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later, from Tokio! Over the small bat tery radio I heard the announcer pro claim in true Tokio,style, “Having ac- "complished its achievement at Chang sha, the Imperial Army of Japan has withdrawn.” But they had failed to take the city, and we knew it to be defeat for them. Incredibly:soon after the last of the troops had gone, the people« flocked back to the city and suburbs and be gan the weary task of identifying bits of possessions, cleaning out their homes which had been used for stables or worse at the whim of the conqueror, rebuilding temporary homes where others had been destroyed, and taking up the everyday life as though it had not been interrupted. ■ Letters began to drift in from the various Evangelistic Band leaders and ¿the two missionaries, relating their difficulties in getting away, but prais ing God for the way they had been kept on the journey and for the fact that Changsha was how free again. Enemy Aliens It was but a short respite, however, when the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor shook us as it did the rest of the world. Now the fact that the Japa nese lines were but seventy miles from us was a more ominous thing. Now if there should bé invasion, it must mean evacuation for American and British workers, or else intern ment. Christmas Day, 1941, stands out in memory as an oasis in the desert, or the calm before a storm. Inside the city of Changsha and in the surround- ' ing districts; the people wearily took up the preparation for another evacua tion: Thè Japanese were moving to ward us again. This time the mission aries prepared to leave, as -we were now enemy aliens. But Christmas Day, in spite of the grave news, was a time of special fellowship and blessing. It was as though everything had halted for that day o f worship and spiritual refresh ment. It was a full day of services, and in the evening a fellowship sing, held in our home at the Hunan Bible Institute, climaxed the day. The next day we packed. It was bit terly cold, as we transferred what be longings we could take to our boat at the river bank. About thirty miles from the city we stopped for news. We heard that the Yale in China had been burhed, and I wondered about the fate of the Hunan Bible Institute. Had those beautiful buildings been destroyed by the ruth less hand of the enemy? Then came the report that the Chinese, putting up a strong resist ance and being aided by the American Air Force, had forced the Japanese to retreat, leaving the city free. We hur ried back. With heavy hearts we saw [ Continued on Page 476]
frightened Chinese tied together act ing as forced guides, asked in Ger man, “May I come in? I am a Doctor.” “Corné in,” I replied in the little German I knew. But finally we had to resort to writing characters in the dust, characters that are the same in Japanese and Chinese. As we ex changed information in that medium, I noticed the deathly- quietness of the compound and marvelled that more than two thousand Chinese could be so silent. I found later that they had all taken cover, flat on the floor of each room. There was not even a whimper from one of the many babies! The Japanese Doctor was worried over the possibility of the water’s be ing poisoned. I assured him that to my knowledge the wells had not been poisoned when the Chinese retreated. I walked outside the gate with him as he left. “You came very quickly,” I said by way of making conversation. “Very glorious, very glorious!” he replied proudly. I thought differently! At that moment I noticed a mother with two small children approaching our gate, and saw the mother’s face pale as she saw the'Japanese officer. Instantly she and the children dropped to their knees, With hands upraised in mute supplication for mercy. The Doc tor walked .arrogantly by, and I ushered the ■mother and children in side the compound. The terror on that mother’s face was the shadow of the despair and fear of the many, who had known the booted tread of an invading army. Several old men were brought to the hospital, their heads hanging for ward in .a strangely grotesque way. The muscles of their necks had been severed so that their heads fell for ward, torturing but not killing them. Even after an operation it meant stiff necks the rest of their days. “But why?” I asked them. “What did they have against you?” “We resisted their attacks on the women of our homes,” one said quietly. * That night marked the final battle for the city. Heavy ^fighting went on until early dawn: At 5 a. m., the gatekeeper rushed in with news. “I’ve seen Chinese troops,” he exclaimed happily. “The enemy has retreated.” Confirmation came just a few minutes
guns’ roar had not stilled. I knew the Japanese troops were swinging inex orably toward us, but I knew, too, that God was not far away and we were in His care. There was another parting Friday rnorning as I bade farewell to the young men who made up the Biola Evangelistic Bands. I had given them sufficient money for several months so that each band could carry on in. free territory. Each evangelist car ried his own roll of bedding and clothing, his tract and Bible bag slung over his shoulder. I wondered into what dangers they were going and ho,w they would fare, and then felt sharply rebuked as they, one and all, spoke of God’s promised care for His own. Attack on the City By this time, the ,roadway and the river bank were crowded with-refu gees, a stream of humanity fleeing on carts, r i c k s h a w s , bicycles, and on foot. Suddenly a b o v e the bark of m a c h i n e guns, Which were much nearer now, there was another sound —the roar of a s i n g l e plane div ing relentlessly toward the city gate nearest our compound. The air around us whined to the scream of falling bombs, and a near-by explosion burst against our ears.- Then the plane was gone as quickly as it had come. I hurried with a relief squad to the spot. Bombs had struck and we saw with chilled h e a r t s that both the church and the pastor’s residence lay in ruins. But even as we looked, Pas tor Liu came running up. “The Lord has delivered us,” he exclaimed. And we found that he, with the others on the compound, had been in a dugout between the two buildings and that no one had been harmed. Outside, it was different. A mother bent above the three still forms of her children. Numbed and empty-eyed for the first moments of the shock, she knelt there, and then, uttering a heart rending wail, she threw herself across the children. I turned away, my heart tom with the grief of another. “Ra chel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” Temporary Japanese Occupation ' Then the Japanese arrived, taking our suburb and part of the city, It was no peaceful occupation, though, and the sound of gunfire filled the night arid much of the four days fol lowing. Those days were filled with dangers and uncertainty, but out of them a few incidents remain clear in my memory. There was the gatekeeper’s shaking voice early on e . morning: “Mission ary, the Japanese are at the gate. What shall we do?” Then the Japanese officer, waiting at the gate with his orderly and two
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