Weihsien: Life and death in the shadow of the Empire of the Sun

A time of heroes

For Previte, the story of the camp is one of heroes, hope and triumph. It shaped her life.

"Weihsien is a story of Chinese heroes - farmers who risked their lives to smuggle food over the wall to prisoners - we called it the 'black market' - and those who brought us food so generously when the war was over," she said.

Xia recalled: "Some peasants operating the black market were caught red-handed and tortured. Some were killed. The camp was closely guarded. Apart from the Japanese, only Zhang Xingtai and his son, who cleaned the latrines, could enter and leave the camp freely. They took many risks to help internees deliver important messages and also helped Arthur W. Hummel (called Heng Anshi in Chinese) to escape," he said.

Zhang Xihong, 84, Zhang Xingtai's youngest son, remembered the aftermath. "After Heng escaped, the Japanese immediately caught my father and brother. They were heavily beaten and tortured, but neither gave in. They were finally released because of a lack of evidence. They came back with injuries and blood everywhere. They are heroes in my heart, because my father never regretted what he had done," he said.

Zhang's story was echoed by Wang Hao, director of the Weifang Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

"The supply of food to the camp dwindled and the internees suffered a lot from long-term hunger. The local people donated more than $100,000, a lot of money at that time, to buy food, medicines and necessities that they managed to send into the camp to help the internees survive the toughest periods," he noted.

Hopes of survival

Pearson said the children were lucky because the adults quickly formed a camp committee. They restarted the school, hospital, and church, and even set up an entertainment committee that put on oratorios, plays and ballets.

Cheng Long, a professor at the Beijing Language and Culture University, has just returned to China from the US where he interviewed surviving internees. "The deeper I research the history, the more I am interested in it. I found that even in such harsh conditions, the internees maintained a positive attitude toward life. The Japanese didn't allow the band to practice, so instead of making a sound, they kept practicing by gestures in the hope of playing on victory day. Even under such hardship and without freedom, their paintings still featured bright colors - flowers, green trees and blue skies," he said.

The respect shown for education moved Sylvia Zhang, a post-doctoral researcher at Shih Hsin University in Taiwan. "Even in the camp, the teachers still followed strict teaching guidelines just like in Britain. They held the Oxford Local Examination in the camp for higher-grade students to help them deal with the changeable future. It's the reason that many of the child internees were successful after liberation," she said

Previte said that although children from her school were separated from their parents, the missionary teachers and adults did everything they could to protect them.

"The teachers would never let students give up. They insisted on good manners. We could be sitting on wooden benches at wooden tables in the mess hall and eating the most awful-looking glop out of a soap dish or an empty tin can, but those hero-teachers kept repeating the rules: Sit up straight. Do not stuff food in your mouth. Do not talk while you have food in your mouth," she recalled.

Liberation

"The Japanese army was losing ground in most of China in 1945 and victory was almost assured, but the news was blocked. It wasn't until the US arranged rescue planes to liberate the camp on Aug 17, 1945, that people knew their days in hell were over," said Cheng.

Liberation came as a surprise to Previte. "It was a hot and windy day. I was sick with an upset stomach in the hospital when I heard the drone of an airplane over the camp. Racing to the window, I watched it sweep lower, slowly lower, and then circle again. It was a giant plane, emblazoned with an American star. Beyond the treetops its belly opened. I gaped in wonder as giant parachutes drifted slowly to the ground. People poured to the gate to welcome the heroes. All the internees were celebrating liberation and we even cut off pieces of parachutes, and got their signatures and buttons to cherish," she said.

The long years of malnourishment affected the children's physical development. Even after 70 years, the experience of the camp can provoke nightmares among former internees.

Pearson said that after being so hungry for more than three years, he will eat almost anything now.

"I am obsessed with food, so I do all the cooking. More important, the camp experience made a very strong impression on me. It took a long time before I could deal with the Japanese, even though as an adult I went to live in Hong Kong with my family and had to do business with the Japanese. The people are fine, but the government has never acknowledged what they did to us," he said.

Previte said conflict is a catastrophe that destroys everything. "War and hate and violence never open the way to peace. Weihsien shaped me. I will carry Weihsien in my heart forever."

Contact the author at hena@chinadaily.com.cn