Captives of the Empire of the Sun

Early in 1942 the Japanese opened a consular office in Kaifeng and later raised it to the status of Consulate General. We, as civilians, were then removed from the jurisdiction of the military and placed under this consular office. So from then on, our Japanese visitors were no longer military but civilian personnel. In fact, a more or less friendly feeling grew between us and some of these men.

It was these men who had on March 9, 1943, Sister Francetta's name day, the task of breaking the news to us that on March 21 we were to be ready to go to a central camp Where all foreign enemy nationals north of the Yangtze River were to be concentrated. The Japanese had planned this move very carefully indeed, even to the point of giving us printed slips designating what each person was to pack: for example, personal clothing, bedding, beds; and what each group should take: an electric iron, sewing machine, cooking utensils. To us the news was sudden, unexpected, and shattering. In fact, the breaking of this news found two of our number, Sister Ursuline and Sister Ronayne, in Peking at the Hospital of the Sisters of Charity (French) where Sister Ronayne had had surgery. The permission for this trip had been obtained more or less easily when a Japanese doctor indicated that Sister needed the surgery. They had made the trip north in seeming freedom. But after this notice, which was released all over North China at the same time, they were not so free. In Peking they were ordered to report to the Japanese consulate and plans were made for two Japanese consular police to escort them back to Kaifeng.

Packing!

Did you ever pack under such circumstances? I hope you never have to. Beds had to be crated, bedding had to be bound up, each had to pack a personal trunk. No one knew how long this war would be prolonged and we had to be prepared. General things had to be packed. Out again came the suitcase used once before for a mass kit. One trunk was packed with medical supplies. Brother Francisco brought over twenty-four bottles of mass wine and explained to the Japanese Why we had to take it along. We asked for and obtained permission to crate two five-gallon tins of peanut oil for cooking. A bag of flour was added to the growing accumulation of things. We even decided to crate and take along a five gallon tin of cod-liver oil from the dispensary supplies.

When finances had first run low, Sister Francetta had borrowed money. Now we were low again and we felt we couldn't go off to a concentration camp, with empty pockets. We decided to sell everything for which we could find a buyer: microscopes, cameras, projector, plumbing fixtures for the dispensary we had prepared to build. We told Brother to sell the cow. But two days later he came back with a suggestion. Why should we sell the cow, they are not easily come by in China! We had a supply of feed, enough until the fall. He would move her in with his cows and with the milk he would make cheese as he had been doing for the past 2 years, and send it to us in camp. How often in the next two and a half years, as cheese reached us in camp were we to bless him for it.

Two days before the date of departure, the Japanese came to inspect our baggage thoroughly. The trunks were lined up along the north hall and around the corner into the chapel hall. The Japanese began their work at the dining room end of the hall, and we stood by horrified as everything came out of the first trunk. Personal pictures and snapshots were almost examined with a magnifying glass. Each person on the pictures had to be identified as "my father," etc. And then books! We had been told that we could take only religious books, and every book was suspect until we could prove to their satisfaction that it was religious in nature. Maps seemed to be the biggest menace to the safety of the Japanese Empire. The result was that all Bibles lost their maps of the Holy Land. With such thoroughness the inspectors were not nearly finished by dinner time of course, and we had to feed them. As each trunk passed examination, the owner had to repack it under watchful eyes. It was then locked and a check mark made on it.

There was one trunk a few of us were determined would not be torn apart in this manner, the trunk filled with medical supplies. This trunk was around the corner, one of the last in line. While the sisters and the Japanese were eating, two of us sneaked into the hall, pushed trunks closer together, and hauled this trunk around the corner and put it in the line amongst those already examined. It worked, but the few who knew that this had been done were frightened until the last piece was checked and the Japanese left.

"Books!"

We also pulled another trick. Somehow, by the end, the Japanese were no doubt tired, and they walked off without watching the last trunk being re-packed. It was not too full, for into it had gone the last odds and ends. The Japanese were hardly around the corner when one of the Sisters of Providence said to me, "Books!" Up the stairs we fairly flew; we grabbed books from the library shelves and down we came with loaded arms. Feverishly these books were packed between the other things and the trunk locked just as the Japanese came around the corner to put on the last check mark. When Sister Francetta was later told of these two escapades she was horrified, fearful of what might have happened. Next morning, under guard, all these things were hauled off on hand-drawn carts. Some of us doubted we would ever see them again, but we did.

Sunday morning we had to get up very early, indeed. It was the feast of St. Benedict, and to this day the Sisters of Providence tease us about how badly Saint Benedict let us down on his feast day. Mass and breakfast over, we were ready to leave by 6:30. Early as it was, faithful Brother Francisco and those wonderful Italian Sisters were there, ready once again to take over our house and keep it from Japanese occupancy. A long line of rickshas pulled out headed for the railroad station. Here we discovered that the twenty-two of us were to have a coach separate from the regular passengers. Not only that, but we were to have fellow travelers; eleven American, Society of the Divine Word missionaries from the Hsinhsiang Vicariate, north of Kaifeng. And we were to be accompanied by two consular officials. The trip to our destination, Weihsien in Shangtung Province, would be over three different railroad lines. That evening we reached Hsuchow and after an hour or more were switched to a second train for the trip north. The next morning we were in Chinan and were allowed out on the station platform while our car was switched to the third line.

And again, the question of food--mundane, but it must be planned for. It is a necessity and it seems it is up to the women to think of it ahead of time. Men just can't bother. We had prepared for ourselves and the Benedictine Fathers. But, the eleven S.V.D. missionaries had not a bite among them. So we shared with them. The next morning one of them approached our guard on the station platform at Chinan and asked if we could go to the railway restaurant. At first the guard seemed reluctant, but he finally agreed on condition that we divide into groups and not all go at one time. By evening we were glad indeed that we had had that breakfast.