15. War Zone
Chapter 15
War Zone
In March 1940, the next Rainy Season Bible School got under way. Belle and John took turns teaching the students, among whom was their first Lolo convert from the evangelistic work of Aristarchus and Secondus in the Yongpeh district. As the school progressed, however, the health of Me-do-me-pa, the evangelist at Oak Flat, began to fail. Belle wasn’t sure what the problem was, but she suspected that he had cancer. Night after night she and Homay would visit his hut, where she would play her guitar and the two women would sing choruses to the evangelist. Belle wished that she could do more to help this man who had been the first in the area to become a Christian, a man who had been a pillar in the church and a friend and helper to her and John. But nothing could be done, and as the RSBS drew to a close, Me-do-me-pa died.
Belle and Homay stood side by side at Me-do-me-pa’s funeral, which was held outdoors at night on Sunset Ridge. A bonfire crackled beside them as John eulogized Me-do-me-pa. Belle felt it was a wonderful service, one that suitably honored Me-do-me-pa for all his achievements in the community. But as she looked around in the flickering firelight at the faces of those gathered for the service, Belle would never have guessed how soon she’d be attending another funeral.
A few months following Me-do-me-pa’s funeral, Homay began to become weak and lethargic. At first Belle thought the strains of motherhood were too much for her, but then she realized that was ridiculous. Homay was the most efficient, capable young woman for miles around, or at least she had been. But now she tired easily and slept during the day. After three months of this, Homay’s plump body had wasted away. There seemed to be nothing Belle or anyone else could do for Homay’s condition, and Homay died in spring 1941, leaving behind her husband, Thomas, and their eighteen-month-old son.
Homay’s death was almost too much for Belle to bear, but she knew she had to go on. With China in the grip of war, it was likely that she would face many more tragedies before the war was over.
The next shock for Belle came at the end of 1941 and from halfway around the world. Belle and John just stared at each other, finding the news—which was three weeks old by the time it reached them—hard to digest. Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and as a result, the United States had declared war on Japan. Belle sighed. At times like these it was hard to be so far away from any kind of news. Who knew what had happened since then? Perhaps the United States had already attacked Japan or the Japanese had taken Burma. Anything was possible, and Belle worked hard to control her active imagination regarding what might be happening.
As Belle thought about the situation, her thoughts raced to Kathryn, and then she felt panic rise in her. Until now, both the Chinese and the Japanese had treated Europeans in China as neutral and allowed them to go about their business. But now that the United States and the Allies were enemies of Japan, things would surely change for Europeans in China. When Belle heard a rumor that the Japanese were close to overrunning Chefoo, every motherly instinct she possessed urged her to pack her things and go find her daughter. Thankfully, common sense prevailed. Neither Belle nor John would have any way to get through to Chefoo if the place was under attack. Belle knew that the best thing was to leave ten-year-old Kathryn in God’s hands and trust that the loyal staff of the CIM school in Chefoo would do its best to take care of her daughter, no matter what.
The following week John, who since James Fraser’s death had served as the head of CIM’s work in West Yunnan Province, left for a conference in Chungking. He planned to be gone from Oak Flat for three months. With Kathryn’s fate weighing on her mind and John away, Belle decided to hold a Bible school just for the Lisu women. On February 1, 1942, twenty-four women responded enthusiastically to the invitation to attend the school. One of the younger women who signed up for the Bible school was a blind girl named Sah-me-nyio. Belle had a few reservations about accepting her. An eye infection had robbed Sah-me-nyio of her eyesight, but before the girl became blind, she had been able to read and write. Now, however, she would have to have someone read aloud to her and write down the things she wanted to say.
As the month-long school began, Belle soon realized why Sah-me-nyio was known as the Blind Singing Girl of Deer Pool Village. Sah-me-nyio was one of the happiest Christians Belle had ever met, and one of the smartest too. Sah-me-nyio memorized large portions of the New Testament and passed all the tests near the top of the class. When the school was over, she asked Belle if she could be sent over the mountains to preach.
Belle did not know how to answer Sah-me-nyio’s request. She had never dreamed that a blind Lisu woman would want to scramble over mountains to share the gospel with other Lisu, but now one wanted to do just that. Belle eventually decided that if that was what Sah-me-nyio wanted to do, she should be allowed. But before such a preaching trip could be arranged, Sah-me-nyio became ill with typhoid fever, and it soon became obvious that she was dying from the disease. Belle burst into tears when she learned that the last thing Sah-me-nyio had told her family was, “Two things I know—that God loves us, that God is faithful. When I am gone, keep God’s honor high. Don’t complain. Go on believing. I shall wake up in the Land of Light.”
Toward the middle of March, Belle knew that she had to address another situation—her own health. Since Christmas, her tooth had been aching and had now reached an unbearable threshold of pain. No matter what she did, Belle could not get any relief from her throbbing tooth. Reluctantly she made plans to go to the nearest competent dentist, who was located in Kunming. The only things that cheered her about making the trip was the expectation of seeing Kathryn and David Harrison, John’s sister and brother-in-law, in Kunming. She also thought that she might meet up with John and together they could travel back home to Oak Flat.
The trip to Kunming proved to be more hair-raising that Belle could have imagined. There was the usual long trek from Oak Flat to Paoshan, where Belle met two pilots with the Flying Tigers, the popular name for the First American Volunteer Group. This was a group of American ex-military pilots who had volunteered to serve with the Chinese Air Force, flying fighter planes to defend against Japanese air attacks. Originally these pilots had been based in Burma, defending the Port of Rangoon and the Burma Road that ran all the way from there to Kunming, China, an important supply route for the Chinese. But when the Japanese finally captured Rangoon and more and more Burmese territory, the Flying Tigers had been ordered to relocate their base of operations to Paoshan. The two Flying Tigers pilots whom Belle had met were about to drive to Kunming, and they kindly offered to take Belle along with them for the ride. And what a ride it proved to be as they followed the Burma Road east toward Kunming!
The Burma Road had been completed three years before, but this was Belle’s first experience traveling on it. Belle had thought it would be easier to travel to Kunming by car or truck on the road rather than by foot, as she usually did, but her assumption proved to be wrong. As it descended from the mountains, the Burma Road looped back on itself like a contorted snake, and at almost every bend in the road Belle could look far down below and see the wreckage of some previous vehicle that had failed to negotiate the bend at the appropriate angle and speed. Because of the harrowing, steep hairpin bends, their progress was slow, and often hours would pass without their seeing another person traveling the road.
Then on the fourth day of traveling down the Burma Road, the car broke down. The two airmen knew little about Chinese culture and decided that under the circumstances the best thing for them to do was to pull over the next vehicle that passed by and force the driver to take them along with him, at gunpoint if necessary. Belle cringed at the idea and set about convincing the airmen to allow her to handle the negotiations with the driver. She felt nervous about doing this, mostly because she had not used her Chinese language skills for several years now.
Thankfully her fluency in Chinese did not have to be put to the test, as the first vehicle to come by was driven by a European who offered them a ride. Unfortunately the vehicle had no room for their luggage, and Belle had to leave her bed and clothing bundle in the car. The airmen said they would send someone back for it, but Belle knew she would never see it again.
By the time she arrived at the Harrisons’ house in Kunming, Belle was exhausted and felt quite sick. She nearly burst into tears when she learned that Kathryn and David were not in Kunming but were out in the countryside preaching. Fortunately Eva, a Chinese pastor’s daughter who was charged with taking care of the Harrisons’ home while they were gone, let Belle into the house and set about taking care of her.
The next day Belle made it to the dentist. He examined the aching tooth and informed her that the infection in her tooth had spread throughout her body, which was what was making her feel so sick. Had she delayed coming for help, even by one day, it might have been too late to save her life.
Much to Belle’s relief, Kathryn and David arrived home several days later, and then on April 5, 1942—Easter Sunday—John joined them in Kunming. The news he brought was not good. The Japanese had become more aggressive and were pushing farther into China and now also controlled much of Burma. Belle forced herself to remain calm, despite the fact that both her daughter and her home at Oak Flat were in danger.
As if to underscore the dire news John brought, Japanese aircraft bombed Paoshan, killing fifteen hundred people there. Belle could scarcely comprehend the waste of so many precious lives. And more bad news followed. The Japanese were now descending on Yunnan Province by foot from three directions. As a result, John felt that he should go and warn the CIM missionaries in the area of this turn of events. Most of the missionaries were serving in areas where there was no radio reception, and John did not want the Japanese to take them completely unawares.
Belle spent anxious days praying that her husband would make it back safely, which he did. But then he set out on another equally dangerous mission to warn missionaries in Tali. From this trip he did not return, and there was no news of what had happened to him. David Harrison tried to reassure Belle that things would be fine, that John had most likely been waylaid on his trip by fighting between the Chinese and Japanese armies.
Meanwhile, Belle had a predicament of her own. News reached Kunming that the Japanese had completely overrun Burma and had advanced along the Burma Road all the way to the Salween River Valley. As a result, the Chinese authorities were now allowing only people with passes to move about the countryside, and the authorities would not issue Belle a pass to enter such a volatile area, even if her home was located there.
Belle prayed about what to do, but she could find no peace. Finally the decision of what to do next was made for her. The British consul in the area, to whom as a Canadian citizen Belle was answerable, ordered her to join the Royal Air Force convoy heading north to Szechwan Province. Belle was reluctant to leave because she would be heading away from Oak Flat and leaving John somewhere out in Yunnan Province in the fighting. But she was consoled when the Harrisons decided it was time for them to evacuate Kunming with Belle, and more so when the Royal Air Force commander allowed Eva to come with them. Belle had grown fond of Eva, and a friendship had developed between the two of them during her stay at the Harrisons.
The bumpy trip north took seven days. Seven days farther away from John, thought Belle as she shielded her eyes from the dust that swirled around the trucks in the convoy. Finally they reached northern Szechwan Province, where the missionaries who served in this area welcomed Belle and the other missionaries in the convoy.
As she slept on a pallet on the floor her first night with the missionaries, Belle tried to think through what she should do next. She was hundreds of miles from anyone she knew; she had no money, only the clothes on her back; and she did not have permission to travel. What should she do? Eventually she came to the conclusion that there was little she could do except work for the mission and pray for God to open the way for her.
Belle had even more to pray about in the following days when she learned that the Japanese had captured the ninety-seven missionary children at the CIM school in Chefoo. Belle’s heart skipped a beat thinking about Kathryn all alone with no brothers or sisters to comfort and encourage her. The Japanese had been so cruel to Chinese women and children that Belle shuddered as she thought about what they might do to her precious daughter.
After a week of agonizing, Belle learned that Kathryn and the other children from the school had been placed in a Japanese internment camp and that the teachers and staff, along with Roxie Fraser, James’s widow, and their three young daughters, were also with them. Knowing this made Belle rest a little easier, though she wished with all her heart that she had John to lean on right then. She tried not to let her imagination run wild and instead kept reminding herself that John was still alive and that wherever he was, God was watching over him.
A month passed in Szechwan Province before news filtered through that the Japanese had been pushed back from the Salween River and that the Lisu in Oak Flat had been untouched by the fighting. Belle breathed a prayer of thanks. She was sure that God intended for her to get back home to Oak Flat. The question was, how? She had no money and no transportation by which to make the trip. And just as important, she had no official invitation from John to travel there. As acting head of CIM in western Yunnan Province, John needed to issue such an invitation before Belle would be allowed to cross into a war zone.
Unsure of what else to do, Belle visited a nearby churchyard, where she was sure she would be left alone. There she poured out her needs to God in prayer. When she left the churchyard, she left with a confidence that her situation would change.
Sure enough, it did. The next morning Belle received a telegram from John. She felt greatly relieved to know that he was still alive. In the telegram, John specifically asked for her to join him in Tali. That was the official request from him that she needed to travel.
Then a bag of mail made it to the mission house in Szechwan Province. It was the first mail Belle had seen for months. Inside the bag were two letters for her, dated six months apart. Belle eagerly opened the letters, which were both from the same person, the young woman attending Moody Bible Institute to whom Belle and John had given money when they were home on furlough. Even though Belle had said the money was a gift, the woman insisted that she would repay them, and she had! Each letter contained a check for fifty dollars, enough to pay Belle’s way to Kunming.
A friend heard about a convoy of three privately owned trucks going south to Kunming, and the convoy had room for two more passengers. Belle laughed with pure delight as she began the trip home to Oak Flat. She had enough money in hand to pay for passage on the convoy for both her and Eva. Belle had to admit to being surprised when she told Eva of her plans to return to the Lisu and Eva had begged to go along as her assistant. The Chinese of the area, even Chinese Christians, despised the Lisu and the other ethnic tribes that lived in the mountains of western Yunnan Province. According to Chinese legend, when God had finished making the world, He scraped the mud from the soles of His sandals and fashioned from it the Lisu and the other tribes. Thus the Chinese referred to them as earth-people. Belle found it extraordinary that as a Chinese person, Eva wanted to lay this prejudice aside and come with her to the Lisu.
The trip to Kunming was awful: Belle had no other word to describe it. However, both she and Eva eventually arrived unharmed. From Kunming the two women pushed on to Tali, where John had said to meet him. They arrived in Tali, only to find that John had gone with a Quaker ambulance team into the fighting zone around Paoshan. When she learned this, Belle wondered how much more she could bear. Since she could not get a permit to follow John to Paoshan, she would have to wait and pray for the safe return of her husband.
After a day of waiting, however, Belle decided that she’d had enough of that. It was time to take action! She walked to the headquarters of General Song, the Chinese general in charge of the western Yunnan battlefront, and asked to see him. Her plan was to ask the general for a pass to travel to Paoshan to be with John. A guard at the headquarters told her to wait at the gate. Hours passed as she waited. A few soldiers came to look at her. Belle realized that she was probably quite a sight—a scrawny white woman in ragged clothes, with a fierce look of determination on her face. Eventually she persuaded one of the soldiers to take her request for a meeting to General Song. The soldier returned a short while later to say that the general had turned her request down.
As Belle walked back to the CIM mission house in Tali, she wondered whether the general had even received the request. Perhaps the entire day of waiting at the gate to his headquarters had been for nothing. Late that night, however, Belle was delighted to find that General Song had paid attention to her. He sent a message to her saying that she could expect her husband back in Tali soon, that the general had summoned him, and that both of them were expected to attend a banquet the general would be hosting. Belle was puzzled by the message. What could General Song possibly be up to?
Several days later, on August 4, 1942, John arrived back in Tali. Belle was delighted to see him again, and the two of them wrapped their arms around each other in a long embrace. Then it was time to go to General Song’s banquet.
“The general obviously wants something from us,” John said as they walked to his headquarters.
What a different reception Belle received when she and John reached the headquarters. The same guards who had ignored her and left her standing at the gate for hours now bowed to her and John and led them into the general’s private residence. General Song welcomed them warmly and introduced them to his wife, a refined woman who spoke perfect English.
Over a lavish dinner, the general got right to the point. “The position is this,” he began. “Yes, we checked the Japanese advance at the bridge over the Salween River, as you know. But our enemy then made their way north up the valley in search of another place to cross the river. As they did so, they enlisted the help of the heathen tribes there and set up outposts. We Chinese have neglected these people for a long time, but now we must enlist their help and stop the Japanese from establishing outposts farther up the valley.”
John and Belle looked at each other and knew they were thinking the same thing. Yes, the Chinese had neglected and exploited not just the Lisu but all the tribes that lived in the mountains of the region, referring to them as subhuman earth-people. Was it any wonder, then, that some of them had been enticed to help the Japanese?
General Song went on. “I called the warlords to come and meet with me in the hope that I might get them to use their influence with the Lisu to win them to our cause, but they turned out to be nothing but opium sots. All they cared about was opium. They had no concern for those who lived in their territory.”
Belle felt like interjecting, What did you expect from men who refer to the Lisu as Monkey People? But she bit her tongue and was silent.
“And then I thought of you two,” General Song said. “You are respected in the area. You speak Chinese and Lisu. So I sent for you. Will you help us to gain the friendship of the Lisu and warn them of the danger of cooperating with the Japanese?”
“That is what we have been doing since the war began,” John said. “We have told the people in our area that if the Japanese came to them and they cooperated with them, the Japanese would oppose their being Christians. And you will notice, General, that in those parts where there are many Lisu Christians, the Japanese have managed to obtain no footholds. So, yes, we will help you.”
General Song explained that he wanted John to act as an adviser to Colonel Hsie, who would be heading up the Nationalist Chinese Guerilla unit in the Oak Flat district. John accepted the position. Then, as far as Belle was concerned, came the best news of the evening. General Song informed them that he had given Colonel Hsie orders to provide them a military escort all the way back to Oak Flat. Belle could scarcely believe it. Not only were they being allowed to return to a war zone, but also they were going to have a military escort.
The group traveled south from Tali in a military truck until they came to the Burma Road and then headed west along the road toward Paoshan. Their trip was delayed when the soldier driving the truck struck a large rock in the road, making the vehicle undrivable. They had to camp out in the road until another truck could come from Paoshan and pick them up.
When they got to Paoshan, Belle was shocked. The town had been a thriving market center for the region, always bustling with people. But Japanese bombing had destroyed much of the town, and many of the town’s residents had fled.
In Paoshan, John and Belle bought flour and sugar and other food staples to take back with them to Oak Flat, while Colonel Hsie procured horses for the trip up the Salween River Valley. Soon Colonel Hsie, John, Belle, Eva, and a group of soldiers were mounted up and on their way. The trip up the valley was much slower than John and Belle were used to, but eventually, at the end of August, they arrived back at Oak Flat.
As Belle excitedly opened the door to her house, she realized that six months had passed since she had left the village to have her toothache attended to in Kunming. How things had changed in that time! Kathryn was now in a Japanese internment camp, John had risked his life numerous times, and she had been halfway across China to northern Szechwan Province and back. As she shut the door behind her, Belle wondered what might happen next.