[weihsien_camp] What day day! One year ago, today --finding Weihsien hero

My heart has been cheering today. What a miracle! — one year ago today,— March 29, 2015 —connecting with the last of our Weihsien heroes — the last living member of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, who liberated Weihsien. The youngest member — only 19 years old.

In 1997, in a miracle search, I found the six Americans who had been on that rescue team: Major Stanley Staiger, Ensign Jimmie Moore, 1st Lt. James Hannon, Sgt. Tad Nagaki, T/4 Raymond Hanchulak, and T/5 Peter Orlich.

But seven heroes liberated Weihsien. Where was Wang Cheng-Han? We children called him “Eddie.” He was a Chinese, college student who could speak English, who dropped out of college so he could fight the Japanese. When he was assigned to the Duck Mission team to be the Chinese interpreter, he had had no idea he would parachute from a B-24 to liberate a Japanese-held internment camp. Yes, he could speak English. But, no, he had never jumped from an airplane before.

After all these years and from a country of more than a billion people, how in the world would I find a man named Wang? Had he stayed in China after the war? Fled to Taiwan with the Nationalists? Could he have migrated to the United States?

Oh, yes, I tried. Did the American team mates know what happened to “Eddie” Wang? Was the New York Times reporter whose Edward Wang by-line I discovered — by chance, was his family connected to the liberation of Weihsien? Did the Chinese newspaper who offered to help me search — did they have any luck?

The answers always came back, NO.

I do believe in miracles. But really and truly, by 2015, with 70 years passed — I had given up. I kept wishing. But I had stopped looking. Maybe finding and visiting the six Americans on the liberation team was to be a miracle enough.

On March 29, 2015, an e-mail message stunned me. It was dated 12:21 p.m. “I am the grandson of Edward Wang, who was the Chinese interpreter of the rescue team going to the Japanese concentrate camp in Weihsien, China, on August 17, 1945. I am currently living with my wife in Lexington, SC with a temporary VISA.”

Bless my soul! Answers in South Carolina!

“My grandfather is still alive, 90 years old now, living in China,” Daniel Wang continued. “He is very healthy!” Daniel’s e-mail included photographs!

Oh, yes, I do believe in miracles.

From an article I had written for the Weihsien web site, "How I found my Weihsien Heroes,” “Eddie” Wang’s grandson had found my name and e-mail address. I had ended that story: “I am still looking for ‘Eddie’ Wang."

I told my daughter, "I want to make a hero of him in China.”

That was long, long overdue. Chinese newspapers helped: China Daily out of Beijing, and the local newspaper in Guizhou where Mr. Wang lives. And, of course, Sui ShuDe, our all-time favorite "go-to" man in Weifang, who made hero Wang Cheng-Han the centerpiece of the 70th anniversary celebration in Weifang last August. Then came movie cameras with a delgation from Weifang. Another Weihsien movie is now in the works.

Finding a hero — today is, indeed, a red-letter day.

I hope Daniel Wang can send us photos of Mr. Wang’s 91st birthday celebration.

MaryTaylor Previte

To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 at 14:02

Re: [weihsien_camp] Re: information inquiry

Moses Chu, a successful Chinese business man and scholar who grew up in Yantai and later moved to the United States, wrote about missionary work in Shantung province, including the founding of Le Dao Yuan.

I believe some of Mr. Chu's writing about this is posted on the Weihsien Topica archives.

I never met Moses Chu, but we often chatted by telephone. Mr. Chu translated into Chinese my magazine story, Song of Salvation at Weihsien Prison Camp, and with my permission, published it in a Chinese-English booklet for distribution in China. He had read this magazine story when it was printed as the cover story of the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine in 1985 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ending of World War ll and the liberation of Weihsien camp. That's when Mr. Chu first contacted me.

Mary Taylor Previte

Sent from my iPad

'tapol_(Skynet)' tapol@skynet.be [weihsien_camp]
To:bacili1983@126.com,weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 at 08:42

[weihsien_camp] Re: information inquiry

Dear Zhang Hua

The best I can do, is to forward your message to our Weihsien-group and let us hope that somebody will be able to help you ☺

Best regards,
Leopold

From: zhanghua
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 11:47 PM
To: tapol@skynet.be

Subject: information inquiry

Hi, I am from Weihsien, and I am very interested in Weihsien camp and its history.

When I looked for materials in PennState University Libraries website and found the book Di Gong Shi Lue by 880-01 Ma, Jingtang; 880-04 Chang, Daixian

Di gong shi lue(狄公事略）is a book about Robert Mateer who built Le Dao Yuan.

But I could not read it on line or how can I get a copy of it?

Please tell me about it if you know it.
I appreciate your help very much.

Yours
Zhang Hua from China