Captivity in the Co-prosperity Sphere

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 368, 12 July 1946, Page 28

Captivity in the Co-prosperity Sphere

Presbyterian Missionary’s Story

NTERCEPTED by The Listener on his way to a South Island "hide-out" where he hopes to find quiet to write on the experiences of himself and his colleagues of the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission during the war years in South China, the Rev. E. G. Jansen vividly described life along the fringe of the Japanese conquests. "Tt was in autumn of 1937 that the war first hit us- both metaphorically and literally," he said. "By ‘us’ I mean a sizable community of Chinese and New Zealanders working together on 2 programme of education, medical services, and religious instruction at a place called Kong Chuen, the first market-town north of Canton on the Canton-Hankow Railway. Our centra! buildings — boarding school, hospital church and residences-were dangerously near the railway and the local station and since the Jap airmen who frequently came over to unload bombs on trains near-by were notoriously poor marksmen it was rather uncomfortable for us. After about a year of that the invasion army

itself arrived and from then on, till the end of the war, we were inside the Japanese ‘Empire.’" "Was that better than continual bombing or worse?" "If you mean did it shift us out of the front line," replied Mr. Jansen, "the answer is No. Right through the war our district stayed divided-some of it in Japanese hands and some in Free China. Occasionally the Japanese made a big push up some valley towards the north. But they always got ambushed sooner ér later and so back came their boundary to our doorstep. Our main hospital remained always in occupied territory, but a branch, 35 miles away, at 4 place called Kaai Hau, where Miss Annie James was stationed, was in Free China almost always throughout the war." "And could you still work under those conditions?" "Well, so long as we New Zealanders remained neutrals, that is for the three years or so before Pearl Harbour, we managed to keep both places going. It became desperately difficult, of course, to. get supplies even at Kong Chuen itself. I had to fetch everything in person

from the city as guarantee that our order was not a ‘blind’ for serving guerrilla forces. "Was there any resistance to the invasion in your area?" "For reasons known only to the Chinese High Command the regular troops withdrew from the southern part of the province without making a stand; but a few companies of farm lads who had had ‘a smattering of training as a Self-defence Corps held up the Jap Army for ten days at the Tsung Fe River, the stream on the banks of which our town of Kong Chuen stands — or rather stood; it is now in the process of being rebuilt. Those young farmers, defending their homes and families, were the equals of, any fighters anywhere. They were beaten in the end, of course, and then the Japanese burnt two whole market towns as reprisal. That left hundreds of people without occupations or homes, though ‘huge numbers had already trekked through into Free China. So we had to turn our ‘compound’ into a Refugee Camp." ; "Did that bring interference?"

"Not from the Japanese. But it did lay us open to attacks by bandits, in one of which our only European doctor, Owen Eaton, from Otago, was shot. He was a brilliant fellow, the leading student of his year, gladly serving the (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) Mission for a pittance a year. But one can hardly blame the ‘bandits.’ They were displaced persons driven desperate by hunger and injustice." _ Internment "You New Zealanders still counted at this time as neutrals. How did Pearl Harbour affect you?" "We immediately became ‘enemy aliens’ and as such were forbidden to go outside our property. Actually I did leave on two occasions — by which hang more tales. But the most serious thing was that it cut us off from all funds from New Zealand. Even in that first year, while prisoners in our own homes, we felt the reduction of food standards fairly acutely." "So it lasted only one year?") "Yes, after that we New Zealanders: were all removed to internment camps in Canton; I to a camp for men of military age and the three ladies (Miss Robertson and Miss Lilburne, whd are nurses, and Miss Wilson, a teacher) to a general camp. Miss James escaped all that; she managed to keep always just over the border. Our Chinese staff then carried on alone, with the help of Dr. Gratzet, a European refugee who had joined us and who, being officially a German citizen, though an Austrian by birth and gaan was not subject to internment." .

"It was out of the frying pan into the fire for you?" "Yes, but fortunately for us the camp in Canton (the two camps were merged after the first six months) was one of the best conducted of all the Pacific camps. Some members of our Mission staff, for instance, were caught in Hong Kong and spent their internment years in Stanley. They had a much grimmer time of it than we did, due partly to the factor of sheer size-2,500 as against 50-and due partly to the fact that Hong Kong was conquered British territory. "Did you have any chance of repatriation?" "Yes, earlier on; but we considered our job to be there, and while any power of choice was left to us we were resolved to stay." "What about atrocities?" "Fortunately there was nothing of that sort of thing at all in our camp. I know . that some pretty ghastly things happened in other places. In repatriation

centres in Hong Kong and in ‘Australia I mixed with ex-internees from all round the Pacific and heard eye-witness accounts of the whole gamut of atrocities. [I don’t blink those things; they’re nauseating but true. But it is unreasonable to conclude that that is the complete picture of the Japanese. Speaking from my own experience of them I want to record the unexpected kindnesses. that I received from many Of them, especially as I find most New Zealanders. tend to lump the whole Japanese race together as one bad lot. I saw them at close quarters-far too close-ovér a period of seven years, and I found they varied enormouslyjust as human beings do everywhere." "And how did you find things at your .Mission Centre when the war was over?" "We found that in May, 1945, the (Jap Army had taken over our buildings for a base hospital. They were expecting counter-attacks from the north. A neighbouring village had invited our staff to function in its Hall of Ancestors and the medical work was carried on from there. We found our property intact. Even furniture, equipment and personal effects were remarkably complete, thanks to the energy and resourcefulness. of the Chinese staff, who shifted most of it out to the Ancestral Hall and then back again after the Japs vacated-a Herculean task!" :

"And what of conditions generally in China now?" "People who haven’t lived in a war area have little idea of the chaos and economic dislocation that war causes. The fantastic currency inflation that has knocked the bottom out of business stability is just one of the symptoms of that. And it must be remembered that for China the mess that war has brought has been super-imposed upon what was already a period of political and economic transition and the unsettlement of transition has now become turmoil, with its accompanying suffering and destitution. There may even be further disintegration before the forces of integration get properly under way again. It is too early to discern the real trends and it would be rash to make any forecasts." "Are you going back there, Mr. Jansen?" "Oh yes, certainly. I have not been holidaying in China; I have a life.work there."