Dear Teacher,
The next dark midnight a loud sound awoke me. We had found the family of the man who managed our factory in Hangzhou. They received us in Shaoxing, which was a rural area outside the big city and the man’s native home. It was a beautiful village with many canals and rivers. I now know that it was likened to Venice.
We left the boat and a man with a lantern led us into the residence. According to communist class analysis, it maybe was considered a landlord class home.
I finally found out why we had left our home in Hangzhou. Word of the Nangjing Massacre had reached the people of Hangzhou and many decided to flee their homes in fear of their lives. I did not understand at the time what a horrible thing this was.
We began a new style of living so different from in Hangzhou. There was no electricity so we used kerosene lamps. My family moved into a fairly new, but already established house in the rear of the main house.
For a boy, not knowing the fear and gravity of our life style change and the horrors that were taking place in China, we lived a happy life in the new place. In the village there was a river in front of the square and land for growing field crops in the rear. In the distance, mountains could be dimly seen in the morning mist. It was as beautiful as a picture.
There were many happy childhood activities like swimming, paddling, picking shells, racing and flying kites with many children playing together. It was a wonder being a child and of being able to always find joy and distractions. I had no idea of the grief and desolation felt by the adults because their world of luxury and idleness had passed. It was years before I would know that the terror and hopelessness of thinking of the future was even worse than the sadness and depression when thinking of the past.
The village made a lasting impression on me with the people being diligent, thrifty and living in harmony. I lived in Shaoxing Village for three years and it gave me many happy childhood memories. The three years seemed like a very long time to a child.
Our first year in Shaoxing my tenth brother was born. Hangzhou fell to the Japanese and we lost our factory and everything we owned.
Sincerely, Robert
JOAN’S BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINA—PART III
I suddenly realized that I had better study more about the history of China.
The Japanese took advantage of the fighting between the Kuomintang and the Communists and the confusion it created. They invaded Manchuria where they set up a puppet state with the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, as it’s symbolic head.
Finally in 1936 a shaky anti-Japanese alliance was formed between the Communists and Kuomintang, but it did little to stop the advance of the Japanese whom in 1937 launched and all-out invasion of China. By 1939 they had overrun most of eastern China and in 1941 Japan brazenly expanded its aggression by attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor which ultimately and thankfully brought its downfall.
The Kuomintang-Communist alliance collapsed by 1941, when open resistance to Japan was futile. Strangely enough while Japan occupied China, the Civil War between these two groups continued to take place. But, fighting Japan had to become the first priority. The brunt of fighting the Japanese was borne by the Nationalists and within eighteen months they had been driven from Nanjing to Chongqing.
The policy of Japan toward China “was one of deliberate intimidation coupled with total ruthlessness and indifference to the people.” (p132) The most famous evidence of this was the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. I have been to the Memorial to the Nanjing Massacre. There are exhibits that document the atrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers against the civilian population during the occupation of Nanjing. As many as 300,000 civilian people may have died. There are pictures of actual executions taken by Japanese army photographers. The most difficult sight is a gruesome viewing hall built over a mass grave of massacre victims.
Also, while in Nanjing, I visited the Sun Yatsen Mausoleum. He is considered by many to be the “Father of Modern China.” His tomb is built as a Ming-style tomb at the top of an enormous stone stairway. A prostrate marble statue of Dr. Sun seals his coffin. It is a very impressive place and strangely enough with Communism being so powerful, the site is absolutely magnificent and Chinese are allowed to visit it with great reverence.
Japan’s time in China is one of many horror stories including terrible things the Chinese did in desperation to fight them. An example is the breaking of the Yellow River dikes to halt the Japanese advance into Henan in 1938. The floods engulfed homes, towns and farmlands. Communist criticism was strong regarding this enormous disregard for life and this flooding must rank as one of the greatest man-made misfortunes of history.
Once the U.S. declared war on Japan, it became the total focus of Japan’s fighting. The Japanese position in China remained static because they had already gained all that they had wanted.
At one time there was an Allied plan that an invasion of Japan would be launched from Shandong after a reconquest of the peninsula. But the dropping of the two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war suddenly and decisively when Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender. Japanese troops were withdrawn from China.
I also had to carefully check a map of China because I had never heard of Shaoxing.
Shaoxing is just 67 km south-east of Hangzhou and is the center of a waterway system. People who have been to Venice consider those who praise Shaoxing as “China’s Venice” to be a great exaggeration because it is not as large. But the area is notable for its rivers and would be a good place to live as a child. It also has been an important agricultural market.
Is it not wonderful to be a child and be able to live obliviously to all the heartbreak and horrors surrounding you? Robert gratefully did have a few happy years in his childhood.
I was starting to look forward to his next letters.