Mao 1
Grace Mao
Mrs. Morris
HELA 10, Hour 5
7 May 2017
War of a Lifetime
I touch the FaceTime button. A loading circle pops up in the center. The screen is bright, displaying my reflection as I wait for the other end to pick up. There's a sudden freeze, like the app is about to crash. Then a single sound, like that of a notification, pings out and I see my grandparents on the other side. They're sitting in the room that they always sit in during calls-- the one with the computer. It's the room where my brother and I played games whenever we visited China. It's minimally decorated. The computer sits on thedesk; asmall cabinet behind them holds some miscellaneous office supplies.They smile as they see me looking back at them, enthusiastically calling out their greetings. I smile and wave back.It’s seems odd that such normal people could have lived through one of history’s ugliest bloodbaths, World War II.
In 1933, Mao Qi Guang was born in Fuzhou, a coastal city located in the southern part of China. Meanwhileseveral hundred miles away, in Shanghai,Guang Hui Lan was born. Both lived comfortable lives with their families within bustling cities, both the center of trade. This would all change in 1937, when the Sino-Japanese War,also known the World War II, began(Keightly and Franke). Since both cities were located along the coast of the East China Sea, Japanese planes would easily be able to reach them. As a result, Qi Guang would move away to Yong 'an, a city far in the mountains. “Fuzhou was behind in development so there were no trains or planes to get to Yongan. Instead, we had to ride cars through the mountains. The roads were narrow and steep,” my grandpa says, gazing into the distance, recreating the image within his mind’s eye.His family would not be the only one to leave the city. “Everyone wanted to leave the city, so the cars that we took were completely full.” He and the others would stay in a temple located within the mountains for the duration of the war.On the other hand, Hui Lan would stay in Shanghai, despite the fact thatit would soon be fall to Japan(Keightly and Franke). While she would never move to another city due to the invasion, she, too, would encounter numerous unexpected hardships.
Fear was something that played large parts of each of their lives. By day, Mao would hide in the numerous mountain caves to avoid being bombed. “The planes constantly flew by, usually during the day. Sometimes they dropped bombs, sometimes they didn’t drop bombs. They just wanted us to know that they were there and could bomb us should they choose to,” he explains. At night time, they would return to the temple where they slept, the only home they had since they had left Fuzhou behind. Despite the constant cloud of fear, he never encountered Japanese soldiers in person. On the other hand, Guang would face the soldiers at least once or twice a week. Shanghai was a city that had been taken by the Japanese, making it so that one side of the bridge was China’s and the other side was occupied by Japan. “My uncle lived on the other side of the bridge in Shanghai. Every time we went to visit him, we had to cross this bridge, which was guarded by troops. They were looking for potential spies or anyone plotting against them. You couldn’t wear sunglasses or anything that covered your face. The soldiers would examine each of us, trying to see if we were persons of suspicion. Once they were satisfied that you weren’t a danger to them, WHOOSH! It meant that you could pass the bridge.” Her gaze is fierce and angry. “It was humiliating. They didn’t treat us as humans. We may as well have been animals being herded across the bridge.” My grandpa nods in agreement to this; both hated being at the mercy of an unwelcome invader.
Unsurprisingly, while fear was in great quantity and to be found everywhere, resources became scarce as the war went on. Rice, a common food in the East Asian diet, was so rare that neither had a bowl of dry rice. “We didn’t have the steamed buns or dry rice like you have now. We ate porridge all the time,” Qi Guang says. Hui Lan elaborates on it, “If we had any flavoring at all to go with the rice, like soy sauce, it was the best tasting meal we ever had.” The lack of transportation made it even worse. Food prices were often constantly rising. “As soon as you got paid, you would run to the market and buy whatever you could,”Mao says. In another few hours, there would either be no food left, or unable to afford as much. Even if one had a lot of money, the amount of food that could be bought was limited due to rationing. Food was used to feed the troops fighting in the war. War would take away more than just the comfortable childhood life he had so far. Soon after moving to the mountains, he would lose his mother. His mother had gotten sick. “The roads were bad, so medicine was hard to get,” my grandfather says sadly. Without the necessary medicine, his mother passed away soon after. War was cruel. No one was untouched. He let the silence hang over the interview for the next several moments.
Despite the grim outlook of the war, people stayed positive. “Since we were young, we didn’t truly understand what was going on, but I always figured that China would win because we had more people and power,” my grandma says proudly as she speaks of her home country. Victory brought about soaring spirits. “Firecrackers went off in the streets as people began to celebrate,” Mao says as he travels back to when the joyful cheers echoed. My grandma agrees to the image that grandfather has painted with a nod.The victory would be the end of the terror for the both of them, butit would leave China in tatters. The economy and infrastructure were in shambles. The Japanese had taken all the naval vessels, a hasty retreat as the tides of war turned against them. The railroad systems were heavily damaged, destroyed by Allied bombing. This would lead to inflation as goods became difficult to transport, and the lack of infrastructure would lead to insecurity and uncertainty, another exciting era (Lary). “But that’s a story for another time,” my grandfather says. The grim memories lift at his words.
We’re back in the present, the past far behind. I smile thinking about how fortunate I am to live in peacetime. My brother pops up into the frame, excited at the sight of our grandparents.Our grandparents are startled for a moment and then begin to laugh. He waves enthusiastically and they wave back. Any remaining sense of the memories of war is completely erased. Even if the memories are to last a lifetime, I’m glad that the happened to mold the loving grandparents I know today.