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The days dragged although we were busy meeting people and collecting letters and messages for the outside world. At last our D-Day for leaving Shanghai came. No one was late. We left the Columbia Country Club in buses escorted by special Japanese police on motorcycles. Our route was lined by Europeans and Americans waving us off. The Chinese Maritime Customs were doing the examining at the baggage office. I drew a Japanese officer who knew me. He did not bother to look at anything, but wished me a happy voyage. In my bags I carried over 150 letters to relatives. The regulations were that we might carry a "limited" amount of letters. Each letter contained references to other prisoners outside the writer's personal friends. Thus 150 letters might spread news of over a thousand people. Some exchangees refused to carry any letters, even though permitted to do so, lest they might jeopardize their chance of getting out. What would happen to us if our teenagers refused to climb on board their Wellingtons and Lancasters and later, the "Forts" on their nightly bombing missions over enemy territory? It was quiet August 4 when we left Shanghai. Twenty eight years before I had been in Russia when World War I broke out. It was a warm day in Shanghai. There was a lengthy wait in the China Merchants Shipping Company's warehouse while our papers were being checked. We were parched with thirst. At last we made the gangway, but once on board there was another queue getting our berth allocation. Some good Samaritans, prisoners of war, who had embarked in Japan, went down the queue handing out glasses of water to thirsty people. How we needed the water and how grateful we were! At last it was over and I went on deck to watch us leave. On deck I met the "laodah" of one of the tugs that was to assist the liner "Tatsuta Maru" into the stream. We were glad to see each other. We had known each other many years. Many times he had put his towline on board my vessel and helped us swing in the crowded Shanghai River. Mr. Banjo was there
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