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Recovering tales of American School alumni
By Ni Tao |
February 3, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE years between 1937 and 1945 are among the most tumultuous and tragic in modern Chinese history. China fought a full-blown war to repel Japanese invaders, which ravaged families and claimed countless lives.
Life trajectories, especially of young Chinese, were profoundly changed. Those too little to remember much or feel the immediate pain of being orphaned would later spend a lifetime trying to understand and find their identity. Those old enough to fight would abandon studies and heed Chiang Kai-shek's call to "enlist in the 100,000-strong 'youth army' and defend every inch of the nation's soil with their blood."
As we now know from newsreels of that period, some of these "old enough" men and women were barely grown up, mostly in their early 20s or younger.
War is often called a crucible for maturity and a test of toughness and resourcefulness. People endure all kinds of wartime adversity to survive. Young men, in particular, grow up in war. Their innocence faded as they experienced its brutalities and they came to know better the meaning of responsibility, loyalty and sacrifice.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) also affected and sometimes devastated the lives of foreign community in China, but their adversity has seldom been documented.
Caught up in the political and sometimes literal crossfire of war, they risked losing their neutral status and being treated harshly by Japanese troops if they got too cozy with Chinese. After Britain and America declared war on Japan, their situation worsened and some suffered appalling abuses, though they were spared the worst atrocities inflicted on Chinese.
We now have films, documentaries and books that shed light on the lives of foreign community during that period. These works mostly share a common flaw: lack of important details and vivid personal accounts.
Hard facts need to be humanized by human faces and stories. Readers cannot deeply empathize with the happiness and pain of people described in generalities and abstractions. That's where oral history comes in.
Deke Erh's new book on Shanghai's American School (SAS), titled "Deke Erh and Shanghai American School Students and Teachers 1937-1949," is one remarkable work that tells the missing human stories. The renowned photographer and editor interviewed 86 SAS alumnus about how they lived from 1937 to 1949, and presented a host of compelling narratives of survival.
For Europeans and Americans unable to flee to safe zones before their cities fell under Japanese control, what awaited them was internment in concentration camps.
Some students of the Shanghai American School and their families were among the refugees confined to mass prison camps in the Longhua area of southwestern Shanghai. Camp life was harsh, there was never enough to eat, and "everybody thought a lot about food," according to Harriet Locke, a survivor and a storyteller in Erh's book.
She wrote of "remembering always being hungry" and eating cereal congee full of floating worms. Children were too hungry to be picky, and besides, worms were a rare source of protein.
Locke's writing is reminiscent of Steven Spielberg's 1987 movie "Empire of the Sun," in which a British boy Jim, played by young Christian Bale, did everything to survive in internment.
His precociousness belied his age and earned him grudging respect from Japanese guards. There were stomach-churning scenes of eating worms, but Jim appeared to eat with relish. He devoured 87 worms sorted from grains of wheat while a woman looked on in disgust. All he wanted was to live. That drive supported Jim through the war and helped reunite him with his parents when it ended.
Such intriguing and heart-wrenching stories abound. Together, they reflect an unusual collective upbringing in a place foreigners called home. Another SAS alumna named Anne wrote in Erh's book of fleeing with her missionary parents and seeking refuge in Kukong, an inland city, where she formed the strange habit of picking up shrapnel after each Japanese air raid.
Of course, Erh's book is not only about SAS alumnus' miserable memories of their years in China. Their encounters with ordinary folks and peasants left a lasting impression of a friendly population. And that emotional affinity has drawn them to revisit China from time to time, for instance, to celebrate the SAS' 100th anniversary this year. Erh's book will be a useful guide when they reminisce about the past in April in Shanghai.
Life trajectories, especially of young Chinese, were profoundly changed. Those too little to remember much or feel the immediate pain of being orphaned would later spend a lifetime trying to understand and find their identity. Those old enough to fight would abandon studies and heed Chiang Kai-shek's call to "enlist in the 100,000-strong 'youth army' and defend every inch of the nation's soil with their blood."
As we now know from newsreels of that period, some of these "old enough" men and women were barely grown up, mostly in their early 20s or younger.
War is often called a crucible for maturity and a test of toughness and resourcefulness. People endure all kinds of wartime adversity to survive. Young men, in particular, grow up in war. Their innocence faded as they experienced its brutalities and they came to know better the meaning of responsibility, loyalty and sacrifice.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) also affected and sometimes devastated the lives of foreign community in China, but their adversity has seldom been documented.
Caught up in the political and sometimes literal crossfire of war, they risked losing their neutral status and being treated harshly by Japanese troops if they got too cozy with Chinese. After Britain and America declared war on Japan, their situation worsened and some suffered appalling abuses, though they were spared the worst atrocities inflicted on Chinese.
We now have films, documentaries and books that shed light on the lives of foreign community during that period. These works mostly share a common flaw: lack of important details and vivid personal accounts.
Hard facts need to be humanized by human faces and stories. Readers cannot deeply empathize with the happiness and pain of people described in generalities and abstractions. That's where oral history comes in.
Deke Erh's new book on Shanghai's American School (SAS), titled "Deke Erh and Shanghai American School Students and Teachers 1937-1949," is one remarkable work that tells the missing human stories. The renowned photographer and editor interviewed 86 SAS alumnus about how they lived from 1937 to 1949, and presented a host of compelling narratives of survival.
For Europeans and Americans unable to flee to safe zones before their cities fell under Japanese control, what awaited them was internment in concentration camps.
Some students of the Shanghai American School and their families were among the refugees confined to mass prison camps in the Longhua area of southwestern Shanghai. Camp life was harsh, there was never enough to eat, and "everybody thought a lot about food," according to Harriet Locke, a survivor and a storyteller in Erh's book.
She wrote of "remembering always being hungry" and eating cereal congee full of floating worms. Children were too hungry to be picky, and besides, worms were a rare source of protein.
Locke's writing is reminiscent of Steven Spielberg's 1987 movie "Empire of the Sun," in which a British boy Jim, played by young Christian Bale, did everything to survive in internment.
His precociousness belied his age and earned him grudging respect from Japanese guards. There were stomach-churning scenes of eating worms, but Jim appeared to eat with relish. He devoured 87 worms sorted from grains of wheat while a woman looked on in disgust. All he wanted was to live. That drive supported Jim through the war and helped reunite him with his parents when it ended.
Such intriguing and heart-wrenching stories abound. Together, they reflect an unusual collective upbringing in a place foreigners called home. Another SAS alumna named Anne wrote in Erh's book of fleeing with her missionary parents and seeking refuge in Kukong, an inland city, where she formed the strange habit of picking up shrapnel after each Japanese air raid.
Of course, Erh's book is not only about SAS alumnus' miserable memories of their years in China. Their encounters with ordinary folks and peasants left a lasting impression of a friendly population. And that emotional affinity has drawn them to revisit China from time to time, for instance, to celebrate the SAS' 100th anniversary this year. Erh's book will be a useful guide when they reminisce about the past in April in Shanghai.
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