Re: [weihsien_camp] Re:My heartfelt gratitude on Veterans’ Day

How lovely to hear from you, Albert! I have such happy memories of our reunion together in Weifang, 2005.

You are thinking of Ensign Jim Moore.

Jimmy Moore was American, from Dallas, Texas. His parents were Baptist missionaries to China. I believe they took Jimmy to China when Jimmy was u about a year old. He grew up there. He attended and graduated from the Chefoo School, then returned to the USA to attend college. Upon his graduation, he joined the FBI. Because Jim was in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he was not required to enlist in the USA military during the war. But he told me that he had read in the Chefoo School publications about Chefoo School classmates going to war, some of them dying in the war. He knew that his school had been marched away by the Japanese: imprisoned. Jim and his wife already had a child. His wife did NOT want Jim to go to war. But Jim was determined — especially when he found that the U.S. Navy was looking for people with a China background. A double incentive was that the Navy paid more than other services. Jim joined the U. S. Navy and was shipped to China, determined that some way or other he would find a way to liberate the Chefoo School. His early assignments in China included practicing parachuting with young Chinese recruits—at Kunming, I think. I do not know whether Jim joined the Office of Strategic Services (spies) in the USA or in China. When the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) heard that the Japanese planned to execute their prisoners or use them to swap prisoners, the OSS formed 7- man liberation teams, each named for a bird. These rescue teams were to head out as soon as the Japanese Emperor capitulated. Jim Moore volunteered for the Duck Mission that was headed for Weihsien. This was the fulfillment of his dream. As soon as Jim Moore got inside the camp at Weihsien, he connected with “PA” Bruce, head master of our Chefoo School. Some of the Chefoo School teachers and older students remembered Jim.

On the rescue mission, Jim was second in command to Major Stanley Staiger. I interviewed Jim twice in his home in Dallas, staying overnight with Jim and his lovely wife, Pat. I interviewed him many, many times over the phone. What lovely, lovely people! I invited myself to “preach” at his church on a Sunday morning, telling the amazing Jimmy Moore story and the liberation of Weihsien. People in the congregation wept. Jim had not told his family this Weihsien story. Jim had never told even these church friends his story. They did not know that they had worshipped in that church for years together with an American hero. Jim’s wife, Pat, was very smart. There she sat on the front seat of the church that Sunday morning with Jim and with their daughter, “Dallas.” Before I spoke from the pulpit, Pat put a tape recorder on the pulpit. She had instructed me on how to turn it on. Pat said she wanted the story on tape to give to their children. I remember people in the congregation weeping.

In 2005, Jim Moore and his son had purchased tickets to fly to China to join us in Weifang for our 60th anniversary celebration. You will remember that, Albert. How sad, sad, sad! A few months before that celebration, Jim was diagnosed with cancer. They cancelled their reservations so Jim could start cancer treatment.

I am blessed indeed. The China Burma India Association had heard of my pilgrimage to find and honor these heroes, so they invited me to speak at their national convention in Houston, Texas. What a privilege! To tell the Weihsien liberation story and to honor Jim Moore and his wife, Pat, at a banquet with hundreds of their peers. Every man and woman there wanted to shake hands and greet this American hero. Believe me, Jim had earned every hug.

Jim Moore is the only person in my whole life who phoned me the day before he died to say goodbye and to thank me. I weep as I think of it. Jim thanked me for changing his life in his retirement years — new friends, new memberships, new honors. In 1998, the FBI Retirees Association had flown Jim and Pat to the New Jersey’s General Assembly to honor me and Jim with a surprise reunion on the platform of that exquisite gallery! My, oh, my, oh, my! What a surprise! Everyone knew about it except me! A packed, packed audience! The New Jersey TV Network cameraman told me later that he was crying so hard he could hardly focus his television camera. I was clueless! I had been sworn in as an Assemblywoman only a few weeks before. Jim Moore! What a gentleman! What a friend! A story I had written about Jim had appeared in World War II Magazine the week that Jim died.

Jim Moore was first of all, a gentleman. He was a hero, every inch.

Jim Moore, Major Staiger, Tad Nagaki, Raymond Hanchulak, Peter Orlich —all members of OSS—left Weihsien before most of us left. They left and went to Tsingtao to set up an OSS base there. Once during his stay in Tsingtao, Jim returned to Chefoo to visit there. Jim Moore completed his career in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Thank you, Albert, for giving me this opportunity to reminisce about our hero, Jimmy Moore.

Mary Taylor Previte

To: weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Mon, 12 Nov 2018 at 16:22

[weihsien_camp] Re: Fwd: [RobertsAvenueHood] My heartfelt gratitude on Veterans’ Day

Thank you, Mary, for your heartfelt tribute to our rescuers. Now a question: Wasn't one of our rescuers a British naval officer who was also a former student at the Chefoo school? I may be imagining things, but that notion seems to be a part of my memory.

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Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Mon, 12 Nov 2018 at 14:07

Re: [weihsien_camp] Fwd: [RobertsAvenueHood] My heartfelt gratitude on Veterans’ Day

Thank you, Dwight.

Mary

Dwight W Whipple thewhipples@comcast.net [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Mon, 12 Nov 2018 at 02:09

Re: [weihsien_camp] Fwd: [RobertsAvenueHood] My heartfelt gratitude on Veterans’ Day

Such a good tribute and a measure of niceness on this Veterans’ Day when we are troubled by other strains from the gathering of modern leaders in Europe. Thank you, Mary, for your consistency in keeping alive through all these years the memory of these Weihsien heroes!

-Dwight W Whipple

Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com [weihsien_camp]
To:Lisa Nagaki,Amy Nagaki,1626320433@qq.com,weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com,stanley Thompson
Sun, 11 Nov 2018 at 21:58

[weihsien_camp] Fwd: [RobertsAvenueHood] My heartfelt gratitude on Veterans’ Day

Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Mary Previte mtprevite@aol.com
>

Subject: My heartfelt gratitude on Veterans’ Day

> > > >

I can never measure my gratitude to ALL of our veterans , but especially to the six Americans and one young Chinese interpreter who risked their lives on August 17, 1945, to liberate the Japanese-held Weihsien concentration camp in China. I and my brother and sister had been imprisoned in that camp. Separated by warring armies in China, we did not see our parents for 5 1/2 years.

> > Let me name my heroes. In an international search, I found them all— two widows and the living heroes. Finding them was not enough. A feeling kept creeping up inside me. They had risked their lives to liberate us. I wanted to say thank you, face to face. I set out to visit each one. I visited Major Stanley Staiger on his 81st birthday in Reno, Nevada. Radio operator, Peter Orlich, from the Queens, N.Y. On Long Island, I visited his widow, Carol. Medic on the rescue team, Raymond Hanchulak, from Bear Creak Village, PA. — I visited and honored his widow, Helen. Interpreter, Tad Nagaki, Alliance, Nebraska. I visited Tad on his farm. He had a beautiful windmill by his house. He showed me the giant processing plant that processed the sugar beets he grew. He took me to the two-room school he had attended before he ever spoke English. Can you imagine the miracle of a Japanese-America being allowed to join America’s super-secret Office of Strategic Services (OSS)? To become an America spy behind Japanese lines? Jimmie Moore, second in command of the rescue mission, I visited him in his home in Dallas, Texas, and honored him in his church. 1st Lt. James Hannon, of Yucca Valley, California. He was in charge of arranging evacuation of us 1,500 prisoners. I visited him and his wife in a restaurant near their home. My private pilgrimage took more than two years.

> > I never, never, never dreamed I’d find the 19-year-old Chinese interpreter. Wang Cheng Han. We children called him “Eddie.” Before that day, Eddie had never in his life parachuted from a plane. How amazing! That day he jumped from that low-flying B-24! How do you find a hero named Wang? China has more than one million people surnamed Wang. I searched for years. Finding him—that miracle deserves a whole book. Two years ago I flew to China and visited “Eddie” Wang in his home, the last living hero from that American rescue mission. Thanks to my nephew who lived in HongKong and speaks Chinese fluently, I made that astonishing trip. In China, the story went viral. At age 94, Mr. Wang still speaks English. We send e-mails back and forth. He e-mails to me photos of his great granddaughter. After the war, “Eddie” had been imprisoned by the Communists for being a friend of the Americans.

> > No thank you’s could ever, ever be enough!

> > Mary Previte

> > Sent from my iPad

Estelle Horne estelle.m.horne@gmail.com [weihsien_camp]
To:Weihsien
Mon, 5 Nov 2018 at 08:10

[weihsien_camp]

Desmond Powers memoirs Little Foreign Devil's was the best of aĺl who have written I think, beginning in his childhood. Somehow he spent time in all the camps. Rest in peace.

Estelle Cliff Horne

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Audrey Horton raks732@gmail.com [weihsien_camp]
To:weihsien_camp@yahoogroups.com
Thu, 1 Nov 2018 at 19:13

Re: [weihsien_camp] Peter Bazire

How many are left in your class and who are they?

Audrey Nordmo HOrton