dolls, Buddhist family shrines, and Japanese
flags. Japanese had killed or wounded 4,612 Americans, many of them buried
under the waters of Pearl Harbor.
REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR -- the slogan fanned the flames. In the war hysteria, the Rose Bowl football
game was moved out of Pasadena for fear of an air raid. Burma Shave signs sprouted along highways:
SLAP THE JAP. Some Asian-Americans
began wearing I am Chinese or I am Filipino pins; they would differentiate us
from them. When a nation is attacked,
how does it judge loyalty? Before long,
the Selective Service System classified Nisei -- enemy aliens not subject to
military service. Some were mustered
out of the Army and sent home.
Some were disarmed and assigned to menial labor.¹ Tad
Nagaki didn't notice any change of people's attitude towards him at first-- not
until his training buddies in the signal corps were all shipped out -- and Tad
was not.
Like everyone else, Tad was itching for action. He had always dreamed of flying. He passed his physical and collected
recommendations to become an air cadet.
Then came the personal letter
from his commander: They could not accept him because he was Japanese American. Shipped to Ft. Thomas, Kentucky, he now was assigned to a
barracks with about forty Japanese-Americans.
Other American boys were doing important stuff -- going to war, fighting
for America. Tad and his buddies were
pruning trees and landscaping the post, loading food onto troop trains. But what kind of job was that for a gung-ho American soldier when a
war was going on?
February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued
Executive Order, evacuating people of Japanese descent from coastal areas. Just before the war started, a tiny handful
of Army Intelligence specialists was alerting superiors of the importance of
training Japanese language interpreters to master the incredibly complex
Japanese language. But could youth of
an alien race -- only one generation removed from the land of their ancestors
-- be trusted in battle or in top secret intelligence work? While one hand of the Army was removing
Japanese-Americans from the west coast, another was searching for qualified
Nisei for its language and intelligence effort. In San Francisco, the Army opened a small-scale language school
in a converted hangar at Crissy Field, The Presidio. It hand picked fifty-eight
Nisei for its first class -- sitting on apple boxes and orange
crates. When the top brass finally saw
its value, the school was transferred to Camp Savage, Minnesota, where it was
reorganized as the Military Intelligence Service Language School.
In 1943, as Tad Nagaki and Nisei volunteers from the
relocation camps were increasingly frustrated to spend the war trimming trees
and loading food onto troop trains -- two years of menial labor -- the War Department posted an announcement on
the camp bulletin board. It was a plan
to accept volunteers for a special Nisei combat unit. Every chance we got, we
had tried to get into a combat unit, he says.
They kept saying, No. Now Nisei from Hawaii and across the mainland
rushed to volunteer. Half of the
mainland men volunteered from America relocation camps. Absolutely, yes! Duty, honor, and country. They would fight for America. At Camp
Shelby, Mississippi, the Nisei formed the 442nd Regimental (Go for Broke)
Combat Team. The average I.Q. of the entire
442nd was 119, nine points higher than that required for Officer
Candidate School.
The 442nd's shoulder patch sported a hand holding high
a torch of liberty against blue sky.
Deployed mainly in Europe, they would earn that patch. The 442nd would become the most highly
decorated American unit in World War II, receiving 18,143 individual awards,
not including Purple Hearts which are estimated at 3,600.
Skeets Nagaki, Tad's older brother, served in the
442nd. Just as Tad Nagaki was joining the 442nd in July, 1943, the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS) asked for Nisei volunteers for highly secret
intelligence work. More hazardous than
combat, some of them were told, a one-way ticket. Ó À At a height of 5'5", Tad wasn't thinking about being a
hero, but this choice was better than pruning trees.
He enrolled and found himself selected for an elite
team of Nisei in OSS Detachment 101. Of
the twenty-three men who started, only fourteen made it. Some people dubbed the OSS Oh So Social -- because so many came from
the Ivy League. There was nothing Ivy League about the Nisei group. Tad Nagaki was a farm boy from Nebraska.
Three were from California and the rest, from Hawaii.
Oh So Secret was a better nickname. The assignment was
hush-hush from the start. Rule Number
One: You didn't ask questions. You didn't write home to Mom about what you were
doing or what you had seen. The team
was bound for no-one-knew-where.
Whatever was going on involved more than one
service. If you asked an insider, he
might tell you the OSS was a crazy mix of the FBI and the Office of Naval Intelligence rolled together, plus Errol Flynn in one of those
war movies where he parachuted behind enemy lines and took on the whole enemy
army by himself.
The OSS trained the Nisei team first in radio school
in Naperville, Illinois, then the Military Intelligence Service Language School
in Fort Savage, MN, then six weeks of survival and demolition at Toyon Bay on
Catalina Island. They toughened up with
fitness training in the mountains, exercised with water drills from LST
boats. They could survive by fishing or
shooting mountain goats. Catalina
Island was ideal for coastal surveillance and commando training. It was 1944. After begging for action since 1942, the Nisei were about to get
their chance.
In December, 1941, Japan had moved to protect its
gains in Southeast Asia, cut off Allied supply routes to China, and gain
additional rice and oil by invading the British colony of Burma. It took them only three months to capture
Burma, a country about the size of Texas.
War in this China-Burma--India theater would be fought over control of supply
routes to China. In Burma, troops
fought Guts War. You melted with intense heat. You slogged through monsoon
rains and jungle rot. Your gut gushed
and your body melted with tropical diseases. Your feet blistered with long
marches. You fought off -- slapped off
-- leeches, poisonous snakes, and biting insects. Supplies often came only through parachute drops.
Burma churned out an unpredictable mix of jungle war,
mountain war, desert war, and naval war.
It was a death match of hand-to-hand combat appropriate for the Stone
Age and air transportation, whole divisions and their artillery and vehicles
flying through the sky, a marvel even
for the 20th Century. Soldiers landed
by glider on remote jungle strips.
Troops inched through acres of muddy paddy-fields under solid sheets
of monsoon rain that rotted their boots
as they moved. Boats probed mangrove
swamps.
Dropping into Northern Burma in January 1943, OSS
Detachment101 was the first espionage unit the United States used behind
Japanese lines. Deployed in China, Burma, and India, it had 250 officers and
750 enlisted men trained in parachuting, radio operations, infiltration,
survival training, hand to-hand combat, cryptography and guerrilla
tactics. An American-led intelligence
outfit with unconventional methods, it was led by Carl Eifler and William Ray
Peers. But what an inhospitable place
for Allied soldiers who were inexperienced in jungle warfare! Repelled as they were by the tribal practice
of collecting ears of the dead, Detachment 101 needed native talent. To recruit the local Kachin tribesmen and
gain their trust, they slept in villages and took part in village festivals,
watched Kachin musical processions, joined their games, foot races and
feasts. They lead 10,000 Kachin
tribesmen -- Kachin Raiders -- from villages, mountains, and jungle hideouts
against the Japanese in Burma. With
support of the Kachins, U. S. troops could feel the jungle was on their side.
They used the jungle grapevine. They pinpointed enemy targets for Allied
bombers. By late 1943, Detachment 101
had eleven radio stations reporting regularly from Japanese controlled areas.
In 1943, when the Japanese announced that captured flyers would be given one
way tickets to hell, Detachment 101 and their Kachin Raiders began rescuing
downed crews. Morale of Allied airmen
in the Tenth Air Force many of them flying over The Hump improved. Detachment 101 rescued some 400 Allied
flyers. If Detachment team was glued together with the unparalleled brotherhood
that men find in battle, they were also bonded as blood brotherhood hell-bent
on proving their patriotism. Every one
of them knew when he volunteered that it was much more dangerous for him as a
Japanese-American than for others.
Late in 1944,
Tad Nagaki arrived in Myitkyina (pronounced mich-chi naw), Burma, at a
bend in the Irrawadi River. Myitkyina
was the strategic key to the entire plan in the north. It had the only hard-surface, all-weather
airstrip in Burma north of Mandalay. This was the airfield the legendary Merrill
Marauders had seized. From there,
Nagaki helped establish headquarters in Bhamo.
Burma was his introduction to living in straw thatched huts (bashas),
riding bare back on cargo-bearing elephants, slathering insect repellant, and
eating K-rations, C-rations and native
rice and chicken curry. The Nisei
plunged into the work of sabotage, guerrilla warfare, hit and-run harassment
operations, translating Japanese documents, preparing propaganda leaflets,
interrogating prisoners, and building air fields. Calvin Tottori, a member of the Nisei team, documents their
exploits in a fascinating collection of unpublished memories, The O.S.S.
Niseis in the China-Burma-India Theater.
Dick Hamada attached to 2nd Battalion in Central Burma. He recalls: Second Battalion was constantly
on the move, setting up ambush, using punji (smoke-hardened bamboo spikes) set
on both sides of the trail to impale the enemy. The punji were crude, but very effective.
After one skirmish with the enemy, the Kachin Rangers
brought some clothing and captured weapons.
I inquired, How many enemy soldiers were killed? Twenty, said the soldiers.
When doubt spread across my face, they quickly took 20 ears from their
pouch. From that day on, I never
doubted their claims.
The team was supposed to interrogate Japanese
prisoners. I never had the chance, Tad
Nagaki says. They resisted capture with fanatical zeal. Surrender would bring shame to their family
and country. The Japanese always
committed suicide, he recalls, blew themselves up with grenades.
Being mistaken for the enemy was always a possibility. Nisei
Lt. Ralph Yempuku was assigned
to the 1st Battalion Kachin Rangers under Captain Joe Lazarsky. The Kachins hated the Japanese. Japanese had tied villagers to trees and
bayoneted them to death. The Kachins
were initially very wary about me because I was a Japanese-American, Yempuku
recalls. On the first day, Captain Lazarsky paraded me in front of the whole
battalion introducing me as an American and ordering them to study my face so
that I would not be mistaken for and shot as an enemy Japanese.
I told them Lt. Yempuku was, like the rest of us white
men, Lazarsky says. Lt. Yempuku lead
his own company of Kachin guerrillas in ambushing and attacking Japanese-held
villages behind enemy lines near Lashio and along the Burma Road.
Every Nisei knew, death would be better than capture.
Cal Tottori's first mission was to gather intelligence on Japanese troop
movements in the area north of Maymyo.
Since there were only two of us, we were expected to protect each
other. I recalled what we had been told
over and over during our training -- always save the last bullet for
ourselves. Combat bred its
superstitions. After the first recruit was wounded, Tottori's team felt very strongly that a tattoo on one's body
had some mystical power of protection.
In a moment of sheer madness, we had a Burmese priest (pongyi) do the
tattooing on us, Tottori recalls. Mine
was a Burmese tiger on my left forearm and is a constant reminder of what I
went through in that country.
Nagaki plunged into his assignment of training two
platoons, Kachin tribesmen in the north and Shan in Central Burma. It was a breathtaking mix of combat danger,
Red Cross coffee, and colossal boredom.
In the field, he parachuted behind Japanese lines to monitor Japanese
troop movements and gather information.
At headquarters in Bhamo, he processed reports.
As the war wound down in Burma in the summer of 1945,
Detachment 101 Niseis, battle-hardened in India and Burma, were deployed to
China, to report to OSS Detachment 202 headquarters in Kunming. Tad Nagaki, who had been driving tractors on
the farm in Nebraska since he was twelve years old, drove an Army 6x6 truck in
the
truck convoy over the Hump to China on the Burma Road.
Mercy Missions
As America closed in on Japan in late summer, 1945,
reports reached American headquarters in China that Japan planned to kill its
prisoners. Rescue became a top
priority. American commander, General
Albert Wedemeyer, directed agencies under his control to locate and evacuate
POWs in China, Manchuria, and Korea.
He pulled together seven-man rescue teams, including medical,
communications specialists, and interpreters.
OSS had two assignments: rescue prisoners and gather intelligence.
OSS organized eight rescue missions, all under code
names of birds: Magpie (heading to
Peiping), Duck (Weihsien), Flamingo (Harbin), Cardinal (Mukden), Sparrow
(Shanghai), Quail (Hanoi), Pigeon (Hainan Island), and Raven (Vientiane, Laos). The 4th Air Force was ordered to provide the
necessary staging areas. The teams took
off from Sian (today called Xian).
Nisei Dick Hamada was a member of the team that
parachuted into Peiping (Beijing) to liberate 624 Allied prisoners including
survivors of the Doolittle raids on Tokyo.
à Nisei Fumio Kido parachuted with
the team that rescued American General Jonathan Wainwright, hero of Bataan, and
1,600 other Allied POWs in Mukden. Cal
Tottori was a member of the OSS mercy mission that flew to Taiwan to seek
release of Allied POWs there. Ralph
Yempuku parachuted into Hainan Island with the team that evacuated 400 starving
prisoners there. On August 17, 1945,
Tad Nagaki parachuted from a B-24, named The Armored Angel, with five other
American heroes to rescue me and 1,400 other prisoners from the Weihsien
Concentration Camp in China Shantung Province.
Tad Nagaki and
members of these rescue teams were honored with the Soldier's Medal for
heroism. He was one of about 25,000
Japanese-American men and women who served in U.S. Armed forces during World
War II.
The Nisei bought an awful big hunk of America with
their Üblood, said American General Joseph Stilwell, who commanded U.S. forces
in the China-Burma-India theater.
You're damn right those Nisei boys have a place in the American heart
for ever.
Post script: Tad Nagaki says he's not a hero. He says he did what any American would have
done. After helping to establish an OSS
base in Tsingtao, China, he returned to America in 1946 and married his Nisei
fiancé, Butch. He had met her on a
blind date while he was attending Military Intelligence Service Language School
in Minnesota. Butch and her Issei
parents had been imprisoned in the Poston relocation camp in Arizona. After America changed its laws in 1950, Tad
Nagaki's parents became American citizens.
They never returned to Japan.
Today, Tad Nagaki farms corn and beans in Alliance, Nebraska, not far
from where he grew up. He is 82.
Members of OSS 101 Nisei team were: 1st Lt. Richard Betsui, 1st Lt. Junichi Buto, 1st
Lt. Chiyoki Ikeda, 1st Lt. Ralph Yempuku, Tech 4 Thomas T. Baba, Cpl. Dick
Hamada, S/Sgt. Susumu Kazahaya, Pvt. Fumio Kido, Pvt. Wilbert Kishinami, S/Sgt.
George Kobayashi, Tech. 5 Shoichi Kurahashi, Pvt. Tadashi Nagaki, Pvt. Takao
Tanabe, Cpl. Calvin Tottori.
3840 words
February 21, 2002
Dwight O. King, EditorÜ
1800 Park Newport, #203
Newport Beach, CA
92660
Dear Editor King:
I offer you the enclosed article for Ex-CBI
ROUNDUP. It is the story of Tad Nagaki,
a Japanese-American soldier who fought behind Japanese lines in Burma with OSS
Detachment 101 during World War II. He
was one of a team of six Americans who liberated the Weihsien Concentration
Camp in China in 1945. I was a prisoner
in that camp.
Photographs are available. Thank you for your alert
against fanning the controversy about the Japanese internment camps in the
American West. I have avoided fanning
those flames. Please let me know if
you'd like me to modify the length or emphasis. The story contains 3,840 words. May I send you the manuscsript by
e-mail or disc to facilitate your printing?
Sincerely,
Mary T. Previte
856-374-6100 (w)
856-428-4909 (h)
mtprevite@aol.com
351 Kings Highway East
Haddonfield, NJ
08033
March 3, 2002
Dwight O. King, Editor
Ex-CBI Roundup
1800 Park
Newport, #203
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Re: Photographs to illustrate story about
Japanese-American hero
Dear Editor King:
I have enclosed three photographs to illustrate my
story about Tad Nagaki, one of OSS detachment 101's Nisei team in Burma and
China, a story scheduled for your June 2002 issue. I am hoping to get from one of this Nisei team -- and am waiting
for -- one more dramatic photograph of
starving Australian prisoners liberated from the Japanese concentration
camp at Hainan Island by members of one of USA's humanitarian rescue teams.
Group picture: OSS Detachment 101 Nisei team. Names are noted on the picture.
SOLDIER: Sgt.
Tadash Nagaki interpreter, and T/4 Raymond N. Hanchulak, medic, are awarded the
Soldier's medal for heroism in Shanghai, 1945, for their part in liberating
1,400 Allied prisoners from the Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center in China's
"ÌShantung province, August 1945.
FOUR HEROES OF DUCK MISSION: After liberating the
Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center, August, 1945, Ensign James T. Moore, Sgt.
Tadash Nagaki, Major Stanley A. Staiger, and Raymond N. Hanchulak helped
establish an OSS base in Tsingtao, China. Thank you for honoring these heroes
by printing their story. Please return these photographs.
Sincerely,
Mary T. Previte
h:856-428-4909,
w:856-374-6100
Please add to end of story, MARY PREVITE is an
Assemblywoman in the New Jersey Legislature.
351 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield, NJ 08033
David Birch
Aug 04, 2002 12:20 PDT
Thank you Mary.
David Birch
To JAVA Members and Friends:
Wish to point out a very
interesting article
on JAVA website about
Tad Nagaki, an OSS operative, written by Mary
Previte, a NJ
Congresswoman,who was rescued from a Japanese POW
camp in China by this OSS
team .
It is a feature article for the month of August 2002
on JAVA website ,
www.javadc.org.
Grant
Ichikawa
Gladys Swift
Aug 04, 2002 18:11 PDT
There are three messages "Story about Weihsien rescuer posted on
Japanese American Vet website" sent to my email. Why? Unfortunately I
can't read the story because my macintosh computer doesn't do it. Please
explain to me. What is the "tip"? Gladys
Mary Previte
Aug 06, 2002 19:22 PDT
Hello, Everybody,
Remember fifty-seven years
ago? If you'd like to write to or
telephone the brave men who liberated
Weihsien, August 17, 1945, here are their
current addresses and telephone numbers. I know they will enjoy hearing
from you. Tell them briefly what you remember, just the way you post
these wonderful memories on our Topica
bulletin board.
WEIHSIEN RESCUE TEAM (DUCK MISSION) --
current addresses
Mrs. Raymond Hanchulak (Helen)
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 Road, Alliance, NE 69301
Mrs. Peter Orlich (Carol)
Phone: 718-746-8122
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
Mary Previte
Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)
Aug 14, 2002 23:40 PDT
I have not received anything at all from Weihsien Topica for about two
weeks. Have I been inadvertently deleted from this network? Am I missing
something? Please help. Joyce Bradbury.
Mary Previte
Aug 15, 2002 00:17 PDT
I haven't had any Topica messages either. Is everyone on vacation?
Mary Previte
Natasha Petersen
Aug 15, 2002 05:54 PDT
Hello everyone,
Joyce B. and Mary P. wrote on 14th and 15th resp. in regard to "no
messages". Mary Previte, yours from the 6th was the last message on
Topica. All names are on "ON".
Natasha
David Birch
Aug 15, 2002 11:40 PDT
Hullo Natasha,
Hope you receive this. Hope
everyone else does too!
Zandy Strangman sent me an e-mail not long ago to my other e-mail
address: (silver-@shaw.ca ) and mentioned
that our weihsien folk seemed rather 'quiet'
lately.
Maybe everyone's 'out in the
sun' enjoying summer holidays. Who knows?
Thank you Natasha, for keeping
this important connection open. I feel certain that many others of us are as
grateful as I am for what you are doing.
Thanks again, Natasha. And
blessings to you!
Sincerely,
David Birch
(gdavid-@yahoo.com), and
Theresa Granger (M. Sharp)
Aug 15, 2002 11:57 PDT
I was curious about the gap in the e-mail chain, too. Although I was no
there, I enjoy reading the history behind it. My mother, aunt, and grandfather
were internees. My two uncles and grandmother went underground during this time
(my grandfather was American, grandmother was Japanese - but moved to China
during WWI) to escape the Japanese Army, who wanted my uncles to join.
Besides the wonderful conversations I read, I am learning a history that
is better provided than from the books. I am also learning about my mother as
well as all of you.
thank you all for sharing!
Theresa Granger
David Birch
Aug 15, 2002 12:24 PDT
You're welcome, Theresa!
And thank you, too, for letting us hear from you.
Looks as though we are getting through. Warmest blessings to you and
your loved ones.
David Birch
(gdavid-@yahoo.com), and
alison holmes
Aug 15, 2002 12:51 PDT
It always seems to go in fits and starts...a long hiatus followed by
somebody wonderful coming in with something new....and I for one am grateful
for the 'down times' as emails can mount up!
It's good there are archives so that we can look back for information
and not have to repeat ourselves.
I have particularly enjoyed the art work that has come our way. Thank you , thank you. And I am sure we
will all pause on Saturday and relive our memories.
Mary Previte
Aug 15, 2002 19:33 PDT
Hello, Everybody:
Here's one variation of an article that several major newspapers in
New Jersey have published this week. On
Saturday, I hope you all take time to
remember that miracle day, August 17, 1945. Mary Previte
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO
SAY THANK YOU
by Mary T.
Previte
If I could pick one month to
wrap my arms around America, it would be
August.
I fell in love with America
fifty-six years ago. Americans were spilling
from this low-flying B-24 bomber, dangling from parachutes that looked
like giant poppies. They were dropping
into the fields outside the barrier walls.
I dashed to the barracks window in time to see the American star
emblazoned on its belly. God's rescuing
angels had come. Six gorgeous American men,
sunbronzed, with meat on their bones.
It was August, 1945.
"Weihsien Civilian
Assembly Center," the Japanese called our
concentration camp in China. I was twelve years old. For three years my
two brothers and sister and I had been
captives of the Japanese. For five and a
half years warring armies had separated us from our missionary parents.
But now the Americans had
come.
Weihsien went mad. I raced
for the entrance gate and was swept off my
feet by the pandemonium. Men ripped off their shirts and waved at the
bomber circling above. Prisoners ran in
circles and pounded the skies with their
fists. They wept, hugged, cursed, danced. Wave after wave of
prisoners swept me past the guards into
the fields beyond the camp.
A mile away we found them --
six young Americans, all in their twenties
-- standing with their weapons ready, surrounded by fields of ripening
broom corn. Advancing towards them,
intoxicated with joy, came a tidal wave of
prisoners. We were free in the open fields.
Back in the camp, we trailed
our angels everywhere. My heart flipped
somersaults over every one of them. We wanted their insignias. We wanted their signatures. We wanted their buttons.
We wanted snips of their hair. We
wanted souvenir pieces of parachutes. They gave us our first taste of Juicy Fruit gum. We children chewed it and
passed the sticky wads from mouth to
mouth.
We made them sing to us the
songs of America. They taught us "You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine." Fifty-six years later, I can
sing it still.
As the decades passed, I
could never understand why six Americans would
parachute in a suicide mission to rescue 1,400 people they didn't even
know. It was beyond my imagination. I
wanted to know these men. I wanted to know
what makes an American hero.
Four years ago, in a string
of miracles I tracked them down: Major
Stanley A. Staiger; Ensign
James W. Moore; 1st Lt. James J Hannon;
T/5 Peter C. Orlich, radio operator; Sgt. Tadash Nagaki,
interpreter; T/4 Raymond N. Hanchulak,
medic. Imagine it! After more than 50 years! Four heroes and two widows, all in their 80s now -- in Pennsylvania,
New York, Nebraska, Texas, Nevada, and
California.
What words would ever be
enough to thank a man who risked his life to
give me freedom, to give me all the opportunities America gives its
children?
Talking to them by telephone, sending them cards, didn't feel like
thanks enough.
So I started my pilgrimage --
crisscrossing America to visit each one of
them face-to-face to honor them. From New York to California, I went
looking for the soul of America. And it
is beautiful!
Each one is different: Tad
Nagaki, a Japanese-American farm boy who
didn't speak English until he went to school. Jim Moore, a former FBI
agent and the son of missionaries to
China. Jim Hannon, an adventurer who
prospected for gold in Alaska. Major Stanley Staiger, an ROTC
student snatched from his third year at
the University of Oregon. Raymond Hanchulak,
a boy from the coal mines and ethnic enclaves of Pennsylvania. The
youngest of the team -- Pete Orlich, a
kid with a scholarship to college whose family needed him to work, not go to school -- who memorized the eye
chart so he wouldn't be excluded from
the rescue team because he wore glasses. Pete
taped his glasses to his head when he parachuted down to liberate the
camp that day.
Some folk tell me America has
no heroes. I know they're wrong. I see
the face of heroes in the weathered faces of these six men and the
thousands of American men and women who
look like them. These are the heroes who saved
the world.
(Mary T. Previte is a New Jersey Assemblywoman. She keeps in constant
touch with her six World War II
heroes.)
alison holmes
Aug 16, 2002 09:51
PDT
----- Original Message
-----
From: Alison Holmes
To: weih-@topica.com
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 9:20 AM
Dear Joyce, I have cleaned up my inbox by putting all the pictures into
a file but I seem to have lost one of them in the transfer....the little one of
the view outside the camp walls with a dog?donkey? standing by the road. Could
you possibly resend that one to me? Thank you so much. Alison
Peter Talbot
Aug 16, 2002 13:30 PDT
Mary, As I was only five at the time I can not remember, but I do
believe that one of our saviours broke his leg. Is this true?? Peter Talbot.
Christine Sancton and Gay Stratford were my sisters.
Gay Talbot Stratford
Aug 16, 2002 17:19 PDT
Peter dear, He fractured his collar bone. Your loving sister. G
Mary Previte
Aug 16, 2002 19:34 PDT
Dear Peter,
Lt. Jim Hannon was injured in
the parachute drop -- an injured shoulder,
I think. Hannon tells me that he had to push Eddie Wang, the young
Chinese interpreter, out of the B-24
when Wang froze with fright. Hannon was well
trained as a parachute jumper, but pushing Wang out ruined the start
of Hannon's jump. They tell me the
start of a jump is everything. August
17 was a windy day and the team jumped
at only 400 feet in order to give the
Japanese less time and space to shoot at them as the rescue team floated
to the ground.
Mary Previte
leopold pander
Aug 17, 2002 00:05 PDT
Hello,
This e-mail system is fabulous !
Thank-you Theresa for your message. In a very few words, you explained
what could be written in a book of (at least) 501 pages!! Your family history
seems to be more than interesting. I am certain that I'm not the only one who
would like to "understand" more about our recent history.
à bientôt,
Leopold
Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)
Aug 18, 2002 00:11 PDT
Dear Alison.I cannot think of one of my pictures depicting an animal.The
only one I can think of is one done by Father Verhoven of farmland outside the
walls with a little dog with a curly tail on the right hand foreground. They
were sent by Leopold Pander. It is picture No.X. I do not have it on computer
so I cannot scan it to you. I am sure Leo would happily oblige. Regards. Joyce.
leopold pander
Aug 18, 2002 01:23 PDT
With pleasure .... ... a nice day too you all ! Best regards, Léopold.
Mary Previte
Aug 18, 2002 17:11 PDT
Leopold, your letters to our liberators left them ABSOLUTELY THRILLED!
Bless you! Actually, when I phoned everyone on the liberation team
this week, they told me several of have
written to them. Sakes alive! Carol
Orlich, widow of Peter Orlich, even described to me the parchment-like
paper you wrote on, Leopold.
She told me "It's so thrilling to get these letters." She
tells me she shows them to her children
and grandchildren and her "girl friends," with whom she lunches now and then. She keeps and
treasures every one of these letters and
articles.
All of them seem to keep these in memento boxes.
I chatted with all but one of the liberators to say thank you this week
and to reminisce. This time I quizzed
them about what they remember now -- 57
years later. Here's what they told me:
JIM MOORE in Dallas, Texas:
"After all these years,
it's a pleasant blurr. The jump itself was hairy -- a bit of a windy day and all the people rushing at us. Once in
the camp the first person I wanted to
see was PA Bruce (the head master of the Chefoo School)." Jim Moore had attended the Chefoo Schools in the
1930s and had been taught by several
Chefoo teachers who were at Weihsien. Jim speaks often to me with deep affection for Chefoo teachers, Gordon
Martin and PA Bruce.
TAD NAGAKI in Alliance, Nebraska:
"My memories are vague
now. I remember coming down in the corn field and all the people running out there. I remember the air drops of
supplies and trying to keep the people
out of the way from getting hit."
JIM HANNON in Yucca Valley, California:
"I remember my
amazement. We didn't know what was in the camp. I expected (P.O.W.) soldiers. What we found in the camp --
civilians and children."
You may know that Americans
hastily assembled these rescue teams when
they got information that Japan might try to kill its prisoners or use
them for bargaining. They assembled
7-man "humanitarian" teams in Kunming, each with a Chinese interpreter, a Japanese-American interpreter, a
medic, a radio operator and a couple of
leaders. The book, The Defeat of Japan, gives
fascinating details about these teams. Men of one of these American
rescue teams were roughed up and came
within moments of being executed by the
Japanese at one of the camps they went to liberate.
Another of these teams
"chickened out" of its rescue assignment. If I hear the story right from our Weihsien
liberators, that team then flew back
briefly to Weihsien and tried to say they were to be in charge of
Weihsien. Major Stanley Staiger would
have none of it. Staiger headed our team, the
"DUCK MISSION."
I was unable to reach Major
Staiger by telephone this week. I'm worried
because a recorded message said his phone is no longer in service. I'll definitely check this out further. Since I
found him in 1997, he has been alone
and in very fragile health.
By the way, a couple of the
team or widows want to join our Weihsien
bulletin board.
Mary Previte
Mary Previte
Aug 20, 2002 19:40 PDT
Hello, Everybody:
Greg asked me for more
information about the book, THE FALL OF JAPAN.
(Sorry, I got the name wrong in my earlier communication.) Others of you may also be interested in the account of the
7-man American rescue teams that
liberated internment and P.O.W. camps throughout Asia the same day the
DUCK MISSION liberated Weihsien.
The author is William Craig.
Publisher is The Dial Press, New York.
Publication date 1967. The library call number here is 952.033 Cra
I read the book several years
ago. If my memory is correct, the story of
the "humanitarian" rescue missions of the internment camps is
woven throughout the narrative. Pages
262 and 263 describe the reception of
several of these rescue teams. Weihsien (misspelled Weischien) earns
only this paragraph: " At
Weischien, parachutists found their biggest problem the civilian internees. Overjoyed by the sight
of healthy-looking civilian internees,
some of the women proved almost unmanageable in their affection."
The page also mentions the
team that returned without liberating the
P.O.W. camp in Keijo, Korea. From talking to our American liberators,
I believe this team flew back to Weihsien
and tried to take command there. Major
Stanley Staiger of the DUCK MISSION would have none of it. The commanding officer of that team was promptly
relieved of his duties by angered
American superiors.
The photos in this book --
including beheading of prisoners and
prisoners trapping rats to eat -- remind me once again how blessed we
were in Weihsien.
Mary Previte
leopold pander
Aug 21, 2002 22:53 PDT
Hello,
Many thanks for the info.
Looking on the "Internet", I found the book. I also ordered a
publication about Hirohito writen by Herbert P. Bix.(816-pages). I still have
much to learn !!
Best regards,
Leopold
Gladys Swift
Aug 25, 2002 16:57 PDT
Comment from Gladys - Your following letter confuses me at the point of
rescue of the Weihsien camp. I read it several times- " At Weischien,
parachutists found their biggest problem the civilian internees. Overjoyed by
the sight of healthy-looking civilian internees, some of the women proved
almost unmanageable in their affection."
Does this mean that women in the camp were unmanageable in their
affection toward the RESCUERS - in which case the rescuers must have been
"healthy-looking civilian internees" (hardly likely). Or were the
rescuers WOMEN who proved unmanageable toward the Weihsien internees? (hardly
likely) Since my mother, Mabel Hubbard, was one of the women in the camp, I
would like to know the answer.
I remember coming from the United States back to China in August of
1937, with my mother on a steamer. As we docked and the gangplank went down she
saw my father waiting on the pier. She broke through the restraining arms of
the boat crew and dashed down the gangplank yelling "Hugh, Hugh". She
had to be dragged back, to the amusement of the crew. So she could have been
one of the "unmanageable women" in the Weihsien camp.
Mary Previte
Aug 25, 2002 18:30 PDT
The Fall of Japan devotes only one paragraph to Weihsien. Here it
is: " At Weischien, parachutists
found their biggest problem the civilian
internees. Overjoyed by the sight of healthy-looking Americans, some of
the women proved almost unmanageable in
their affection."
I have asked the men who liberated us about this. After more than 50
years, none of them remembers anything
like that. However, Franciscan Sister M.
Servatia writes about the liberation of Weihsien in her book, A Cross
in China: The Story of My Mission,
"Major Staiger asked someone to free him
from the Russian women because he had work to do." (See page 293 of
her account.)
Langdon Gilkey also hints at it in his book, Shantung Compound, and
his chapter about the liberation of the
camp. (See page 212.) "It was, however,
the women of the camp who most instinctively recognized their divine
status. Of all ages, whether from high
society or low, married or single, proper or
not so proper, all wanted nothing better from life than to adore.
They followed the pleasantly surprised
soldiers everywhere, staring at them in
rapture, edging up to get a word from them, fighting for the chance to
wait on them, and pushing their equally
adoring children aside so as to be able to
touch or stroke them. As always, it was wonderful to have gods in your
midst -- unless, like the writer and a
few others, you lost a girl friend in the
process!"
A year or so ago, Langdon
Gilkey told me about that -- the name of the
rescuer who stole his girl friend from him.
I was only twelve years old,
yet I can still remember trailing these
heroes. I didn't want to let them out of my sight. We little kids got
the boring mementos like buttons and
pieces of parachute. Our older sisters got
treasures like the men's insignia. Rescuer Tad Nagaki told me that
one woman cut off a chunk of his hair
for a souvenir.
Come on, ladies. I'd like
other women in our Topic group to tell how
they responded to these rescuers.
Mary Previte
Natasha Petersen
Aug 26, 2002 10:59 PDT
I remember some women running onto the fields and wrapping themselves
around the men who were landing. We were all beside ourselves with joy at the
appearance of the men from the skies. We were also greatly surprised that we
were not stopped by the guards at the gate. They moved aside and later, I
believe, disappeared from view. I do not remember grownups following the
soldiers in camp. The soldiers did not know where the Jap soldiers were, and
what they were going to do, and naturally were most anxious not to be
"bound" by loving arms.
I also remember that I along with several others was asked to serve the
men "breakfast". We served what we normally had for breakfast, tea or
ersatz (?) coffee. One of them turned to me and asked for cream and sugar. I
reminded him that this was a concentration camp, that we had not had cream and
sugar for a long period of time. I remember his unthinking remark to this day,
and the feeling that it brought about in me.
We, the internees of Weihsien, were indeed blessed. We may have been
hungry, but we were not starving, nor did we have to resort to eating rats etc.
We were cold, but we did not freeze. We did have medical assistance.
Does Langdon Gilkey live in Charlottesville, VA. If yes, next time I am
there, I will give him a call.
Natasha
Natasha Petersen
Aug 29, 2002 11:38 PDT
We have a new subscriber, Sid Fisher fishe-@mchsi.com ;
I am sending you a copy of the message from Sid.
My name is Sid Fisher. My interest in the web site was in the discovery
of a long lost relative posting to the site. Her mother is a person I've been
trying to find during my genealogical research. Hugh Hubbard and his wife Mabel
were internees in the camp. Mabel (deceased) and I are cousins as are her
daughter, Gladys Swift and I.
However, I've a historical interest in WWII and would like to learn more
about the camp and, in particular, Hugh and Mabel Hubbard's activity during the
duration of the camp.
Natasha
leopold pander
Aug 31, 2002 10:15 PDT
Hello everybody,
We will be seeing Father Hanquet next week for a cup of Chinese tea and
some of our famous cheese pies ... " la tarte au fromage de
Chaumont-Gistoux" ... a speciality of our neighbourhood.
We have so much to ask him.
The names of the boy scout group photograph ... also the names of the
cubs !! Will he remember ... after such a long time ?
After the last time we saw him, I regularly slip in his letter-box, a
print of all the "Topica" news. He does not have a computer and very
much appreciates reading all of your writings.
By the way ---
If you have questions you would like to ask Father Hanquet, I'll be
happy to print them and serve as a relay to give you the answers by
return-mail! I personally always have so much to ask, and when he is there I
forget everything !
Best regards,
Janette and Leopold
Donald Menzi
Aug 31, 2002 13:10 PDT
Tell him I appreciate his response to my question about the location of
the Trappist monastery. He said it was located between two railway stations.
Does he remember which station was closest to it, and is there any other
village near by that would help us find it if we were travelling by car?
Mary Previte
Aug 31, 2002 15:24 PDT
Hello, Father Hanquet,
How lovely to have this
opportunity to chat with you after all these
years!
When you think of Weihsien,
what memory first comes to your mind after
all these years?
What part of the Weihsien
experience made you afraid? Did you ever fear
that you'd never get out alive? What tested your faith the most?
I think often of the grown
ups who anchored us children in Weihsien. I
call then "the spirit team." You were a grown up. You may have
looked at people very differently from
a child. Whom would you put in the category of
Weihsien's "spirit team"?
I'd love to get your
recollections of Liberation Day, August 17, 1945.
Every grown up was assigned a
job in Weihsien. Would you tell us what
work you were assigned to do in the camp?
Thank you so much. Mary
Taylor Previte
Gay Talbot Stratford
Sep 01, 2002 10:40 PDT
Salut Leopold,
Please greet pere Hanquet for me. My parents were Ida and Sid Talbot.
Unfortunately they are both dead, but i remember father's visit to our place in
block 6. Bset wishes to you and yours.
Gay Stratford nee Talbot
Gladys Swift
Sep 02, 2002 18:14 PDT
Just finished "Little Foreign Devil" by Desmond Power and
think it is excellent reading and excellent historical record, including the
liberation of Weihsien. I think Langdon Gilkey lives or lived in Chicago the
last I knew.
Christine Talbot Sancton
Sep 10, 2002 09:17 PDT
Dear Ron: Kay Allan and I are delighted to be back in touch with each
other again, after more that 50 years! Thank you.
I am just reading "Behind the Fence" life of a POW in Japan
1942-45 by Les Chater. He lives in Ontario and co-wrote the book with Elizabeth
Hamid. It is interesting, of camp life so different from ours. They were all
military personnel, of course.
He kept a diary all through camp days and kept meticulous records of
those who died. But perhaps you already know of it. I am trying to get in touch
with him as I don't know if he is linked up with ABCIFER.
My son is just leaving for a yer in UK. I hope that he will be able to
go to the Imperial War Museum and see the art work of Weihsien. Who were the
artists?
I haven't forgotten your requestr for names from Camp. I have typed up
all my mother's diaries now, so have to go through for correction and name
collection.
Hope that you have had a good summer. Sincerely, Christine Talbot
Sancton
Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)
Sep 11, 2002 21:53 PDT
Dear Leopold. Yes please I would like photos and any reminiscences you
are able to give regarding father Hanquet. Regards Joyce Bradbury.
----- Original Message -----
From: leopold pander
To: weih-@topica.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 11:00 PM
Subject: Fw: Father Hanquet
Hello again,
... it is correct, that the
Topica site has limited memory space ! -- sorry --
----- Transcript of session
follows -----
... while talking to inmta001.topica.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 552 sorry, that message size exceeds my databytes limit
(#5.3.4)
554 5.0.0 Service unavailable
Whoever I have forgotten on my address-book-list can send me his e-mail
coordinates. I will send him the pictures asap.
à bientôt,
Leopold
Natasha Petersen
Sep 12, 2002 06:19 PDT
Dear Leopold and other subscribers,
I was able to download and print four photographs. Were there more?
Natasha
Greg Leck
Sep 12, 2002 06:47 PDT
I received four (4) photos
Greg
Dwight W. Whipple
Sep 12, 2002 08:25 PDT
I also received four photos and am wondering if there are more, or if
there is also some commentary? Thanks so much!
~Dwight W. Whipple
leopold pander
Sep 12, 2002 14:40 PDT
Hello,
Six more pictures ...
Hope you get them all with a good printable definition.
On the first picture of my yesterday's mail -- from left to right -- is
Catherine, (Jannet's daughter), Nicky (my wife), my chair (empty), Father
Hanquet and Janette (6 years old in 1945). On the second picture, Father
Hanquet is showing the location of "where" the boy scouts picture was
taken and where all the group photos were shot. In Langdon Gilkey's book, there
is a map of the Weihsien compound. The location, is: "South Field"
with the many trees. The wall with the numbers "12" and
"13" is the boundary wall of the camp. Father Hanquet told us that we
used to play basket ball on the south field.
On the question: who took the photos ? It is a person of the Cheefoo
School staff who had the camera (well hidden during our internment) and who
managed getting the films from our American saviours and took as much pictures
as he could. Those we have are still available on
http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/sancton/index.html . I printed every one of them,
enlarged on A4-paper and gave them to Father Hanquet for further examination.
Every picture has a story and I really hope he will help us to remember
..
I think that all the other pictures speak for themselves. Next time we
meet, I'll try to take a better portrait of Father Hanquet to send on the
e-mail for you.
We spent more than three hours, listening and didn't even notice the sun
going down and the temperature getting chilly!
It was with regret that we saw him drive away. Yes, yes, --- at 87 he
drives his own car!
Leopold
P.S. Janette took notes during our conversation and we will be sending
more stories shortly.
leopold pander
Sep 14, 2002 09:10 PDT
Hello
About the boy scout's photograph !
Of course we asked Father Hanquet --- who was who !?
From left to right ---
The standing row; ----------
Eddy Cooke,
David ?,
Richard Jones,
George Watts (Porky),
John de Zutter,
Gui Chan,
Mickey Marquès,
Johnny Beaten-Georgiles,
The sitting row; -----------
Peter Turner,
Alby de Zutter,
Father Palmer,
Cockburn,
Father E. Hanquet,
?,
?,
Front row; -----------
Jacky Campbell,
Michael Turner,
?,
Eddy Chan,
Vova Bonner.
The picture was taken on the South Field and the wall in the background,
is the camp's boundary wall.
The photographer was somebody of the Cheefoo School staff. Who? Father
Hanquet could not remember.
The motto was --- "All for one, and one for all"
The emblem was, a lily flower on a clover embroided by the boys' mothers
and sisters. Father Hanquet explained that the Japanese forbade us to use the
emblems of the Royal Families. The "fleur de Lys" is the emblem of
the Kings of France and that is why the clover was used. But what the Japanese
did not know, was that the "clover" was the emblem of the Scouts of
France. !! The scarf, was a white handkerchief dipped into blue ink.
Father Hanquet writes ;
"The very beginning of the Scout patrol was constituted by 7 or 8
boys. Junior Chan, a Canadian-Chinese, catholic of 14 years old who could be
the patrol leader, Sandy, an Eurasian, the de Zutter brothers, Belgians of 14
and 12 years, and also 3 to 4 Britons. There was a good mixture of Catholics
and Protestants and there even was an Orthodox boy. With A. Palmers, we decided
to give the responsibility of the group to Cockburn and we accepted to work
more as assistants than as priests. "
Best regards,
Leopold
leopold pander
Sep 14, 2002 09:34 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: Pierre Ley
To: PANDER LEOPOLD
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 2:57 PM
Subject: for topica
Hello, I'd like to thank all of you topica friends,you helped me pull
Weihsien out of the storage box I had hid away in the farthest corner of my
mind.
As Leopold said, Fr. Hanquet has read all of the topica letters as well
as others post-sent, and would love to answer personally... he is a wonderful
person with a lovely sense of humour... he will also perhaps write for topica,
with Leopold and I as translators!
Conversation was non stop, questions and answers fusing, well we did
take the time to eat the "tartes au fromage" !...
Fr. Hanquet very affectionately remembers Eddie and Joyce Cooke and
Zandy, and yes, he did chuckle when he thought about masses beginning at 6.30am
and the necessity of finding boys to help, so all the different services could
finish in time for lunch! The Japanese willingly permitted all the religious
ceremonies, a catholic priest (of German nationality) came regularly (with
Swiss consul Eggar) bearing a communion wafer box. This box had a double drawer
in which messages were able to be transmitted. The Japanese never found out.
Sadly, in this manner, Fr. H. learnt of his father's passing away.
As regard to the "Russian women..." he bristled slightly
saying that no person more than another was "unmanageable in their
affection" towards the parachutists, we were all and each one overjoyed.
As a child of six, I remembered following them around too, but from afar and
very awed!
Answering the question of the exact location of the Trappist monastery,
he really cannot help more as he had never been there himself.
Leopold has already sent the annotated scout photos, Fr. H. doesn't
remember the cub master's name, only that he was one of two brothers.
I hope Sid Fisher will get a personal answer, Hugh Hubbard was
remembered as a very admirable person.
Father Hanquet's task in camp was to work in kitchen no.1 with him as
team leader. Zimmerman, as his assistant, had a Russian wife who loved cooking
and gave them full of good ideas, so very creative work was done with just
beets (and all!...) and they ended up as real "chefs"! Their arms turning
around with long wooden paddles in huge pots,they sometimes sang cheeky songs
to tease the protestant missionaries, Fr. H. said he'd write down the words for
us! The kitchen team also left meat to simmer, so they could scoop out the top
layer of fat and use it as butter. A chemist who worked for Kailan invented a
way to make yeast from sweet potatoes, and the bread was the best in the world!
In answer to Mary's queries, he spoke of staying on with other catholic
priests (Frs. de Jaegher and Unden from Ankuo, Keymolen and Wenders who taught
in Suanha seminary, Gilson procurator in Peking, Palmers and himself from the
SAM missionaries, also four nuns....) When the rest of the congregation was
sent back to stay interned in two convents in Peking, -so as to leave more
space in Weihsien- "our" catholic priests with permission from their
superiours, opted to stay on. Young, healthy and bachelors, they felt they
could best serve their faith in camp.
We spoke a lot about the "spirit team". Before Chefoo arrived,
the camp organisation was well under way and Fr. Hanquet took to heart to try
and get the young teen-age kids out of the "mischiefs" of their age,
they balked at school work, so he kept minds occupied with card games,
music,(later scouts and sports) An adult, a baptist called Hubener was
wonderful with his guitar... Fr. H. with Fr. Palmers and British teachers
Cockburn and Mac Chesney Clarck, all ex-scouts started a scout troop... cf.
Leopold!...
Father Hanquet was very happy when Chefoo arrived, the school was
remarquably organised, everyone then shared the educational work, catholics and
protestants, teachers of Chefoo and from Tientsin Grammar School... I
personally feel that Weihsien camp was in a state of permanent grace thanks to
the Chefoo missionaries and the catholic fathers. Their generosity worked
wonders throughout all the difficulties, I remember being sensitive to this
very tangible "spirit" feeling, and very much aware of the loss of it
when camp necessarily dislocated. Weihsien was unique, compared to other family
camps, like Lunghua and Stanley (our family later met with friends who had been
interned there) the children were so marvellously cared for...
Towards the end of the war a resistance group was formed, bachelors only
with among others Roy Choo and Wade, they were "armed", Roy with an
ax... and wore their red nationality armbands (from just before camp). When the
Duck Mission parachuted, all precautions were taken as no one knew in advance
if the Japanese would surrender. Father Hanquet was one of the few first to
greet them in the fields high with chinese maize. Staiger,walking towards the
gates, then said the team had searched somewhat before they knew it was
"us" because we were wearing clothes in all kinds of colours: there
was nothing else to distinguish our camp from any other chinese walled village,
but the Chinese only wore black or blue clothes! Well, I hope we'll get more
details yet from Father Hanquet, he's still needed down here!!!
My love to all
Janette
Dwight W. Whipple
Sep 14, 2002 09:36 PDT
Thanks for the identification and information about the scout picture.
~Dwight W. Whipple
Stan Thompson
Sep 16, 2002 08:22 PDT
Thanks once more for the pictures.
Re picture no. 11 (the boy scout group in the second picture on page 1
of the sancton pages (at
http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/sancton/index.html ), I have the following names to offer (after
consulting with my brother Paul; and
indirectly with Norman Cliff):
BACK ROW (viewer's L>R) /
??? / David Birch / Paul Thompson / Alec
Luxon / Stanley Thompson / Torje Torjesen / ? Kerry /
MIDDLE ROW / Hakon Torjesen /
James Taylor / George Bell / Mr
Stanley ("Stan Man") Houghton / Murray Sadler / Stephen
Houghton / Peter Bazire /
FRONT ROW (squatting) / Robin
Hoyte / ? Warren / ??? /
Perhaps David Birch can fill in some of the blanks.
If indeed Eric Liddell had
been our scoutmaster, and Stanman had
taken over the job, that would confirm the date of the photo as
"Summer 1945". (or did
Liddell serve as a sort of 'Assistant Scoutmaster for Sports' for several of the troupes ?)
Stanley
Thompson
leopold pander
Sep 17, 2002 09:52 PDT
Hello,
Here is the first letter written by Father Hanquet in English.
---
"First of all, I want to thank Leopold Pander and all the friends
who, with him, brought their news and comments to "Topica" in order
to communicate and give fun to all of us, readers of this "chat".
Personally, I am an old "china hand", since I went to China in
1938. I was 23 years old, and remained there till 1948. Hence my sojourn in
Weihsien camp from March '43 till October '45.
At that time, I was working as a catholic missionary and parish priest
in Hong Dong, Shanxi, as the only foreigner working in the diocese.
In the beginning of March '43, I was told by a Japanese police officer
that I had to leave my work for a few days in order to participate in a meeting
of foreigners in Taiyuan (the capital of Shanxi province). When I asked the
police officer how long it would last, he answered evasively. I knew one thing
only: I could take but one suitcase with me.
Although watched by the Japanese police and although I had already been
a prisoner in Hong Dong for 4 months --- from December '41 till April '42 ---,
I was free to go in and around town. So, I prepared a suitcase with a minimum
of clothing for the 3 seasons to come, plus a few books.
Accompanied by a Japanese police man, I was taken by train to Taiyuan, a
one-day trip, and led to a hotel with flimsy walls and full of noise made by
the clients. To my surprise, those noisy visitors were Dutch missionaries,
Franciscan fathers from the same province and a few Belgian Scheutists from
Tatung.
About the trip to Peking, I refer to the book of Langdon Gilkey,
"Shantung Compound" who explained very well their first encounter
when we arrived at the Peking railway station after two days of travelling.
After that, it took another 36 hours to reach Weihsien. We were exhausted but
in good humour and, as most of you, in the total ignorance of what would happen
to all of us. Behind the walls, we were given 2 rooms for seven of us in Bloc
46. For the next 4 months, I had to sleep on two wooden boxes since I had no
bed.
In spite of our trouble, I had the good fortune to be with 6 other
priests of our society (SAM: Society of Auxiliary Missionaries) working in
Northern China. That was our first meeting. Needless to say that we were very
pleased and very keen on cooperating to relieve the situation.
That was around the 21st of March. We were in total confusion. No one
knew what to do or what was going to happen.
During the day, much of the "chat" was done around the church
(assembly hall), since there were a few benches to sit on and it was close to
the main gate. It took us a few days to find out how everything would be
gradually organised. We were told to give our qualifications and our
preferences for certain jobs to be assumed in the camp.
In our little group of priests, most spoke good Chinese and since we
intended to keep in touch with the Chinese people outside, we chose to take
care of the toilets. You may remember that the toilets were the only place
visited by the Chinese coolies with their wooden buckets. They came everyday to
empty the cesspools. Therefore, for us fathers, the toilets were a special
place to meet the Chinese and talk with them. Our purpose was to get a good
contact for a possible evasion.
Although I worked there for a few weeks, I soon left that arduous task
to Fathers de Jaegher, Keymolen, Gilson and Wenders.
Father Palmers and Unden decided to work in the bakery. That helped our
group a lot, since every three days, we could bring back a big loaf of bread that
was issued as a premium to us heavy workers, going to work at 5 in the morning.
I myself chose to work in kitchen number one and got a job as the 5th
"roast-about". Every third day, I had to work hard there, beginning
at 6 a.m., and learned the job as much as possible. So much that, after
ascending every rank in the team, I was finally assigned the job of
"chef-cook". We were a happy team of 7, joyful and cooperating. My
assistant was an American named Zimmerman who had a Russian wife who knew a lot
about cooking and helped us to create and prepare new dishes. At the beginning,
in that kitchen, there were no ladles, spoons and special utensils to ditch the
food out, so, we had to ask the repair shop to make new instruments out of
tins. The same for the covers of the "kuo". There were 5 of them,
large kettles of which the bigger one contained twelve buckets of water.
We even had a team song, that was taught to us by a young British from
Tsingtao and we sung our song every now and then, especially when we saw some
protestant reverend passing alongside the small windows above our kettles. We
sang it with a certain smile and even a point of derision for the Holy Book ---
it goes; (like a nursery rime)
" The best book to
read is the Bi-i-i-i-ble (bis)
" If you read it
every day
" It will make you
on the way
" While turning in
our kettles, (at this point, we yelled) "OUPS!"
" The best book to
read is the Bi-i-i-i-ble
" ---- and so on
----
I worked in the kitchen for almost a year. After that, I was assigned to
make noodles with two new friends, Langdon Gilkey and Robin Strong. Somebody
had discovered in the attic of the old mission a machine that looked like a
wringer for drying the laundry. The machine was made of two cylinders turning
in opposite directions and closed together. After many trials of mixing flour
with the right proportion of water --- neither too much nor too little --- and
by feeding the device with the good mixture between the two cylinders turning
slowly, we obtained noodles that could be boiled as such for a few minutes and
were a regal for all of us.
It did not last long for me and I switched to "woodcutter",
chopping wood for the stoves of the hospital. I was alone on the work that I
did on a place very close to our Block 56. At the beginning, I was given an axe
with a wooden handle, but we had to replace it with an iron pipe since there
were no more logs to be cut. They were replaced by roots. Fortunately the
sewing shop and the good Miss Scott provided me with strong gloves.
During the last summer in camp, I was asked to work as butcher for our
kitchen. There was work whenever the Japanese issued meat, brought in their
quarters by the Chinese coolies. That was another occasion to get some news
from them during the rare moments the Japs were not there. The meat
distribution was done in their quarters and then brought to the meat-room of
kitchen number one. The quota assigned for 600 mouths to feed was miserable.
One morning, in early
August, I got the news from a Chinese cart man as I was asking about the
behaviour of the Japanese merchants in town. The answer was clear and
comforting for us: "They are all packing". So, on my way back to
Block 56, I spread the news amongst my friends. One of them stopped me:
"Let us celebrate", and we went to his room to get a few small
glasses and a small bottle of whiskey, cheerfully adding: "If it's not
true, you will have to give it back".
Fortunately, a few days later, the parachutists arrived.
About their arrival, I
must precise some details, as I was one of the first to leave the camp through
the Main gate, running in the fields to reach the grave mound that Major
Staiger, the head of the team, had chosen as an observatory to give his orders.
"We are six parachutists and we dropped 20 parcels. Help us gather
everything here". When all was assembled, after almost one hour, we
started a big procession with Major Staiger on our shoulders going through the
fields of Kaoliang. But, as we approached the walls of the camp, the Major told
us to stay behind and let them go in first, since they had special orders for
meeting with the Commandant of our camp ----
As we approached, I was
very surprised to see Roy Chu and some other internees, patrolling inside the
camp with axe and knife. They had already taken position to defend the
internees as a secret "corps franc" prepared by the strongest men of
the compound. . Fortunately, nothing wrong happened, and the Japanese authority
rendered their weapons without difficulty --- but since the communists around
the camp threatened to take us as hostages, the Japanese guards continued to
stay on duty during the nights until the final closing of the camp.
"
--- Father Hanquet ---
Donald Menzi
Sep 17, 2002 14:49 PDT
Please ask father Hanquet if he has any memory of an American Board missionary named George Wilder, my
grandfather. He job was sharpening
knives for kitchen No. 1. He left with others on the Gripsholm, a prisoner-exchange ship, after only 6 months
in the camp so it would be
understandable if he had no memory of him.
Mary Previte
Sep 17, 2002 15:57 PDT
What a WONDERUL letter from Faqther Hanquet full of details we children
would never have known! Father Hanquet,
I do hope you'll continue writing your
memories for us.
This week, I reread Mary Scott's book, Kept In Safeguard. She also
chose duty of cleaning the latrines.
Here's a bit of her desription: "A latrine which we called the "cow shed" was assigned to the
ladies. Each of the six "stalls" consisted of two narrow
cement platforms on the sides on which to
stand, a cement hole for the solids and a slanted front which carried
the urine to a trough. In the morning a
Chinese "night soil" coolie came to scoop out the solids (it was valuable to him as a fertilizer).
Sometimes the odors were so pungent
that our noses literally burned when we came near, especialy in the summer.
But there were very
profitable lessons to be learned, even as a latrine cleaner. My godly, sanctified ralroader father, brought up a
Canadian Presbyterian, had taught us
around the family altar that a Christian can to anything that is right to glorify God. I shall never forget one
Wednesday morning ...I was on
"latrine duty" and in the midst of that unpleasant task, I looked up and said, "Now, Lord, help
me to clean these latrines in a manner
that will glorify You."
And I felt that the Lord
himself came down. Her took hold of the bails
of those two big, five-gallon gasoline cans that had been made into
water pails. He helped me carry them to
the latrine. He took hold of that little,
stubby brush and together we dug into the corners and the crevices
trying to get every place as clean as
we could. He got down on His knees when I got
down on my knees; and with a little old cloth, no disinfectant or soap,
just plain cold water, we got every
place as sanitary as we could.
When I finished, I looked
back and said, "Now, Lord, does it please You?" I couldn't see a place where I could have
done a better job. I wasn't cleaning
latrines because I'd been assigned it, or because that particular week I'd volunteered to do it. I was cleaning
latrines for my Lord. That was one of
the sweetest and one of the most real experiences I've had with the Lord in all my Christian life.
But even this task was not
without its physical and material rewards. As
one of the "dirty workers," latrine cleaners were allowed to
take a shower every day even during
those times when others were limited to one shower a week! "
Mary Scott, a missionary with
the Church of the Nazarene, ranks in the
top tier of my Weihsien "spirit team." In Weihsien, though we
were complete strangers to her, she
taught us Chefoo school girls how to play softball.
Mary Previte
Gladys Swift
Sep 17, 2002 16:02 PDT
Reply from Gladys - I'm holding this letter with all its information for
future use. Thanks.
Mary Previte
Sep 22, 2002 19:08 PDT
Hello, everybody:
I am sorry to report the
death of Stanley Staiger, the major who lead the American rescue mission that liberated Weihsien in 1945. His
daughter reports that Major Staiger
died in March. He was 84. Major
Staiger served in China as a member of
the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) that later became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Jim Moore will celebrate his
83rd birthday, October 5. Jim (James W. Moore) was one of the American rescuers
who liberated the Weihsien
Concentration Camp. His is one of the astonishing stories of World War
II. Jim, the son of Southern Baptist
missionaries to China, had attended the
Chefoo Schools and had graduated in 1936 and returned to the USA to
attend college in Texas. When Pearl
Harbor was attacked Jim was in the Federal
Bureau of Investigation FBI -- and didn't have to go to war. But he read
in the Chefoo School's alumni magazine
that the schools has been captured by the
Japanese and marched into concentration camp.
Jim joined the Navy, went to China (because he could speak Chinese),
and because he knew Chefoo teachers
(Mr. Bruce, Mr. Martin, Mr. Welch) and
brothers and sisters of his classmates were interned there, he
volunteered for the rescue mission that
liberated Weihsien. He has told me
many times -- when he got inside the
camp that August day, the first person he asked to see was "PA" Bruce, the headmaster of the Chefoo
Schools.
If you'd like to send Jim
Moore a birthday card, his address is:
9605 Robin
Song Street
Dallas, TX,
75243 USA
Mary Previte
Dwight W. Whipple
Sep 22, 2002 20:23 PDT
Thank you, Mary, for the sad news about Stanley Staiger and the
interesting data regarding Jim Moore. I have forwarded your message to my
brother and sister and cousin who were all Chefoo students.
~Dwight W. Whipple
leopold pander
Sep 23, 2002 01:38 PDT
Hello to all,
I've just finished recopying this letter from Father Hanquet, dated
September 19th
when Mary's sad message came in. I will print it and get it in his
letter box today. He's got all the latest news from the Topica chat-list and has
a magnificent time reading the "Wehisien Gazette", as we call
it. Best Regards, Leopold.
---
Father Hanquet writes :
" I would like to give an answer to Mary Previte about my role in
the "spirit" group of the camp. I'll reply by the affirmative.
Yes! With Father Palmers we were the first to contact the
"Education Committee" about the perversion of the young people by
certain internees. Before we did anything, some parents had created a system of
"proctors" going around the alleys of the camp during the long winter
evenings.
The "discipline committee" had already taken some very
afflicting but necessary measures, to protect the morality of the young people
of the camp. One alley of 12 rooms was decreed "out-of-bounds" for
the youngsters, since in one of the rooms, a woman was inducing the boys to
visit her and --- have dishonest manners with her.
We recommended to the responsible people of the "Education and
Discipline Committee", to organise study hours in one of our kitchens,
after 6 in the evening for the youngsters aged 12 to 18. The study time lasted
2 hours and was compulsory. It worked out well although some of the adolescents
complained, but they never knew who were the authors of such a measure.
Another activity that we
also promoted, was a leisure club open twice a week to all the boys and girls
from 12 and more. We met in the evenings, and, with one of the Sisters, we had
much fun teaching them how to play cards or other games. We also started
discussion groups.
At that time, we occasionally met with Mr. Hubbard and another Reverend
from the British community whose names, alas, I cannot remember. Both were
excellent advisors on educational matters.
About the place
where the boy-scouts photo was taken. It was in the south field during the
month of September'45. It was also there that we managed to plant a tent and
had a real camping time with some of our boy-scouts.
I must also thank Ron
Bridge (Cillies Oast, Rowborough) for his good letter of July 31st. Thanks for
the details about the cubs' photo.
I just received a
postcard today, September 18th from Dr. Norman Cliff, "nearing the
completition of 9 weeks in China. Visiting Changzhe and Taiyuan, Shanxi and
Chefoo (Yantai) in Shantung".
Father Hanquet.
Dwight W. Whipple
Sep 23, 2002 09:32 PDT
Interesting to learn of some behind the scenes efforts. Thanks for all
you have done, Father Hanquet, in making Weihsien a better place. Does anyone
remember the "Five C" club? Perhaps it was in our Tsingtao camp but I
think, rather, it was Weihsien. The five c's stood for "Concentration Camp
Children's Courtesy Club," obviously an effort to help the younger
children with manners.
I was six and seven years old celebrating my seventh birthday in July of
1943. My parents recorded my presents as follows: "tooth brush, soap box,
cake of Toilet soap (Jap.), rubber ball, belt (Daddy made from brief-case
strap!), bottle of ink, dark glasses, 3 bottles of pop. Guests (with gifts)
included Aunty Lois (small box of candy); Mrs. Mungeam (small towel & 6
candies); Astrid Danielsen (pencil & candies); Scovil family (box of
colored pencils); McNeil children (rubber ball); Aunty Lillian (12 cookies);
Uncle Ralph (10 candies). Favours at the party -- palm-leaf fans. Home-made
ice-cream -- the first in 4 months! (Fish was served for supper, so Daddy got
ice and made ice-cream in the Connely's freezer. It was all unexpected.)"
This information is in my "baby book" under the heading: July
16, 1943, Dwight's 7th Birthday at Weihsien Concentration Camp (Civil Assembly
Center), Shantung, China -- written in our (step)mother's handwriting. She,
herself, had celebrated her 39th birthday the day we arrived at Weihsien, March
20, 1943. She died in 1986 in Laguna Hills, California. Our father is still
living in a retirement center having celebrated his 97th birthday last May. He
gave up driving his car a year ago, stating that he had had his driver's
license for 80 years and that was long enough! Dad was an accomplished pianist
and played for a lot of the events in Weihsien. He still plays for "the
old people" (to use his words) in the nursing home section at his
retirement place. Our birth mother died in the U.S., February, 1940 and dad
packed up the four of us children (ages 9, 6, 4, 1) and went back to China to
continue his work. One of my sisters and I were born in Kuling (Lushan),
Kiangsi, China in 1934 and 1936. My wife and I plan to visit that beautiful
place in November of this year.
Didn't mean to go "on and on" but these bits of information
trigger a lot of memories!
~Dwight W. Whipple
Mary Previte
Sep 23, 2002 15:08 PDT
Father Hanquet:
What a fascinating
letter! I shall keep asking you
questions because you answer with such
fascinating information.
Reading in my grown up years
informed me of prostitutes in the Weihsien
Civil Assembly Center, but, believe me, as a child in the camp, I would
have had no idea what a prostitute is.
To keep teenagers out of
trouble, Eric Liddell organized evening
activities in Weihsien. Now, after reading your letter, I'm guessing
that he was occupying their time --
among other things -- to divert them from sex.
Father Palmer used to stroll
with one of our Chefoo girls -- I think it
was during roll call -- teaching her conversational French.
What do you remember about
the dramas put on in the church? I recall the
play, Androclese and the Lion, and another play about a shoemaker. Who masterminded these miracle performances?
What made you afraid during
your time in the camp?
I wish our Topica memory
board had more members who were adults in
Weihsien who could provide the insights of adults who lived through
the experience.
Mary Previte
leopold pander
Sep 24, 2002 02:32 PDT
It is wonderful to read all these messages coming out of all our
memories. I remember Janette telling me something about "coloured
pencils" also. I had my first "ice-cream" in camp after the Americans
came with the B-29s' droppings. The 4-year old boy I was, said I preferred it
hot. They all laughed. Ice-cream became my favourite. When we left China in
1948 on board the S/S President Cleveland bound for San-Francisco I still
remember having ice cream every day and almost at every meal! And, when we
arrived in San Francisco, I met with the first bottles of milk packed in waxed
paper cubes. I got drunk with milk. I still love ice-cream though nowadays, I
must not abuse of it !!
Leopold
leopold pander
Sep 25, 2002 08:51 PDT
Hello,
When Janette read the message, she said I'd got all mixed-up with the
ice-cream dream. It wasn't in camp, but in Shanghai!!
Anyway, it is a nice dream and I'll hold to it. I still remember that
wooden keg and all those gears we had to put in movement with a big handle on
the side. And then, that small cylindrical container with the divine mixture in
it, turning and turning and turning. And all the ice water cubes dancing and
bouncing between the wooden bucket and the metal cylinder and after what seemed
to be a long wait, the ice-cream was religiously served by the master of the
house. My Dad! --- who loved ice-cream too!
Leopold
Dwight W. Whipple
Sep 25, 2002 09:02 PDT
Hi everyone
Just to let you all know that one of our Weihsien internees died
this morning, Lois Whipple Walton, age
95, following a fall and broken hip
some days before. Her brother (my father), Elden Whipple, age 97,
lives nearby and is in good health.
~dwight whipple
David Birch
Sep 25, 2002 19:46 PDT
Dear Dwight,
Thank you for letting us know
of the death of your Aunt, Lois Walton.
When I was a little child, she was 'Aunty Lois' to me. Your late uncle,
Lois's husband, Nathan Walton, was my father's best man at my parents' wedding
on September the nineteenth, nineteen-thirty, in Shanghai. I was born on
November the twenty-fifth, nineteen-thirty-one, at the Methodist hospital in
the city of Wuhu, Anhwei province. My parents deeply valued the friendship of
your parents and your aunt Lois and Uncle Nathan.
All I can say is, earth is poorer for the loss of a truly beautiful
Christian woman; but heaven is richer.
Dwight, I'm so glad your father, Elden Whipple, Sr., is in good health.
He and your Uncle Grant Whipple, are truly great men. Outstanding Christians
and leaders of very high caliber. Please convey my sincere condolences to them
as well as to your brother, Elden Jr., and your sisters, Lorna and Judy.
With love from
David
ps. "We sorrow, not as others who have no hope."
Dwight W. Whipple
Sep 25, 2002 22:12 PDT
Thanks, David, for your wonderful words of comfort and remembrance. Tom
& Bobbie Walton were also born in Wuhu. It would be great to see you
sometime. The family is thinking of a memorial service at The Firs sometime in
the first two weeks of October. I'll let you know in case you can come. Thanks
again for your message.
~Dwight
leopold pander
Sep 26, 2002 01:36 PDT
Hello,
Here are the first series of replies to the various questions asked by
the Topica participants. Best
regards, Leopold.
Father Hanquet writes :
"
RE: for Mary Previte,
Thanks for the news of the death of Major Staiger . As you have often
mentioned in your e-mails on Topica, for me also, he was one of my heroes of my
life in Weihsien camp. What a wonderful image of the American soldier he was.
I am writing to Jim Moore today and am sending my best wishes for his
83rd birthday. Thanks to you for sending the necessary details. Cheers. Fr. Hanquet.
RE: for Léonard Motsaert
I well remember that little boy passing with his mother next to our
house (Bloc-56), on her way to the hospital. He was a nice looking little boy
with blond hair. His father also sometimes passed alongside Bocc-56 but he
looked rather older than his wife. Bye. Léonard. Fr. Hanquet.
RE: for Grace and Donald Hope-Gill,
I read with great interest their very moving message about their grand
parents, but I deeply regret that I do not have any memory about their life in
the camp. Don't forget that we were almost 2000 imprisoned there.
Best regards, Fr.
Hanquet.
RE: for Leopold Pander.
About the picture taken with the two escapees. Father Tchang was not
living in the camp. He helped Tipton and Hummel after they left camp and the
picture was taken with them, after we were liberated by Staiger and his boys.
Cenotaph. Message for Ron
Bridges.
Christine Talbot Sancton
Oct 13, 2002 07:24 PDT
Dear Ron:
is there going to be a special representation at the Cenotaph in London
this year? I heard from Brenda Garton Herrick that she was trying to get down
to London for it so wondered if this was a special celebration for POWs. My
son, Rob has just gone to Bradford to do his Masters in Peace Studies and could
represent the family if necessary.
Thanks, Christine Talbot Sancton
We are celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. So happy
thanksgiving
to all and your families.I am certainly thankful for this site.
leopold pander
Oct 14, 2002 03:35 PDT
Hello, TOPICA friends
On the topica front, all is quiet. --- All is well in the best of
worlds.
The first thing I do in the morning is to look in the message box for
the many messages a day coming from the Topica Weihsien list. Nothing !
Nietchevo! (never mind) --- so, I went into the past.
I'm doing this specially for Father Hanquet who, at 87, does not have a
computer and never will. Printing all the messages in pica-12 - with the photos
-so that he can easily read you. He has a great time doing so.
Then, ., and beginning by message number one, I transferred all your
e-mails one by one in a "word" document. It is very amusing to read.
The year 2000 holds in 85 pages and I'm still busy at it.
What I'm doing for Father Hanquet should profit to others.
He is certainly not the only one who is computer repulsive. Many of our
seniors, if they could read us on paper without looking at a horrible blinking
computer screen, might enter the game and tell us stories about Weihsien. We
could write them down for Topica . and for the benefit of all.
To be practical,
The year 2000 is in a zip file of 811 Ko. and my computer uses the
version 2000 of MSword.
If anybody wants this file, give me the version of word processor you
have and I will e-mail it to you.
There are other solutions, with the photos and press articles:
A web site (I'm not competent) or by sending a CD by ordinary mail !!
What do you think ?
Best regards, Léopold.
Donald Menzi
Oct 14, 2002 12:42 PDT
You have saved me a lot of work, as I had planned to go back and do just
what you have already done! My intention is to select from them the most
interesting ones and attach them as an epilogue to my grandfather's diary.
Thank you.
Please send me the Word document as an attachment to an email sent to my
email address. I think that Topica may accept attachments, but only small ones.
Once again, thanks for your extra efforts for all of our benefit.
Mary Previte
Oct 14, 2002 16:36 PDT
Hello, Everybody,
The death of Major Stanley
Staiger sent me the message that we don't have
unlimited time and opportunity to thank the heroes who risked their
lives to liberate us from Weihsien.
One of our liberators, James J. Hannon, will celebrate his 83rd birthday on November 12. If you'd like to
send him a card or letter, his address
is
James J.
Hannon
P.
O. Box 1376,
Yucca
Valley, CA 92286
After the rest of the rescue
team left for Tsingtao in August 1945, Lt.
Hannon stayed in Weihsien to help arrange evacuation of internees.
Hannon was the only American team
member who was not a member of the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS). He was in the Air Ground Aid Service (AGAS),
a unit that specialized in rescuing
downed airmen.
Lt. Hannon, you may recall, injured his shoulder when he landed
from the parachute jump from the B-24
bomber on August 17, 1945. The men tell me that a successful parachute jump depends almost entirely on a
successful start. Hannon -- unlike some
of the others on the rescue team -- had trained extensively in jumping by parachute in the USA when he joined the
America Army. But Hannon says that he
got a bad start on that fateful August 17
jump because Eddie Wang, the Chinese interpreter on the mission,
hesitated. Hannon says he pushed Eddie
Wang out before starting his own jump.
The men have reminded me that
August 17 was a windy day-- not good for
parachute jumping -- and that they decided to have the pilot descend to
only 400 feet so that the Japanese would have less time and space to
shoot at them as they drifted to the
ground. Can you imagine jumping at 400 feet?! (Major Staiger told me they used British parachutes, which, he
said, open more quickly than American
'chutes.)
Jim Hannon tells me that he
had advised the team against jumping heavily
armed. He says he believed that too many weapons would send the
wrong message to the Japanese. So when
they jumped. the team carried only one side
arm apiece.
In 1944, Lt. Hannon had himself
been a POW, after having been captured by
the Germans in Europe. He was held in a Prisoner Of War camp there
before escaping and walking across a
chunk of Europe until he met up with American
forces. He tells me he has written a still-unpublished book and
screenplay about that experience.
In California's high desert,
Jim and his wife work non-stop these days on
writing and editing Jim's books and screenplays. You may find one of his books, THE SAVAGE AMERICAN, listed on
Amazon.com. As far as I know, he has
not yet published his controversial book about Weihsien. He publishes by
the name James Jess Hannon.
Mary Previte
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 15, 2002 08:04 PDT
I, too, would like a Word document of your work. Thanks for all you are
doing.
~Dwight W. Whipple
leopold pander
Oct 15, 2002 23:25 PDT
Hello Dwight, Hello Donald,
The historic of the year 2000 is "on the way". Tell me how you
got it? I just finished the histo-2001. It takes less memory space and will
pass thru much faster. Of course, critics and suggestions are welcome. What I
miss most, are the photos! --- of the today Weihsien.
Do you think we could make CD exchanges by ordinary post?
Best regards, Léopold.
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 16, 2002 08:05 PDT
I wasn't able to open "2000" but it may be my inability to
unzip. I'll check with my son who is more knowledgeable than I. Thanks for what
you are doing. I agree about the photos. CDs can be sent by ordinary post, so
far as I know.
~Dwight
alison holmes
Oct 16, 2002 15:42 PDT
Dear Leopold, Please send me the year 2000. I have printed out quite a
lot of the messages, but all at different times, and to have them in order
without all the headers and footers would be just wonderful. Thank you so much!
Alison Martin Holmes
Laura Hope-Gill
Oct 17, 2002 06:32 PDT
Dear Leopold,
I have photos of today Weihsien! I will scan them and send them to
you presently.
Sincerely,
Laura
leopold pander
Oct 17, 2002 09:16 PDT
Dear Laura,
Fantastic. I'll be waiting for them .... as well as Father Hanquet and
Janette of course. If you get them on a CD, my address is:
Sentier du
Berger, 15
1325 Corroy-le-Grand
Belgium.
Give me your address also, if ever you want me to send you what I could
gather about Weihsien ... all on a CD.
A bientôt
Leopold.
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 17, 2002 09:24 PDT
Laura
I'd like the photos, too, of Weihsien today, if it is not too much
trouble. Thanks!
~Dwight Whipple
Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)
Oct 17, 2002 22:18 PDT
Laura. I too would like to see latest photos of Wei-Hsien please.
Particularly if they are captioned or identified. We were there in 1986 but had
a little difficulty identifying some areas. Joyce Bradbury
Natasha Petersen
Oct 18, 2002 07:14 PDT
Please let me know whether the photos are the same photos that were
available to us several months ago. I am not sure who was going to scan them in
for us.
Thank you,
Natasha
Laura Hope-Gill
Oct 18, 2002 07:28 PDT
Dear all,
I have not scanned the photos yet. I took them in July. I'll need
some assistance from my more techy
friends on this. As soon as I've got them,
I'll upload--and I'll look into getting a website.
Best to all,
Laura
Ron Bridge
Oct 18, 2002 09:21 PDT
ABCIFER v MoD
I learnt last night that judgement was to be given this morning and I
was in the High Court at 10 am The Judge, Mr Justice Scott Baker ruled today
that he could not change the MoD decision to require at least a Grand Parent
Link. He effectively severely criticised the Minister saying that the
announcement was messy and that expectations had been raised. However the Court
was not trying to decide if it was Unjust only Unlawful. He did not consider it
unlawful in that the Legislature decided how they wanted to spend money and
that they had albeit taken some time to do so but they had not acted
irrationally. Whilst the Judge would not grant leave to Appeal he did say that
it would be up to the Appeal Court and that ABCIFER would have to approach the
Appeal Court. He added that he had great sympathy with the ex-internees.
ABCIFER Committee are now deciding what to do next -I will keep you
informed.
Ron Bridge
Chairman
Assoc British Civilian Internees Fare East Region.
Zandy Strangman
Oct 18, 2002 18:20 PDT
Dear Laura,
I would also appreciate a copy of your photos, of Weihsien today, if it
is not putting you out, too much.
Many thanks...........Zandy Strangman
John de Zutter
Oct 20, 2002 07:57 PDT
Hello everyone! I recently tuned in to the Topica Weihsien site after
a very long absence. In the recent
e-mail exchanges I recognize the names
of two people I knew in the camp, Fr. Hanquet and Joyce Bradbury(Cook).
My name is John de Zutter. My brother, Albert, our parents and I
were part of the Tsingtao contingent in
the Weihsien camp. I was a couple of
months from my 16th bithday when we left the camp in September, 1945.
We lived in block 2 (Gilkey's map, the bottom of the "L") just
above Joyce and Eddie Cook and their
parents. It was, I believe, the only 2nd
floor single family quarters in the camp. The room was surrounded
by glass windows. It was cold in the
winter and hot in the summer, although
we could open the windows to catch whatever breeze there was.
After the war we spent two more years in Tsingtao. In late 1947 my brother and I went to the U.S. to attend
school while our mother went on to
Belgium. Father stayed in China to try to wind up his business affairs. In 1949 he left on the last ship
from Tsingtao with the U.S. Navy before
the communists moved into the city, and eventually wound up in Belgium. We were all reunited in Belgium
and a year later emigrated to the U.S.
My brother is in Missouri and I live in New Jersey, about 50 miles from New York City.
I have been reading the recent correspondence on the website and am delighted to hear that Fr. Hanquet is doing
well and has been active in the recent
exchanges. I have fond memories of Fr. Hanquet, both as a scout leader and a friend who took interest
in us and made our lives in the camp
better
The discussion about the scouts brought back pleasant memories
about the scouting activities in
Weihsien. I still have the green hexagonal
cloth scout badge with the fleur de lis embroidered in gold (yellow)
and "WEIHSIEN" directly below
the symbol. The edges are stitched in yellow
also.
Some other scouting treasures I have are a Bookbinders Proficiency Certificate signed by McChesney-Clark and J.
Wilfred Cockburn.. Another certificate
for the Athlete Badge is signed by Cockburn and Martin(?). I also have the Weihsien Tenderfoot Test
signed by Emmanuel Hanquet on May 25,
1943. The heading on this certificate is "AMICALE DES JEUNES" below which are the words " Un pour
tous, tous pour un." I was a member of the Eagle patrol and with the
guidance and encouragement of Fr.
Hanquet and Mr. Cockburn eventually became patrol leader.
My scout logbook from that period describes some little tasks or
"good deeds" that we, as
scouts, were asked to perform as a service to the community: Sifted coal and carried water for man at boiler.
Carried 3 garbage boxes to dump. Carry
parcels for Post Office. Carried and
dumped 2 boxes of ashes for bakery. Shovel and carry coal for man at boiler.
As scouts we had to know where all the doctors lived and the
logbook lists the doctors and their
locations. Dr. Corkey, Block 6/1; Chan,
5/3; Robinson, 1/2; Grice, 42/5; Prentice, 50/D and Hopegill,?.
In some of the Topica e-mails mention was made of a picture of the scouts that included Fr. Hanquet and a
number of the scouts. I have not been
able to find this picture and wonder if the person who has it could send me a copy at jj-@optonline.net.
I also would like to accept the very kind offer from Leopold Pander
for the archives in Word format. Many
thanks, in advance
Before signing off, I'd like to say hello to Joyce who appears to be
a frequent contributor to this group.
John de Zutter
Laura Hope-Gill
Oct 20, 2002 10:15 PDT
In a message dated 10/20/2002 12:50:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jj-@optonline.net writes:
As scouts we had to know where all the
doctors lived and the logbook lists the
doctors and their locations. Dr. Corkey, Block 6/1; Chan, 5/3; Robinson, 1/2; Grice, 42/5; Prentice,
50/D and Hopegill,?.
Dear John,
Great to hear from you. Dr. Donald Hope-Gill was my grandfather.
Welcome back to memory lane.
Sincerely,
Laura Hope-Gill
Norman Cliff
Oct 20, 2002 13:19 PDT
20 Oct. 02,
Dear Laura,
Back in July I sent you by
post some info. on your grandparents and great granparents. Did you receive
this?
Greetings, NORMAN
Ron Bridge
Oct 20, 2002 14:08 PDT
Just for the Record Dr Hope-Gill and family were in Block 32 Room 7.
I have Dr Robinson in Block 6 Room 4
Dr ( Mrs) Corkey Block 1 Room 2
I agree the other addresses and for info
Block 6 Room 1 was occupied by Syd Talbot and family.
Greg Leck
Oct 20, 2002 14:22 PDT
Dear John,
I'd like to know if I could send by email a questionaire about your time
in camp. There are about 32 questions (some easy, others requiring more
thought) which are designed to help you recall memories. You can reply to them
and answer them piecemeal, sending them as you finish, or all at once.
Or, you can look them over and we can discuss them during our visit.
I have a digital camera and wonder if I could take some photos of some
of your scouting mementos from camp?
I would be more than happy to travel to your home from Pennsylvania to
meet with you. Or, I would be happy to host you or meet you anywhere in
between.
I leave it entirely up to you. However, I am currently getting ready for
my two week research trip to the UK November 01- 16 so it would have to be
sometime after that.
Sincerely,
Greg
Laura Hope-Gill
Oct 20, 2002 14:26 PDT
In a message dated 10/20/2002 4:19:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time, norman-@amserve.com writes:
20 Oct. 02,
Dear Laura,
Back in July I sent you by post some info. on your
grandparents and great granparents. Did
you receive this?
Greetings, NORMAN
--
Dear Norman,
Welcome back!
Yes, I did receive the writings by my great grandfather Cecil and
was completely dumbfounded to read of
his accomplishments. For some reason, my father never spoke of his
grandfather's time in China, and my grandfather died when I was only four or so. Thank you so much for
filling in another blank.
Please tell us about your trip!
Sincerely,
Laura
Donald Menzi
Oct 20, 2002 15:54 PDT
Here's another thread for you.
Several weeks ago Jane and I attended the annual re-union of graduates
and friends of the North China American
School, where a few of the 50 or so
people there also had a Weihsien connection. One of them was
Carolyn Corkey, whose father appears on
the list of doctors that you sent us. I'm
going to contact her by phone, get her email address, and suggest that
she join the group.
Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)
Oct 20, 2002 16:10 PDT
Dear John. It is lovely to hear from you and to read your reminiscences.
Do you remember being my first boy friend in school? We were about 9 or 10 then
and we used to write "billet doux's" to each other? Those were the
days. Eddie has told me he met up with you at the re-union. He will not be
going to the forthcoming re-union. I will pass your message on to him. Eddie
still has his scout book which is similar to yours. Leopold Pander has a copy of
the scout photograph I think. Good luck. Joyce Bradbury nee Cooke.
Gay Talbot Stratford
Oct 21, 2002 08:26 PDT
The reason that you have two different locations for the Robinsons is,
that at some point, the Robinsons and the Talbots moved to no1block into three
rooms. The location was better for the clandestine traffic over the wall that
mother, Ida Talbot and Robbie carried out. We children all slept in the middle
room, and the packets of sugar etc was stored under our beds until distributed.
One day when mother and Robbie were away, there was the dreaded knock on the
outside wall, the Chinese had been sighted by the guard, who was on his way to
our compound. The contrabrand was tossed over the wall to my father,Sid, who
was caught redhanded and marched off to the guardhouse.
He spent two weeks in solitary confinement. At the time he had
dysentary, so Robbie obtained permission to take him food and visit him. On his
first visit, my father found a book tucked under the food. The title? 'My First
thirty years in Singsing.' Sid had a very good sense of humour, but I wonder if
it was good enough.
Regards to all.
Gay Talbot Stratford
John de Zutter
Oct 21, 2002 17:15 PDT
Greg
Go ahead and send me the questionnaire. I make no promises yet about how
quickly I will respond. But I will give it a try.
When you get back from the UK we can decide what to do next.
Bon voyage
John
leopold pander
Oct 22, 2002 01:29 PDT
Hello everybody,
I received a letter from Father Hanquet yesterday morning, dated October
17th.
Translation in English :
" Many thanks for your letter of October 10th, and for the two
"big" files of the Weihsien Gazette for the years 2000 and 2001. I am
now "up to date".
I took the time to read all the messages with great attention. I very
much appreciated the huge amount of memories coming from Mary Previte, written
with journalistic skill.
I was very happy to find the prose of Albert de Zutter, a Belgian,
journalist in the USA in Kansas City. I remember him very well because I gave
him French lessons in camp as well as to his brother John. Both of them were
scouts. I met with them again in Belgium in 1948 at their house, on the
"avenue Albert" in Uccle - Brussels.
Also, I have kept good memories of Doctor Chan's family
(Sino-Canadians), and of his sons, Gui and Eugène who both, were scouts and
Catholics. I got news from the Chan family from time to time, thanks to Father
de Jaegher who, visited them when he went to the USA or in Canada. I must say
that Father de Jaegher was an excellent "communicator" for he took
many photographs and wrote post cards to all the people he went to see. It is
really a pity that he isn't there anymore because I am sure he would have taken
the privilege of using the Internet without moderation.
Father Palmers, who died about ten years ago has had a very occupied
life. First in China in Nankin where he was Archbishop Yupin's secretary, then,
in Hong Kong (New Territories) where he helped at the creation of a Chinese
refugee village on a rocky mountain slope. I went to Hong Kong in 1979 and,
with him, visited an entire network of Catholic schools he helped to set up.
There even is a "Palmers avenue" named after him. Later, in Taipei,
he was a priest in the town's neighbourhood not far away from the Catholic
University of FUJEN, where he created a parish centre. He regularly visited the
sick people in hospital and has also written a booklet in Chinese to help the
local people with the hospital's rules and help them during their stay in the
institution.
These are the few memories
that come back to my mind while I finish the reading of the Weihsien gazette.
Bien amicalement, Father Hanquet.
Bonne lecture, and
Best regards, Leopold.
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 22, 2002 08:49 PDT
So interesting to read after all these years. Our two families, Whipples
and Waltons, occupied Block One next to the wall from March to September, 1943.
The wall provided many black market opportunities for our parents. On one
occasion my father, Elden Whipple, was keeping watch while my uncle, Nate
Walton, was receiving about a hundred eggs over the wall. They were caught
red-handed by a solitary guard who took them into our quarters and reprimanded
them severely while he was counting out the number of eggs. At the same time,
my mother, Marian, and aunt, Lois (who incidentally just died last month at the
age of ninety-five) were clandestinely taking a few eggs for the families
unbeknownst to the Japanese guard. We ended up with about a dozen eggs on that
occasion. Apparently, the guard never reported the incident because we heard
nothing about it after that. The only penalty was a lecture on the spot from
the guard with the help of a Japanese/English dictionary!
~Dwight W. Whipple
Albert Dezutter
Oct 22, 2002 11:01 PDT
Dear Mr. Pander,
Thank you so much for sending me your translation of Father Hanquet's
letter. I read it with great excitement and interest. Father Hanquet had a
great effect on my spiritual life in addition to giving me French lessons in
the concentration camp.
Can you give me his address? And could I see his letter in the original
French?
Once again, thanks so much for what you have already done.
Albert de Zutter
7514 Locust St.
Kansas City, Missouri 64131
USA
Phone: 816-523-6972
Albert Dezutter
Oct 22, 2002 14:48 PDT
In response to Dwight Whipple's account of his family's black market
operation in block 1 at Weihsien, I remember Dwight from our first place of
imprisonment in Tsingtao. I also remember Barbara Walton. I thought her name
was Whipple at the time, but I saw a picture some time ago in which she was
identified as Barbara Walton). Anyway, I had a very brief friendship with her
in the Tsingtao compound, as one day she told me her parents told her she
couldn't play with me any more because I was a Catholic. We were both 10 years
old. I believe Dwight was a little younger. Actually, Dwight, I thought she was
your sister.
Albert de Zutter
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 22, 2002 15:11 PDT
Yes, Albert, I am younger than Bobbie (Barbara Walton). Barbara's mother
was my father's sister and the two families (Waltons and Whipples) were
together for the whole time we were interned which is fortunate considering
what happened to many families during the war. Thank goodness times have
changed and the protestant/catholic relationship is very different now. Where
are you now? Our families are all scattered. I and my wife, Judy, live in
Olympia, Washington, USA. Have been retired for a year. So much fun to keep in
touch with Weihsien friends.
~Dwight
leopold pander
Oct 24, 2002 00:37 PDT
It has not been written often enough.
Thank you, Natasha for getting it started.
Thank you Mary for all that dynamite you manage to find to get everybody
together.
I see it --- like a train.
Prestigious.
Like the Orient Express ----
Natasha showing the way by laying the tracks and organising it all.
Mary, the "locomotive", pulling all the wagons with power and
dignity and all of us the "deluxe" wagons of the Orient Express with
so many memories.
Merci encore. Vous êtes
tous formidables.
Best regards,
Leopold
leopold pander
Oct 24, 2002 08:27 PDT
Dear Albert,
We were really very happy to receive your e-mail yesterday with the many
messages from the topica site. Though I don't remember anything of Weihsien (or
so little).
I just phoned Father Hanquet to tell him that we got your message and
also to give him your address in Kansas City. He said that he would write to
you, in French (of course). He is very busy and his days are overloaded, and,
as we say in French: "il déborde d'énergie". Whenever he speaks of
China, time stops, ----- and we all listen.
Here is his personal address:
Monsieur
l'Abbé Emmanuel HANQUET
Rue des
Buissons, 1-201
1348 -
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
Belgium
Best regards, Leopold
Albert Dezutter
Oct 24, 2002 12:23 PDT
Dear Dwight,
I quite agree with you that the climate between Protestants and
Catholics has changed substantially -- thank God!
I'm glad to read in one of your prior messages that your father, Elden
Whipple, is still alive. I remember playing chess with him in a tournament at the
Tsingtao compound.
You ask where I am. I live in Kansas City, Missouri. I am editor of The
Catholic Key, weekly newspaper for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
Now a general question. Can you or anyone tell me how to post an e-mail
to the topica site without replying to a previous e-mail?
Albert de Zutter
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 24, 2002 12:52 PDT
Hi Albert
Just go the Topica List page and up in the right hand corner there is a
box with the word "Post" Just click on that and a New Message
to "w
internees" page will appear. Write your message, as I am doing now
and
it will be posted on the Topica List. Hope this helps!
~dwight whipple
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 24, 2002 12:56 PDT
I will be sure to tell my father about your playing chess with him. As a
matter of fact, my brother, Elden Whipple, Jr. is coming to our house later
this afternoon and I will tell him as well. Maybe it was he you played chess
with, although I remember that both of them played in those days. I learned to
play chess while I was in a high chair, taught by one of the older missionaries
in our parents' mission, the China Inland Mission. Isn't this fun to reminisce
after all these years?
~Dwight
Albert Dezutter
Oct 24, 2002 13:54 PDT
Dwight -- unless your brother was a full-grown man, bald on top, in the
Tsingtao camp, I'm pretty sure it was Mr. Elden Whipple. I was 10 years old at
the time. As I remember, I ambushed him by forking his king and his rook with
my knight, taking his rook and going on to win the game.
Albert
Dwight W. Whipple
Oct 24, 2002 14:17 PDT
Yup, it was my Dad! Still bald on top but at 97 still keen of mind, body
and soul. I don't think he plays chess anymore. But I have a great tutorial in
my computer that references all the masters and critiques my moves. I have
often said that if I was marooned on a desert island with another person I
would want to have a chess game with me.
~Dwight
alison holmes
Oct 24, 2002 15:24 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: Alison Holmes
To: weih-@topica.com
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2002 2:21 PM
Subject: Post
I just tried to follow your instructions and did not find
"Post" on the page. Whenever I want to send a message, I just do it
on email with the weih-@topica.com address...as I am doing now....and all is
well!
Alison Martin Holmes
De: "Albert Dezutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Father Hanquet
Date: mardi 22 octobre 2002 20:02
Dear Mr.
Pander,
Thank you
so much for sending me your translation of Father Hanquet's letter. I read it
with great excitement and interest. Father Hanquet had a great effect on my
spiritual life in addition to giving me French lessons in the concentration
camp.
Can you
give me his address? And could I see his letter in the original French?
Once again,
thanks so much for what you have already done.
Albert
de Zutter
7514
Locust St.
Kansas
City, Missouri 64131
USA
Phone:
816-523-6972
De: "Dwight W.
Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien scouts
Date: mardi 22 octobre 2002 21:23
So interesting to read after all these years. Our two families, Whipples and Waltons, occupied Block One next
to the wall from March to September, 1943.
The wall provided many black market opportunities for our parents. On one occasion my father, Elden Whipple,
was keeping watch while my uncle, Nate Walton, was receiving about a hundred
eggs over the wall. They were caught
red-handed by a solitary guard who took them into our quarters and reprimanded
them severely while he was counting out the number of eggs. At the same time, my mother, Marian, and
aunt, Lois (who incidentally just died last month at the age of ninety-five)
were clandestinely taking a few eggs for the families unbeknownst to the
Japanese guard. We ended up with about
a dozen eggs on that occasion.
Apparently, the guard never reported the incident because we heard
nothing about it after that. The only
penalty was a lecture on the spot from the guard with the help of a
Japanese/English dictionary!
~Dwight W. Whipple
De: "Albert Dezutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien scouts
Date: mardi 22 octobre 2002 23:48
In response to Dwight Whipple's account of his family's black market
operation in block 1 at Weihsien, I remember Dwight from our first place of
imprisonment in Tsingtao. I also remember Barbara Walton. I thought her name was Whipple at the time,
but I saw a picture some time ago in which she was identified as Barbara
Walton). Anyway, I had a very brief friendship with her in the Tsingtao
compound, as one day she told me her parents told her she couldn't play with me
any more because I was a Catholic. We were both 10 years old. I believe Dwight
was a little younger. Actually, Dwight, I thought she was your sister.
Albert de Zutter
De: "Dwight W.
Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien scouts
Date: mercredi 23 octobre 2002 0:11
Yes, Albert, I am younger than Bobbie (Barbara Walton). Barbara's mother was my father's sister and
the two families (Waltons and Whipples) were together for the whole time we
were interned which is fortunate considering what happened to many families
during the war. Thank goodness times
have changed and the protestant/catholic relationship is very different
now. Where are you now? Our families are all scattered. I and my wife, Judy, live in Olympia,
Washington, USA. Have been retired for
a year. So much fun to keep in touch
with Weihsien friends.
~Dwight
De: "John de Zutter" <jjdz@optonline.net>
À: "Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: RE: scout photo
Date: mercredi 23 octobre 2002 3:42
Greetings Leopold,
Thank you very much for the archive files and the picture. They all came through well. I appreciate all the work you have done to
all the e-mails in order into manageable files. It will make it so much easier
to catch up with the prior correspondence.
I have no record of a Doctor Neve.
I am not at all sure that my list was complete or entirely
accurate. It was, after all, the work
of a 14 year old at that time.
My French, after so many years of not using it, is terrible. But I can still read and understand a fair
amount. But I would not attempt to try
to write anything for fear of making too many mistakes.
When you see Fr. Hanquet again, please give him my regards.
John de Zutter
De: "Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: "Albert Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
Cc: "Janette et Pierre"
<pierre.ley@pandora.be>; "John de Zutter"
<jjdz@optonline.net>
Objet: Weihsien
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 9:37
Dear Albert,
We were really very happy to receive your e-mail yesterday with the many
messages from the topica site. Though I don't remember anything of Weihsien (or
so little), Janette, who was 6 years old in 1945, has a very accurate memory of
what she experienced there during the 2 ½ years we survived in camp. ---
I just phoned Father Hanquet to tell him that we got your message and
also to give him your address in Kansas City. He said that he would write to
you, in French (of course). He is very busy and his days are overloaded, and,
as we say in French: "il déborde d'énergie". Whenever he speaks of
China, time stops, ----- and we all listen.
Here is his personal address:
Monsieur l'Abbé
Emmanuel HANQUET
Rue des Buissons,
1-201
1348 -
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
Belgium
telephone : 010-455-849
---
I still remember our Dad, pronouncing your name - de Zutter - many years
ago. We were kids then, and never made the connexion as to who and where you
were. From time to time, we met with Father de Jaegher who came to see us
whenever he came to Belgium as many other of our Dad's friends from China. Our
Dad was a banker and very confidential about things. That is maybe why he said
so little about "Weihsien". I think he simply didn't want to talk
about it!
---
Our little sister, Marylou, born in camp (1944) died two years ago.
Janette is married with three grown up kids now (she's not yet a grandma) and
her husband is a gynaecologist in a well known Brussels Hospital. I was officer
in the Belgian merchant navy and, after that, did business in a wholesaling
company in Brussels. I got married, no kids. Now, I'm pre-retired and live on
the edge of a forest, less than 10 kilometres away from Louvain-la-Neuve.
---
Enclosed with this message, 2 photos:
You will certainly recognise the piece of parachute we received before
leaving Weihsien. Janette is on one side and I'm on the other. Do you still
have your piece of parachute?
The other photo, is one of a series I took when Father Hanquet came to
visit us this year. From left to right, is Catherine - Janette's daughter,
Nicky - my wife, Father Hanquet and Janette. It was a very pleasant afternoon
and we all enjoyed listening to all the stories from China, Father Hanquet had
to tell us.
---
Just a question,
With nearly sixty years in between, do you remember the Pander family
when you were in Weihsien prison camp ?
Tell us more about you ?
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: thanks again, and again ---
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 9:38
It has not been written often enough.
Thank you, Natasha for getting it started.
Thank you Mary for all that dynamite you manage to find to get everybody
together.
I see it --- like a train.
Prestigious.
Like the Orient Express ----
Natasha showing the way by laying the tracks and organising it all.
Mary, the "locomotive", pulling all the wagons with power and
dignity and all of us the "deluxe" wagons of the Orient Express with
so many memories.
Merci encore. Vous êtes tous
formidables.
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Father Hanquet
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 17:28
Dear Albert,
We were really very happy to receive your e-mail yesterday with the many
messages from the topica site. Though I don't remember anything of Weihsien (or
so little).
I just phoned Father Hanquet to tell him that we got your message and
also to give him your address in Kansas City. He said that he would write to
you, in French (of course). He is very busy and his days are overloaded, and,
as we say in French: "il déborde d'énergie". Whenever he speaks of
China, time stops, ----- and we all listen.
Here is his personal address:
Monsieur l'Abbé
Emmanuel HANQUET
Rue des Buissons,
1-201
1348 -
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
Belgium
Best regards, Leopold
De: "Albert
Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: to Dwight Whipple
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 21:24
Dear Dwight,
I quite agree with you that the climate between Protestants and
Catholics has changed substantially -- thank God!
I'm glad to read in one of your prior messages that your father, Elden
Whipple, is still alive. I remember playing chess with him in a tournament at
the Tsingtao compound.
You ask where I am. I live in Kansas City, Missouri. I am editor of The
Catholic Key, weekly newspaper for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
Now a general question. Can you
or anyone tell me how to post an e-mail to the topica site without replying to
a previous e-mail?
Albert de Zutter
De: "Dwight W.
Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: POST
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 22:17
Hi Albert
Just go the Topica List page and up in the right hand corner there is
a box with the word
"Post" Just click on that and
a New Message to "w
internees" page will appear.
Write your message, as I am doing now and it will be posted on the Topica List. Hope this helps!
~dwight whipple
De: "Dwight W.
Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: to Dwight Whipple
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 22:22
I will be sure to tell my father about your playing chess with him. As a matter of fact, my brother, Elden
Whipple, Jr. is coming to our house later this afternoon and I will tell him as
well. Maybe it was he you played chess
with, although I remember that both of them played in those days. I learned to play chess while I was in a
high chair, taught by one of the older missionaries in our parents' mission,
the China Inland Mission. Isn't this
fun to reminisce after all these years?
~Dwight
De: "natasha
petersen" <natasha@infi.net>
À: <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Thank YOU
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 22:51
Dear Leopold,
Thank you for your kind words.
This site has been extremely interesting and educational. I find that there is much that I do not
remember about Weihsien, although I was almost eighteen at the end of our
internment. My friend who is a
counselor (psychologist) says that I blocked out good and bad events.
My thanks to all subscribers and writers.
Natasha
De: "Albert
Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: to Dwight Whipple
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 22:57
Dwight -- unless your brother was a full-grown man, bald on top, in the
Tsingtao camp, I'm pretty sure it was Mr. Elden Whipple. I was 10 years old at
the time. As I remember, I ambushed him by forking his king and his rook with
my knight, taking his rook and going on to win the game.
Albert
De: "Dwight W.
Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: to Dwight Whipple
Date: jeudi 24 octobre 2002 23:27
Yup, it was my Dad! Still bald
on top but at 97 still keen of mind, body and soul. I don't think he plays chess anymore. But I have a great tutorial in my computer that references all
the masters and critiques my moves. I
have often said that if I was marooned on a desert island with another person I
would want to have a chess game with me.
~Dwight
De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fw: Post
Date: vendredi 25 octobre 2002 0:24
----- Original Message -----
From: Alison Holmes
To:
weihsien@topica.com
Sent: Thursday, October 24,
2002 2:21 PM
Subject: Post
I just tried to follow your instructions and did not find
"Post" on the page. Whenever
I want to send a message, I just do it on email with the weihsien@topica.com address...as I am doing now....and all is
well! Alison Martin Holmes
De: "Leopold Pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: "sancton"
<sancton@nbnet.nb.ca>; "Albert de Zutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>; "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>; "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>;
"Dwight W. Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>; "John de
Zutter" <jjdz@optonline.net>; "Stan Thompson" <books@ginniff.com>
Objet: Archives, up-to-date
Date: dimanche 27 octobre 2002 17:10
Hello,
The archives are now "up to date".
I do hope you enjoy the reading of it.
The "zip-files" are easy to transfer to whoever else would
like to read them comfortably seated in a sofa next to a nice warm fire. (It is almost winter out here!)
Best regards, Leopold.
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: "Leopold Pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Re:
Histo-2002>message 675
Date: samedi 26
octobre 2002 18:46
Please keep on doing it. It's a
great service;.
At 07:16 PM 10/25/02 +0200,
you wrote:
>Hello,
>Enclosed, the messages up
to number 675 on the topica list. That is about 100 pages to read.
>Question:
>Do you want me to
continue the system? It is quite
enjoyable to read all >this during
the long winter evenings. I can go on - up to the most recent >messages and send the final
"histo" at the end of the year 2002.
>Best regards,
>Leopold
De: "John de
Zutter" <jjdz@optonline.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien scouts
Date: samedi 26
octobre 2002 20:26
It was great to hear from you too, Joyce.
I must have been a lucky fellah, having you for a girlfriend. Was that in Holy Ghost Convent school or had
we already moved on to St. Joseph, down the street? I can't remember.
Talking about "those days" here is something else from that
era. It’s a picture of a group of
children at my brother Albert's birthday party in our back yard at 3 Wu Sheng
Kuan Rd. I think I gave a copy of this to Eddie at the TAS reunion 2/3 years
ago, but I am not sure.
Unfortunately, we did not make a record of all who were at the
party. Maybe you can help. On the left
front is Paqui Barbera. Next, I think,
is Irene ?, Unknown, John de Zutter. On
the right is Katie Belov, I think, you, Eddie and another unknown. My brother is peeking over the cake.
I think we kids all lived pretty well in the years before the war.
With fond memories of a time long ago, my best wishes to you.
John
De: "Joyce
Bradbury (nee Cooke)" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien scouts
Date: dimanche 27 octobre 2002 0:28
I have not seen that photograph but I will check with Eddie and let you
know. Maybe you can scan a copy of it if Eddie doesn’t have one. "those
days" were in the Holy Ghost Convent. I probably did not have a boy friend
at St. Joseph's as that was supposed to be a girls' only school. Only 'little
boys' (like you and Eddie) were allowed there. As a matter of fact we were only
at St Joseph's a short time as the Holy Ghost Convent complained to the bishop
that they were losing all their students and we all had to return to the H.G.
Convent. My parents were not happy because the St Joseph teachers were American
and better teachers. Some of these teachers were interned with us as you know.
Joyce ----
De: "Gladys
Swift" <glaswift@cstone.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Archives, up to
date ---
Date: lundi 28 octobre 2002 4:12
> Reply from Gladys - I don't get http messages on my Macintosh. Please
>send snail mail if you don't want to type on email for me. Thanks.
De: "Albert de Zutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: "Leopold Pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Re: Aquarelles
Date: lundi 28 octobre 2002 16:13
Leopold:
Thanks for the Verhoeven paintings. They stir memories. Yes, they do fit
on the screen. "Aquarelles" are water colours, no?
Albert
De: "Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: "Albert de Zutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
Objet: Re:
Aquarelles
Date: mercredi 30 octobre 2002 11:39
Hello,
That is correct.
If my computer did what I
asked it to send, --- you should have 10 paintings in all.
Best regards, Léopold.
De: "Laura
Hope-Gill" <laurahopegill@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Archives, up to
date ---
Date: lundi 28 octobre 2002 18:54
Dear Leopold,
I would love a copy!
Sincerely, Laura Hope-Gill
De: "Gladys
Swift" <glaswift@cstone.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Archives, up to
date ---
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 1:21
Another reply from Gladys - Everything is easy if you know how. I don't know how to transfer the "zip-files" which you say are "easy to transfer..." Please explain.
De: "Leopold
Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Cc: "Ariane
& Vivitch" <yves.ley@chello.be>
Objet: Re: Archives, up to
date ---
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 8:41
Hello Gladys,
I asked my nephew, who is in the computer business.
So he said : the Mac Intosh can unzip compressed files
with a program called "Stuffit Expander". Once the file is unzipped
(or expanded) it can be read by the "word processor" used by
"your" computer. What I have to know, is the name of your word
processor: WordPerfect5.1? Works? or
any other.
Once that is established, I
can save the document in "my" computer so it can be recognised by
"your" computer.
Shall we try?
---
Have a nice day,
Best regards, Leopold
De: "Leonard
Mostaert" <mostaert@hinet.net.au>
À: "TOPICA" weihsien@topica.com
Objet: Life's little
mysteries
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 7:41
from Len
Mostaert camp no. 248
I was 9 when I left the
camp, but certain things have never been made clear to me.
There has always been the
problem of not knowing how certain actions were performed, and how certain
supplies reached the camp. Take, for example the slates that we used in school.
how were they supplied, and by whom ? As well as coloured pencils, and other
stationery items.
How did our raw products for
food preparation reach the camp ?
How did the hospital get
medical supplies and from whom? I remember getting the wrong eye medication for
a problem, and my Mother yelled and screamed to someone until I received the
correct medication. Who were the people concerned ?
How did the inmates get tools
and building supplies ? I remember that a very kind gentleman came to our room
and built a small stove from bricks, with an empty kerosene tin as an oven. How
did he get the supplies ? I also remember my father, together with George Cox,
cutting down a tree at the South Field, then carrying it (with others) and
hiding (?)it along the back of Block 84, where it remained for a time, with the
Japs not noticing it because it was too obvious. How did the boys get saws and
other supplies?
All these things could not
have been brought into the camp through peoples hand luggage, or, there must
have been a trick to it all.
De: "Laura
Hope-Gill" <laurahopegill@aol.com>
Objet: Re: Life's little
mysteries
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 14:05
Dear Len,
To my understanding, my grandparents were permitted to bring one pillow
case filled with items when they were
"arrested". My grandfather, a
doctor, filled most of the space of 4
pillowcases with medical supplies. He
also packed a deflated football which
Eric Liddell inflated later on (one of the
family stories). A black market
was also established with people outside the
gates; through this more supplies could be brought in. There are fascinating accounts of how the black market operated in
Gilkey's book, Shantung Compound.
As for the trees, my grandmother told me that "prisoners were not
allowed to touch the trees" and
that is probably why the tree had to be hidden. She used coal balls,
dirt, and ashes to build fires. When I was
there this past summer, I touched the
trees.
Laura
De: "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>
Objet: Fw: Camp numbers
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 16:05
----- Original
Message -----
From: Alison
Holmes
Sent: Tuesday,
October 29, 2002 7:57 AM
Subject: Camp numbers
I guess this one is really for Ron Bridges, that source of all detailed
knowledge about camp. Len Mostaert says
his number is 248. What was mine? Was it based on where we were living? Did
each member have a number, or were there family numbers? Just a tiny question. Thanks
Alison Martin Holmes
De: "Ron Bridge"
<rwbridge@freeuk.com>
Objet: RE: Camp numbers
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 18:28
Alison,
You pose a question re Camp
Numbers. Weihsien was different to the rest of the Japanese Camps where inmates
kept their number, and in the case of Shanghai kept them as they were moved
from one camp to another.
In Weihsien their were three sets of numbers always based on the Family
in sequence
To quote my own case I was No 296 on entry when we lived in Blk 42 Rm 6
It was then changed to 1079 at the same address
Then after the US Evacuation in Sept43 when we moved to Blk 13 room
10/11 it became 2-104. The first digit being the Roll Call area. I still have
the entire families Name Tags.
My parents and younger brother Lionel Roger were 294/295/297 then
1077/1078/1080 and finally 2-102, 2-103, 2-105
If readers let me have their numbers we might be able to work them all
out but I suspect Chefoo School might be a problem.
Rgds
Ron
If any former British readers want their own or their parents passport
numbers I should have them and where they were issued.
De: "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>
Objet: Re: Camp numbers
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 18:50
You truly are a marvel, Ron! How
old were you? Have you always been a
repository of detailed information? Do
we (the Martins) count as Chefoo school complications when we were a whole
family, living in block 15 rooms 5 and 6?
I wish we had our name tags...but I think we lost a lot of those
concrete souvenirs when we had to leave China again from Kuling. I would love it if we could work out what
all our numbers were. Thanks for your
input, Ron. Alison
De: "Norman Cliff"
<normancliff@amserve.com>
Objet: Info. on Weihsien
Date: mardi 29 octobre 2002 21:28
29 Oct. 02.
>From Norman Cliff:
I want to share two
matters which will answer questions which have been raised in this
correspondence:
1. Schools in the Camp.
There were the Chefoo School and a Catholic one. In about 1944 Pryor, head of Education,
approached three Chefoo to resuscitate the Tientsin Grammar School, which had
fizzled out. The three were Reg Bazire
& Gordon Welch, both Chefoo teachers, and myself the senior Chefoo boy.
We met in various wings of
the church and outside, and kept it up until Liberation.
2. Info. on the Catholic school is in A CROSS
IN CHINA by Sr. Servatia. This can be
obtained from Sister Mary Lea Schneider, Cardinal Stith Univ., 6801 Yates Road,
Milwaukee, Wisc 53217-3986.
NORMAN CLIFF
--
De: "Albert
Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com >
Objet: Re:Schools in
Weihsien
Date: mardi 29
octobre 2002 22:43
I remember being in a grade school class taught by a Sister Bede. Later,
I completed my first year of high school with Mrs. Moore from the Peking
American School, and Sister Hiltrudis and others. Our classroom was in Building
23. I did not have the impression that the school was particularly a Catholic
school, although I was (and am) Catholic, and certainly Catholic nuns taught in
the school, but I believe my freshman transcript was from the Peking American
School.
After the war, when the Tsingtao American School was revived in the fall
of 1946 (we did not have school in Tsingtao from 1945 to 1946), Sister
Hiltrudis was again part of the faculty.
Albert de Zutter
>
De: "Mary Previte"
<mtprevite@aol.com>
Objet:
Shandong delegates
visiting US wants to meet former Weihsien interneesnts to mee
Date: dimanche 10 novembre 2002 22:18
Hello, Everybody,
I have received the following
e-mail from a five-person Shandong
delegation that will shortly arrive in the United States and hope to
explore the extent of information
available about Weihsien for making a documentary film about the camp. If
you are interested in talking to them
and live near one of the cities on
their tour of the USA, please contact Mr. Yuanfen Zhao at his e-mail address noted below. The dates and cities they will visit is listed below. I believe quite a few of us live near the cities on their itinerary.
Mary Previte
Dear Mary Previte:
Please excuse my disturbing
I am a producer & writer of Shandong Movie & TV Producing
Center, I happened learn the story of Weihsein Camp in Shandong Province in
China during the Second World War and I was deeply moved. Since then I have
been keeping great interest in it and collecting the information on it. I made
great effort to find the survivors the men, women and children. Where they are
and how they are getting along? A few days before I specially visited the site
where have been the Camp and took some picture of the existing old buildings.
Fortunately I saw some old photo picture and books.
Time is flowing, while the most of the adults locked there has passed
away, and the children have become old. Should it be covered by the years and
forgotten by the people? So I have a dream to make a documentary to tell people
the story happened yesterday.
Our crew is making another documentary which tells the story of the
Chinese victims’ lawsuits against Japanese Government. We 5 persons will visit US during Nov. 14 to
Cec 1. When we were planning our travel, we hope to find some people who had
been in the camp living in the cities we are going to visit.
We are pleased to get your E-mail by Mr. Grant in Torontor and are
trying to get in touch with you.
Dear madam, at present the Documentary about the Weihsein Camp is only a
primary plan and our travel plan is tied up. So this time we are not able to
find and interview a lot of people.
Could you help us with these matters:
1. 1. Attached is our schedule.
Is there any of your schoolfellow in the cities we are visiting? We’d like to
interview 3 or 4 persons.
2. Could you inform us the name
list of your Alumni Association by E-mail or mail? It includes names, address,
telephone or fax, and profession too for us to get in touch with them and to
prepare potential interview. If it is
not convenient, could you just inform us the their names and their professions,
then contact some of them by you.
3. Could you give us some
reference material such as old picture, news paper, the articles written by the
schoolfellows in memory, tapes as well as other concerned.
When we back form US, if we could collect some material, I’ll write a
feasible plan for your reference and for our leader to make decision. That is
why I took the liberty of writing you for your help.
Anyway I hope we could make some efforts together to tell the story to
our children.
We are looking forward to your answer.
Schadule
Nov. 14-15 Los Angeles
Nov. 16-17 San Diego
Nov. 20-22 Washinton
Nov. 24-25 New York
NOv. 26 St. Louis
Nov. 27 Shepherd Mic.
NOv. 29-30 San Francisco
YUANFEN ZHAO
yuanfenzhao@yahoo.com
De: "Gladys Swift"
<glaswift@cstone.net>
Objet: Re: Shandong delegates
visiting US wants to meet former Weihsien interneesnts Date: lundi 11 novembre 2002 3:01
My mother and father were interned at Weihsien Camp the whole time to
the end in 1945 but I personally was not there. They are no longer living.
I live within driving time of Washington DC and could meet you there on
11-20. Gladys Hubbard Swift
De: "ÕÔ¶¬Üß"
<wlzs001@163.com>
Objet: =?gb2312?B?UmU6IFNoYW5nZG9uZyBkZWxnYXRlcyB2aXNpdGluZyBVUyB3YW50cyB0byBtZWV0IGZvc
Date: lundi 11 novembre 2002 14:18
Hi Gladys Swift£¬
Thanks for your kindly reply and we are very glad to meet you at US if
possible. Pleased inform us your contact method to wlzs001@163.com. Thanks and
best wishes,
Dongling ZHao
De: "Mary Previte"
<mtprevite@aol.com>
Objet: Re: Shandong delegates
visiting US wants to meet former Weihsien interneesnts
Date: mercredi 13 novembre 2002 3:36
Gladys:
Please e-mail
yuanfenzhao@hahoo.com and give the Shandong delegation a telephone number for them to contact
you. They have e-mailed me for information on how to contact you.
Mary Previte
De: "Mary Previte"
<mtprevite@aol.com>
Objet: Fwd: CBI MESSAGE CENTER (HONOR OUR CURRENT
SERVICE PERSONNEL)
Date: mercredi 13 novembre 2002 3:47
Here is your
chance to tell our current service personnel you care. Please go to the
following site and sign your name to thousands of other Americans who care.
Click Here.
SEND YOUR MESSAGE
Which is;
Hyperlink = http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html
Best
Regards,
CBI Veterans are Unique
Tom Miller
CBI Message Center
De: "Donald Menzi"
<dmenzi@asan.com>
Objet:
Fwd: Re: Shandong
delegates visiting US wants to meet former
Weihsien internee
Date: mercredi 13 novembre 2002 4:27
Gladys.
Mary meant to write @yahoo.com instead of @hahoo.com.
De: "mahlon D. Horton" <berean@look.ca>
À: "Contacts Weihsien" weihsien@topica.com
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 3:41
Tried to subscribe and it didn't work.===sorry I am a big nuisance but
clicking on the one-click confirmation didn't work for me.
Audrey Nordmo Horton
De: "John de Zutter" <jjdz@optonline.net>
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 4:04
Note to Natasha Peterson
I was going through the archives that Leopold Pander so graciously
made available and ran across your
inquiry last March about Joan Walle.
The last time I saw Joan was in 1963/64 when I was living in New
York just before our family moved to
the Midwest and we lost touch.
Her married name was Eglis and they lived in Leonia, NJ
I searched on the web a few minutes ago and came across this information:
Joan Eglis
270
Glenwood Avenue
Leonia, NJ
07605
201-947-8841
If you have not already found her, I hope this is helpful
John de Zutter
De: "Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
Objet: Re:
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 6:38
Dear Audrey Nordmo Horton.
Your attempt worked as it reached me in Australia. Welcome to Topica.
Joyce Bradbury nee Cooke.
De: "Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke)"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
Objet: Re:
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 6:42
I note Joan Waller's address and I will pass it on to Yvonne Ozorio who
was in the camp with us and she has often asked me whether I could find out
Joan's addresss. We three were also good friends in camp. If we discover her
web site I would love to have it. Joyce Bradbury.
De: "Gladys Swift"
<glaswift@cstone.net>
Objet:
Re:=?gb2312?B?UmU6IFNoYW5nZG9uZyBkZWxnYXRlcyB2aXNpdGluZyBVUyB3YW50cyB0byBtZWV
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 6:51
Reply from Gladys Swift - This email address gets to me fine. I look
forward to hearing more about when you arrive. My phone number is 434-973-4179
Hi Gladys Swift£¨Thanks for your kindly reply and we are very glad to meet you a
t US if possible. Pleased inform us your contact method to wlzs001@163.com.
Thanks and best wishes, Dongling Zhao
De: "Gladys Swift" <glaswift@cstone.net>
Objet:
Re: Fwd: Re:
Shandong delegates visiting US wants to meet former Weihsien int
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 6:51
>Gladys.
>Mary meant to write @yahoo.com instead of @hahoo.com.
Reply from Gladys - Hahahoohoo to you!
De: "Gladys Swift"
<glaswift@cstone.net>
Objet: Re: Shandong delegates
visiting US wants to meet former Weihsien internees
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 6:51
>Gladys:
>
> Please e-mail yuanfenzhao@hahoo.com and give the Shandong delegation a telephone
number for them to contact you. They
have e-mailed me for >information on how to contact you.
>
>Mary Previte
Reply from Gladys - Done !
>
De: "mahlon D.
Horton" <berean@look.ca>
Objet: Re: Important New
Reference Book - Encyclopedia of
Exploration to 1800
Date: jeudi 14 novembre 2002 18:24
Thank you very much for your information. Audrey Horton
De: "Mary Previte"
<mtprevite@aol.com>
Objet: Telling our stories
on Veteran's Day
Date: vendredi 15 novembre 2002 2:19
Hello, Everybody,
How many of you are tapped to
tell your World War II story in nearby
schools on Veteran's Day?
A wonderful high school
history teacher near here hosts a crowd of World War II veterans at his school close to Veteran's Day each
year. The old timers arrive with their treasures -- models or pictures of the
airplanes they flew. Some wear their uniforms -- I'm always
amazed that the uniforms still fit --
even the submariners with their feathered regalia. The school provides
breakfast and lunch, as the old timers go to class after class after class to tell their stories. I've been included in this story-fest for
three or four years now.
The history teacher started
the project to make sure that this generation
hears the World War II stories from real people -- not just from
history books. Realizing the value of
the project, the school allows the guests to
speak in every imaginable kind of class -- not just history. Last Wednesday, I told the Weihsien story to teenagers in three consecutive
classes for their whole class
periods. I always punctuate the story
by unfolding my piece of parchute silk
embroidered with the Weihsien rescue
scene -- the B-24 bomber in the sky and
the seven descending parachutes embroidered in navy blue and next to each the penciled autographs of each of our heroes -- passing it around.
Sometimes the kids cry.
Sometimes the teachers cry. I
love doing it each year. But the numbers of veterans is dwindling --
just as our team of heroes is.
This history teacher realized
that fewer and fewer of the veterans each
year are able to come to his classrooms. So several years ago, he
won a grant to pay for video
taping a large collection of these stories-- mine included -- so that his students could hear the stories for
ever. The school has also aired these videos on local television. He called the series, BRIDGING THE GENERATIONS -- an oral history
of World War II. We have such a piece of history to pass on.
A thank you e-mail from the
grandson of our rescuer Tad Nagaki warmed my
heart a few days ago. His thank
you said my Tad Nagaki story published this
summer had given him information he had never before known about
his grandfather. I urged him to spend time asking questions
and looking at Tad's old snapshots and
mementos. Most of our heroes don't talk
much. They most certainly don't think of themselves as
heroes. In fact, it took me months
of Sunday night telephone calls to Tad
Nagaki half a continent away to pull from
him the details of his life and wartime experience. I found it worth every minute of effort.
I'm still trying to get the
state Senator that represents Tad's district
to publicly honor Tad.
Mary Previte
De: "Leopold Pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: "yuanfenzhao" <yuanfenzhao@yahoo.com >
Cc: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>;
"Janette et Pierre" <pierre.ley@pandora.be>
Objet: Weihsien
Date: lundi 18 novembre 2002 10:32
Dear Mr. Yuanfen Zhao
Your message to Mrs. Mary Previte, on the Topica site
was also received out here, in Europe.
I sent it, by post, to Father Hanquet who, at 87 and
with a pacemaker in his body is a wonderful example for all of us.
Father Hanquet was a main figure in the Weihsien
prison camp as a Catholic priest. He loves speaking of his experiences in
China. The "Weihsien episode" is still very clear in his memory.
He also speaks your language.
In
Belgium, where he lives, he has already been interviewed by our national
television, the RTBF, in a series called "INEDITS" set up by Mr.
André Huet, with old films and photographs of China before the war.
If
ever you schedule a trip to Europe, Father Hanquet would be very happy to meet
you where he now lives, in Louvain-la-Neuve, which is the actual location of
the Catholic University in Belgium.
You
can send a e-mail to my address for Father Hanquet (which I will transmit) and
you can also write directly to him by ordinary post at ;
Monsieur l'Abbé Emmanuel HANQUET
Rue des Buissons, 1-201
1325 - LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
Belgium.
Telephone: 010/45-58-49 (in Belgium)
Best regards, Leopold Pander.
De: "Audrey Nordmo
Horton" <berean@look.ca>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Telling our
stories on Veteran's Day
Date: jeudi 21 novembre 2002 3:06
Thank you
Mary for a wonderful challenge. I have
shared my Weihsien experience in churches but not in schools---Audrey Nordmo
Horton
De: "Gladys Swift"
<glaswift@cstone.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Telling our
stories
Date: samedi 23 novembre 2002 21:33
About
"Telling Our Stories" I spent
half of yesterday (Nov. 22) telling my story about Weihsien where I never lived
but heard about from my parents, Hugh and Mabel Hubbard. The Shandong group through Zhang Xiaoping,
their interpreter, (same first name as Deng Xiaoping, little bottle) got in
touch with me and asked me to come to talk to them at Tysons Corner. The "boss" is Wang Guisen, Deputy
Seacretary-General of Shandong Provincial People's Government. They are all from Jinan and I was sorry I
didn't have "Tungchow Re-collected" about Jinan. I had the Princeton Reunion issue instead,
but did point out John Hayes's two daughters in a picture. I didn't think I had
much to say since I was pulled out of Yenching University and sent to the US in
January 1941, so that I would not be interned in the war with Japan that my
parents felt was coming. They were
right, of course. They felt they should
stay with their work in China but were separated when Pearl Harbor came. Mother was put under house arrest in
Baoding, with the Galts, while Father was in Beijing taking Earl Ballou's place
as American Board secretary. Mother was able to join Father in Beijing in
February 1942, from where they were sent to Weihsien in March 1943.
Back to the
Shandong group, which has as official title "THE LAWSUITS FOR THE FUTURE,
The Lawsuits Against Japanese Government by the Chinese Victims of the WW II,
Shandong Movie & TV Studio." Because I do not have first hand information
about Weihsien I took everything I could find of my parents and others: My father's "Watchman" from 1939,
and his letters about what happened at Pearl Harbor in Beijing, and the trip to
Weihsien, and the letter about what happened after they were rescued in 1945. I
also took the books about Weihsien:
Little Foreign Devil (Desmond Power), A Boy's War (David Michell), and
Courtyard of the Happy Way (Norman Cliff).
They videotaped the cover of Courtyard drawn by Hugh Hubbard, with
quotation from "Weihsien - the Test". I also took "Shantung Compound" by Langdon Gilkey and
an INQUIRER copy of "A Song of Salvation" by Mary Taylor Previte
(hope you don't mind, Mary, - it is SO VERY GOOD!). They did not take or copy it but may have videotaped some of the
pictures. They videotaped your family
picture, p. 31 as they did Desmond Power's family and my family (many
pictures). That leads me to think that
what they want is the human interest aspect of internees. They wanted to know
what I observed of the effect of internment on my parents so I told them about
my mother's refusing to throw away burned toast, eating it instead, and my
father on trash day picking up an old trunk put on the sidewalk in New York to
be picked up by the dump trucks, not willing to throw away anything so useful!
Other books I took were , my father's "Birds of Northeastern China"
written with George Wilder (since his grandson Don Menzi is being taped today
that seemed appropriate) and my mother's "Experiment in Teaching the
Christian Religion by Life Situations in Fan Village, China". and ,my
father's tape recorded reminiscences (not much about Weihsien) .We talked
mostly in English with Miss Zhang translating.
She did an excellent job - I could understand a great deal of her translation,
but although I talked a little Chinese I couldn't produce anything technical in
Chinese. They seemed particularly
interested in the two albums of pictures of my family and went through rather
carefully, a young picture of my father ("very handsome"!), where we
all were at Pearl Harbor, our house, my older brother Wells who was also
interned briefly but repatriated (Mother refused to leave Father.) I hope I
haven't violated any copyright laws - they didn't seem interested in quoting or
videotaping writing. They had a book in Chinese on atrocities by the Japanese
in Malaysia, but weren't interested in reading Father's comments about
atrocities. They treated me to an absolutely delicious lunch and I was on my
way home by 2:00 while they were off to the Archives at the U. of Maryland,
College Park. I understand they are
interviewing Don Menzie today, Saturday, and hope Don will report from his
contacts with them. They promised to
send me a copy of their film when produced - "so people will know about this." That's all, and probably more than you all
want to know.
De: "Dwight W. Whipple"
<thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Telling our
stories on Veteran's Day
Date: samedi 23 novembre 2002 23:43
I, too,
have done this. At the local public
high school I was asked by one of the students, and invited by one of the
teachers, to take the whole class period to tell about our internee experience
in Tsingtao and Weihsien. The kids and
teacher were very attentive and applauded at the end of the class.
Many of
them were Asian students, both Chinese and Japanese Americans.
Dwight W. Whipple
De: "Donald Menzi"
<dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Weihsien Documentary
Date: dimanche 24 novembre 2002 17:26
Very
exciting news! I am just now meeting
with a group of Chinese from Shandong
province, thanks to Mary. They asked
that I send you all the following message:
They are
here to explore the possibility of making a TV documentary about the Weihsien camp. They want to learn about the stories of people who were there, and also about what you are all
doing now. They are very interested in the possibility of our having
a reunion next year, which is the 60th
anniversary of Weihsien's founding, and offered to help to get the local and provincial government's help.
As a first
step they are asking to be added to the group.
Please add the following email
addresses to the list:
wlzs001@163.com (Dong Ling Zhao, the producer -- also a general
address for the filming group)
yuanfenzhao@yahoo.com (Zhang Xiaoping, the translator)
Natasha,
will you please add them to the list as soon as possible.
They will
want to get from each of you your name, mailing address and phone number.
They would like to know from each of you if you are seriously interested in coming to Weihsien next year
for a reunion. If it looks like it will happen, it will help them persuade
their superiors to go ahead with the TV
documentary project. Wait until Natasha
confirms that they are on the list,
however, before using the group address to contact them.
In addition
to the above email addresses, other means of contacting them after they return to China on December 4,
are: Phone and fax: 86-531-266-7853
Cell phone
for Zhang Xiaoping, 86-13954183268
It looks like exciting things could happen.
Don Menzi
De: "theresa m granger" <ttmg@juno.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weihsien Documentary
Date: dimanche 24 novembre 2002 18:19
Donald,
Great to
hear you have met with that group. My
mother (Myrtle Granger - nee Sharp)is scheduled to meet with them on Wed. Nov.
27, as they will be in the Detroit area.
This is pretty exciting.
Theresa
Granger
De: "Dwight W. Whipple"
<thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weihsien Documentary
Date: dimanche 24 novembre 2002 18:46
I am
interested but not close to any of the areas they will be in the U.S. I have
just returned from China, day before yesterday, and visited my birthplace
(Kuling, Kiangsi, now called Lushan Mountain) and met folk there who are
interested in those who lived on the mountain in the thirties and forties. They are doing a history and we have already
begun an e-mail correspondence. China
is an exciting place these days. We
were impressed with the progress everywhere.
I would be happy to talk, correspond, etc., regarding Weihsien. We were there from March until September,
1943 and were then repatriated in an exchange of government nationals.
~Dwight W.
Whipple
De: "Natasha Petersen"
<natasha@roanoke.infi.net>
À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Weihsien
Date: dimanche 24 novembre 2002 21:54
Dong Ling
Zhao, producer & Zhang Xiaoping, translator have been on the list.
We also
have han_jh@sina.com Does anyone know
who this is.
I will
write to the translator giving him my name and e-mail address.
To those of
you who remember Joan Walle Eglis (Tsingtao - Weishien), I have been able to
reach her in New Jersey. We have
promised each other to keep in touch.
Natasha
Petersen
De: "Donald Menzi"
<dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien
Date: lundi 25 novembre 2002 3:53
Thanks,
Natasha. They will be using email to
ask a lot of questions for everyone in
the group. Note that the translator is a woman, however.
De: "Donald Menzi"
<dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: <rswmenzi@hotmail.com>
Objet: Chinese TV
Documentary Crew's Visit and a New Weihsien Web Site
Date: lundi 25 novembre 2002 4:26
The Chinese
TV documentary crew has left now. I
printed out and gave them copies of the
paintings that Leopold had sent, and also those provided by Joyce Bradbury (Cooke), as well as Gertrude
Wilder's paintings, the diaries by
George Wilder and Howard Galt, and Leopold Pander's collected emails from 2000 and 2001. The emails really impressed them, so
everyone who has been sharing memories,
questions, etc. should feel proud of his or her contribution. I also gave
them copies of Langdon Gilkey's and Norman
Cliff's books and showed them how to find and download the
black-and-white photos of the camp.
They were
extremely impressed by all the material that we, as a group, have generated about Weihsien, which they had
never heard of a month ago when they
learned about it from some Chinese who remembered it. When they left us they
were going to try to meet with Mary Previte in New Jersey tomorrow (Monday).
I think
they now believe that they could make a good TV documentary about Weihsien.
If they get the go-ahead, you will be hearing much more about it.
Let me also
invite you to visit the almost-finished web site at weihsien.menzi.org that my son, Richard, has been working
on. If you go there you will first see Hugh Hubbard's drawing of the gateway to
the camp, along with his statement
about "Weihsien, the Test."
From there you can go to four
different pages. One of them includes a
map of the compound and a list of the
paintings. If you click on this one you
will have to wait for a few minutes
until the pictures are completely downloaded, so please be patient.
After a box with instructions appears at the bottom of the screen you can point and click on the picture
titles on the list and the picture will appear in the middle of the
screen. A symbol will also appear on the map showing you where Gertrude
Wilder was standing when she painted
the picture. You can enlarge the
picture by pointing to its centre and
right-clicking, then clicking on "Zoom In." Also, if you move the
pointer around the various parts of the map, the names of the main buildings and public areas such as the
basketball court, playground, ball
field, etc. will appear.
Note that
we rotated the map 180 degrees, putting North at the top, which is the standard way nearly all maps are
drawn. Since you are used to seeing it the other way, you may be a little
disoriented (literally, not
knowing
which way is East) at first.
I would
really appreciate it if you would let me know of some of your favourite places that aren't already
identified on the map, such as "Lovers'
Lane," so we can include pop-up names for them, too. I think most of them are on the map that Leopold sent us, so if
you tell me about them I can probably
include them, but just to make sure, tell me approximately where they are and if we get it wrong we can
correct it later..
Going back
to the first page, you will see that we also included an internet link that takes you to the
Leopold's collection of black-and-white
photographs. (I think it's
Leopold's, but if the site belongs to
someone else, please let me know.) We forgot to identify the source or the
actual site address, which will be
corrected in the future so that proper credit
is given where credit is due.
I also want
to include something that shows you the progress of the map/picture page's download process, since
it takes so long and you may think that
it's just sitting there doing nothing while it's still downloading.
I also just
discovered that Cornell University Library's collection of George Wilder's papers includes a hand-drawn
map that shows the location of all the trees in the compound and
identifies their species. Once
we get it from Cornell, we hope to add them to the base map.
We did not
include the other paintings that Leopold sent out, but we may be able to do so on a separate page in the
future. We may also be able to include additional down-loads, such as the
collection of emails, the email
addresses of the members of the group, etc., making this a truly comprehensive Weihsien site.
I am really
interested to hear from you what you think of it so far, and get your suggestions for additional things
to include in the future. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy the tour!
De: "Donald Menzi"
<dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: <geomenzi@chartermi.net>; <emenzi@racc2000.com>
Objet: Re:
Weihsien
Date: lundi 25 novembre 2002 4:53
Natasha,
Please add
my brother and sister to the group.
They are:
George
Menzi -- geomenzi@chartermi.net
Betty Menzi
-- emenzi@racc2000.com
Thanks.
De: "Dwight W. Whipple"
<thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet:
Re: Chinese TV
Documentary Crew's Visit and a New Weihsien Web Site
Date: lundi 25 novembre 2002 4:55
What a
great service to us all, Donald. Thanks so much!
~Dwight W.
whipple
De: "Mary Previte"
<mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Chinese TV
Documentary Crew's Visit
Date: lundi 25 novembre 2002 6:05
Hello,
Everybody,
What excitement! I'm thrilled with the
help of the internet to have helped
connect several of you with the Shandong TV documentary team. It
sounds like your stories and mementos have found a wonderful reception.
Alas,
I won't be able to meet these visitors
this time . Their e-mail message
with their request for an interview tomorrow didn't connect with me until late tonight . They're in New Jersey
-- but at the other end of the state
from where i live. Bad timing,
too. I'm scheduled for
legislative sessions in the State
Capitol tomorrow. Yes, we're expected
to show up to vote. If the delegation had a car, I'd invite them
to meet for an interview at our New
Jersey State house in Trenton tomorrow and give them a tour.
I wrote to Pamela Masters about meeting
the crew when they're in California and
she promised to try to connect with them,
too. Please keep us updated on your interviews. It's
fascinating.
Mary Previte
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: web site
Date: lundi 25 novembre 2002 16:25
Dear
Donald,
I managed
to open your web site this afternoon.
Fantastic.
It is a
real pleasure to admire the paintings with the map on the left showing the
whereabouts.
Congratulations.
You MUST continue -----
You
mentioned my name for the black and white photographs. They were put on the web
by Christine Talbot Sancton and her son Rob, with her message of March 23rd,
2002. I had also a real great pleasure looking at those photographs and printed
every one of them on A4 paper.
In our
family treasures, we don't have a single photo of Weihsien --- past or present.
All the
best,
Leopold
De: "Zandy Strangman"
<zandy.jen@bigpond.com.au>
À: "Internment Camp"
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Verification of mail.
Date: mardi 26 novembre 2002 0:33
Attention ....John de Zutter,
I sent you an email and attached a copy of the
Scout photo, you requested, to the designated address on the 25th Oct. but to date without any feed back!
I would
just like to know whether you received it at all ?
Regards........Zandy
De: "John de Zutter"
<jjdz@optonline.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Verification of
mail.
Date: mardi 26 novembre 2002 4:22
Sorry I didn't respond. I received the photo from 3 different
ppppeople and I thought I had acknowledged each source.
I did
receive the photo and thank you for sending it
Best wishes
John
De: "Mary Previte"
<mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Chinese TV
documentary crew visit me today
Date: mardi 26 novembre 2002 6:19
Hello, Everybody,
What an amazing story! What determination!
The TV documentary crew from Shandong
tracked me down -- no appointment, no
advance announcement -- in the New Jersey state Capitol this morning as I was preparing to testify on a bill of mine
before the Assembly Judiciary Committee
.
I'm still blinking in astonishment
Not 12 hours earlier, I had e-mailed my
regrets that I could NOT meet with them
today because of my schedule in the State House.
We've never connected by telephone -- only
by e-mails. But on a thought that I might phone them from Trenton
to invite them down, I piled a bag of
my photos and mementos in my car today.
In
the Assembly Judiciary committee room, a state trooper came looking for me -- said a Chinese lady was outside in
the hallway, looking for me. My legislative aide said you should have seen my face.
Is this amazing!
So between morning and afternoon
legislative committee meetings, the
Chinese visitors interviewed and
video taped me for an hour and a half,
video taped my Weihsien story, photographed my Weihsien treasures. Through
their interpreter, Zhang Xioaping,
I told them this is a story of faith.
I wove that theme through my
story as I always do. Interpreter Zhang
wept several times as I told the story.
The producer, Ms. Dong Ling Zhao, has won
several top national awards for films
she has produced in China. She says they
hope to start with a documentary about
Weihsien and see if that can lead to a movie of this story.
I gave these very distinguished visitors a
tour of the state Capitol. One of the
guests is among the highest officials of Shandong province. My, oh,
my! did we take pictures! --
pictures of them sitting at my desk in the
General Assembly, standing at the Speaker's podium, in the Senate
chambers, outside in the sunshine with
the beautiful golden dome of the
Capitol behind them. Talk about determination! What perfect timing that they arrived
in their van as the morning session was
ending -- giving us unscheduled time and
my legislative hearing room
available before my afternoon committee meeting.
The producer talks of first making a documentary film about Weihsien and seeing if it might lead to a movie. They continue to talk of our having a reunion in Weihsien next year -- the 60th anniversary of the
start of the camp. That would give opportunity for videotaping
former internees on the site.
What a lovely day! What a surprise! I came home marvelling at the
miracles of Weihsien.
Mary Previte
De:
"han jihui" <han_jh@sina.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Date:
mardi 26 novembre 2002 14:36
Hi Mr.Petersen,
I am the
one with the address as han_jh@sina.com on your list. I am in Beijing and do not in
the Shandong TV team whom are in US right now. But you can take me as a
volunteer who's interested in history and your Wheishien story. Now i was
reading your former posted articles and try to translated to Chinese so maybe
Shandong TV team can found something they would focused in. I wish i can do
something for those history pieces.
By the way
I’d like say hello and best wishes to everybody here in this BBS:)
Han, Jihui
De: "Natasha Petersen"
<natasha@roanoke.infi.net>
À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet:
welcome
Date:
mardi 26 novembre 2002 15:32
I would
like to welcome Jule Gilfillan (seraphpix@earthlink.net
) and Han Jihui (han_jh@sina.com) to Weishien listing.
There is a lower dash between han and jh. Jule has a background in Asian Studies and has spent a few years
in China. He was "turned onto a
book titled Courtyard of the Happy Way".
I personally am always curious to find out why someone joins our listing
and I like to add the person's given name and surname.
Juhui is
from Beijing and says that he is not part of the Shandong TV team. He is interested in history and our Weihsien
story.
Natasha Petersen
(female)
De:
"Jule Gilfillan" <seraphpix@earthlink.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet:
Re: welcome
Date:
mardi 26 novembre 2002 19:07
Dear Weihsien Group,
Thank you very much for welcoming me to your list. I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving
holiday.
Jule Gilfillan (also female)
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: A SUCCESSFUL GETAWAY
Date: mercredi 27 novembre 2002 9:10
….. a
translation from French into English .
Father
Hanquet writes:
All those who were in
Weihsien prison camp know that Tipton and Hummel had made an evasion during the
month of June 1944, but what they don't know, is how it was prepared and how,
finally, it succeeded. I will try to give them that complementary information.
For a few young and dynamic
prisoners who didn't have family responsibilities, evading camp was a constant
dream. I was one of them. It was also a means to lessen the monotony of the
camp days.
Well, to do so, there were a
few conditions to respect. Firstly, absolute secrecy was a major clause. Father
de Jaegher, who was one of those young and dynamic elements, and with whom I
shared the same room, had the same desire of evasion. We however never spoke
about it.
Every one of us, without the
knowing of the others, was trying to put up a contact with a Chinese from the
outside. That was the second condition to accomplish: to find a serious
arrangement with a Chinese from the exterior who sometimes came into camp. This
service would have to be well paid for, and that would be done by Larry Tipton,
often seen with Father de Jaegher and who had a few gold bars, a necessity for
the transaction.
Tipton and R. de Jaegher were
often seen in the mornings, walking to and fro on the sports field pretending
to improve their Chinese language while, in fact, they were exercising their
muscles for the long walks they would have to make, once outside. That was
during the winter period of 1943-44.
Meanwhile, R. de Jaegher kept
on trying to establish a contact with the cesspool coolies that came daily to
empty the prisoners' latrines. As for myself, I was lucky enough to meet and
make friends with a Chinese carter bringing the vegetables into camp. I talked
about it to R. de Jaegher, and we decided that I could maybe try something
about it. As my Chinese friend seemed trustworthy and quite serious, we
promised him a good reward by the means of Larry Tipton's gold bars. That was
during the months of March-April, 1944.
One day, my Chinese contact
brought me a written message: "our plan is well established, and on the
chosen day, we would be met and provided with donkeys or mules on a road
boarded by trees, situated beyond the valley at the North-East end of the camp.
We were to have a little flag with the mention: "welcome to our foreign
friends". We hoped to travel by night so as to reach a safe enough point
by the following day.
We had now to select the
date. We had observed the moon and decided to choose a night when the moon
would rise after midnight, which would ease our moving about. Don't forget that
in those days, there was no street lighting. That got us in the whereabouts of
the 10th of June.
In the meantime, Father de
Jaegher had had difficulties with our immediate ecclesiastic superior in camp,
Father Rutherford. He had been informed of our project by another Father,
(N.W.), and had pronounced an ecclesiastic sanction in the terms of:
"suspensus a divinis" if ever he left the camp. He had to, he said,
because it was vital to avoid the eventual reprisals by our Japanese captors
towards the Christian prisoners in camp.
Tipton was very disappointed.
He absolutely wanted to leave the camp with a missionary. You must know, that
in those days, local churches easily welcomed the travelling missionaries.
Father de Jaegher told me of
this interdiction, and it was agreed between us that I would take his place.
Alas, whilst sitting on my bed, and while, in great secrecy, I was
confectioning my back sac, my colleague, Father N.W. saw me doing so and
quickly concluded that I was going to take Father de Jaeger's place in the
escapade. He told so to Father Rutherford who called for me and pronounced the
same banning as he had to R. de Jaegher.
A hasty meeting was held, and
we decided that Tipton would ask Hummel to take our place. He immediately
accepted which allowed us to keep the schedule previously established for the
getaway.
Now, we had to choose the
place and the exact time such as to involve the smallest amount of people and
however succeed in our task. As for the place of the breakthrough, we quickly
found complicity at the end of an alley (in the vicinity of n°10) where we hid
a ladder, absolutely necessary to go over the boundary wall high of more or
less 2.40 metres. In those days, on the other side of the wall, there was just
a fence with 6 to 7 barbed wires of which the uppermost was electrified. We
believed that the current was put on that wire only after 10 P.M., which was
curfew time, and also the moment when a Japanese guard switched off all the
lights in our compound for the night. We weren't sure about that and told the
escapees to wear rubber-soled shoes and rather put their feet on the big
porcelain isolators while climbing over the fence.
We had also to make sure that
there were no Japanese guards around. On the chosen night, our group of 6 or 7
friends were all in place and watching in the different alleys in order to get
the ladder in place, against the wall. The time was then, 9.30 P.M. and in less
than 5 minutes, Tipton and Hummel were beyond the wall and over the fence.
We were, however, very
anxious to avoid any mishaps, and had previously arranged with them for a
recuperation procedure if ever they missed the "contact" at the
scheduled location. That is why, between
6 and 7 in the morning, the following day, I had to be waiting for them near
the boundary limits not very far away from our bloc n°56 at a place, behind the
wall that was invisible from the watch towers. I hid myself just behind the
morgue ready with a thick strong rope. If ever I heard the cry of the owl, I
had to thrust the rope over the wall to help them back into the compound.
You can easily understand
that on that particular night, we didn't sleep very much and that I sighed with
relief after 7 o'clock in the morning when I got out of my hiding place just
behind the morgue.
Now, we had to give the best
possible chances to our two escapees in order to let them get away as far as
possible from the camp. As we know, the Japs made a roll call every morning at
8 o'clock. At that precise moment we all had to stand in a row in front of our
respective blocks and in the order of our badge-numbers. Tipton lived with us,
on the first floor. Actually, it was Mc. Laren who was responsible for us
towards the Japanese Commandant. I secretly informed Mc Laren of our projects
and arranged with him that as warden of our bloc, I would give the alert as
late as possible. At the roll call, I would simply say that Tipton was already
working in the kitchen. It is only around 10 o'clock that morning, that I
mentioned Tipton's absence to Mc Laren. He then asked me, in the presence of
the camp's Commandant, to go and make sure that he was not in the toilets or
anywhere else. The same thing happened for the missing of Hummel. While I was
going all over camp to search for Tipton, the rumour spread fast, and at about
11, I came back empty-handed, and informed the irritated Commandant. He was
very sure of himself and absolutely certain to recapture the escapees. As a
precautionary measure, he put all the escapees' roommates under room arrest.
Even, days after that, and from time to time, they had us rounded up in the
middle of the night and guarded by armed Japs.
As for the escapees, they
rapidly managed to reach the Chinese guerrilla forces and shared their lives
with them for 14 months. They managed to smuggle a radio, in small parts, as
well as medicines for the hospital and supplements of flour.
It is only the day after the
parachutes came with the Americans that we saw, one morning, our two escapees
all tanned by the sun and in excellent health.
E. Hanquet.
De: "Jihui Han" <han_jh@sina.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
welcome
Date: mercredi 27 novembre 2002 13:29
Hi Natasha
Petersen,
Many thanks
for your welcome message. It seemed I’d better to introduce myself first :) my
name's Jihui, my surname's Han, male:), software engineer in Beijing.
Ms Dongling
Zhao, the leader of Shandong TV team is my friend, she is now producing a
documentary film about the Chinese labour who were forced to work for Japan
during world war II. I know she is doing a great work for unveil some unknown
historical fact, that would be very helpful for people to learn something from
the history. So I told her maybe i can do something for it if possible.
Before
Ms.Zhao leave China to U.S. she gave me the address of Weishien BBS, so I
registered and downloaded some of your former articles to translate it into
Chinese. I hope those can help more or less.
By the way
if you like you may call me Han.
Han, Jihui
De: "Donald Menzi"
<dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Welcome to Han
Date: mercredi 27 novembre 2002 16:33
Welcome
Han.
You
mentioned that you had downloaded some of the emails. Leopold Pander has done
us a wonderful service in copying all of them back to January 2000 into a MS Word document, which he can send
you as an attachment. You will only need to un-zip it to have all of the
emails. If that is a problem for you either he or I could send you the unzipped
version, though they are large,
totalling about 250 pages. The memories
of the camp inmates are fascinating,
and a valuable addition to the history of Weishien. I believe that many of
the emails would be useful in the narrative of a documentary.
I also
invite you to visit the web site weihsien.menzi.org for some pictures of the camp, together with a map
that shows where they were painted and
identifies the major buildings. Be
patient while the pictures themselves
are downloading. Once they have
arrived, you click on the name of the
painting and it appears, while a symbol on the map shows its location.
Pointing to buildings and areas will produce labels telling you what they are. There is still more work to be done on this site, but it is useable now.
De: "Mary Previte"
<mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: SUCCESSFUL GETAWAY - and
historian making oral history of
Weihsien
Date: jeudi 28 novembre 2002 5:00
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Father Hanquet, for your fascinating
story of Tipton and Hummel's escape
from Weihsien.
Remember how the Japanese counted and counted and counted us over and
over again at roll call when they
discovered that two men had escaped?
The escape prompted the Japanese to move the men out of the hospital and
move Chefoo School children in. Children were less likely to be spying
or signaling to Chinese over the wall
near the hospital.
I do hope you will keep telling the Weihsien stories from the persective
of a group up in the camp. Our teachers shielded us children from many
realities of the camp.
On another subject -- Xun LIU, who identifies him or herself as a
post doctoral fellow at Harvard, has contacted me for information about
Weihsien.
Xun LIU writes, "I am a
cultural historian of modern China and am curently a consultant on an oral history project on the Weixian survivors
with Dr. Pedro Loureiro, an oral
history expert and the chief archivist at the Pacific Basic Institute at Pomona Colege in Los Angeles,
California."
I will suggest his
contacting Natasha about signing onto
our bulletin board.
Mary Previte
De: "Jihui Han" <han_jh@sina.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com >
Objet: Re: Welcome to Han
Date: jeudi 28 novembre 2002 13:56
Hi Donald Menzi,
Thanks for your kindly information and your zipped file would help me a
lot (you know to download all the mail from July 2000 is really a boresome task
sometimes). The zip file is perfect to me and if possible i wish i can get that
file earlier.
Thanks again.
Han, Jihui
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <han_jh@sina.com>
Cc: <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Fwd: Histo-2002>message 675
Date: vendredi 29 novembre 2002 5:20
Han
I jsent you Leopold Pander's zip file of email messages from 2001 a
few minutes ago, and am now sending you
2002. I have those from 2000 on a different computer and will send it later,
but these two will get you started. Let me know whether or not you are able to
unzip and read these files.
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <han_jh@sina.com>
Cc: <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Weihsien email files
Date: vendredi 29 novembre 2002 5:25
Instead of waiting until I find Leopold's file for 2000, I'm going to
ask him to send it to you directly.
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Cc: <han_jh@sina.com>
Objet: email files to Han
Date: vendredi 29 novembre 2002 5:27
Could you please send Han your email zipfile for the year 2000? I have
sent him 2001 and 2002 already, but 2000 is on a different computer. His
email address is han_jh@sina.com
Thanks.
De: "Leopold
Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<han_jh@sina.com>
Cc: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
Objet: Fw: Archives of year
2000
Date: vendredi 29 novembre 2002 9:29
----- Original Message -----
From: Leopold
Pander
To:
han_jh@sina.com
Cc: weihsien@topica.com ; Donald Menzi
Sent: Friday,
November 29, 2002 9:20 AM
Subject: Archives of year
2000
Hello Han,
I hope you were able to unzip the files number two and three. Here comes
number one file. Let us know if you have a problem unzipping them?
Best regards,
Leopold
De:
"Han" <han_jh@sina.com>
À: "Leopold Pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Re: Archives of year
2000
Date: vendredi 29 novembre 2002 13:18
Hi Leopold Pander,
Thank you for your message. I've got all the three zip file from you and
Mr.Donald Menzi. All the files are available to open in my computer. You have
done a wonderful job for Weihsien BBS that all those three file is in good
organisation for reading.
Many thanks and best wishes,
Han, Jihui
De: "Gay
Talbot Stratford" <stillbrk@eagle.ca>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: A SUCCESSFUL
GETAWAY
Date: vendredi 29 novembre 2002 17:28
Please thank Father Hanquet 'infiniment' for his colourful stories of
Weihsien. He was so close to all the action - and his memories are so vivid yet
understated, we are indeed fortunate that he is sharing them with us. Thanks
also to you for making them accessible. I remember you as a a darkhaired shy
little boy. You were lively and active. My sister Christine is still in touch
with Monique Walravens. I am a much worse corespondent. If you ever cross the
Atlantic, do come to see us. Graham and I have never been to Belgium, but are
Belgian friends are encouraging us to do so. Maybe one day...
With greetings to you and yours ,and of course, Pere Hanquet,
Gay Talbot Stratford
De: "Gladys
Swift" <glaswift@cstone.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: SUCCESSFUL
GETAWAY - and historian making oral
history of Weihsien
Date: samedi 30 novembre 2002 17:25
Reply from Gladys Hubbard Swift - It would help me if all email writers
would preface their comments with their name so I know who is talking.
Since all these emails are headed "weihsien@topica.com"
I am confused as to who is the writer.
Has ihollister@aol.com gotten onto this list yet?
Margaret Hollister, son Paul and g'children are going to Peking and
Weihsien/Weifang in June and want to be on this list, getting information and
history. If not on, please contact
them.
De: "John de
Zutter" <jjdz@optonline.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Chinese TV
Documentary Crew's Visit and a New Weihsien Web Site
Date: dimanche 1 décembre 2002 18:29
The "almost-finished" web site is great.
Thanks much for taking the time and effort to put it together.
John de Zutter
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: <rswmenzi@hotmail.com>
Objet: RE Weihsien Web Site
Date: lundi 2 décembre 2002 0:14
I'm glad you like the Weihsien web site, John. We will be happy to get any
ideas you might have for additional features, beyond the ones we have already mentioned.
If there's really going to be a reunion next Fall and a Chinese TV documentary, then there will be a lot more
people who hear about Weihsien and
become interested in it, and we should have a really spectacular web site for them to visit. So please send us your ideas and we'll see
what we can do between now and next
Fall. (This applies to everyone in the
group.)
De: "Greg
Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Weihsien Account
Date: lundi 2 décembre 2002 3:17
I recently returned from a research trip to the UK where I read an
account of Weihsien.
There were two anecdotes which I thought I would ask others about. The first seems very feasible but I think
the second is utter nonsense and probably the work of an over active
imagination.
"The Japanese would sometimes cut electricity during concerts or
plays. Tiny homemade peanut oil lamps used to provide light at these times and
during night when lights were extinguished."
This sounds vindictive on the part of the Japnanese. The account describes how electricians would
scamper all over, looking for the source of the problem, but it was always in
the Japanese area of the camp where the main switches were. Does anyone else remember this?
"One source of worry to us was the presence of the Chinese 8th
Route Army in the vicinity. The Japs
never suceeded in eliminating them in spite of several serious attempts to do
so. A favorite habit of these
guerrillas was to catch the Jap sentries standing asleep against the trees in
the camp.
Then would noiselessly climb down from the camp wall where they had been
watching in the darkness and cut the sentry's throat. It was a terrifying sound at first to those living near the outer
wall but we grew hardened and callous in time.
On hearing this frozen scream we would slide out of bed and prop a trunk
against the door lest the guerrilla, being chased, seek safety in our room and
the Japs shoot it out with him, with ourselves inside. Not a pleasant thing to contemplate. We were rather afraid that the Japs would
implicate us in these killings but fortunately they never did."
This seems very implausible to me.
First, you cannot scream if your throat is cut. Second, I have read many accounts and not
one mentions anything like this.
Greg
De: "Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Account
Date: lundi 2 décembre 2002 5:30
Dear Greg. I must say that I cannot remember anything about either
anecdote referred to in your message. I do recall my mother telling me she
heard a scream outside the wall in our block 2 when a Chinese black marketer
accidentally came into contact with the electric wire.I do not know whether he
survived the shock or not. She told us
this in the camp at the time and later in Australia sometimes mentioned it. I
do remember the peanut oil lamps but I only recall using them after lights out
at 10pm. I think at first we had lights out at 9pm but later it was extended it
to 10pm. Regards
Joyce Bradbury.
De: "Fred
Dreggs" <dreggs@powerup.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Account
Date: lundi 2 décembre 2002 6:22
I agree 100% with Joyce Cook's(now Bradbury) response in that the story
you mention is UTTER tripe. Yes, we did use peanut oil lamps after hours, I
particularly remember studying by that dim light after 10.pm cramming for my
final school exam late 1944. As a matter of interest my final result was sent
to the Cambridge University's Overseas Board for assessment and I did
matriculate and have a Cambridge Uni. Certificate as a memento somewhere in my
archives. Thanks to Peanut oil. Coral and I still use it as our main cooking
oil because we like it! So much for more Weihsien trivia.
Fred
De: "Greg
Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien Account
Date: lundi 2 décembre 2002 15:48
Another account mentioned how the author and a few others missed the
parachute landings because they were inside taking an exam for school. It may have even been the Cambridge exam.
It went on to describe how permission had to be obtained to cross a
creek to hunt for frogs for dissection purposes, which the Japanese considered
a barbaric practice!
Greg
De: "Ron
Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Account
Date: lundi 2 décembre 2002 21:35
Greg,
Can not comment on that all those storied seem far fetched. Unlikely
that any exams were being sat as in was August the School year at that time
ended in December and any exams were
taken June or December.
As to crossing a Creek for frogs no creek inside the camp, no one
allowed outside until the war ended, and then had possibly check out from the
gate with guard on duty who was Japanese under US command. There was a small
creek about 200 yards in front of the camp on other side of the road which flowed
through a village which I and others walked to more than once. Peanut oil
lamps did exist but again this is fanciful.
Rgds
Ron
PS I answered this before I read the other responses that you have had.
There is a lot of fable out there.
De: "David Beard"
<beard@xtra.co.nz>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Account
Date: lundi 2 décembre 2002 23:15
Greg,
Just to set the record straight, the Chefoo Schools 6th form was
cramming for EARLY Oxford examinations
on the day Camp was liberated. I was one of those 'swotters' and was fortunate
to see, out of the window, the fantastic sight which I'll never forget of the
parachutists baling out of the B 24 Liberator. There wasn't any more swotting
for exams that day, to be sure, but the ensuing two weeks required a lot of
self-discipline to complete our cramming while the rest of you enjoyed the fun.
I'm glad to say that all but one of our group passed the exams successfully.
And I did get a taste of the excitement out on the field where the parachute drops
were made, getting out on the very last day. It turned out to be one of the
scariest days of my life. After the last drop made by the B29s, one lone bomber
wheeled around with its final load, just as some of us were out in the middle
of the drop site. It roared over, bomb racks wide open, while I was making a
tropistic
beeline for a nearby tree! Gee, it was scary!
David Beard
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Weihsien Account
Date: mardi 3 décembre 2002 3:09
Hello, Greg,
I've never before heard of
either of your two stories -- Japanese turning
off the electricity during the prisoner dramas or Chinese slitting the throats of sleeping Japanese guards. But peanut oil lamps -- yes, we certainly used peanut oil and cotton wick
lamps at night. I remember well lighting the Chefoo School Lower School
Dormitory (LSD) in hospital with the peanut oil lamps .
The account of students
missing the Americans parachuting to liberate the camp because they were studying for exams is quite possible. In August of 1943, eleven
6th Form students of the Chefoo School took their Oxford exams -- and passed. In 1944, my sister Kathleen and her 13 classmates took their Oxfords.
They all passed. In August 1945, eleven more sat for
their Oxfords. Nine passed. And when the war was over, Oxford University
confirmed the results.
I have read before that a
Chinese black marketeer was killed on the camp
wall.
Who is the source for these
memories?
In our Lower School Dormitory
we had an old hand-crank gramaphone and two
songs which we played over and over again: Harry Lauder singing A'Roamin' in the gloamin with a lassie by my side" and "Go to sleep,
my dusky baby; sleepy-sleep, my angel
baby, tell your mammy rest a little while." Those songs still sing in
my head.
Mary Previte
De: "Greg
Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien Account
Date: mardi 3 décembre 2002 3:19
The Weihsien account I read was written by Dorothy Potter, who worked in
the sewing room.
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien Account
Date: mardi 3 décembre 2002 4:32
Where did you find Dorothy Potter's account. Was it published, and if so
under what title?
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Account
Date: mardi 3 décembre 2002 7:54
>From Bob Bradbury, Joyce's husband. I would like to make a small
contribution to Topica, viz, As a young boy living in Sydney in the mid
nineteen thirties I too remember an old gramophone playing Harry Lauder Roamin'
in the Gloamin. I think everybody had that record. We also had someone singing,
"Where does daddy go when he goes out - you may as well ask where does the
fire go when it goes out." Ah, memories. Keep up the Topica reminiscences
and we are very keenly watching the developments on the suggested Weihsien
re-union. It will be our second trip there since Joyce was liberated. Bob
Bradbury.
De: "Leonard
Mostaert" <mostaert@hinet.net.au>
À: "TOPICA" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Tipton
Date: mardi 3 décembre 2002 10:49
Tipton lived just behind us in block 52, and my Mother, with others used
to have lessons in Chinese from him. When Tipton went over the wall, my Mother
disconsolate..... who is to give her Chinese lessons now ? Everybody reacts in different ways.
We were in block 53, and had our place
during roll call in front of our block. My father was the Jap translator for
our section, and walked with the guard so that he could explain anything in
Japanese. The morning after the escape of Tipton and Hummel, I was very anxious
to see what would happen as the guard and my Father got to the spot where
Tipton should have been.....a lot of hand waving went on, yells and the
stamping of feet, then my Father started miming the "going over the
wall" signs. We all laughed at that which made the guard absolutely red
with rage, I thought that something terrible would happen to my Father. The
guard then just spun around and rushed off with as much dignity as he could
muster, leaving Father standing there and not knowing just what to do. We
waited a very long time after that, and eventually everything was sorted out.
It's amazing how much does
come back if you really try.
Leonard Mostaert No. 248
De: "Natasha Petersen"
<natasha@roanoke.infi.net>
À: "weihsien"
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: addition
Date: mardi 3 décembre 2002 15:16
We have a new subscriber
Marjorie McLorn Bull. m.bull@sympatico.ca Marjorie was interned with her parents,
grandparents, brother and sister. I am
sure that many of you will remember her.
Natasha
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: "Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Re:
web site
Date: mardi 3 décembre 2002 17:16
Thanks for the material. We will
try to add it to the download list.
You're doing great work!
At 10:37 AM 12/2/02 +0100, you wrote:
>Hello Donald,
>I just finished printing the latest edition of the Weihsien gazette
for Father Hanquet and I'll try and
get it a.s.a.p. in his letter box. He told
>us something about that famous "main switch" and it would
be great if he >could write us a
story about that. He writes in French, and I get it into >English. (Hope I don't make too many
mistakes !!)
>Included, is the zip-file of all I sent so far to Father Hanquet.
(after >oct.25th) Could it be
possible for you to include that on the
>Weihsien.Menzi-web site for all who would like to download it. (???)
>Best regards,
>Leopold
De: "Fred
Dreggs" <dreggs@powerup.com.au>
À: "Ex
Internees" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Greetings
Date: samedi 7
décembre 2002 5:02
ca To all ex-Weihsien internees who subscribe to Topica.
FRED (ALFIE) DREGGS
De: "Natasha
Petersen" <natasha@roanoke.infi.net>
À:
"weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: HELP
Date: samedi 7
décembre 2002 19:03
I went to the website -
weihsien.menzi.org and tried to print the Wilder pictures. When I zoom in and print, the whole pictures
narrows and becomes unnaturally elongated.
What am I not doing? Your help
will be greatly appreciated. I have
copies of these that I ordered several months ago, but want these for Joan
Walle Eglis (Tsingtao)
Natasha
De: "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fw: Decmber 7
Date: dimanche 8 décembre 2002 2:14
----- Original Message -----
From: Alison
Holmes
To:
weihsien@topica.com
Sent: Saturday,
December 07, 2002 11:51 AM
Subject: Decmber 7
Good morning everybody this December 7th. Has this amazing collection of memory keepers any stories to tell
about the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the entry of the United States into the
war? I am also interested in whether
with all our rejoicings at the end of the war we were aware of the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and if we had any idea of how horrific an act that was.
Does our collective memory draw any conclusions about war and have we any
collective wisdom to spread at this moment of poise before engaging in yet
another? I look forward to any thoughts
shared. Even grandchildren may have
stories and conclusions handed down by old Weihsieners. It seems important to me that we should not
just dwell in the past but bring those lessons forward for the future. May this holiday season be one where peace
is not just devoutly wished for but understood in all its dynamism! Thank you, everyone! Alison
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Greetings
Date: dimanche 8 décembre 2002 6:57
Thanks Fred Dreggs and all at Topica.
Thank you for your kind wishes and I would like to respond by wishing
everybody the same.
Joyce Bradbury
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Memories of December 7
Date: dimanche 8 décembre 2002 19:30
Hello, Everybody:
I remembered the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor a few days early by
telling our miracle story to a group of Senior citizens at the local
Roman Catholic Church. With Seniors, I usually start with a
question: "Do you remember where you were on December 7,
1941?"
Out pours the most
astonishing detail of exactly were they were that Sunday morning in the United States when they heard the news
about the attack more than 60 years
ago. "I was scrubbing the kitchen
floor." "I was with my fiancé in a restaurant. As we left, all the waitresses were showing
extra kindness to the young men,
helping them on with their coats -- as if they
might never see these boys
again." "I was in the
ballpark in New York when the public
address system announced that all men in the military service were to report immediately to their bases."
This week the group
added a new dimension to the
discussion: "Those of us who have seen war are not so quick to
want to jump into it again."
Frequently after I speak, old
timers who served in the Pacific tell me
that when America bombed
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they themselves were poised to invade Japan.
Do you Chefoo students
remember after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bringing a Shinto priest onto the ballfield of the Chefoo School and doing
a ceremony that said that our school
now belonged to the great Emperor of Japan?
Remember their pasting paper seals with Japanese writing on the
desks, chairs, equipment, saying that
all of it now belonged to the Emperor
of Japan. And remember the arm bands they made us wear -- with
"A" for American and
"B" for British? Remember
what we children called "YAH" practice, when they suited up with padded body armor and
face masks and practiced bayonet
attacks on each other near the front gate to the school? Suddenly we were prisoners.
The attack on Pearl Harbor
changed all of our lives for ever.
Mary Previte
De: "Gay
Talbot Stratford" <stillbrk@eagle.ca>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Greetings
Date: dimanche 8 décembre 2002 21:30
Me too. May peace begin with each one of us.
Gay Talbot Stratford
De: "Joyce
Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Memories of December
7.
Date: mardi 10 décembre 2002 5:27
Dear Mary Previte.
I too remember where I was when the news of Pearl Harbor came over the
radio spoken by Carol Alcott an American radio announcer in Shanghai. I was 13
years of age in Tsingtao and within an hour we were visited at our home by Jap
Officers and immediately put under house arrest. I still have my "B"
(British) armband and I show it to my audiences during addresses I give to
various organisations in and around Sydney as often as three times a week. A
photograph of that is also shown in my book "Forgiven But Not
Forgotten"
As you are well aware we were
not rescued until 17th August 1945, two days after the war ended. I also
well remember the Sixth Division Marines coming to Tsingtao from Guam and
Okinawa. Their OC General Shepherd and later General Clements became quite
friendly with our family whilst their Marines were protecting our part of China
for some time after the war. I believe these marines had been scheduled to participate in the invasion of
Japan. No doubt many of these men were, like myself grateful that the war ended
so suddenly and dramatically as many would not have survived. I also believe
that the Sixth Marine Division was the only marine division that did not
actually serve in USA as it was formed during the war on either Okinawa or
Guam. One USA serviceman with whom my
family became friendly, Bill Perez, a Walt Disney cartoonist, drew the Big Bad
Wolf for my brother Eddie and he still has the drawing in his autograph book.
These Topica reminiscences certainly jog my memory. Please keep it up. Happy
Christmas to all. Joyce Bradbury
De: "David
Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Greetings
Date: mercredi 11 décembre 2002 20:01
Warmest greetings to you too, Fred, and all other Weihsien@topica.com subscribers! May God bless you richly and
give you a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and the BEST NEW YEAR yet!
Sincerely,
David Birch
De: "Iain
Macpherson" <IMaccrosho@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: China List from
The Old Bookroom
Date: jeudi 12 décembre 2002 11:18
Dear Mr Menzi,
I have tried to open the web site you mention,
www.weihsien.menzi.org, without
success. Have I got the address right? Perhaps you could post it as a link so as to eliminate any typing errors
on my part.
Many thanks,
Iain Macpherson
De: "Natasha
Petersen" <natasha@roanoke.infi.net>
À:
"weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Greetings
Date: jeudi 12 décembre 2002 20:19
I WOULD LIKE TO WISH EVERYONE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS, A GREAT NEW YEAR, AND
A HAPPY (PAST) HANNUKAH (sp?)
Natasha
De: "Mimi Kent"
<meemsterama@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: <viriditas@earthlink.net>
Objet: An introduction
Date: jeudi 12 décembre 2002 20:46
Hello, my name is Mimi Kent and I have been hired, along with Jule Gilfillan, by Pedro Loureiro of Pamona College and Dr. Liu Xun to produce an oral history of the Weihsien
internment camp. I have read many of the postings in your chat room, and
I am looking forward to speaking with
the internees who are willing to tell their stories for this important oral history project. Thank you for allowing me to introduce myself and wishing you all a
peaceful, happy holiday.
Mimi Kent
De: "Jule Gilfillan"
<seraphpix@earthlink.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: An introduction
Date: jeudi 12 décembre 2002 21:05
Argh! I was going to post my
peace/christmas message first! You are
sooo quick, baby! Oh well... here we
go!
De: "Dwight
W. Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: An introduction
Date: jeudi 12 décembre 2002 21:27
I would be glad to speak with Mimi Kent about our time in Weihsien.
~Dwight W. Whipple
Telephone:
360.456.4300
De: "Jule Gilfillan"
<seraphpix@earthlink.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Peace on Earth and
Christmas Greetings
Date: jeudi 12 décembre 2002 21:33
Dear Members of the Weihsien Discussion list,
I have been so grateful to have stumbled upon your site. As I told Natasha Peterson earlier, I was
fortunate enough to have been given a copy of COURTYARD OF THE HAPPY WAY, and
then SHANDONG COMPOUND by a friend, and as a student of Chinese studies, was
immediately fascinated.
Over the last month, I have read your postings with great interest,
frequently moved by the memories and stories.
During this season when the issues of peace and goodwill on Earth are in
all our hearts, your recent postings on PEACE have been especially
effecting. For those of us who have
grown up in the relative peace and prosperity of contemporary America, I think
it's very important to hear the wisdom of a generation who lived through and
experienced the terrors of war first hand.
I am so happy to be able to assist Ms. Kent in Dr. Loureiro's and Dr.
Liu's oral history project, and to help bring your voices and stories to a
broader community.
I look forward to hearing your stories in the future and would like to
echo the wish of a peaceful and happy
Christmas to all.
Jule Gilfillan
PS. If this has been sent twice, my apologies... I seem to have
accidentally unsubscribed a second ago!
De: "Dwight
W. Whipple" <thewhipples@attbi.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Greetings
Date: jeudi 12 décembre 2002 22:31
Thanks, got your greetings this time!
Hanukkah is the correct spelling, although there are some alternates.
~Dwight & Judy Whipple
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Can you believe
this!
Date: vendredi 13 décembre 2002 2:21
Hello, Everybody,
Here's a letter from a New
Jersey lady who contacted me after she read an
tribute I wrote about our Weihsien heroes to celebrate our liberation
day this August. We've been e-mailing back and forth --
especially after she told me her father
had been stationed in China during World War II.
You with the Hugh Hubbard and
Jesuit priests connections will be
fascinated at this e-mail letter she wrote me today. Who of you returned
to Peking after we were
liberated?> You may know this
man. I've asked her for her father's name and military unit.
Here's her letter:
Dear Mary,
I spoke to my Dad on the phone last night and when I told him about you,
he said, "She wasn't at Weihsien
Camp was she?!" He said he met a
lot of people who had been released
from various camps, most definitely including Weihsien!
In September 1945 he was on leave and went to Peking, where he took
classes at the Chinese Language
School, which had a rooming
house. Many of the others living there
were recently released from Weihsien! He recalled that they were happy to see American GIs, and
"considered us all heroes who came to China.
They thanked us for liberating them." He wanted to know if you knew
Mrs. Hugh Hubbard, whose husband
introduced basketball to China. There was also a Jesuit priest, a fellow stamp collector like my Dad.
Best wishes,
Amy
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Greetings
Date: vendredi 13 décembre 2002 9:17
>From Belgium, a tiny little land shaped like a great huge heart in
the middle of Europe we send you our best wishes of health and happiness for
the new-coming year.
50°40'24"North. & 04°40'09"East
Leopold.
Cher Père Hanquet,
Voici la suite de la gazette. Vos textes font des merveilles.
Je me sens parfois comme un gamin de quatre ans (l’âge que
j’avais en 1945) avec ses grands yeux tournés vers son aîné : « Racontez-nous encore des histoires, mon
Père ! »
Bien amicalement,
Léopold
De: "Natasha Petersen"
<natasha@roanoke.infi.net>
À: "weihsien"
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: new subscribers
Date: vendredi 13 décembre 2002 19:01
Jule Gilfillan seraphpix@earthlink.net
Mimi Kent meemsterama@hotmail.com
For info on the above -check today's messages
Paul Hollister phollister@dbllp.com
per request of Donald Menzi
I am sure all Weihsieners wish Jule and Mimi good luck with their
project. I am looking forward to seeing
the final product. God Speed.
Natasha
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: China List from
The Old Bookroom
Date: vendredi 13 décembre 2002 21:18
Leave out the www. and you'll get there.
At 05:17 AM 12/12/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Mr Menzi,
>I have tried to open the web site you mention, www.weihsien.menzi.org ,
>without success. Have I got
the address right? Perhaps you could
post it as
>a link so as to eliminate any typing errors on my part.
>
>Many thanks,
>Iain Macpherson
>
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: An introduction
Date: vendredi 13 décembre 2002 21:27
It's great that you're doing this.
For a visual tour of the camp, go to weihsien.menzi.org -- without the
www prefix.
De: "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: An introduction
Date: vendredi 13 décembre 2002 22:33
Dear Donald,
It certainly helped to leave
of the www! But nothing came up when I
clicked on the headings. Was I being
too impatient? Should I have waited
longer?
I am glad that there is an
oral history being done and would certainly be happy to talk to any of the
researchers, though I wonder if thee will be many more exciting tales than we
have already recounted, I talked to a
Chinese friend of mine and he says the government of the People’s Republic
should be paying for our gathering together next year! I like that idea. I certainly could not afford to go unless there was a large
subsidy. Given that there are so few of
the buildings left it would be hard to get a good documentary, I think. Even though Block 23 had become a middle
school, it still gave us the view that we remembered, with tears, to the
surprise of the secretaries in the office.
The actual block that we lived in was pulled down, though the next block
was there in total disarray. We were
glad to be invited in to one of the original sized rooms by a delightful young
woman and her mother and were amazed to think that six of us had lived in two
of those rooms for years. Perhaps I
should get some of our photos of that trip scanned and add them to the site.
Thank you to those of you
who have responded to my inquiry about both the beginnin and end of the
war. I repeat that we need to
understand what war and peace are about.
Reminiscences are good, thinking is even better! I remember a quotation
from Hitler ""What good fortune for governments, that the people do
not think" God bless us all.
And a happy Christmas and
holiday season to everyone.
Alison
Martin Holmes
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Does anyone remember
this America serviceman in Peking?
Date: samedi 14 décembre 2002 4:05
Hello, Everybody:
Does anyone on our network
remember and American signalman in Peking
named Lee H. Hill? He says he
met quite a few recently-released Weihsien
internees in Peking just after the war ended -- including Hugh Hubbard
and a Belgian Jesuit priest named
Ignate Rybens. Here's information his
daughter sent me about him:
My Dad's name is Lee H. Hill, Jr.
As a freshman at Cornell University in the fall of 1942, he joined the Army Reserve. His initial training at
Cornell was with horse-drawn artillery!
He was called to active duty
as a private at the end of his freshman
year, at a time when it was illegal to draft boys of his age (19). He
was sent to the Army Specialized
Training Program ("College") at Mississippi State in Starkville. After one term there the army realized these
men were needed "with the
troops." As an advanced student, he was sent to the Signal Corps for further communications training.
He completed advanced Army Signal Corps
training at Camp Crowder, Missouri and qualified for the coveted
"777" classification -- high speed
radio operator. In the summer of 1944 he was
sent via the Red Ball Express to China.
He was a sergeant in Company
B of the Army's 835th Signal Service
Battalion, which was later called the 3102nd and then the 3198th.
Dad had been an Eagle Scout
and a member of First United Methodist Church
of Wauwatosa, Wis. He is an only child and promised his mother that he
would be "a good boy" while
he was in the Army. He may be remembered as the American sergeant who was a stamp collector extraordinaire. (He
made many friends and contacts through
his lifelong, beloved hobby of stamp
collecting.) Among those he recalls as a fellow stamp collector was
the Jesuit priest -- Ignate Rybens --
from Weihsien.
I just told my Dad on the
phone that you remember Hugh Hubbard and he was quite amazed!
-- Amy
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Cheer up !
Date: samedi 14 décembre 2002 11:10
>From Father Hanquet,
a translation from French into English ---
CHEER-UP
With the coming of
the first winter in camp, we experienced the monotony of the long, endless
evenings. The Sun was more generous than in Europe though, but it went down
early and the long cold evenings began without radio and without TV. Television
didn’t even exist in the old days!
For all those who
had nothing special to do, the only distractions available were; reading of
books, walking around, or visiting friends and neighbours. As for book reading,
we had a small library with various books brought into camp by the different
groups of prisoners that came from Peking or Tientsin or elsewhere. There
wasn’t a fantastic choice, but, I must however tell you that I read a great
deal of books all about life in China and also about Chinese history.
Besides reading, the
few possible occupations, were visiting friends and neighbours, singing and
theatre activities.
About visiting: we
had to find enough space to greet our friends in the little rooms where the
only suitable seat was the bed next to the one you were already sitting on.
There was always somebody around to listen to whatever confidence that you
might be telling. That was why those visits were very rare, rather brief and
had, for major purposes, the request of a favour.
As time went on and
people got to know each other better, and becoming friendlier, it was customary
to have birthday parties. The Mothers did marvels in the baking of cookies
without eggs or butter!
We had concerts.
Those concerts, in
the “sing-song” style were performed two or three times every winter and gave a
little joy and beauty in our otherwise boring existence. Those concerts and
recitals, of course, had to be meticulously prepared and we used and abused our
local artists’ talents. Percy Glee (?) was one of those precious artists. He
was an excellent pianist and sung with the wonderful voice of a tenor. He was
also able to conduct a choir. Thanks to that, we became more familiar with
English folk music, folk songs, as well as with Negro spirituals. The song that
was highest in rank on the hit parade during those days was: “God Bless
America”, it was a song that warmed up our spirits and pride and gave us the
energy to go on. Everybody learned the words.
We had plays.
Theatre had no lack
of artists and more than once did the little groups of our younger folks
prepare their performances with great care and meticulousness.
They recited poems
or performed in short plays. Some even adventured themselves in giving a full
recital.
But the musts, was
by no contest, the performance of the Bernard Shaw’s classic, “Androcles and
the Lion”. I must tell you about that, for I was closely involved in the
adventure. The promoter and director of the play, lived in the same bloc as
mine, but on the first floor. His name was Arthur P. and shared a room with
Larry Tipton. He was a fine and distinguished Englishman, not very tall, with a
soft voice and intelligent conversation. We were neighbours, and as “warden” of
Bloc n° 56 I often had the opportunity of talking to him without ever really
being his friend for as much. That is why he hesitatingly asked me -
maybe due to my sacerdotal condition
- that he allowed himself to
take the risk to invite me to take a part in his project, as well as Father
Palmers, to play the role of a Roman soldier!! I re-assured him of our complete
collaboration. That is the reason why I still have an accurate memory of my
Roman soldier outfit. It had been carefully assembled at the repair-shop by the
means of many tin cans that had been flattened and assembled together to
finally take the shape of a helmet and a breastplate that fit us perfectly. To
give more reality to the looks of our legs and arms that were of course all
white, we painted them with potassium permanganate that got us all bronzed up.
For only a few days though.
Nero appeared in all
his majesty with his laurel crown and draped in a white cloth surrounded
closely by his courtesans chosen amongst the prettiest women of the camp,
dressed in green and rose gowns confectioned by the means of old curtains. Two
gladiators armed with nets were trying to hold Androcles as their prisoner.
The show was a great
success and we even had to do an encore to be able to satisfy all those who
wanted to see it. A few weeks later, when the American parachutists came into
camp we even had the honour to perform the play once again for them.
E.
Hanquet.
De: "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Cheer up !
Date: samedi 14 décembre 2002 17:42
What a delight to have Father Hanquet's reminiscences! I loved to hear the details of the costume...that must have given entertainment and employment and imagination to all who worked on making it and putting on the play. How valuable the human spirit which finds ways to bring freedom in imprisonment, laughter in times of fear and boredom, and education, moral ed