De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: block-22

Date: jeudi 8 janvier 2004 9:11

 

About block 22, (that's where we lived for 873 days).

 

Zandy and his Mother were in room 22/9 which was next to ours. Ron will make the rectification for the next edition of the "two-thousand-name-list". That will be in four or six months time if it is OK for you?

 

The deJongh family must have been in three "rooms" but we still have to check that out. I still remember that sometime in the years 1950', two teenagers came to see us at our apartment building. They immediately recognised us. It was Antoon and Frans deJongh who cycled all the way from Holland to Brussels to see us. That was a surprise! A few weeks later, the whole Pander-family went to Holland for a long week-end invited by the whole of the deJongh-family.  They made room for us and we all stayed in their home. Mr. and Mrs. deJongh and the six children (Ann, Louise, Henrietta, Antoon, Frans and Paul) showed us the whereabouts of Rotterdam and we had a wonderful time together. Of course, the parents told stories about Weihsien. I still remember Paul, the youngest of the family (he was born in Weihsien), playing the piano. A real artist.

 

Oh! Yes. My friend "Billy" lived in Block-15-room-4. His name, according to Ron's listing is E.J. Waldman, born in 1942. We were two mischievous pranks (if I must believe all that my parents told me ---- and I bet they didn't say everything !!).

 

All the best,

Leopold

 

 

De: "Gay Talbot Stratford" <stillbrk@eagle.ca>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: block-22

Date: jeudi 8 janvier 2004 22:33

 

Every good wish for the New year to you and yours.

Are you still in touch with the de Jonghs? I was for a number of years, but sadly, no longer. I attended Annie's wedding in Rotterdam , and saw Anton once in Toronto. If you have an address, I would love to have it.

Gay Talbot- Stratford 

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: block-22

Date: vendredi 9 janvier 2004 19:15

 

Hello Gay -- It's a long way back to our childhood in Chinwangtao...I was known as Bobby Simmons then, and you, Ursula and I would play together, either by your home down on the beach, or up at ours.  I told Margo about that lovely picture you sent (or was it Leopold?) of your Mom in Weihsien, and I will be seeing her, hopefully later this month, and I will take it to her.  She, like Ursula, has not gotten connected up to a computer yet.  I tell them they sure miss out on a lot of fun and news, but they're hard to convince.  If you send me your physical address, I'd be happy to send you a copy of "The Mushroom Years," my book on Chinwangtao and Weihsien -- think you might enjoy it. 

Incidentally, we were in cells 1 and 2 in Block 21.  I live in Northern California now, midway between Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra foothills...it's absolutely beautiful here.  On a clear day I can see all the way across the valley to the Bay Area, and if it wasn't for the coastal range, I could see the Golden Gate and the nostalgic Pacific that always connects me back up to the Orient.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

All the best to  you and yours -- Pamela Masters (nee Bobby Simmons)

 

De: "Gay Talbot Stratford" <stillbrk@eagle.ca>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: block-22

Date: vendredi 9 janvier 2004 22:18

 

Dear Pamela, So good of you to write at once. Also good of you to offer me a copy of your book. As a matter of fact ,I ordered it through Amazon and read it with great interest, as it filled in many gaps in my own memories. Thank you for making the great effort to research and make your record of life as it was then. My children found it enlightening as well.

I certainly remember you as being like Jo in Little women - full of fun and vivacity. I can see you running down the beach with your curly brown hair bobbing . You did seem so grown up. As for Ursula, I remember her as so glamorous. Do give my regards to Marjorie. I think my sister, Christine writes to her sometimes, and Peter, our brother, did drop in to see her a year or two ago.

We live east of Toronto, close to Lake Ontario, in an old(1846) house outside a small village. The house is too large for just the two of us, but when everyone comes home, it is much too small. The weather is much like Chinwangtao. At the moment we are in a deep freeze which we enjoy. It give a respite from gardening. Many days are bright and sunny, so we ski or snowshoe in the woods. Curling up by the fire can be very pleasant too.

We have a Chinese daughter in law who always hopes that I will go back to China, but I never have. There were unhappy times there, and my father died so soon after the war at the age of 42. I was in Britain at school, and mother with the two others remained in China until just before the communists took over. She then came home to the uk but money was in very short supply. Anyway, for whatever reason, I never made a return trip.

Life has been good. A wonderful husband and big family, health and great adopted country.

I am interested in writing though only developed this in the last few years.

May you all have a safe and happy 2004,

with warm memories, Gay  

 

De: "Kay Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: new item for one of the websites?

Date: jeudi 15 janvier 2004 17:40

 

 

this is aimed mainly at Leopold pander and don Menzi, our two big website

creators

 

prompted by ron bridge i went recently to look at Weihsien-related things

held by the imperial war museum in London. the main thing i had not seen

before is an unpublished account by a mrs. potter. I now have permission

from her daughter-in-law for the text to go on a Weihsien website. the only

condition is that her agreement would have to be obtained before anyone

quoted from it in something they themselves were publishing.

 

i should be getting a photocopy of the text from the museum soon. please to

whom should i send it for incorporation in a website?

 

kay allan

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: jeudi 15 janvier 2004 18:22

 

This is great.

Keep me informed,

All the best,

Leopold

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Weihsien rescuer -- Tad Nagaki's 84th birthday

Date: jeudi 15 janvier 2004 19:53

 

Tad Nagaki,  youngest remaining member  of the DUCK MISSION rescue team that liberated Weihsien, will celebrate his 84th birthday on January 25.

If you'd like to drop him a card or a note,  here's contact information:

    Tad Nagaki,  5851 Logan Road,  Alliance, NE  69301  Phone:  308-762-2968

    Tad lives alone.  He continues to farm in Alliance, Nebraska.

    Mary Previte

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: jeudi 15 janvier 2004 21:58

 

It will need to go to Leopold Pander.

Rgds

Ron Bridge

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: jeudi 15 janvier 2004 22:02

 

What a great find!

 

All of my text documents are family-related, so if it's ok with Leopold, it

might be more appropriate there.  However, depending on how long it is,

maybe it should be transcribed into a word processing format for viewing

and downloading.  Is it hand-written or typed?   If typed, it would be easy

to scan it with a character-recognition program.  Otherwise it will have to

be transcribed via keyboard.

 

How about it, Leopold?

 

De: "Kay Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: samedi 17 janvier 2004 7:02

 

 

Donald

 

it is not yet to hand here, but as i recall, it is about 30-40 pages. the

museum's copy is itself a photocopy of a typescript, and the first few lines

of each page had been written in by hand for some reason

 

i should like to send what i get by snail mail if you can bear to take

delivery that way, so that you can decide if a scanning program can do most

of the work. as you may have detected i am technically in the bottom

quartile of the class, if not the bottom 10%

 

kay

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: samedi 17 janvier 2004 8:57

 

hello Kay,

    If it is OK with Donald, I think I'll be able to handle this problem.

Are there any photos or documents, paintings or sketches?  to add to the

"picture gallery" ---

All the best,

Léopold.

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: samedi 17 janvier 2004 15:58

 

Leopold,

 

    You bless us all with your efforts.  A thousand thank yous from this very

grateful heart.

 

Mary Previte

 

 

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: samedi 17 janvier 2004 22:50

 

Kay,

I agree that Leopold's site is the best place to put it.  If he has a

problem transcribing it, I'd be glad to help, however.

Donald.

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: dimanche 18 janvier 2004 12:52

 

Dear Mary,

All this is team work really.

You found our liberators. Natasha started the chat on Topica. Many have

written books. The paintings, the drawings, the sketches. The recent

pictures of Weihsien thanks to David and Ray. John's personal documents. The

existing web sites. Ron's fantastic research and listings. Father Hanquet's

stories. Kay's recent findings.  ---

Donald gave me the idea and the younger generation helped me for the

technique (my nephew) and all I do is just put things together.

Much has already been written on Topica which has now become a splendid

source of information, but --- !   If you could ALL write down YOUR personal

story, "à la première personne du singulier" and add a picture or two (or

even more) --- it would be a contribution to the very little piece of

history we experienced sixty years ago.

All the best,

Leopold

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: dimanche 18 janvier 2004 20:25

 

Hello, Leopold:

 

    I'm not sure what personal story you're requesting --  Our stories since

we left Weihsien?

 

    Mary

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: lundi 19 janvier 2004 1:09

 

A wonderful idea -- as usual -- from Leopold.

Since I wasn't there, I look forward eagerly to reading your stories.

 

Donald.

 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: lundi 19 janvier 2004 9:58

 

Hello Mary,

In fact, what I (we) would very much like to read is your personal Weihsien

story. How it was, before Weihsien --- after the day of infamy --- How it

was during our captivity. What were your thoughts, joys and fears? What did

they make you do? The food?  Written by the person of your age, as you were

at that time, in 1943-45. What happened after camp? How did you "re-connect"

to the civilised world? What remains? So many questions!

---

 I would like it as a message to the younger generation.

---

Leopold.

 

De: "Kay Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: lundi 19 janvier 2004 9:58

 

donald and leopold

fine - i shall send the text to leopold with gratitude

kay

 

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: lundi 19 janvier 2004 18:11

 

Hello, Leopold,

    What a lovely idea!

    My story is available.  I wrote it in detail for the cover story of The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine in 1985 (circulation about 1 million) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ending of World War II.  This gives a child's eye view of this amazing story.  The magazine enlarged and had an artist colorize several snapshots to illustrate the magazine cover and the story.

    A local school recently  copied that story for its 5th grade students to read and study.  Then they invited me to come to the school to tell the story in person. Each student had me autograph their copy of the story. I told them the sequel -- of my tracking down these heroes.  And, as I always do, I asked them to write personal letters to each hero.  The teacher sent me copies of their letters -- absolutely delightful.  I'm now getting the joyful reaction from our heroes.  Carol Orlich phoned me today.

    With Valentine's Day coming in the next few weeks, I'll be speaking to school children in other schools and asking them to make and send Valentine's Day cards to our heroes.

    While I have not written the more recent story about my tracking down our heroes, it has been documented in quite a few newspapers and magazines here in the States.  I tell it often, and one religious organization sells tapes of the speech.

    Mary Previte

 

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: lundi 19 janvier 2004 19:10

 

Do you have any back issues of this, Mary?  Do  you know how we could get

hold of them?  Thanks, A

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: lundi 19 janvier 2004 21:19

 

Hello, Allison,

    I think you may have this Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine article.  Xeroxing is the best I can do.  Your father wrote very kindly of it in his book.

    Most of the article -- sans photos -- is included in my book, HUNGRY GHOSTS.

    Mary Previte

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: lundi 19 janvier 2004 23:34

 

Thanks for the reply, Mary.

I don't have the article.  If Pa had it, nearly twenty years ago and in another country, it certainly hasn't come on down to me!  Do you think the newspaper would still have a way of getting back copies?

Alison

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: mardi 20 janvier 2004 2:04

 

Hello, Allison,

 

    I had a vague recollection that I had mailed you a Xeroxed copy at your request some time ago.  I'll inquire whether The Inquirer still has copies.

 

    Mary Previte

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: mardi 20 janvier 2004 10:54

 

Dear Mary,

May I have your permission to reproduce your story for all of us on the "picture gallery web site". There will be a new chapter entitled "From Mary Previte". I shall be needing (for the front page) the first picture of you taken just after camp, and a recent one ---- or more. You can, of course, send all that (the 1985 article and the photos) to me by snail post @ sentier du Berger, 15 --- BE-1325-Corroy-le-Grand --- Belgium.

All the best,

Leopold

 

 

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: mardi 20 janvier 2004 16:54

 

Thanks, Mary.  If the Inquirer is out of articles, please send me a photocopy.  I just ordered Hungry Ghosts yesterday and will look forward to reading that! Alison

 

De: <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Lilla Casey and her recipe book

Date: mardi 20 janvier 2004 22:56

 

 

Dear All, Help - URGENT

 

I have just finished writing a book about my great-grandmother, Lilla Casey, who wrote a recipe book whilst she was in Temple Hill in Chefoo and then Weihsien Camp. However I have only just discovered your site  and my book is in the last stages of editing and will go to press in a couple of weeks!

So, do any of you have any recollections (or know anyone who might) of my great-grandmother and/or the recipe book she wrote. She  was in cellblock 20, room 3, and around sixty years of age. She was born in Chefoo and her maiden name was Lilla Eckford. Her second husband (my great-grandfather had been killed in the First World War) was with her.

His name was Ernest Casey, and he had a business in Chefoo called Casey & co. Although, curiously, in the camp census he is put in block 8, room 5, where there was a 28 year old woman, Mrs Wallace, and her three year old daughter - I have guessed this is an error! Ernest had been interrogated by the Japanese before being imprisoned and I'm not sure ever really recovered, he may have been confused.

Also in the camp were Lilla's brother and sister-in-law, Vivvy and Mabel Eckford, Mabel's mother, Josephine Lavers (late 80's then) and Reggie Eckford, another brother, who worked in Tsingtao.

If ANYONE has any recollections of Lilla (maybe Lily)and her recipe book, or her husband, or any of the Eckfords, I really need them soon, as the book (Lilla's Feast, to be published by Doubleday, London, in the first week of September this year and by Ballantine in the US shortly afterwards, and other publishers around the world) is in the final stages of editing before the proofs are printed.

I hope to hear from any of you soon, please, either on this address, or frances@francesosborne.com

Frances Osborne

tel London +44 (0) 20 7221 4184.

 

 

 

De: <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Lilla Casey's recipe book - further

Date: mardi 20 janvier 2004 23:20

 

Dear All,

 to jog your memories... Lilla Casey said that she wrote the recipe book "for my fellow prisoners." I guess that might mean the pages were lent out to read, or just that it was keeping the old life alive. The recipe was typed on small notepaper scraps. Did anyone see any of these. Were other people writing recipe books too?

Lilla's is now in the Imperial War Museum in London.

Thank you,

Frances Osborne

 

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Cc: "Frances Osborne" <frances@fhowell.freeserve.co.uk>

Objet: Fw: Your father's drawing of Temple Hill internment camp in Chefoo

Date: mardi 20 janvier 2004 23:24

 

I am putting this message in for Frances Osborne.  I am sure there will come a whole flood of useful reminiscences...and she needs them relatively quickly as there are only these two weeks for additions/revisions.  Thanks!

 

 

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 2:21

 

Leopold,

 

    You are most welcome to reproduce my story on your web site.  Be warned: 

it is a full, magazine length story.  Mary Previte

 

 

De: "Zandy Strangman" <zandy.jen@bigpond.com.au>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Lilla Casey and her recipe book

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 3:29

 

Dear Frances,

 

I read your email with interest and it's nice to see another new recruit joining the Weihsien 'chat' group. However, even though I was in interned in the same camp as the Chefoo group, unfortunately  I can't help you with your immediate 'cry' for "Help', regarding Lilla Eckford or her cook book.

Seeing you refer to the dear lady as your great grand mother, suddenly made me feel a whole lot older than I thought I was!  But regardless of how old I might be, I'm not that old that I can't remember how it was for us, who had the 'privilege' of being INTERNED by the Japanese.

Obviously, each internee is entitled to their own opinion and interpretation on 'how it was'!  My verdict is, given the fact that we were 'prisoners' of a cruel nation in a terrible war, we were treated remarkably well, even in the camp.

Once we were there, a large number of us were 'housed' in rows of rooms (up to a dozen) constituting a 'block'. And to the best of my knowledge they were always referred to as, "Rooms"!

 

Whenever I see those rooms referred to as 'CELLS', (and there have been 'one or two' occasions) it  strikes me as a case of, over dramatising the situation.  And to see it now referred to as a "Cellblock", makes me automatically think of stories about Al Capone and Alcatraz and Sing Sing and the likes.  Those were really lock up 'affairs' with plenty of bars to keep those convicted criminals 'contained'!

 

Granted we may have been prisoners in that compound, but we could come and go within it, as we pleased.

We were internees,  not convicted criminals behind bars.  We were not locked in our rooms at night, by the Japs, nor were there any bars on each of the 2 windows in our rooms.

I dare say, some people were even able to make their rooms look quite comfortable and 'homely', given the limited resources at our disposal.  A few of us, and I was one of those,  was able to round up the necessary materials to build a brick stove (with an oven) in our rooms, to replace the cast iron 'heater' that was issued to us.

 

Believe me, we came out of our 21/2 year internment looking pretty good!

 

Good luck Frances, with what you are looking for!  From an 'ol' internee.........Zandy

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Lilla Casey and her recipe book

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 5:45

 

Very well put, Zandy!  When the war ended and the paratroopers dropped down to us out of the clear blue sky in 1945, I was 13-1/2 years old. Although camp was not a resort area, our morale was high - at least among the Chefoo and Weihsien kids I associated with! I recall those years of internment as some of the best years of my boyhood!

 

Sincerely,

 

David Birch

 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Lilla Casey and her recipe book

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 9:10

 

Dear Frances,

Welcome to Topica.

I was just 4 years old in 1945 and, honestly, I don't remember much about Weihsien. With the "Internet" miracle and with everybody's help, I built up a "picture gallery" with photos and documents.  You can go to http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm   ---

Once you are there, click on "Topica-archives", then click on the second half of the year 2002. If your computer reacts to "Ctrl-F", make a research for "Weihsien recipes". It is a message from Christine Talbot Sancton dated December 16, 2002 with a few pages of cooking ideas.

Best regards,

Leopold

 

De: <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: It was different for the old people

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 16:18

 

Dear Zandy and David,

I'm sorry to have upset you by using the term cellblock for the blocks  in Weihsien. I understand that they were originally built for bible students and were known as cells for that purpose (as in monasteries). I am pleased that you both have such fond memories of Weihsien and am fully aware that for many children, internment was an exciting adventure.

    However, for the older people there, I am told, it was quite different. They were at the end of their working lives and they had just lost everything they had. They didn't know how they would survive when they left the camp. Or where they would go. And the novelty of camp life was for them, physical hardship. My great-grandmother's husband was so old and ill that he needed nursing care which, in the community spirit of the camp, somebody was kind enough to give. But, even though she mumbled that the Japanese had not treated them too badly, my great-grandmother's memories of Weihsien were far from sweet. When a BBC television crew came to interview her  - when her recipe book was first displayed in the Imperial War Museum in London, where it still is - she couldn't bring herself to talk about it. She was a vivacious and loquacious woman to the end of her 101 years, but on this, she simply couldn't talk. She even hid her recipe book away from everyone until 1977.

Frances Osborne

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: new item for one of the websites?

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 17:54

 

It's OK for me!

So far, I always got help to find the best way out of my "web" problems.

I'll keep a watchful eye on my letter box from now on -----

Best regards,

Leopold

 

 

De: "Theresa Granger(Myrtle Sharp)" <ttmg@juno.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: It was different for the old people

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 18:11

 

 

Frances,

I enjoyed very much what you wrote.  My grandfather, aunt, and mother were all internees at Weihsien.  My mother was 13 at the time of liberation, and my aunt about four years younger.  However, a couple years back when I first joined this group, my aunt wanted nothing to do with it.  My mother has never mentioned bad memories, and enjoys some of the stories I pass on to her from the chat group.  

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: It was different for the old people

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 18:56

 

Dear Frances,

 

I'm so sorry that your great grandparents suffered such losses. What a pity that they felt so deprived and hurt! War is not an easy time, and there are many who are deeply hurt! I'm just so thankful that our missionary teachers were able to give us kids the ability to look on the positive side of things at Chefoo and Weihsien.

 

I think, in a way, we were all hurt by the war. I was separated from my parents and most of my family for about five years altogether! It wasn't ideal at all. Fortunately most of my friends went through much the same experience. Perhaps with the adaptability of childhood, we sort of naturally adjusted to the environment in which we found ourselves!

 

Zandy was very athletic and had the encouragement of some truly amazing Roman Catholic priests who coached him in sports - baseball and so on! A couple of my teachers, a certain Mr. Gordon Martin known as "Goopy" to us kids, did much the same for the boys and girls in their care.

 

I don't think either Zandy or I were offended by your reference to the rooms we occupied as "cells". We just pointed out that from our perspective the camp was not a penal institution! In fact, it was "home" for us during that time. A home that still holds many warm memories.

 

Sincerely

 

David

 

 

De: "Theresa Granger(Myrtle Sharp)" <ttmg@juno.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: It was different for the old people

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 19:32

 

David,

As with you (and many other, I'm sure), my mother's family was separated as well.  Being Japanese, my grandmother and two uncles literally went underground to escape from the Japanese Army, while my grandfather, aunt, and mother went to Weihsien.  As the (later) three were ready to board a ship to come to the States, my grandfather overheard a nun talking of a Japanese woman with two American-looking sons they found sick in the jungle.  Instincts told my grandfather to stay back and find them, while sending my mother (then 13) and aunt to the States by themselves. 

 

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: It was different for the old people

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 20:33

 

Theresa,

Your family obviously suffered very greatly! War really is horrible and family separation due to war can be a great hardship! How wonderful, though, to have memories of the love and faithfulness of family members who sacrificed so much in order to try to be there for those they loved!

You have a wonderful heritage! As have I!

I'm just thankful that at the end of the war our family (Dad and Mother and my brothers and sisters and I) were finally reunited in Canada. In fact, my dear mother, Grace Lillian Birch, only just died (at the age of ninety-eight years and eight months) two and a half weeks ago on January 4, 2004!

My brother John who was 11 years old in 1945 was with me in the camps at Chefoo and Weihsien. He died in a tragic motor vehicle accident after the war, in 1954. But John and I had each other during those war years. After the war, we met a little sister, Miriam, who was born in 1943 far away in inland China!

But China is basically a country that holds happy memories for me! Both my parents, and most of my teachers, as well as other adults I knew as a child, set me a wonderful example of looking on the bright side of things - even when we had very little! I'm so thankful for that! Perhaps that is why I respond so readily to Zandy Strangman's positive attitude about those days! It wasn't heaven but it was home, and lots of good things happened there!

One memory that means a lot to me even today concerns a blazing hot day in the summer of 1944. Some of us children had been moved to Block 61 from Block 23 to take the place of some young men in their twenties who were moved from their dorms in the attic of the hospital (Block 61) where they had been able to command a clear view of the countryside surrounding the camp. I had lost my little garden patch over by Block 23, so I was trying to dig another patch by the wall over near the hospital, my new home. It was tough going! The ground was baked hard by the blazing sun, and I was hacking away at it with a big ungainly mattock and making very little headway. When all of a sudden I noticed a uniformed Japanese guard looking down at me. He had a kindly smile on his face, and he motioned to let me know he wanted to help me. I handed him my heavy mattock and he readily went to work. He was bigger and much stronger than I, and soon had my little patch of hard dirt all broken and cultivated.

 Then he smiled and gave me back the mattock and left. I continued to work with my garden patch and was able to plant flowers and vegetables in it. I was 12-l/2 years old at the time. That was sixty years ago now, but I've never forgotten the friendliness and helpfulness of that Japanese guard. He was not the only one of our captors who showed us kindness in those days of internment!

 

Sincerely

 

David

 

De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>

À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Weihsien

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 21:28

 

Fellow internees and others,

I was just eighteen at the end of the war and our stay in Weihsien.  I do not believe that those my age and younger, had any idea of the seriousness of our plight.  I do not remember hearing the adults voicing their fears etc.  We went to school, joined the many and various clubs and classes, tried to keep up with the difficult task of washing with little soap and in cold water, making coal balls for the winter, working at various tasks given to us, etc.  I am sure that the older ones knew what was happening, and what terrible things could occur. 

We were very lucky that we had doctors, teachers, and dedicated leaders.  I recall Al Voyce, a few months after we got back to Tientsin, telling Athalie (his wife) and me, that those of us in Weihsien, should thank God for being in Weihsien rather than any other camp in eastern Asia.

When I first came to the States, I tried to talk about Weihsien, but soon realised that people reacted to me very strangely, they seemed to want me to break down, to tell horror stories etc.  I stopped talking about the war years and camp.  I am now very glad to be able to read  about your experiences, and do not feel odd talking about mine.  The years in camp helped me understand that new clothes, furniture etc. are not really important - they are nice, good to look at, but it is not the end of the world to be without new and expensive material goods.

Let us hope and pray for peaceful years to come.

Natasha (Natalie)

 

 

 

De: "Theresa Granger(Myrtle Sharp)" <ttmg@juno.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: It was different for the old people

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 21:44

 

David,

As you mentioned, although the times were rough, the memories were good.  My mother will be 72 later this year, and has filled us with many good memories. 

 

Although 100% Japanese, my grandmother moved from Nagasaki Japan to China, after disowning her family; she met my grandfather there.  My mother was born and raised in China, I believe Tinsen, where the family owned a nice piece of land.  From what I've been told, my mother and her siblings are owed quite a bit of money, I believe from the Japanese (maybe it was the Chinese, I'm not sure), who took the property during the war.  My mother is the only sibling to express interest in gaining this back, as the others prefer to leave it behind.  A cousin attempted to find a lawyer to help, I don't think this was followed up with.  With my grandmother disowning her immediate family, I am trying to find a way I can look up some type of family history from Japan.  I would absolutely love to find lost relatives!  Having been through all of so much loss, my mother has taught us that most items are a luxury, and family is family, no matter who they are, or where they are.

 

I am sorry to hear about your mother.  It is nice to know that she provided you with such a rich history. 

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: It was different for the old people

Date: mercredi 21 janvier 2004 22:54

 

Not sure if you are right about only Bible students as when we arrived in

March 1943 outside of the blocks 23 and 24 which had been classrooms their

were pile of laboratory equipment and all the trappings of a normal

secondary school/university which had been trashed and burnt.

Rgds

Ron bridge

 

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: What wonderful memories!  Thank you, Natasha

Date: jeudi 22 janvier 2004 2:07

 

What fascinating memories this Topica memory board pulls from our souls! 

Bless you, Natasha, for this gift to all of us!

 

Grown ups surely experienced Weihsien  from a very different perspective than we  children did.  To this day, I can't begin to imagine the burden for our Chefoo School teachers to have responsibility for a whole school full of young children and teenagers in an internment camp -- all separated from their parents.  It boggles my mind.  In  1985, when I was researching and writing my magazine story for The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine,  I travelled to England to visit several of these Chefoo School teachers -- Miss Stark,  Miss Carr, Mrs. Jeannie Hills Cotterill.

 

"I was not afraid of our Japanese guards or of being interned ,"  Miss Carr wrote to me later.  "There was no sense taking thought for the future, for there was nothing we could do about it anyway.  Occasionally, I faced the end -- whichever way it went -- as being forced to dig a trench and then being lined up and machine-gunned into it, and prayed that my turn might come near the beginning."  Grown ups knew about war -- they all knew about the Japanese and the Rape of Nanking.  We children did not.

 

    Every page of my story is a tribute to these remarkable grown ups who shielded us from the horror they felt.  They cushioned us with structure, predictability, and hope.  I use those same lessons with the delinquent teens I've worked with for the last 30 years.  These teachers taught us to trust in God -- to memorise -- anchor us with -- whole chapters of the promises of God.  They created comfortingly predictable routines -- the same every day -- so a little voice inside comforted us,  "Oh, I know what's going to happen next."  Children need that.

 

    When I tell this story in schools  -- I love 10- and 11-year-olds the best --  I whisper secretly to the children,  " Can you imagine what it would be like to have to live with your teachers, day and night, for 5 1/2 years?"   The children gasp and retch and shriek "eeeeewww!!!!"  Then I turn to their teachers and ask,  "And can you imagine having to live day and night with all your students for 5 1/2 years?"  You can only imagine the response.  (Our family was among the Chefoo students who did not see our parents for 5 1/2 years.)

 

Thank you for all these wonderful memories.  May I ask that each one add your name after everything you write?  I love knowing who is telling the story, but I have not memorized nor matched names to each e-mail address.

 

This week I'm having children in three different schools make and mail Valentine's cards for our heroes and other veterans.  The widow of our hero, Peter Orlich, phoned me with pure delight this week after getting adoring hero letters from children I had recently spoken to.  Carol Orlich, age 83, lives alone.  She says her stack of these letters and mementos now stretches at least a foot high.   She shows them to her children, to her grandchildren, and to "girlfriends" with whom she has lunch.  These letters and cards have changed her life, she says. She only wishes her Pete could have seen them.

 

Mary (Taylor) Previte

 

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: It was different for the old people

Date: jeudi 22 janvier 2004 3:56

 

Weihsien had been a Presbyterian mission compound and the Presbyterian missionaries strongly believed in encouraging and enabling the people to gain a well-rounded general education, including but not confined to, the study of the Bible.

 

Dr. Luce, the father of Henry R. Luce who founded TIME magazine, was the "elder statesman" missionary at Weihsien for a number of years around the turn of the last century. Dr. Luce was well known as having had a lot to do with universities in North China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His son lived at Weihsien and had his early schooling there before being sent to Chefoo in 1912 at the age of fourteen. Later he was educated in the United States where he graduated from Yale University before working in journalism in Chicago. Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden founded TIME in 1923 when they were both 25 years old.

 

It's interesting to realize that our old compound was a school for Chinese young people for many years before we lived there during the war, and that it is still to this day a school where Chinese youth receive their education!

 

David Birch

 

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien

Date: jeudi 22 janvier 2004 4:08

 

Thank you, Natasha!  Your memories of those long-ago days are great!  We do have SO MUCH to be thankful for! Yes World War II was an extremely serious conflict, and we could easily have suffered far more seriously than we did. Had the tide of war turned against the Allies instead of the other way round, we might very likely have either died or suffered dreadful indignities under a harsh and repressive regime. But things did NOT go that way. We were delivered, set free, brought home to be reunited with our families! By the grace of God!

 

And yes, we have many GOOD memories of those Weihsien Camp days!

Our elders really were wise and steady people, and we were greatly privileged to have them (and a loving, caring God) watching over us!!!

 

Love

 

David

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: What wonderful memories!  Thank you, Natasha

Date: jeudi 22 janvier 2004 4:26

 

Mary,

 

What a beautiful and fitting tribute you have paid to our teachers at Chefoo and Weihsien! I heartily endorse everything you said about them! I know that we think of those wonderful paratroopers as heroes, but really their contribution to our lives was comparatively small when measured against the enormous contribution our selfless teachers made over many, many years both before and during the war years! I truly thank God to this day for their hallowed memory!

 

Miss Stark, Miss Carr and Miss Hills (later Mrs. Cotterill) did so much for me. I never had the privilege to see them again after leaving China in 1945.  However I did have the privilege to visit Miss Pearl Young in 1961 or 1962 when she was on furlough from Taiwan. I was living in Halifax, Nova Scotia at that time. A friend whose home was in Pictou, NS, invited me to stay for a few days with his family so that I could visit Miss Young at her family home in Pictou.  We spent several hours a day together for that New Year's weekend. It was a very special time for me, and for Miss Young. She had been my fourth-grade teacher at Chefoo, and had accompanied my brother John and me home to Canada, along with a group of other Canadian youngsters after the war.

 

Warmest regards

 

David Birch

 

 

De: "Frances Osborne" <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: What wonderful memories!  Thank you, Natasha

Date: jeudi 22 janvier 2004 15:09

 

Dear Mary,

 I have only just joined the group. Would it be possible, please to receive an email copy of your story too?

Frances Osborne

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: What wonderful memories!  Thank you, Natasha

Date: vendredi 23 janvier 2004 4:08

 

E-mail copies of my story are not available.  I am asking The Philadelphia  Inquirer if copies of this 1985 magazine are still available.  If not, I'll have to Xerox a copy.

 

Mary Previte

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Cellblocks! And False Impressions.

Date: lundi 26 janvier 2004 18:24

 

Thank you, Zandy! I really appreciate your memories of those days! We certainly were remarkably well off at Weihsien. I honestly don't blame our Japanese guards for anything! I think they were a homesick bunch of friendly civilian police, and I felt and still feel a real affection for them!

 

We were bound together in a difficult experience at a difficult time in history. And in my books at any rate, they come up with a pretty good score!  If you can get a copy of Norman Cliff's little book, The Courtyard of the Happy Way, you'll enjoy reading about these Japanese men who used to guard the foreign embassies in North China. At least one of them, a certain Mr. Kosaka, was educated at a university in the United States and felt a real bond with us westerners. He even believed that he was specially honoured by God to be in a responsible position over us when war broke out, so that he could care for us! At the Temple Hill camp, where Mr. Kosaka was our chief of police (or commandant), I recall him and his deputy actually having dinner with us in the building where many of us boys were housed. And I also recall a tennis match between some of our teachers and older boys where a couple of Japanese guards actually took part and played along with us. Real friendships developed, as with your friend Cole and his Japanese guard friend! So there was another side to this whole experience. Both Temple Hill and Weihsien were truly remarkable camps, and for that I am profoundly thankful!

 

David

 

De: "Dwight W. Whipple" <thewhipples@comcast.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Cellblocks! And False Impressions.

Date: lundi 26 janvier 2004 18:48

 

Hello Everybody

The talk about the Japanese guards rings a lot of memory bells for me.  When we were first interned in our own home in Tsingtao on December 8, 1941, guards were put at our gate.  It was cold but my cousin Tom and I would go down to the gate and "play" with the guard(s).  After we were acquainted he would take the bayonet off the end of his rifle, take out the shells, and give us his rifle and we would play "war."  We would "shoot" him and he would fall down "dead."  And he would laugh and laugh.  We would go up to the house and get him some hot tea.  We became good friends.  And then in Weihsien we would play similarly with the guards.  I remember Tom and would "sneak" up on them, knock off their caps and run as fast as we could to get away.  They would chase us and laugh about the whole thing.  On one occasion my little sister Julie, age three, walked out the main gate at Weihsien with her little Norwegian friend (I think her name was Astrid), and they were a ways down the road before they were noticed and a guard ran after them bringing them back into camp, one girl on each side all of them holding hands.  Another memory of our "captors" was the baseball games where sometimes the camp played against the guards.  My childhood memories of all of this (I was seven years old) are happy and adventurous.  We were fortunate to be all together as a family; in fact, two families together in Block 1 next to the wall.  We have adventurous tales of the black market over the wall, one time getting "caught" by one of the guards but nothing ever came of it.  It's a story my father loves to tell!  By the way, Dad will be 99 in May of this year, still in good mind, getting a little frail but with good humor and we still talk about the "old days" in China.  We indeed were a part of history and it is fun to share these memories with so many.  I wonder how many of us are left?

~Dwight W. Whipple

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Cellblocks! And False Impressions.

Date: lundi 26 janvier 2004 20:33

 

Dwight,

 

Thank you for sharing your memories of friendly guards at both Tsingtao and Weihsien. Your recollections, going back to when you were a little seven-year-old boy, are truly refreshing and confirm the pleasant memories of Zandy, myself, Natasha, and I'm sure many others! We can choose to recall the truly kindly, humane side of all that happened if we decide to do so. It's true that the war had a lot of horror stories, but it also had a good lot of wonderfully reassuring instances of good folk on both sides of the conflict who were brought together by forces beyond their control and who rose above stupid differences and behaved in a genuinely civilised way toward each other!

Weihsien wasn't really bad at all. Even the elderly, like old Mr. Herbert Taylor, Jim Taylor's and Mary Taylor Previte's grandfather, had a great sense of joy and peace, and the providence of God, throughout those days of internment. I well remember him and his warm smile, dear old man! Mr. John Hayes, a middle-aged Presbyterian missionary and Rhodes scholar, had his own mother there with him at Weihsien. She had been a missionary in China all her life. I remember her proudly asking some of us young boys, "How old do you suppose I am?," then smilingly informing us that she was "Eighty-eight!" She was a happy woman who took life, and all that came her way, cheerfully!  Old Herbert Taylor was eighty-five at the end of the war in 1945. Life had never been a "bed of roses" for him. He had served as a missionary in China all his life! But he also had learned to be thankful to God in all circumstances!

The spirit of community was strong in Weihsien Camp, and people were only too pleased to reach out and help those with special needs such as the elderly. There must have been fear and uncertainty, but there were morale-building activities organized by community-minded intelligent adults who well knew what they were doing. Also, we had literally dozens of highly qualified medical doctors, and scores of well-educated missionaries and some outstanding teachers in the camp. I'm sorry if there were some elderly people who felt they were "forgotten" but I really don't think there was really any need to feel that way. Lots of help was available to those who reached out for it!

 

David

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica>; <com@gee.skynet.be>

Objet: A child's-eye view of  Japanese guards at Weihsien

Date: mardi 27 janvier 2004 1:39

 

Hello, Everyone,

If there were 1,400 prisoners interned in Weihsien, there are 1,400 perceptions of the Weihsien experience.  I was marched off to internment camp in Chefoo when I was 9 years old.  As a child, I knew nothing of the rape of Nanking and Japanese atrocities in China.  The grown ups knew.  And that knowledge must have shaped their fears.

 

For grown ups, the lack of privacy in Weihsien's adult dormitories must have been the worst hell.  For me, dormitory life was an endless pajama party with 13 girls.

 

I wrote about this contrast several years ago: "For some of the adults in Weihsien, the prospect of Allied victory was tinged with terror.  If the Japanese knew they faced defeat, what would they do to us?  Does a defeated army rape and kill its prisoners?  Would it hold us hostage to prevent more bombings of Japan?  Those were some of the unvoiced agonies of the adults.

 

We children ached, instead, for the Japanese guards who had become our friends.  Hara-kiri, someone told us, was the honorable way for a Japanese soldier to  face defeat.  Ceremonial suicide.  The Chefoo boys who knew about these things demonstrated on their bellies where the cuts of the samurai sword would be made -- a triangle of self-inflicted wounds, followed by a final thrust to the heart.  I shuddered.  The Japanese guard who gently lifted us girls up so

gently into his guard tower  and dropped us for delicious moments of freedom into the field beyond the wall -- would he commit hara-kiri?"

 

One of our Chefoo teachers, Miss Beatrice Stark, expressed amazement to me when she read my account about girls in our dormitory throwing balls over the wall by the hospital guard tower and cajoling the Japanese guards to pull us up and over the wall for a few minutes of freedom to search for our errant balls.

 

I think most of us who write on this memory web site experienced Weihsien as children. Would that we could also see Weihsien from the memories of adults.  Behind barbed wire and electrified walls, they created school, athletic competition,  lectures,  dances, dramas, and concerts to keep hope alive.  No wonder we, the children of Weihsien, remember Weihsien with nostalgia.  That was the gift the grown ups gave us. They thought us to make games out of hardship.  They preserved our childhoods. I hope all of you have read Langdon Gilkey's SHANTUNG COMPOUND,  Harper and Row, 1966, still in print after almost 40 years.

 

Mary T. Previte

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: A child's-eye view of  Japanese guards at Weihsien

Date: mardi 27 janvier 2004 7:21

 

Hi All:

Perhaps a major factor which worked to alleviate the situation for all of us internees, both at Temple Hill and at Weihsien, was the fact that we were all civilians! Another very important factor was that our guards were civilian police: NOT MILITARY! Our guards had been embassy guards, trained to provide security for the foreign embassies in Shandong province!

And let's face it, we were in a country in the midst of enormous upheaval because of a dreadful world war. Whether adult or child, we could hardly expect to be able to continue life in a "normal" way! Of course it was embarrassing initially for the single women to be housed in big dormitories with scores of other single women, and to have to dress and undress without the privacy they had been accustomed to enjoy in their pre-war situation. But human beings are amazingly able to adapt to new situations when the need arises, and I think that most did. I've read Langdon Gilkey's Shantung Compound and really enjoyed it. Gilkey was in his early twenties when he was interned. I clearly recall him as one of the cooks in Kitchen One - and he was a good cook. As I remember now, his "fellow-chef" was a lady named Miss Hinkley. Gilkey makes it quite clear in the book that many adults were able to adapt to conditions at Weihsien, and that there were a number of remarkable adults, some single, some married, who made up there minds to win over the whole situation by serving others. He cites some very fine men who happened to be Roman Catholic priest who did all sorts of selfless acts of community service such as repairing broken down sewage systems and helping people with renovations to their living quarters, including installing stoves and make-shift stove pipes, etc. Also Catholic sisters "went about doing good" and, incidentally, making converts along the way! Also there were many fine Protestant missionaries, both single and married, who helped to comfort and encourage others at Weihsien. And there were people there who probably never darkened a Church door but who also "rose to the occasion" and helped others to cope with their fears and uncertainties.

My own "suffering" if it could be called that, mainly consisted of a feeling of homesickness that had begun years before I was interned at Temple Hill. My father had taken me to the Chefoo School when I was six and a half years old, and I never got to live at home with my family again, other than for brief visits they made to Chefoo, and one visit I made to Shanghai. All that ended for me well before the bombing of Pearl Harbor when I was ten. Boarding school, even at such a fine institution such as the Chefoo School, was definitely no substitute for normal family life with my own dad and mom and brothers and sisters! I felt a constant underlying anxiety, and a longing to "go home!" In fact I used to wet the bed at Chefoo and Temple Hill. Weihsien for me was a wonderful place where my anxiety seemed to clear up and almost from when I arrived there in September 1943 my embarrassing habit of bedwetting cleared up spontaneously. At the Boys School at Chefoo, and Temple Hill, our kindly headmaster, Mr. P. A. Bruce, had punished me with a caning every morning I woke up with a wet bed. It did absolutely no good. I was so embarrassed and discouraged, but I could not help myself. He quit "getting on my case" after we got to Weihsien, and the problem, as I say, cleared up by itself. Thank God!

I still say emphatically that in the peaceful, orderly life at Weihsien, there needn't have been terror or grim fear for anyone. Our guards were decent men, I think without exception. And we had a wonderful "Liaison Committee" of very responsible and mature internees who met, regularly to discuss our situation and to bring our concerns to the attention of the Japanese authorities.

I know there had been terrible atrocities committed by the Japanese military in China, ghastly events like the "rape of Nanking" and so on. Many westerners had foreseen serious difficulties looming, even before Pearl Harbor, and had had the good sense to return to their homelands.

My own parents were naive when it came to international political situations in those days, and so they carried on with their missionary work in inland China and left my younger brother John and me in the boarding school in Japanese-occupied China. After the war, they told me personally that they deeply regretted having not realized what was coming. Had they known, they told me, they would have taken the family including John and me, and would have returned to Canada.

However, they did not know, and had to make the most of the situation. They carried on bravely in Anhui province and did an immense amount of good there. Many other missionaries acted in much the same way, and much good came to their Chinese Christian constituencies because of their selfless labors.

Yes, if the Japanese had reacted in a certain way, we might have all died!

IF is a little word but it has a big meaning. The fact is, THAT JUST DID NOT HAPPEN.

A lot of prayers went up to heaven from all around the world for the internees at Weihsien, and God heard those prayers and chose to answer them in a thrilling way. And I know that many of us, even sixty years later still thank God for His deliverance!

 

 

De: "Stan Thompson" <thompson@ginniff.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: A child's-eye view of  Weihsien

Date: mercredi 28 janvier 2004 22:24

 

David, you continue to amaze me ! We are friends of the same age and were in the same class in Chefoo and Weihsien, and yet your memories of Weihsien are so much more vivid and detailed than mine. You must have been more gregarious and talked to more people. When I read Shantung Compound, Gilkey's camp seemed to be quite different from what I remembered, and I certainly didn't remember Gilkey !

            Perhaps you were more social than I, and have retained more Paul, my mother, my sister Joan and I lived in a second floor room in the hospital. It was a corner room looking out over the fields. There were people out there; they came from the village visible some distance away, and walked towards us to work in the fields, flipping the sweet-potato vines from one side to the other.

             We went to Kitchen No 1, but seldom as a family. I helped my brother to build a stove in our room (home-made bricks?- with an air path around a big biscuit-tin for an oven). We sometimes had meals in our room as a family, sometimes bringing food back from Kitchen no.1.  My mother worked there on a food preparation crew.  I swept the hospital steps every day for a while, and took a turn at pumping water for a while.

             After my 16 year old brother Brian's tragic accidental death in Aug '44, our family clung together a little more tightly. Mother wasn't quite ready to go out and talk to her sympathetic friends without breaking down, and we felt that she needed our support and comfort, so we were able to provide company for each other  in our room. For a few weeks this shielded us even more from contact with others

          In those days if you were sick, you were put to bed and kept there for a week or two. I remember a time, at about age 12, when I was kept in bed in our room even though I remember feeling OK.   Someone got me something to read; it was a fat book called "The Family Mark Twain" published by Harper & Brothers in 1935, with ochre cloth-covered boards, a brown spine and about 1500 pages of a smooth crisp paper. (you can tell that I found a replacement copy !   It is a substantial volume that weighs almost 4 lbs. I wonder who brought it to Weihsien in their luggage !)     How I loved that book !   I read more than half of it that week including Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Connecticut Yankee.

      My mother's friend Lillian Jenness was a senior American missionary whose accent fascinated me. (When she quoted Shakespeare, I was transfixed: "Neetherr a lenderr nahrr a bahrrowerr be" she would say !)   I bring up "Auntie Lillian" because she expressed the opinion that my moral fibre might well be undermined by reading too much Mark Twain, and suggested "Ben Hur" as an alternative;  but my mother, seeing the pleasure I was taking from the book (and perhaps reassured by the word 'family' in the volume's title) brushed this risk aside !  Whether this was a wise decision is perhaps not for me to judge !

 

Stan

Thompson

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien memories

Date: jeudi 29 janvier 2004 9:49

 

Dear Weihsien Club,

       Perhaps you can help me.  Perhaps by way of introduction, I was the

senior Chefoo boy in Weihsien.  I had matriculated in Chefoo in July 1941.  My

parents had asked me to remain in Chefoo until Dec. when they would come to the coast to see me before I went to Britain.  But, as you know, the curtain came

down at Pearl Harbor, and I was caught for four years.

       My question concerns a school in Weihsien little mentioned.  About a

year before the end of internment Mr. Pryor of Education approached three

Chefoo people - Reg. Bazire and Gordon Welch (both teachers) and myself to

resurrect the Tientsin Grammar School which had closed down.  We used the church building and taught many young people, and it ran smoothly for the remaining period.

       This has seldom if ever been referred to in reminiscences.  It is mentioned in Sister Servatia's book A CROSS IN CHINA (Copies of this can be obtained free from Sister Mary Lea Schneider, Cardinal Stith University, 6801 Yates Road, Milwaukee, Wisc. 53217 - 3986, if there are any left over).

       My question is: Did any of you attend this school?  Norman Cliff

 

De: "Frances Osborne" <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Photograph

Date: jeudi 29 janvier 2004 13:05

 

I received it this morning! Thank you very much. Talk soon, Frances

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Photograph

Date: jeudi 29 janvier 2004 19:56

 

I sure did.  It started up  in #2 Kitchen, where we tried to study with our eyes running from the fumes of the leeks the prep cooks were working on.  When it got just about impossible for us to go on, we were moved to the Assembly Hall.  I think you'll find a slew of us, Natasha Peterson among the crowd, who graduated from Weihsien's Tientsin Grammar School!  A year or so after we got out of camp I got my grades from Cambridge University, but as I was already in the States, I never got to attend those hallowed halls.  I'd love to learn the saga of how all our exam papers got to England and got graded.  Does anyone out there know this story?

Pamela Masters (nee Simmons)

 

 

De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>

À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: the other school

Date: jeudi 29 janvier 2004 21:37

 

I remember our school days in the church/assembly hall.  How difficult it must have been for our teachers.  Mr. Foxlee was the headmaster, and the teachers from Tientsin Grammar School.  In Tientsin, after December 1941, classes were held in several locations in private homes. 

As Pamala said in her e-mail, there were a slew of us in the assembly hall school.

Natasha

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: jeudi 29 janvier 2004 22:01

 

Pamela and Natasha have kindly answered my enquiry.  But no one has

specifically stated that they recall Bazire, Welch and myself  leading the re-organised

school in the church building for the last year of internment.   Norman Cliff

 

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: jeudi 29 janvier 2004 22:04

 

Sorry Norm, I'd already graduated, and don't know who took over the teaching after I left.  Best regards -- Pamela

 

 

De: "Dwight W. Whipple" <thewhipples@comcast.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: jeudi 29 janvier 2004 22:22

 

I remember Sister Blanda and Sister Donatella teaching us first and second graders.

~Dwight W. Whipple

 

 

De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: vendredi 30 janvier 2004 18:44

 

I, too, had graduated by that time.  I do not remember the re-organisation of the school.

Natasha

 

 

De: "Albert Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Weihsien: More than one "other" school

Date: vendredi 30 janvier 2004 18:44

 

There was, of course, still another school, run by Miss Moore of the Peking American School. That is the school I attended. Sister Hiltrudis and other nuns taught at that school. It was conducted quite informally, but nevertheless effectively. We sat around a table in a room in Block 23 facing the area behind the building, and studied at our own pace with teachers readily available to help and instruct.  I was 13 when we were liberated in 1945 and had already completed a year of high school according to the American system. Normally one would be 15 after a year of high school. I also remember earlier attending school in a more traditional classroom, though I don't remember which building that was in.

 

Albert de Zutter

 

De: "Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: samedi 31 janvier 2004 6:15

 

I very well remember sisters Donatella, and Blanda as well as sister Hiltrudis. They taught me at the St. Josephs Middle School at Tsingtao before Weihsien. I graduated from the Peking American High School which was set up in camp by the principal Miss Alice Moore and I still have my certificate. But there was no graduation ceremony unfortunately.

The Japanese showed their cruelty when they severely beat up Armic Baliantz in Tsingtao Iltis Hydro Camp, I believe because he, as a fluent Japanese language speaker refused to spy for them. I saw his terribly bloodied and bruised body when he was brought back from the beating. His wife asked  my mother to lend her some cushions to help ease his pain. I remember he was beaten up about three times again after arriving in WeiHsien. He did survive the war and a few years ago I discussed his mistreatment with his wife Tsolik in San Francisco. I also saw a Chinese beggar boy being used for Kendo target practice. There were other instances of cruelty at the Iltis Hydro. I do not know whether the guards responsible for these atrocities were ex-consular guards. Like many others I had been in Japanese custody from Pearl Harbour day to one month after we were liberated in WeiHsien. Joyce Bradbury- Original Message -----

 

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: dimanche 1 février 2004 1:47

 

Joyce,

Your memories of evidence of Japanese cruelty toward some internees are terribly sad, and truly deplorable. Not all guards were "saints" obviously! But thank God the ones to whom I was exposed were truly decent and exhibited courtesy and friendliness at times. I am thankful for my memories, none of which involve Japanese cruelty.

I do however recall that our headmaster, Mr. P.A. Bruce, was taken into custody for several weeks by the Japanese for questioning during the months immediately following "Pearl Harbour." Other leaders of the foreign (to the Japanese) community at Chefoo were taken into custody with Mr. Bruce at the Astor Hotel on Beach Road across from the seaside at Chefoo. I do know that one of these men did not survive that period of imprisonment.

All the men were released except a Mr. McMullen who was the editor of the English language newspaper in Chefoo. His widow was informed by the Japanese that he had died of typhoid during his detainment. I think that the cause of his death could very well have been the result of physical cruelty. I think that his body was cremated and the ashes returned to Mrs. McMullen. I was one of a small group of children from our school who accompanied one of our teachers when we walked to the McMullens' home where Mrs. McMullen gave us some toys such as teddy bears and so on to bring back to our school. I don't know whether Mrs. McMullen and her children were repatriated to Britain around that time. I think they may have been. Our visit to her home that day in early 1942 was a very sad one really.

Re. Civilian embassy guards:

I am almost certain that such interrogations and brutality were carried out by the Japanese military and NOT by embassy guards who later guarded our Temple Hill camp. Mr. Kosaka, our "Chief of Police" at Temple Hill, was a true "gentleman" who actually considered that he was selected by divine Providence for his position of responsibility over us. He was protective and courteous.

Please don't get me wrong: I know that World War II in both Europe AND Asia was replete with many instances of horrible cruelty. And sad to say there were even instances of cruelty and murder by some members of the Allied military toward the Japanese. On the troop transport vessel taking some of us home to North America, were 800 United States Marines. One of them told me personally (I was thirteen at the time) that he had taken part in a murder of a number of Japanese soldiers who had surrendered. Then he and some of his marine friends proceeded to rape a couple of young women in the group of prisoners.

Just a year ago, here in Vancouver, Canada, six of our police officers were reported by a colleague for taking three men to a lonely park at night and giving them a severe beating and then leaving them to stumble home several miles in pain. Two of these officers have now been dismissed and the others reinstated on the Force.

So, yes cruelty exists and has always existed. It's just that I saw none of it in our camps and want to make my voice heard on the positive side re. our Japanese captors. For the sake of fairness!

David Birch

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Mahlon D. Horton

To: David Birch

Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 2:13 AM

 

Apparently I can't post letters on the Weihsien site as I tried and received it back saying I wasn't part of the list.

 

So perhaps you can answer this question for me.

Just a question.    As I remember Miss Evelyn Davies (now Huebner) of Chefoo-- said she taught kindergarten in Weihsien.   Which school did she teach in?   She was not referring to the Chefoo school.

If I remember correctly she said these were happy and contented students.--something to that effect.    It didn't matter that they didn't have the toys etc.

 

I thought she said they were the happiest children she had taught. 



Audrey

 

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: "Mahlon D. Horton" <berean@lincsat.com>

Cc: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Mrs. Huebener, nee Evelyn Davey

Date: dimanche 1 février 2004 4:50

 

Audrey,

I'm sorry, I do not have the answer either to your question about Miss Davey, or to your question about why weihsien@topica.com will not accept e-mail from you. I'm sending a copy of this reply to them however, so hopefully they will reply directly to you.

Regards,

David Birch

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re:DFR McMUllen

Date: lundi 2 février 2004 10:33

 

Re David Birchs Report on the McMullens

DFR McMullen died as the result of interrogation in Tsinan Military Prison the brief details are recorded in Document reference FO371/31746 held at the British national Archives Kew.

For the record his widow Mrs Winifred A McMullen b 1897 and American was evcuated on the first exchange sailing from Shanghai on the Kamakura Maru on 17Aug42. She was exchanged at Lourenco Marques now Maputo in Mozamibique and went to England on the SS Narkanda.

Rgds

Ron Bridge

 

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re:DFR McMUllen

Date: lundi 2 février 2004 20:21

 

Thank you very much, Ron, for clarifying for me some of the situation surrounding the death of Mr. McMullen. Tragic indeed. The Japanese military were indeed cruel.

As I thought, Mr. Mcmullen's interrogation and death were carried out by the Japanese military and our civilian guards had nothing whatever to do with it!

Sincerely

David Birch

 

 

De: <m.bull@sympatico.ca>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: lundi 2 février 2004 20:49

 

I had attended the Tientsin Grammar School in Tientsin before our family moved to Chefoo. Then my brother Philip and I went to the Chefoo School as day scholars. We were at Temple Hill at the same time and then in Wehsien where we were in the dormitories with the Chefoo school. My young sister and my parents were in Block `13, I believe.  After the camp was closed we went back to Tientsin and I was again at the Grammar School until it had to close down. We all were eventually at the French Catholic schools. Finally in 1947 we left China and went to Canada, because there was a US Liberty ship that had just delivered cattle to Taku harbour that was willing to take us to San Francisco and Canada was the nearest British territory.  My father, John McLorn, stayed in Tientsin anotther year. I live in Ottawa now, and my brother and sister in southern Ontario.

If any one remebers me I would love to hear from them.

Marjorie McLorn Bull

 

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: mardi 3 février 2004 1:07

 

Marjory McLorn Bull,

       I remember your father, John McLorn, in Temple Hill camp.  He was tall  and well spoken.  I have an autograph album signed by your parents which paid  tribute to Miss Inez Phare of the Chefoo Girls' School being "a dear neighbour we'll miss".     Norman Cliff

 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Cc: "Janette & Pierre @ home" <pierre.ley@pandora.be>

Date: mardi 3 février 2004 2:00

 

Dear Mary, Dear Kay,

A great many thanks for all you sent my way. Fantastic. My head is already buzzing with ideas for a nice page layout.

When I finished (at last) the 37 pages of Dorothy Potter's story of Weihsien with Kay's help and when finally I made the "transfer" to the web site --- my transfer protocol program let me down. :-((

The result is, that nothing is working as it should. I am trying to find an honourable way out of it but for the moment, I'm very perplex! 

Time and patience! We will fix it --- I don't know how, but we will fix it. !!

All the best,

Leopold

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: No Subject

Date: mardi 3 février 2004 2:42

 

I'm so glad my materials reached you safely, Leopold.  I hope you can  incorporate them into your web page.

 

What a gift you are giving to all of us.

 

Mary Previte

 

De: "Kay Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: RE: transfer protocol

Date: mardi 3 février 2004 7:12

 

you know my distinguished level of incompetence in technical matters, so it is best if i simply wish you good luck with the transfer

k

 

De: "David Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: transfer protocol

Date: mardi 3 février 2004 10:52

 

Leopold, could you possibly have exceeded the size allocation thatSkynet has given you for your web site?

Margaret Beard

 

De: "David Allen" <dandya@fidalgo.net>

À: "Weihsien internees" <weihsien@topica.com>; "Mahlon D. Horton" <berean@lincsat.com>

Objet: Re: Miss Evelyn Davey

Date: mardi 3 février 2004 23:12

 

Dear Audrey:                   2/3/04                      11:00

         Thanks for your quick reply.    I would really like that address if you

have it.  There are times that I go east to Spokane and I could go through

Woodinville and see her.  The fantastic detail came only from my letters I wrote and that my mother so carefully saved through those troublesome time.  She sent the letters to Hongkong, before it became Chinese territory and then they were forwarded to California where my grandmother lived.

They were all sealed in a box with about 700 letters.  I noticed like you said that that many of the leters I wrote in 1943 were lost but in 1944 and 1945 they came through much better.  While we were interned we would write letters once a month but after I went to Kuling we sent letters once a week.

        My life was much more interesting in Kuling than in Weihsien and I have volumes of information from ages 13 - 161/2.  All the hikes, games played, lesson classes we took,  scouting games,  Christmas activities (because our family was separated for another 3 years).  From the time I was 6 until 17 I lived with my parents for 2 years (1945, one year after the war, and 1947, the year my parents were on furlough.)   I really didn't know my parents until I was

about 40 years of age after I moved to Central Washington.

      I have complete letters from 1948 - 1951, these are the complete letters

transcribed instead of one line phrases.  I would explain what I saw at Chinese pagodas, swimming holes, and exploring trips to places we named like Abraham's heights, where we did rock climbing, or the delapidated White Russian homes that had been abandoned 20 years earlier and were falling into disrepair.  We would bash down the brick walls and fly out of the house before they fell on us.   There were many letters describing scouting exercises and the fun we had there.  I described the different floor exercises we performed in the gymnasium etc.  What I am trying to say that for those writing about Weihsien, they were in their teens and full of life.  I was too young to appreciate much of what went on.  But I was a teenager in Kuling and I was alive to all the excitement that happened in those years.  Kuling was a beautiful place, even

the communists repect it as a tourist place with much historical significance. Kiang Ki Shek would come there for summer vacation trips, and Mao Tse Tung had his summer planning sessions in the school across from where we went to

school after we left in 1953.  I returned there in 1991 (40 yeqrs after leaving and realized that the glory had departed.)

      Nice to hear from you.  I would like to hear more about you and your life at that time and since.  Peoples lives are interesting!   Let me know more about Phil and what he has done since and how he looks back on life.

     David Allen                   dandya@fidalgo.net

 

 

De: "Mahlon D. Horton" <berean@lincsat.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Miss Evelyn Davey

Date: mercredi 4 février 2004 2:16

 

Mrs. Evelyn D. Huebner

Greenbrier

14390 N.E. 189 Pl. Apt. 102

Woodinville, WA 98072

 

Do not have phone number.

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: transfer protocol

Date: mercredi 4 février 2004 4:02

 

Believe me, Leopold,  I excel in computer incompetence, so I can be no help at all.  I glow with accomplishment when I can even get an e-mail through on the internet.

 

Frances Osborne is wanting to use in her upcoming book a snapshot of an airplane flying low over Weihsien.  The snapshot includes the tip of the roof of the  church showing above a lot of trees. Does anyone have that photo or one like it that they can scan to Frances?

 

Mary Previte

 

De: "Mary Broughton" <wilmar@clear.net.nz>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: the other school

Date: mercredi 4 février 2004 23:03

 

Dear Marjorie,

Recently I have been wondering where you are and what happened to you.I remamber you very clearly from the time we were living in the white room (ie operating theatre) in the hospital building in Weihsien.

You may be interested that our Form are planning a Reunion in England this coming May 15,16.  Kay (Strange) Foster is the main organiser at my suggestion as I will be in England for a visit.  I have been living in New Zealand for the last 40 years having been in touch with very few from China. Kay's email address is   kathleen.foster@tinyworld.co   She is in touch many of our form.

It will be good to hear from you,

Mary (Hoyte) Broughton

 

De: "Frances Osborne" <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Langdon Gilkey and Martha Philips

Date: lundi 9 février 2004 19:22

 

Does anyone know how to contact either of these, if they are still with us?

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Langdon Gilkey and Martha Philips

Date: lundi 9 février 2004 19:38

 

You might get Gilkey at 804-293-3949.  It's been a couple of years since I  spoke to him, but that's the number I have.

 

De: "Frances Osborne" <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Langdon Gilkey and Martha Philips

Date: lundi 9 février 2004 22:30

 

Dear Donald,

Thank you very much for your email. Success!

Best wishes,

Frances Osborne

 

De: "Stanley Nordmo" <shnordmo@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Langdon Gilkey and Martha Philips

Date: mardi 10 février 2004 7:22

 

-

Dear Frances

Martha Philips died in Dallas in 1996. I visited her in June 1991 when she was living in an apartment on the campus of the International Institute of Linguistics.

 

Stanley H.Nordmo.

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Langdon Gilkey and Martha Philips

Date: mardi 10 février 2004 8:54

 

Frances,

       Martha has died.  Prof. Langdon Gilkey, 123 Cameron Lane,  Charlottesville,  VA 22903.  Tel. 804- 293- 3949.  Greetings, Norman

 

De: "Frances Osborne" <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Eloise Cauthen

Date: mardi 10 février 2004 17:02

 

Does anybody know Eloise Cauthen, formerly Lois Glass, daughter of Dr Wiley Glass who was in the Temple Hill camp at Chefoo and then briefly at Weishien before being repatriated on the Gripsholm? I have an address for her at 3904 West Weyburn Road, Richmond, Virginia but directory enquiries have nothing at that address.

 

De: "Frances Osborne" <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: male/female ratio

Date: vendredi 13 février 2004 17:54

 

Does anyone know what the male/female ratio was in Weihsien, particularly between October 1943 and the end?

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: male/female ratio

Date: vendredi 13 février 2004 18:56

 

Frances,   Ask Ron Bridge -  rwbridge@freeuk.com.  Greetings, Norman.

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: male/female ratio

Date: vendredi 13 février 2004 19:04

 

You could find that out by reading the list of internees.  Mine is not up-to-date, or I'd do it for you.

Pamela

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: male/female ratio

Date: samedi 14 février 2004 9:17

 

Hello,

 

on the picture gallery, click on Ron's chapter, then on the *.xls file.

 

Italians included, the priests and nuns were transferred and those evacuated on board the Gripsholm. Remains, 772 F  and 794 M.

 

Hope this answers the question.

 

Best regards,

 

Leopold

 

PS, there are new documents to read in Mary Previte's chapter on http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm

 

De: "Frances Osborne" <frances@francesosborne.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: male/female ratio

Date: samedi 14 février 2004 20:51

 

Thank you!

 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Fw: weihsien kindergarten

Date: mardi 17 février 2004 17:31

 

>From Janette,

----- Original Message -----

From: Pierre Ley

To: PANDER LEOPOLD

Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 2:46 PM

Subject: weihsien kindergarten

 

 

for Leopold and for Topica:

 

 

Thanks for Evelyn Davey Huebener's address...

 

Well after our March 1943 arrival, sometime by the end of summer, Papa said I was to go to school.I'd learn to read and write and do up sums. Most of all I was to learn English so I could play with children my age. I was 4,1/2 years old. Mama cut out a schoolbag from a pair of pink flannel pajama-legs.When it was all sewn up Papa embroidered my initials ... brown thread in long straight stiches! I have it still, it's become shabby now with most of the pink faded away...

 

Kindergarten classes took place at Shadyside hospital, at an entrance you can see on David Beard's 1945 photo, from the Weihsien Picture Gallery

 

We climbed the steps, and entering turned to the right and walked down a central aisle. To our right and left were high windows and hospital beds. The children were made to walk quietly and quickly down this aisle up to two big doors opening into an end room that took the width of the hospital floor.Left and right were the same high windows, the fouth side of the room being a full wall.

 

There were two long tables,each next to a window, and benches, all our size, they must have been made specially for us by our Weihsien carpenters!

 

Entering, on the left hand side, were the Rabbits, 4 to 5 years old, seated all around the table. On the other side were the Squirrels, 5 to 6 years old. In my age group I only remember by name Margaret Fraser and Helen Lane.

 

Paper and pencils were scarce,and precious. At some time in the beginning we each received a slate and fine grey-white chalks. These didn't last long so we handed back the slates.

 

Rabbits learnt to draw their letters, in turn from a to z with "rounds and sticks" I don't remembrer drawing numbers but we must have done! Squirrels learnt to read (Run, Rover, Run!)

 

Miss Davey was wonderful, I remember her as a young smiling dark-haired woman full of energy. She had a "big girl" to help her out who wasn't always present nor always the same. When we weren't using pencils or reading, Miss Davey had us play vocabulary and counting games ("I spy with my little eye...") she read stories out loud and we listened in rapture, we learnt poems (Wordsworth's Daffodils) sang songs (Swallow tell me why you fly) played round games outside, just at the bottom of the hospital steps, learnt to skip, hop, jump, run... most of all learnt to relate to one another...

 

Very much later on, I often wondered who she really was, had she adapted just for us some kind of Montessori method?

 

Only very recently and thanks to David Michell's book, I know she was "from Chefoo", was part of the CIM school staff and voluntered to set up school for all the Weihsien kids from 4 to 6 !

 

Now, Audrey via David Birch is wondering and asking questions! I hope there will be others to help remember...

 

"Miss Davey" , all of you diverse Weihsien educators, we owe you so much!

 

Janette

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Fw: weihsien kindergarten

Date: mardi 17 février 2004 18:06

 

Those are beautiful memories, Leopold.   Thank you for them.

 

 

De: "Mahlon D. Horton" <berean@lincsat.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: weihsien kindergarten

Date: mardi 17 février 2004 18:57

 

I would like to add Mrs. Huebner's phone number as I didn't have that before, unless someone else has added that.   She is living in the Greenbrier Senior Residence, 14390 NE 189 Pl. #102, Woodinville, WA 98072 and her phone number is 1-425-483-9097

She said that if someone is coming to visit her to please phone ahead by cell phone, if you have one.  Phone her when you are close, as the building is locked and the intercom system doesn't always work, so that she can go down and let you in.

 

Thank you for the information.

 

Audrey Nordmo Horton

 

De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>

À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Book

Date: samedi 21 février 2004 21:53

 

I have just started reading  1421,  The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies.  He lives China for two years before W.W.II, joined the Royal Navy in 1953 and served in submarines.  He has returned to China and the Far East many times, and in the course of researching 1421 has visited 120 countries etc. 

I have read only 50 pages.  I would love to hear from those who have read the book, your ideas etc.  In addition  I would like to know how accurate is his description of history and the huge junks. 

Natasha Petersen

 

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Book

Date: dimanche 22 février 2004 10:54

 

The navigation exploits of the Chinese throughout the world have been discussed for a number of years in specialist navigation circles. With the opening up of China dn the increased access toold Chinese records more is being found out each day.I have not rread Menzies boo but I have heard him speak and read articles by him thus have no reason to doubt his facts. In case you wonder on my authority I am a fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and a fromer Vice President of the Instutute.

Rgds

Ron Bridge

 

***

 

De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>

À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>; "Previte, Mary" <mtprevite@aol.com>

Objet: messages

Date: lundi 8 mars 2004 16:47

 

Mary Previte wonders whether she has been taken off the membership list.  I check the messages, and I have not received any messages since 2-22-04 from Ron Bridge.  Has anyone received any messages since that date?

Natasha Petersen  np57@vox.net

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: messages

Date: lundi 8 mars 2004 17:21

 

I haven't received any either since that date - Norman Cliff

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: messages

Date: lundi 8 mars 2004 17:51

 

Has anyone sent any messages since 2-22-04?  Maybe we're just in the midst

of one of our periodic dry spells after a flurry of activity.

 

De: "Bobbie Bridger Backhouse" <backie@ihug.co.nz>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: rons birthday

Date: lundi 8 mars 2004 18:35

 

Dear All

 

Ron  was  70  years young  on March  3rd.  And  yes  I  have  heard  from  him ,  he  may  be  still  celebrating!!!!!!!!!

 

 

   Best  wishes to you  all   Bobbie

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: rons birthday

Date: lundi 8 mars 2004 19:14

 

Hello Bobbie -- Greetings from the only other female 'Bobbie' in camp.  How the Sam Hill have you been?  Please drop me a line when you have time.

Fond regards -- Pamela (Bobbie Simmons) Masters

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: mardi 9 mars 2004 5:10

 

Hello, Everybody:

 

    James Jess Hannon, one of the Weihsien rescue team, has been hospitalized

with a variety of distressing symptoms.  He will be 85 in November.

 

    I'm sure Jim would be encouraged by get well cards or letters.  Here's

the address.

 

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

 

    Mary Previte

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: mardi 9 mars 2004 5:34

 

Mary, you're a wonder to behold!  How great that you have kept up with your

heroes throughout their lives.  When did you actually start tracking them down?

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: mercredi 10 mars 2004 5:30

 

Weihsien rescuer Jim Hannon has been hospitalized with a stroke and has

started physical therapy.  Jim's wife phoned me yesterday.

 

My saga of finding these heroes who liberated Weihsien started in 1997. 

Shortly after being asked to run for election to the New Jersey state General

Assembly, I was asked to honor American World War II veterans from a group called

the China-Burma-India Veterans Association.  They were holding an all-East

coast of the United States reunion banquet at a hotel about 10 minutes from my

house.

 

I had never before heard of the China-Burma-India Veterans Association.  When

it occured to me that some of our Weihsien heroes might be attending that

reunion banquet,  prickles rippled up and down my spine .  So I took to the

banquet the list of names of our heroes.  I found 150 men and women in their 70s

and 80s, swapping World War II  stories.  When  I got my turn at the microphone,

I  presented them with a  proclamation from the New Jersey Legislature,

thanking them for their service to  America.  Then I told them the story of

Americans parachuting from a

B-24 "Liberator"   -- August 17, 1945  -- to liberate 1,400 prisoners in the

Weihsien Concentration Camp -- me among them.   I read the names into the

microphone and asked if any of my heroes were in the room.  I was greeted by men

and women weeping, and I was greeted by silence.  But after the banquet, they

swarmed me,  wrapped me in their arms, gave me souvenirs.  They said I must

list the name of our heroes in their national magazine and include my name,

address, and phone number -- and ask for help in finding them.  I did exactly that.

 

By the end of that year -- 1997, with letters, and phone calls, and luck, I

had found them all and said thank you by telephone.   As I found each one, I

made a rumpus in their towns, phoned their local newspapers to say they had a

hero in their town.  I told their story. Many of their families had never heard

it.  Newspapers ran stories of their heroism.

 

I wrote a story for the Chefoo Magazine, listing their names, adresses and

telephone numbers.

 

When I was elected and sworn in as an Assemblywoman in 1998, an Assemblyman

who is a retired member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),  

orchestrated  the surprise of the century in the legislature.  This Assemblyman and

other retired FBI agents flew Weihsien rescuer Jim Moore and his wife from

Dallas, Texas, for a surprise reunion with me and Jim Moore on the platform of the

Assembly chambers.  Grown men wept.  (Jim Moore, by the way, is a retired FBI

agent.)

 

That's when I  decided I would start my pilgrimage across America to visit

each one and say thank you face to face.  What a wonderful journey!  It took me

about a year and a half.

 

I keep in touch with them by telephone and letter.  And whenever I tell the

story to school children, I ask the children to write letters.  As a result,

these aging heroes get a fairly frequent flurry of letters and drawings, full of

the innocent admiration of children.  Then the heroes write back to the

children and even send photos from World War II.  Our mailmen carry joy.  The joy

most certainly splashes over me.

 

In one of my other worlds,  I'm taking the lead in the state legislature in

reforming the state's criminal code.  These Weihsien friendships provide a

delightful change of pace.

 

Mary Previte

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: mercredi 10 mars 2004 6:17

 

Thanks, Mary for the story of your discovery.

 

I have often been struck by how many of the world's creative and innovative

things only happen because someone -- some individual person -- becomes

deeply involved and committed to them in a way that other people who don't

share that commitment find hard to understand.  Your "magnificent

obsession" is an example of how that kind of single-minded focus and deep

commitment can truly make the world a better place.    Thanks again.

 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: jeudi 11 mars 2004 9:06

 

Excellent, really excellent.

 

Thanks Mary, thanks Don, now there is a text to illustrate the colour photograph Mary recently sent to me (for the picture gallery). It is now the "number one picture", first page in Mary's chapter.

 

---

 

I do hope JJ Hannon will get better soon.

 

I finished reading his book a few days ago and passed it on to Father Hanquet.

 

It is a good book for us --- not to forget that it happened --- and --- for the young generation --- to know that it happened.

 

Leopold

 

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: jeudi 11 mars 2004 16:17

 

What was the book you read, Leopold?  I have just read his bood The Savage American and living in the South West and knowing Navajos and Apaches as I do, I can attest to the accuracy of his portrayal of how we have treated and still in many cases are still treating Native Americans.  An ironic title for sure..  I shall send him a card today. Alison

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: jeudi 11 mars 2004 18:51

 

Good morning, All --

Didn't know Jim Hannon's book was out.  Please let me know it's ISBN, title, and where I can get it.

Thanx a million -- Pamela

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: jeudi 11 mars 2004 18:57

 

Hello,

The title is: "Five Marks" and I shall send you the ISBN as soon as Father Hanquet has finished reading it. He is a very fast reader.

Best regards, Leopold

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: jeudi 11 mars 2004 19:09

 

Thank you so much, Leopold!  More than likely I can get it with just the Title and Author. 

Incidentally, "Love's Like That", my sequel to "The Mushroom Years", will be available in a couple of weeks.  It's another story of survival -- this time in the good old US of A.  The only galleys I have now are out being reviewed, so I don't have the ISBN.

Have a great day...and thanx again -- Pamela

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: samedi 13 mars 2004 2:28

 

Hello, Allison,

 

    Jim Hannon has been hoping that the interest his book, THE SAVAGE

AMERICAN,  has stirred will result in a movie based on the story.  He almost

routinely turns his books into screen plays.

 

Mary Previte

 

'  

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: samedi 13 mars 2004 21:33

 

Hello right back at you, Mary!  I have been thinking of you often as I am

reading your "Hungry Ghosts".  This is/was good work you are doing, with the

children who have been abandoned by society..  And you hinted in one of your

postings that you are working at changing the attitudes of New Jersey to

crime!  This is taking on a big task, but it doesn't seem that much daunts

you.  I am still looking forward to receiving the reprint of the original

article in the Philadelphia Enquirer.........And Idid send a card to Jim

cheering for his book, the Savage American.. I have also looked up Five

Marks on Amazon;  it doesn't have any reviews or cover notes so I would be

grateful to hear from anyone who has read it as to what this

covers.........thanks, Alison

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: secret brigade

Date: dimanche 14 mars 2004 13:41

 

>From Father Hanquet,

 

Secret Brigade:

 

Recently, Mary Previte helped us to remember how we were liberated by a team of seven "angels" composed of 5 Americans, 1 Nisei and a young Chinese who served as an interpreter and who parachute-jumped for the first time on this particular mission.

 

As already told by many of you, and in spite of the armed guard standing at the entrance of the camp, we forced the gate and rushed into the fields out of the camp in order to cheer and congratulate our rescuers.

 

Major Staiger was in charge of the team. He had already put his harness and parachute aside and was standing on top of a mound when we first saw him.  This mound was a tomb. For centuries, the Chinese used to bury their ancestors in the fields and they built a mound to mark the place of the burial. The highest mound was assigned to the oldest ancestor.

 

Major Staiger accepted our cheers but very soon, wisely said: "Please gather next to this tomb, all the parachutes with their loads and also, bring here the men who had jumped with their white silk parachutes. About more or less an hour later, everything was ready and we hoisted the seven men on our shoulders as, of course, we wanted to honour them as our heroes.  When we approached the walls of the camp, Staiger gave us the order to let them down so that they could encounter the captain of the camp and the guards who were watching us coming.

 

This was a wise measure , since the guards were all armed and our rescuers did not know at that moment what the Japanese's reaction would be in regard to this particular situation.

 

As I re-entered the camp on my own I met two friends who were standing alongside the wall ready to defend us in case of a violent Japanese reaction. They were Roy Chu and Wade. Both had an axe in their hands, and they had put their red armbands to be recognised. Only then, did I discover that a group of bachelors in the camp had organized a secret brigade to protect us from the Japanese, in case they would start their plan to exterminate us all.

 

Fortunately this did not happen. Everything went smoothly when  the rescue team met the guards. Both groups received instructions not to fight and we would sleep in peace during the next two months that we had to stay in camp, allowing intelligence officers to screen the past history of every one of us and to finally be able to evacuate my group to Peking by a plane, a C-46, on October 17th, 1945.

 

Father Hanquet.

 

***

De: "Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: dimanche 14 mars 2004 21:31

 

Hello,

Can this help?

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/ref=sr_sp_go_qs/028-1386133-7010908

Best regards,

Leopold

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: secret brigade

Date: lundi 15 mars 2004 1:50

 

Hello, Father Hanquet,

 

    What a fascinating memory of August 17, 1945!    Who else knew about this

secret brigade?

 

    I do hope you will continue to add your memories and insights -- so

valuable to those of us who were children  -- because you add recollections from

someone who saw the camp from  the viewpoint of a grown up.  Thank you so much.

 

    Our Weihsien rescuers tell me their Weihsien memories are badly faded now.

 

    Mary Previte

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: lundi 15 mars 2004 2:25

 

Jim Hannon told  me that his latest book, FIVE MARKS,  is autobiographical

about his own experience and escape from a German concentration camp in 1944.  I

believe he was captured in Italy.

 

Mary Previte

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: lundi 15 mars 2004 15:20

 

Hello,

I'm just back from seeing Father Hanquet. You all have a warm "hello" from him.

ISBN: 1-4107-2976-1  (e-book)

ISBN: 1-4107-2977-X  (paperback)

ISBN: 1-4107-2978-8  (dust jacket)

All the best,

Leopold.

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien rescuer hospitalized

Date: lundi 15 mars 2004 15:30

 

Sorry, forgot to mention that the ISBN numbers were those of James Hess Hannon's book: "FIVE MARKS"

Best regards,

Leopold

 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Main Switch

Date: mardi 16 mars 2004 18:36

 

>From Father Hanquet,

MAIN SWITCH,

 

 

During our second winter in Weihsien, we, the 12 Fathers who remained in camp, were living in block 56.

 

We used to celebrate mass in the early morning, but that was before the Vatican council of 1965, authorizing all Christians to celebrate together. So at that time, we needed about an hour and a half for mass, before going to work. Consequently, we needed light around 6:30 a.m.

 

The electricity main switch was located in a cabin situated more or less fifty yards behind our block. Whilst observing the comings and goings of the Japanese guards, we noticed that one of them came to the main switch cabin early in the morning to enable the light for our quarters at 7 a.m.

 

Being in need of light before that hour, Father Palmers and I decided to help ourselves as the cabin-door was usually left half open. We'd put the switch "on" in order to give the light to the whole camp.

 

For a few weeks, that worked all right. One day, Father Palmers did it and the next day, it was my turn. Everything went smoothly till that early morning when I saw Father Palmers running and puffing, hurrying back to our block and telling us that the Japs were after him. In fact, they came a little later to our bock, demanding the culprit.

 

Father Palmers was taken to the guard house at the entrance of the camp. The guards yelled at him and wanted to torture him. Father Palmers remained stoical. They put chopsticks between his fingers, and while pressing the whole hand, were furiously moving the chopsticks between the fingers.

 

After that, they took him to the jail where he remained for one or two days. Since that day, we never got any light before exactly seven a.m.

 

 There were no more volunteers to have another try!

 

 

 

Father E. Hanquet.

 

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Some info. please

Date: samedi 20 mars 2004 15:14

 

Can anyone tell me what happened to the DE SAINT HUBERTS?  There was a son

and a daughter, both quite tall I think, and of Belgium.        Norman Cliff

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Some info. please/the de Saint Huberts

Date: dimanche 21 mars 2004 1:30

 

I would also like to know what became of the de Saint Hubert family.  I got to know Mrs. de Saint Hubert very slightly at Weihsien. She was a refined gentlewoman and fond of children. I recall her being friendly to me when I was about twelve or thirteen years old. She would stop me for a friendly chat. I really liked her.

I don't recall the name of her son, but her daughter was Jacqueline de Saint Hubert. Jacqueline was a highly talented singer who used to practice at Kitchen #l. I remember being quite awed by the strength and range of Jacqueline's soprano voice. It was rumored that she could actually crack a glass tumbler with her high notes.

Why, I do not know, but I always thought that Mr. de Saint Hubert was a Belgian diplomat! Perhaps because he seemed like such a dignified gentleman. In my young mind he just filled the profile of an ambassador or consul or something similar!

Anyway, I too would love to know where these folk went and what they have done in the years following our internment!

 

cliffnorman@aol.com wrote:

Can anyone tell me what happened to the DE SAINT HUBERTS?  There was a son and a daughter, both quite tall I think, and of Belgium.        Norman Cliff

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Some info. please

Date: lundi 22 mars 2004 2:27

 

Hello Norm -- Their names were Christian and Jacqueline.  The last I heard, was that they were both doing well in Belgium, but I know no more than that.  Hope the names help -- Pamela

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Some info. please/the de Saint Huberts

Date: lundi 22 mars 2004 3:45

 

Emily,

    You have the address of Jacqueline de Saint Hubert, don't you?  I believe

she lives near Washington, DC.

 

    Mary Previte

 

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Jacqueline de Saint Hubert

Date: dimanche 4 avril 2004 1:59

 

My last contact:

 

Solange MacLean (formerly Jacqueline de Saint Hubert)

Phone: 703-534-1528 or 540-687-4255

6905 Hickory Hills

Falls Church,   VA

 

Mary Previte

 

De: "Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>; "Norman Cliff" <Cliffnorman@aol.com>

Objet: Christian de Saint-Hubert

Date: mercredi 7 avril 2004 16:50

 

Dear Norman,

 

The only reply I got after writing to the "Ministère des Affaires Etrangères" in Brussels is that Christian de Saint-Hubert died on September 12, 1992.

 

Searching the Internet, I found this, that might interest you and others ---

 

Go to:

 

http://www.warship.org/backis.htm

 

and in issue n°2 of 1994 there is an article about Christian de Saint-Hubert.

 

 

      1994 Issues

    

      No.1 1994

     

     featuring: The Redoutable Part I; The Loss of HMS Glorious - An Analysis of the Action

     No.2 1994

     

     featuring: The Redoutable Part II; Obituary of Christian de Saint Hubert; The Bismarck's Final Battle.

    

      No.3 1994

     

     featuring: Powering of Warships; Obituary of Fukui Shizun; The Royal Navy Scout Class of 1904-05.

     No.4 1994

     

     featuring:Auxiliary Building Program of 1938; The Fate of Tashkent; Impressions from a Week in the Baltic/Kaliningrad Area.

    

 

 

Hope this helps,

All the best,

Leopold

 

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Evelyn Davey (Huebener)

Date: mardi 13 avril 2004 21:27

 

Dear Friends,

       I sent a copy of Leopold's tribute to Evelyn Davey to her.  Her

response was:

                   I think that there is quite a lot of confusion, and I'm

                   pretty sure he was talking about Nelma Stranks's class

                   and not mine.  Perhaps before the Chefoo contingent

                   arrived.  After that I was loaned to the Weihsien School,

                   and taught 4 - 5 year olds, while Nelma had the  6- 7s.

                   It would be easy to confuse us as we were both about

                   the same age, and both with dark hair.  My class was

                   not in the Hospital, but in a disused laundry. It was

                   located near the cobbler's shop and the barber's, some-

                   where between the Hospital and camp headquarters.

                         I don't remember many of the children's names, but

                   I did have Margaret MacMillan, Mickey Paternoster, a

                   Janette, and a Gillian Pryor, and Andrew (Cess Pool)

                   Kelly.

                         So perhaps there should be a correction, and

Leopold's

                   nice remarks go to Nelma instead.

                                                 Quoted by Norman Cliff.

 

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Fwd: Weihsien-OSS Duck Mission-Baby Bonnet

Date: jeudi 29 avril 2004 3:16

 

Hello, Everyone,

 

    Here's a fascinating request for information about a baby bonnet from

Weihsien.  I know someone will have all the answers for this writer.

 

    Mary Previte

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Susan Strange

To: mtprevite@aol.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 9:55 PM

Subject: Weihsien-OSS Duck Mission-Baby Bonnet

 

I work at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington and am researching a baby bonnet made and worn in Weihsien by Sandra Roche, now Mrs. Lawrence Small.  She was born in January 1945 and of course remembers nothing of her stay in the camp; what she knows was told to her by her parents, Rochelle and Alvin Hans Roche.  By any chance do you remember the Roches?

 

I am writing because the National Museum of American History is opening a new military history exhibit on Veterans Day entitled "Price of Freedom."  One of the objects on display will be the baby bonnet, apparently made from old curtains.  Especially interesting are the 22 signatures on the brim.  One name, Tad Nagaki, I was able to decipher thanks to the several websites that contain information about the OSS "Duck" rescue mission. Your name turned up repeatedly on these websites and that is why I am reaching out to you.

 

If I were able to get a close-up of the names, perhaps you would be willing to look them over to see if you recognize anyone.  Mrs. Small was told that the signatures were of camp members as well as the rescuers.  I see that you have several photographs as well as a copy of the mission report; I am hopeful you might allow us to make copies or point us to the original sources.  The piece of parachute silk with the men's signatures done in embroidery is especially interesting; some of the signature's on the bonnet have also been embroidered. 

 

But first, I hope we can make contact!  My work number is 202-633-3734 (8-5:00), and my home is 301-424-3194 (6:30-8:30).  Normally I am not anxious to take work calls at home, but this baby bonnet and its story has me intrigued.  I am sure you are very busy, but I hope we can touch base before  too long.  Many, many thanks, Susan Strange, Reference Archivist, Archives Center, National Museum of American History 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>; "Susan Strange" <stranges@nmah.si.edu>

Cc: "Janette & Pierre @ home" <pierre.ley@pandora.be>; "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien-OSS Duck Mission-Baby Bonnet

Date: jeudi 29 avril 2004 18:30

 

Hello,

 

Four years old in 1945, I don't remember anything about Weihsien prison camp --- or so little. So, sixty years later, I am trying to assemble the pieces of the puzzle on a Web site. All this is a Internet miracle and I'm getting help from all over the world. Just go to: http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm  and I hope that you will find what you are looking for.  Go to Ron Bridge's chapter and click on the map (first picture in the left column). Find block No 18 and click on that --- and the computer should give you the names of all those who lived there for "873" days!

 

The family Roche were in room No 10.

 

I recently met with Norman Cliff in London. The "Picture Gallery" will soon amplify with new paintings, sketches, newspaper articles, documents  ---- all about Weihsien.

 

Best regards,

 

Leopold

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien-OSS Duck Mission-Baby Bonnet

Date: vendredi 30 avril 2004 17:18

 

Leopold,  You're doing a great job.

 

Don

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien-OSS Duck Mission-Baby Bonnet

Date: vendredi 30 avril 2004 23:34

 

Thanks for the compliment. You are real nice. I'm always open to suggestions of course --- new pictures, new documents ---

All the best,

Leopold

 

De: "Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>; <MTPrevite@aol.com>; <stranges@nmah.si.edu>

Objet: Weihsien-OSS Duck Mission-Baby Bonnet

Date: samedi 1 mai 2004 14:47

 

I have read the message from Susan Strange about the baby bonnet. I have all the signatures of the original seven parachutists who rescued us in Weihsien on 17 August 1945 on my drawing of a parachute on a sheet of paper which I drew in the camp.  It also contains the signature of John A Wagonner who may have been the captain  who claimed (wrongly) to to have been one of the original rescuers. A photograph of this document appears in my book "Forgiven But Not Forgotten" (Page 52).  The signatures are quite legible there. I still have the original. Joyce Bradbury, Sydney Australia.

 

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Thank you Norman,

Date: dimanche 2 mai 2004 11:44

 

Dear Norman, --- and Weihsien friends,      

 

You may have already noticed that on the Weihsien Picture Gallery web site, there is a new chapter "From Norman Cliff". I am in possession of Norman's Weihsien scrap book with a tremendous amount of information. Thank you Norman for sharing your personal data with all of us.

 

A little bit every day, and the site keeps on growing.

 

I need your help:

 

The paintings: Can somebody help me for an interesting comment under each painting?  Who? When? Where? An anecdote about? ---

 

The liberation day: Absolutely incredible. I showed the picture to Father Hanquet two days ago, and he told me that the fellow with the sun glasses in the middle of the picture was himself!  ---- and that the little boy he was holding by the hand was me!  (I seemed quite lost !?)  Who else can you recognise on that photograph? Which part of it must I enlarge for better recognition? Let me know? I shall add it to the sub-chapter named "liberation day" in Normans's chapter.

 

All the best,

 

Leopold

 

De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>

À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Weihsien

Date: dimanche 2 mai 2004 17:24

 

Thank you, Leopold.  Your Weihsien Gallery is just great.  I wish I were able to "construct" such a web site. 

I am unable to open "escape" and "compound".    "Liberation Day" opens up without any trouble.  I am afraid that I do not recognise anyone.  Is anyone else unable to open the above mentioned sections?

Natasha Petersen

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Cc: <Weihsien@t>

Objet: Re: Thank you Norman,

Date: dimanche 2 mai 2004 18:05

 

Leopold,

                   Liberation Day -

       I can only identify two people - (a) Gordon Martin, Chefoo School

master, is to the right (from our point of view) of Emmanuel.  Between the two men

is a white hat.  Martin has only khaki shorts on, and his left hand is in a V

shape up and down.

(b) Rev. Howard Smith, Methodist missionary.  His face is in the bottom right

hand corner, one inch from the right edge, and one inch from the bottom.  He

has glasses on.

       You will see the No. 17 at the end of a block.If you look at a map you

can work out in which direction the photo was taken.

 

                               Keep up the good work,   Norman

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien

Date: dimanche 2 mai 2004 18:19

 

Correct. "escape" and "compound" are actually in a stand-by position and shall shortly be completed with info.

 

Any memories about the paintings? I shall try and get the other paintings "on" for next week. I need the assistance of a photocopy shop to reduce the sizes!

 

Best regards,

 

Leopold

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Weihsien

Date: lundi 3 mai 2004 11:05

 

Dear Natasha,

 

          Hello, it's me again. I have been thinking about your desire to build up a web site. This is an excellent idea. You could assemble all you have about Weihsien and China --- in those days! It is always  good to have a different point of view of a same subject.

Donald Menzi's web site is linked to the "Picture Gallery" and vice versa. If we both could create a link to your web site ---- (?) that would be great. Yes, I think that it is a great idea.  What do you think?

Leopold

***

 

De: "Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: smithsonian

Date: jeudi 10 juin 2004 10:42

 

Hello Weihsien Friends,

Topica is so silent for the moment.

The last message is more than a month old!

Is everybody OK?

 

You may like to know that the CAC Weihsien will soon be present at The Smithsonian in Washington DC. It all started with Mary's message on Topica ---- one of the last ones to be read.

 

Mrs. Susan Strange of the Smithsonian explains in a recent message:

"

Dear Dr. Cliff:  Leopold Pander has been kind enough to provide me with your email address.  As you may have read in the email that Leopold copied to you, I work at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.  The museum is working on a new military history exhibit, "Price of Freedom," which will open this fall.  There will be a "changing" exhibit case at the end of the World War II section which will feature, initially, two civilian internee camps, Los Banos in the Philippines and Weihsien in China.  We expect the materials in this case will be on display for about one year (until late 2005) before the case is changed to reflect a different topic. 

One of the objects that will be on display in this case is a baby bonnet worn by Sandra Roche, who was born in Weihsien in January 1945.  My task has been to search for materials that will complement the bonnet, and I was delighted when I found Leopold's web site.  While there are many interesting images on the website, our exhibit designers selected only two - both belonging to  you.  These images are "The Gateway to Freedom" sketch and the "Allied Prisoners" flier.  We plan to use a reproduction of the "Allied Prisoners" flier, and perhaps Leopold can provide us with the high-resolution scan we will require, if this is agreeable to you. 

---

Thank you so much for considering our requests.  Sincerely yours, Susan Strange

Reference Archivist, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

"

and,

 

" --- If you are interested in reading more about the exhibit, please look at http://americanhistory.si.edu/media/pr040319.htm  ---

"

All this is very exiting!

Best regards,

Leopold.

 

De: "Mahlon D. Horton" <berean@lincsat.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: smithsonian

Date: jeudi 10 juin 2004 20:11

 

Thank you for your good work.  This is all very exciting.   Audrey Nordmo Horton

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: smithsonian

Date: vendredi 11 juin 2004 6:08

 

Congratulations to Leopold!  Being the link between the Smithsonian and

Weihsien is a well-deserved honor.   We are proud of what you have done.

 

Donald

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: red cross parcel

Date: vendredi 11 juin 2004 15:41

 

Hello,

 

I'm not quite certain about something I recopied from Norman's scrap books.

In the "Dairy" chapter, there is a text about the red cross parcels written by Mrs. Grace Harris. Towards the end, she writes:

" --- and these new words we have added to our vocabularies such as "spam" "prem" "mor"  will bring back memories ---"

I remember my dad cutting thin slices of spam for us after the laborious opening of the metal box which contained it. I'm not at all sure of the spelling of the two other words and --- can someone tell me what it is?

Best regards,

 

Leopold

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: red cross parcel

Date: vendredi 11 juin 2004 20:40

 

They were other propriety names for the same thing chopped pork luncheon meat

rgds

Ron bridge

 

De: "Fred & Coral Dreggs" <dreggs1@bigpond.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: red cross parcel

Date: samedi 12 juin 2004 7:08

 

Hi Leopold,

 

The canned meats you mention have certainly brought back memories. I particularly liked SPAM and still do, as a matter of fact. I once heard that that brand name is an acronym of "Specially Processed American Meat'' You reckon that's correct? I did not like PREM which, as I recall, was a pate not unlike liverwurst you can buy today. It came in a metal tube with a diameter of around 30mm. I never heard of MOR. As I was 19 years old when we were liberated I believe my memory of those days is quite vivid.

 

Regards

 

Fred (Alfie)

 

De: "Fred & Coral Dreggs" <dreggs1@bigpond.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Smithsonian

Date: samedi 12 juin 2004 7:31

 

Hi Leopold,

 

Thanks for bringing to mind the reference to the "Allied Prisoners'' flier (very aptly named as it was dropped from a plane). When these were dropped, one bundle, still tied, containing about a ream landed just outside our cell and smashed to smithereens a wooden tub we had. It grazed my Dad's arm and if it had hit his head the injury would have been quite serious.

 

I am only mentioning this trivia just to keep the pot boiling as there has been very little communication at the Weihsien site lately.

 

All the best

 

Fred

 

De: "Peter Talbot" <maori@sprint.ca>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: red cross parcel

Date: samedi 12 juin 2004 17:15

 

I was only five when we got the American Red Cross parcels. Spam is still my comfort food. I am told that the word was coined from sp for spiced and am for ham. I remember some sort of problems with the distribution of the parcels, what was that all about?

Wilson's meats produced Mor and Swifts produces Prem. Peter Talbot

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: red cross parcel

Date: samedi 12 juin 2004 18:25

 

Dear Peter --

Good hearing from you.  I remember playing with your sister Gay in Chinwangtao, and I also remember you being born in that little treaty port.  If you would like a full account of the Red Cross comfort parcel fiasco, you might be interested in my book The Mushroom Years.  You can pull it up, along with is sequel (a story of survival here in the USA!), on my webpage www.hendersonhouse.com. 

Please give my kindest regards to your sister.  Fondly -- Pamela Masters (nee Bobby Simmons)

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>; <president@msi-professional.org>; <johnandbeth6690@sbcglobal.net>; <jimcora@uswest.net>; <WMJax@cs.com>

Objet: Re: Smithsonian Museum of American History -Weihsien exhibit

Date: dimanche 13 juin 2004 4:39

 

Hello, Everyone,

 

    I visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., today.  The museum already has signs posted announcing its up-coming  exhibit, "The Price of Freedom," due to open on Veterans Day in November, 2004.  This exhibit surveys the American Military from the colonial days to the present, exploring ways that wars have been defining episodes in American history.  How mind boggling to imagine Weihsien being part of such a display!

 

    I was to have handed over to curator Susan Strange on Friday one item for the exhibit on Weihsien, but the whole U. S. federal government and most of Washington, D.C., was closed down on Friday for President Ronald Reagan's viewing and funeral.  I'm loaning to the Smithsonian the parachute silk embroidered with the scene of the liberation of Weihsien and autographed by each rescuer.   Carol Orlich, the wife of rescuer Peter Orlich, gave this treasure to me in 1997 when I tracked her down in New York.  Pete Orlich, the radio operator on the rescue team, was only 21 years old at the time of the rescue.  A lot of girls in Weihsien fell in love with him because he was cute, bashful, and single.   According to Carol Orlich, Pete said a white Russian woman embroidered this remarkable memento and gave it to him as a goodbye gift as he was leaving Weihsien.  I've tried unsuccessfully to find the name of the woman or girl who embroidered it.      Because I also have seen a similar paper pattern or model of this rescue scene, I wonder whether other women or girls might have used it as a guide to embroider this same scene.  Anyone have information about this?

 

    The scene includes the date in the upper left corner -- August 17, 1945. 

 The B-24 "Liberator" bomber  is pictured in the upper right.  The seven parachutes and men are pictured floating in the sky below the  plane, and next to each is  the autograph of the rescuer.  When I visited him in Reno, Nevada, Major Stanley Staiger told me the signatures accurately show the order in which the men jumped.  Major Staiger was out first.

 

    Jim Hannon told me that Chinese interpreter Eddie Wang hesitated when Wang's turn came to jump, and Hannon had to give him a little push.  Part of the Air Ground Assistance Service, Jim Hannon had trained in parachute jumping and has told me more than once that a successful parachute drop depends on a successful start.  Hannon was the only one of the team injured in the jump -- a bad landing, he says, because he was encouraging Eddie Wang to jump.  The embroidery shows that Jim Hannon jumped right after Eddie Wang.

 

This jump was a miracle in so many ways.  You can't jump out of a bomb bay.  Jim Moore described to me that for this parachute jump,  a hole had been cut in the belly of the plane behind the bomb bay and covered with plywood.  The plywood was removed when they were ready to jump through this hole.  Do you remember, August 17 was a very windy day -- bad for parachute drops?

 

By the way, Carol Orlich celebrates her 83rd birthday, June 13.  If anyone would like to send her a card or note, her address is 15727 20th Road, Whiteston, NY  11357  Carol delights in every card, letter, memento and shows them joyfully to her family and friends.

 

Carol is absolutely ecstatic about Pete's embroidered parachute silk being on display in the Smithsonian, and is already talking of her whole family descending together on the Smithsonian's Museum of American History to see it.

 

Smithsonian asks me to indicate the value of this embroidered and autographed parachute silk.  Bless my soul!  How in the world do you put a value on such a treasure?

 

My brother Jim recently attended in London a Chefoo school reunion -- many from Weihsien.  Some had brought mementos -- one of them, a Spam can shaped into a small pitcher with the lid curled into a handle.  Remember those?

 

    I had suggested mementos like that to Smithsonian curator Susan Strange as possible additions to the Weihsien exhibit, but she says the size of the

Weihsien display is too limited.

 

    Some of you may be interested in those who attended the recent Chefoo reunion in London:  Douglas Sadler  (I believe Eric Liddell gave to Doug Sadler the running shoes  he wore when he won the gold medal in the 1924 Olympics in Paris),  George Bell, Richard Phillips,  David Thomas, Roland Stedeford, James Taylor,  Beryl Strange Goodland,  Alec Luxon,  Peter Bazire,  Winnie Christensen,  Roxie Hanna Wilson,  Kathleen Foster, Mary Hoyte Broughton,  Helen Marek, Marian Lauchlan, Roy and Maude Campbell.  I have addresses or e-mails of most of these, so if any of you wishes to reconnect with these long ago friends,

I'll be glad to provide the information.

 

For those of you close enough to visit Washington, D.C., do visit the new World War II memorial.  I was deeply moved by this monument today.  What a tribute!

 

    Mary Taylor Previte

 

   

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Job well done

Date: dimanche 13 juin 2004 21:11

 

Dear Leopold,

       I am just back and excitedly turned on your good work.  You have done a MAGNIFICENT JOB, and I want to congratulate you for it.  It must have taken many hours of work.

       Three questions to ask you -  1. Would you like me to advise you of any errors?  e.g. David Michell not Mitchell (pronounced Mishell)

                                                  2. There are blanks under many of the pictures.  Would you like me to suggest what to put there?

                                                 3.  I have now got the departments which those men were Chairmen of, and can advise.

       Keep up the good work.  The whole thing is fascinating.  Yours, 

Norman

                                     Love to Nicky.

                  

       

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Dates of Birth

Date: dimanche 13 juin 2004 21:12

 

Ron,

       I note that there are some dates of birth missing for some Chefoo people.

       I have my aunt's (Marjory Broomhall) list of every girl who went to Chefoo, giving their dates of birth.  I can send it to you if you wish.  

Greetings, Norman

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Smithsonian Museum of American History -Weihsien exhibit

Date: dimanche 13 juin 2004 23:49

 

Mary,

Eric Liddell actually gave those historic running shoes to a different Chefoo boy, Stephen Metcalf! Metcalf recalls the incident in the video made by DAY OF DISCOVERY which is obtainable from that organization. I have a copy of it. It runs for 1.5 hours and comprises three full Day of Discovery half-hour TV programs. It is an excellent series and very accurately and thrillingly reproduces Eric Liddell's life from childhood, through the 1924 Olympics and culminates in Weihsien. A number of Old Chefusians were interviewed on camera including Stephen Metcalf, Norman Cliff, Kari Torjeson, Sylvia Welch, Grace Liversedge and one or two others.

Sincerely

David Birch

 

De: "leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Job well done

Date: lundi 14 juin 2004 15:28

 

Dear Norman,

 

Thanks for your message.

 

Glad you had a nice holiday --- it's always good to be back home again. I am actually exploring "Scrap Book number 2" --- and all the hand-written letters which help to build up the "Dairy" chapter. I just finished the "Weihsien Bravery" letter, and Janette is finishing re-copying Evelyn Hubener's dairy. That will soon be included with all the drawings (as links).

 

English is not my number one language and I still make many mistakes --- so, YES! please do tell me when something isn't as it should. Sometimes I'm not quite sure about what I am re-copying from your scrap books and recently got an excellent answer for "spam" "prem" and "mor"  --- as you certainly have read on Topica.

 

Correct: many pictures have blanks. Yes --- if there could be an explanation - or a story, and/or an anecdote to each picture --- I think that the visitor to the web site would appreciate. The interactivity between pictures and text is quite easy to create and if someone else has an explanation or a story for a particular picture  ----  you're all welcome!

 

Hope to read you soon,

All the best to Joyce,

Nicky and Leopold 

 

De: "Mahlon D. Horton" <berean@lincsat.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: a couple of maiden names added to reunion list

Date: lundi 14 juin 2004 20:15

 

MTPrevite@aol.com wrote:

  Hello, Everyone,

 

  I visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., today. The museum already has signs posted announcing its up-coming exhibit, "The Price of Freedom," due to open on Veterans Day in November, 2004. This exhibit surveys the American Military from the colonial days to the present, exploring ways that wars have been defining episodes in American history. How mind boggling to imagine Weihsien being part of such a display!

I was to have handed over to curator Susan Strange on Friday one item for the exhibit on Weihsien, but the whole U. S. federal government and most of Washington, D.C., was closed down on Friday for President Ronald Reagan's viewing and funeral. I'm loaning to the Smithsonian the parachute silk embroidered with the scene of the liberation of Weihsien and autographed by each rescuer. Carol Orlich, the wife of rescuer Peter Orlich, gave this treasure to me in 1997 when I tracked her down in New York. Pete Orlich, the radio operator on the rescue team, was only 21 years old at the time of the rescue. A lot of girls in Weihsien fell in love with him because he was cute, bashful, and single. According to Carol Orlich, Pete said a white Russian woman embroidered this remarkable memento and gave it to him as a goodbye gift as he was leaving Weihsien. I've tried unsuccessfully to find the name of the woman or girl who embroidered it.

 

  Because I also have seen a similar paper pattern or model of this rescue scene, I wonder whether other women or girls might have used it as a guide to embroider this same scene. Anyone have information about this?

 

  The scene includes the date in the upper left corner -- August 17, 1945. The B-24 "Liberator" bomber is pictured in the upper right. The seven parachutes and men are pictured floating in the sky below the plane, and next to each is the autograph of the rescuer. When I visited him in Reno, Nevada, Major Stanley Staiger told me the signatures accurately show the order in which the men jumped. Major Staiger was out first.

 

  Jim Hannon told me that Chinese interpreter Eddie Wang hesitated when Wang's turn came to jump, and Hannon had to give him a little push. Part of the Air Ground Assistance Service, Jim Hannon had trained in parachute jumping and has told me more than once that a successful parachute drop depends on a successful start. Hannon was the only one of the team injured in the jump -- a bad landing, he says, because he was encouraging Eddie Wang to jump. The embroidery shows that Jim Hannon jumped right after Eddie Wang.

 

  This jump was a miracle in so many ways. You can't jump out of a bomb bay. Jim Moore described to me that for this parachute jump, a hole had been cut in the belly of the plane behind the bomb bay and covered with plywood. The plywood was removed when they were ready to jump through this hole. Do you remember, August 17 was a very windy day -- bad for parachute drops?

 

  By the way, Carol Orlich celebrates her 83rd birthday, June 13. If anyone would like to send her a card or note, her address is 15727 20th Road, Whiteston, NY 11357 Carol delights in every card, letter, memento and shows them joyfully to her family and friends.

 

  Carol is absolutely ecstatic about Pete's embroidered parachute silk being on display in the Smithsonian, and is already talking of her whole family descending together on the Smithsonian's Museum of American History to see it.

 

  Smithsonian asks me to indicate the value of this embroidered and autographed parachute silk. Bless my soul! How in the world do you put a value on such a treasure?

 

  My brother Jim recently attended in London a Chefoo school reunion -- many from Weihsien. Some had brought mementos -- one of them, a Spam can shaped ito a small pitcher with the lid curled into a handle. Remember those?

 

  I had suggested mementos like that to Smithsonian curator Susan Strange as possible additions to the Weihsien exhibit, but she says the size of the Weihsien display is too limited.

 

  Some of you may be interested in those who attended the recent Chefoo (reunion in London: Douglas Sadler (I believe Eric Liddell gave to Doug Sadler the running shoes he wore when he won the gold medal in the 1924 Olympics in Paris), George Bell, Richard Phillips, David Thomas, Roland Stedeford, James Taylor, Beryl Strange Goodland,(  Alec Luxon, Peter Bazire, Winnie Christensen, Roxie Hanna Wilson, Kathleen Strange Foster, Mary Hoyte Broughton, Helen Costerus Marek, Marian Lauchlan, Roy and Maude Campbell. I have addresses or e-mails of most of these, so if any of you wishes to reconnect with these long ago

 

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Web Site

Date: mardi 15 juin 2004 23:08

 

 

Dear Weihsien friends,

 

Leopold has informed me that the portion of my family web site dealing with

Weihsien is not accessible.  I will try to fix that, but in the mean time you can get there through the "front door" via the address d.menzi.org (no www or any other prefix).  If you go to Site Directory you will find Weihsien as one of the directory listings, and get to the site that way.  I will try to re-establish the direct link and will let you know as soon as it is ready.

 

Sorry for the temporary breakdown.

 

Donald

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Web Connection Back Up

Date: mercredi 16 juin 2004 18:17

 

 

Weihsien Friends,

 

Thanks to Leopold's alert, I have re-established the web connection to the Weihsien pages on the Wilder-Stanley web site.  You can get to it via the address "weihsien.menzi.org."

 

Donald

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Web Connection Back Up

Date: mercredi 16 juin 2004 20:24

 

Thank you Donald!

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: weihsien@topica.com

---

Date: mercredi 16 juin 2004 20:59

 

Here's a silly question.  I was just talking to somebody at work and he asked why the Japanese bothered to keep us in a camp...why didn't they just send us away?  What was the point of using soldiers to guard us?  With the Germans it was clear that they didn't want to keep 'undesirables' but we were neither undesirable nor useful...so why were we there?  Any answers gratefully received!  Alison

 

De: "David Allen" <dandya@fidalgo.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re:

Date: mercredi 16 juin 2004 22:28

 

Hi Alison:                     06/16/04                     1325

    In any occupation situation control is the greatest need to complete conquest.  If we were not confined then we "possibly" would thwart their goal.  The flip side to that was that to control us they would have to feed up and watch over us.  The feeding had to be at the minimum so that we would not rise up and cause problems.  I lost 7 pounds weight from age 10 - 11 when I should have gained 10 pounds. I went from 77 pounds to 70 pounds by the time I was 11.

  Dave Allen           dandya@fidalgo.net

 

De: "Albert Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Why a camp for civilians?

Date: mercredi 16 juin 2004 22:37

 

I think the classical reason to confine civilian "enemy aliens" is so they cannot carry out activities that might be detrimental to the war effort from the point of view of the regime in power -- things like providing information, sabotage, etc. Putting all those people in an internment camp keeps all of them, including the highly competent with the most contacts, from doing much of anything effectively to impede the captors' prosecution of the war.

 

Albert de Zutter

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Dates of Birth

Date: samedi 19 juin 2004 11:03

 

Norman,

Many thanks I will sort them out albeit slowly as I am now working on my consolidated list of all Camps with those evacuated some of whom had been in camps I have 28,459 names. Also not included are 4,000 Americans in the Philippines and 18,000 Dutch from which I have extracted the British.

Rgds

Ron

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Smithsonian Museum of American History -Weihsien exhibit

Date: samedi 19 juin 2004 11:05

 

David Birch mention of the Day of Discovery I was one of the "one or two others"

Rgds

Ron Bridge

 

De: "David Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Smithsonian Museum of American History -Weihsien exhibit

Date: samedi 19 juin 2004 23:42

 

That's right, Ron! I recall now that you were one of the Weihsienites interviewed on the Day of Discovery program. I recall that you mentioned that your grandfather had been a missionary.

David Birch

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Dates of Birth

Date: dimanche 20 juin 2004 2:03

 

Ron:

 

    You are compiling an invaluable piece of history.   What an astonishing effort!  Would you tell us what got you started, when you got started, and how you have done this research?

 

Mary Previte

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Dates of Birth

Date: dimanche 20 juin 2004 20:03

 

Mary,

I started back in 1997 when in was Vice Chairman of ABCIFER I realised that if any government was going to give anything they would want proof of internment. I glibly thought that going to the UK National Archives they would all be in an appropriate file. Only to find that whilst the records of the 58,000 British Military are all on a card each raised by the Japanese and saved from burning in 1945 by an alert Royal Marine Commando, there were no consolidated records for civilians. My thrust has been British civilians but I have included all those in Camps where there were some British hence you are IN as are various others who subscribed to this site. As far as Weihsien is concerned Norman Cliff had an incomplete list dated 30Jun44 which quite a few people have and some of the RC Nuns. I then found a very detailed list of British in the Swiss Foreign Office Archives dated Jun 1943, another Camp list Sep 43 at the same source and a Sep 44 list in the Japanese National Archives, Greg Leck found a US Government list in NARA and Leopold Pander had the RC Priests and Religious. Various people looking at the Weihsien website have let me have further details. Others in Shanghai have let me have part lists of camps and as is said in the UK in police parlance “helped me with my inquiries" Part of Singapore is held in the Imperial War Museum London but I found the rest in Cambridge Univ Library. Stanley is in mostly in the IWM but there are other names in the UK National Archives. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have about 60% of the civilians who died in camps. Other sources have been shirts with signatures on, for some in Burma I found an accountants file on the money advanced on liberation from some camps in the British Library. I could go on and on.

   What seems to be happening is that after 20 years as a military pilot and 20 years as a commercial one I am hopefully going to end up with 20 years as a Historian by which time I guess it will be time to turn off the word-processor.

The Weihsien record that you have seen is under 2,000 names my total data base as I write is 28,459.

Sorry about the detail but you did ask.

Rgds

Ron Bridge

 

De: <MTPrevite@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Dates of Birth

Date: dimanche 20 juin 2004 20:54

 

Ron,

    What detective work and what an astonishing accomplishment!  We all reap the benefit of your years of research.  You've given a gift to all of us. 

Thank you a thousand times.

 

    How many people were interned in Weihsien when we were liberated?

 

    Mary Previte

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Why a camp for civilians?

Date: jeudi 24 juin 2004 8:32

 

Thank you for your replies which somehow crept in unnoticed in the daily deluge of emails.  And I suppose when you think of our gallant escapees rather than the school kids, there is some sense in lumping us all into one place to stop us from spying or blowing things up.  But it still must have cost them quite a lot to keep us there for years.  On a separate note, reading the books of Ann Bridge *Peking Picnic.  Ginger Griffin.  Four Part setting. has given me insight into the life of those in China who were not in the Chefoo/CIM group.  China in the thirties, romantic exploration of life and love, British (mostly).  Elisabeth, my sister, was delighted to find that the Chefoo consul who signed her birth certificate was in one of them!

Alison

 

De: "Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Why a camp for civilians?

Date: jeudi 24 juin 2004 9:05

 

Apart from any other reason civilian prisoners are a valuable asset for a combatant country. Especially as barter to swap for their own nationals from their enemy.

I only became aware after the War that many internees from WeiHsien were exchanged for Japanese persons in the US at the generous rate of one to four Japanese.  (Via the Grippsholme  et al?)

One of my American friends from WeiHsien told me a couple of years ago that he was offered repatriation to US but declined.  My mother and her brother were Russian but although she was interned as British because her husband was British, her brother lived free under the Japanese and worked in Dairen and Shanghai for Caltex during the whole of the War.

 

De: "Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>

À: weihsien@topica.com

---

Date: jeudi 24 juin 2004 9:14

 

I have just noticed my name did not appear on the message I just sent about repatriation from WeiHsien. Sorry. I sent it. Joyce Bradbury nee Cooke.

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Why a camp for civilians?

Date: jeudi 24 juin 2004 13:17

 

With due respects to Joyce, my Shorthand pupil in Weihsien, I do not think  that it is correct to say that Japs were exchanged with Americans on a ratio of  four to one.  I have not read this in any of the histories of that time.  

Norman Cliff.

 

De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Why a camp for civilians?

Date: jeudi 24 juin 2004 15:56

 

Thanks Joyce!  How interesting your reply is, both pieces, that of the exchange value and the fact that your uncle carried on working throughout the war years.  Are there any memoirs of those who worked under the Japanese?  Were they mostly Russian?  I am amazed at how small my focus has been over the years!  Thank you.  Alison

 

De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Why a camp for civilians?

Date: jeudi 24 juin 2004 16:39

 

Like Joyce, I have no direct evidence regarding the swap ratio of Japanese to Americans, but I heard it was considerably higher than 4 to 1; actually, about twice that! It would be interesting to get the true figures if anyone has the time and inclination...

Pamela Master (aka Bobby Simmons)

 

De: "Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>

À: weihsien@topica.com

---

Date: vendredi 25 juin 2004 7:58

 

Dear fellow internees.

Greetings Norman and thanks for the shorthand lessons which came in very handy later in my life.

I do remember the name of the person who told me about the value placed on the swapped prisoners and that person can make his own decision whether or not to enter into this discussion. The fact that the Japanese held captives for bargaining purposes is mentioned in page 262 of Fr. R.J. DeJaegher's book "The Enemy Within" published by the Society of St. Paul, Bandra Bombay - 50, 1969.

On page 21 of Langdon Gilkey's book Shantung Compound it is recorded that in late August 1943, six months after WeiHsien camp began about 200 Americans were repatriated on the Gripsholm followed two weeks afterwards by the majority of the Catholic clergy.

I do not know of any memoires written by non-internee Europeans living under the Japanese in China. But I do know of my uncle (Russian) who I have already mentioned. He married the daughter of the Estonian Consul, in Dairen during the War.  Also another of my Russian uncles lived in Tsingtao.     There were some German and Italian nationals, friends of our family living during the war in Tsingtao and in fact they looked after some of our valuable property while we were interned and which we recovered afterwards. However we left all but one of my dolls with an uncle for safe keeping (Taking my topsy doll into camp with me - which I still have) together with our Cocker Spaniel dog Sally. While we were away he sold the dolls and the dolls house, and also disposed of Sally to a German lady.  We recovered Sally but as her name had been changed to Mutze we left it at that and she lived with us for a few more years. Another friend, an American, Mr Gerber and his daughter Alice Gerber were interned but his wife who was German but did not hold an American passport was not. Our good friend Freddie Gensberger and his father (French) were not interned and they afterwards told us that some of our so called friends in Tsingtao (not our property guardians) who were not interned had suggested our heads be shaved and we be made to wear striped garments. I remember hearing Freddie say this but I do not know whether it is true or not. He and his father are both long passed on. Of course after the surrender of Italy about 100 Italian nationals were brought into our camp. Also some Portuguese were not interned. Joyce Bradbury

 

De: <cliffnorman@aol.com>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Re: Exchange of Prisoners

Date: samedi 26 juin 2004 13:37

 

Dear Joyce,

       When I wrote my book PRISONERS OF THE SAMURAI which related to all the internment camps in Chinas I had a chapter (8) on "Prisoner Exchanges and Repatriations".

       In it I drew heavily from Scott Corbett's book QUIET PASSAGES.  It described all the negotiations which took places and which issues arose.  There is no reference to ratios of prisoners.

       In Sept. 43 the Gripsholm sailed from New York with 1,340 Japs on board and the Teia Maru left the Huangpu with 1,600 prisoners.

                         Greetings,   Norman

 

 

De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>

À: "Weihsien Chatline" <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Weihsien Inmates

Date: lundi 28 juin 2004 23:03

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As many of you know Leopold Pander has up the list of Inmates on the Weihsien website. The names are from one or more of the following:

Swiss list of British June 1943

Swiss list of British Sep 1943

New York Times list of Gripsholm Passengers

List of exchanges from the India Office Collection British Library

Camp List 30Jun44,

Camp List 30Sep44

US Army Signal of inmates 02Sep45 held in the NARA

Names extracted form the numerous books that have been written about Weihsien.

I have limited the web site list to a full name, nationality, date of birth, sex, profession, Camp address, date released or moved. Date died. I actually have 25 fields on my data base of the facts those years ago.

Increasingly there seem to be a need for births and marriages this could be put in the Column now headed Died with the prefix B, M or D.

This Weihsien listing is part of a much wider study which will end up in Museums Universities etc

If anyone feels that they can add to anything that they have seen on the website listing and do not mind it being public knowledge for future generations I would be pleased to hear from them. If you do not want to use this chat line e-mail me direct on rwbridge@freeuk.com

Thank you

Ron

PS There will be an amendment on the current listing in about a month I am working on it now and will send it to Leopold to update the site.

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Illustrations

Date: mercredi 30 juin 2004 22:45

 

 

The attached page goes with the previous email.

 

De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@earthlink.net>

À: <weihsien@topica.com>

Objet: Bounced Document

Date: mercredi 30 juin 2004 23:59

 

 

Hi again.

The document that the "Illustrations" illustrated got bounce back.  I'll make it still smaller and send it again later tonight.

 

Sorry

 

Donald Menzi