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Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY Overseas Yule left us longing for home Fifty-five years ago at Christmas, I was in north China where the Sixth Marine Division had been sent to accept the Japanese surrender in that area. Before that, I was a radio operator for the Weapons Company of the 22nd Marines. Within days of the announcement that World War II was over, we packed up and boarded ships for the long run from our retraining base in Guam to north China. Our trip took us from the Pacific through the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea to the port of T�Sing Tao. You won�t find the port�s name on any recent maps of China. After the communists took over China in 1949, Supreme Leader Mao Tse Tung instructed his bureaucrats to come up with a new system for translating their languages and dialects into European languages. Thus the city of T�Sing Tao became "Quing-dao." But enough history. What I�m really writing about is refugees and displaced persons. All wars are basically the same, but we in the Pacific were spared a problem that held up operations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Asian countries. We did not have masses of displaced persons to deal with. The other night I was watching a program on The History Channel about wars and refugees. Motion picture cameras were used to cover battles going as far back as the beginning of the 20th century. Films from all wars included shots of civilians with downcast faces and wearing as much clothing as they could because their carts had been packed full of everything they owned. These carts were pushed and tugged by old people and children. Apparently, the mothers and fathers had been killed or jailed. It seemed to always be raining when such films were taken, and the exhausted, homeless people looked as if they were about to fall down. World War II put more refugees on the road in Europe than did any other war, but things were different in the Pacific. The islands were small when compared to European battlefields. There were no refugees, no places to flee to. However, things were quite different in China after the surrender of the Japanese. I was detached from my regular outfit and put to work on providing a radio station for the Marines. While the engineers had been working on a transmitter, another announcer and I were able to use a jeep from the motor pool to learn about the city. One of the most prominent landmarks was a huge Catholic Church that sat on top of the largest hill in the city. We met the three European priests who served there, along with numerous native priests. T�Sing Tao was not what I had anticipated. We were told aboard ship that the city was a cosmopolitan center, but I was certainly unprepared for the numerous white faces in the crowds who showed up at the docks to welcome us. Our briefing officer had told us that the town had a population of between a half-million to a million, but he hadn�t mentioned the white refugees. Many of them spoke English, and some of them had been in China since the Russian Revolution of 1917. There was also a large group of Germans, mostly women. The story was that most of their men had taken a boat to Germany, but all had been lost when the ship was torpedoed. I never learned if that was true. We turned a two-story house near the harbor into our combination barracks and radio studio. The house had belonged to a Japanese functionary and was well-insulated, which made it ideal for broadcasting. It was located on a main road near the harbor. Directly across the street was a nightclub that bore a sign saying in English, "The Dutchman�s." I met the proprietor, who really was a Hollander but had no passport. There were other signs in English for small businesses throughout the town, most of them owned by "stateless persons." On Christmas, we obtained some greenery and made our own decorations, but it was not like being at home. That came later when a transport ship pulled into the harbor, and more than three weeks later, we were home. (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Call him at 772-9055.) Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.