Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 - Plot & Excerpts
Mrs. Yang, a Chinese Christian, was one of thousands who prepared for evacuation, along with her husband and children. On November 16, 1937, she set out, carrying with her only a few essentials, including two big turnips with two hundred banknotes hidden inside, and some jewelry in a hollowed-out egg. The party had to make a terrifying choice: should they flee via the Grand Canal, the most obvious route, or across Taihu Lake, and the less well-known canals? If they chose the Grand Canal, then they would be traveling parallel to the railway and main highways, which were major targets for Japanese bombers. But if they went via the lake, they would likely be robbed—and “robbery meant death, too.” A sudden sighting of a bomber overhead forced them to choose, but arriving at the Grand Canal, they “met thousands of people, rich and poor, in small fishing boats like ours fleeing from their homes . . . The Grand Canal was simply jammed with boats.” Among the horrors they saw were “dead bodies on the shore, dead babies in the river, and . . .
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