LETTER FROM CHINA
EXPERIENCES IN THE CONTINUING WAR IN SINYANGCHOW, HONAN
March 8, 1926 Letter to “Dagen” (Norwegian Newspaper)
Note: What is described by Mrs. Nesse is one phase of the1925-1927 Kuomintang military campaign (Chiang Kai Shek and Mao Tse-tung, allied at that time) to suppress warlords and unify China. The militarily successful campaign started from Shanghai in southern China and proceeding north to Beijing. This internal war was followed by a period of anti-foreign activity resulting in the withdrawal of most missionaries (including the Nesse family) and most foreign activities from China. In 1928 normal relations between China and foreign nations were resumed and continued for a number of years.
I am wondering how much information is provided by my homeland’s (Norway) newspapers as to the situation here. This was a question in our minds here during the 4 weeks when we were cut off from all communication with the outside world. Contacts were certainly few at first as our mission superintendent, who lives on Kikungshan only 40 kilometers away from Sinyang, could get no information on our situation. Later through lucky circumstances we got a message regarding our situation through to him.
When one asks about the cause of this war, words and attitudes give the same response: “Who Knows?” We do know that it is the same old warlord, Wu-Pei Fu, who appears involved in the hostilities again at this time. It is now reported that he now has allied himself with his arch enemy Chang-Tso-Lin (of the north); and the two in partnership have declared a mission to annihilate the so-called “Guominchiin” army, mostly out of Hupeh and southern China. Both armies proclaim that, for the peoples’ good, they will free them from the tyranny of the other side in the conflict. As for the people, they must bear all the suffering and misery and try to satisfy the demands of both parties.
Last fall a contingent of 10-12,000 soldiers belonging to the northern army came to Sinyang and settled in to take complete control from their allied local troops.. They took what they wanted at the markets and, as for price, failed to pay for what they seized both of food and fuel brought for sale. The townspeople had serious problems buying even the most necessary items and would have to go to the soldiers and pay to get necessaries for survival. That people would normally prepare for the deprivations of war in such times but somehow there seemed little movement in this direction. The fall was generally quiet, the quietest we have had on the mission field for the last four years. In the middle of January, however, credible rumors of war were in the air. Railroad traffic which in the past two years has at best been unreliable, stopped altogether. Both south and north-bound train traffic was halted and equipment marooned in Sinyang. The city’s functioning became a problem. Dao taien, who is a Christian, sent a confidential message to the mission high school for Chinese students indicating that problems were more than rumors at this time; it was best that the school be closed and the students sent to their homes throughout the city and countryside.. This, fortunately, was done.
On Saturday, January 23 some missionaries went to the telegraph office and found it locked with all the equipment removed. All the larger businesses were closed and no money was available at either banks or businesses. Sunday was quiet and the church attendance was overflowing as usual. The general responsible for the city said he would not speculate on the future, only answer questions about how matters would be at the various mission properties. He indicated that the hostilities could be orderly and promised that no harm would come to mission properties from his troops. The same promise, he indicated, could perhaps also be expected from his adversary, the “Hupeh” (southern) troops. We put little trust in these official assurances but they offered grounds to hope that there would be no direct attacks on mission property, or in the worst case, the missions would suffer only minor damage before one or the other side prevailed.
The Norwegian Lutheran Church of America has its oldest and largest China mission facilities in Sinyang. 6 families and 7 women missionaries are working in Sinyang. The various facilities are located outside the city wall in all four directions, but the largest number of Christians and the Lutheran Chinese minister are located inside the city wall. Two years ago a Catholic mission from America also located its facilities within the city.
On Monday, January 25 we heard artillery fire in the distance and realized that the Hupeh (southern) troops had begun their assault. There was no reply from the northern troops defending the city and by evening it became quiet so we went to bed, although fully clothed. Tuesday morning the hostilities began seriously. The Hupeh troops attacked with great speed and by about 10:00 AM had captured a small town, Sanlidien, located on the flood plain to the south of the city. The mission station at the south gate of the city is also on the flood plain just north across the river from Sanlidien . The mission station has two large foreign style houses, a huge church with a high steeple as well as several additional large facilities for use as various mission schools. Both we (Danielle, husband Hans and youngest son Arthur – age 4) and 3 missionary ladies live in one house and are of Norwegian heritage. One of the ladies, however, had a huge American flag and hung it on the second story veranda so no one could fail to note that the mission station was neutral ground. The artillery fire was fearful and we could see many casualties on the flood plain in front of our house. Bullets hit the house in such numbers that it was not safe to move in front of doors or windows or from room to room. Later, during a lull in the shooting, we were at a table to eat something when, pale with concern, one of our servants came in to report that the yard was full of soldiers. We looked out the window and saw a disconcerting sight. The veranda and the yard were full of soldiers engaged in digging trenches just in front of the house and the American flag. A Chinese female teacher from the nearby Bible school then came and reported that she had spoken with one of the soldiers who said they meant no harm, they only wanted a passageway, which they had accomplished by breaking a hole in the wall. Soon thereafter bullets again began to fly through the house so we sprang from the table and found shelter in a schoolroom in the less exposed back area of the property. We next approached the gate to the street at the rear and the gatekeeper said that there was reasonably safe passage to the other mission house occupied by the Sovik and Nelson families. We decided to take the opportunity to go to there because the house was less exposed to the shooting and we felt it might be best to be together at one site.
My husband went back to our own residence see if it would be possible to locate one of the military officers and persuade him to move the soldiers out of the yard. Evening now approached, the soldiers bedded down just outside the wall so the situation ended up essentially unchanged. The arrangement continued that night and all the nights and days for the following 6 weeks.
On the next day, Wednesday, we moved again over to our own house because there was concern that the soldiers would break in to the house and take what they wished in the absence of the foreigners. During days we sat in a corner in a back room and at night some of us went to a small underground cellar and others stayed under the staircase where there was brick construction on three sides.
On Friday the 29th some of the soldiers, who were no doubt robbers recruited to the military, resumed their normal trade. Sister Kristine was in the schoolyard to meet with some women and was accosted by two robbers. In true robber fashion one pointed a rifle at her chest and the other leveled his bayonet at her stomach. Women from the school threw themselves between the bandits and Sister Christine and saved her life. Shortly thereafter my husband came to nail shut some doors and had the same reception from the robbers. Here too, women from the school risked their lives and interposed themselves between him and the bandits to save him. We feared that at any moment the robbers would invade our house so we left in haste. We again came safely over to the Nelson/Sovik house. We later learned that we were barely out before a group of robbers arrived at the house we had just left. They shot through the doors and windows and shouted – “foreigners, open the doors, we will shoot you, we will kill you” etc. The door was smashed and, once inside, we later saw indications that they were not beginners in their trade. In our mission group all have had robber visits before, some once and others of us several times. Furniture and trunks are smashed and that which can’t be taken is similarly destroyed. In this case they found no money and, as to other things, they couldn’t take very much because they should soon again pretend to be soldiers. Surprisingly in the past we have actually recovered some of our household items as soldier/robber identities merge.
We feared that at any time the robbers again would strike over at the now crowded (Nelson/Sovik) house. There is, however, no place to seek safety without Him who has promised to protect us in His house in troubled times. We knelt together and poured out our hearts to God’s throne and as we arose from our knees a servant came to tell us that a soldier was at the door and wanted to talk to the minister. What he wanted I did not know but he came as a friend and the three ministers present met him and showed him their business cards. They asked the soldier to bring the cards to his officer with an invitation for him to come to the mission station soon because it was “yao si” – important and urgent. A lower level official came promptly, surveyed the situation and was shown the plundered yard and house. He ordered a military guard for the entrances to both houses. Interestingly, some of the robbers encountered earlier were among those assigned as guards!
The guard contingent reported maters upwards through the various levels of command, from lower level officers to the level just below the commanding general. The general ultimately set up regular guard service and provided prominent signs prohibiting molestation. The signs were posted on all doors and other locations throughout the mission properties. This kept robbers away for a time and, in spite of the overall situation, we were most grateful for the helpfulness of the local authorities.
From Saturday January 30 until Monday February 8 there was no serious incident. There was rifle fire continually and often also artillery and machine gun fire, but it seemed to be neither focused nor effective. The attacking southern troops across the river seemed mostly to shoot at our house so the tin roof and gutters were full of holes, and windows and doors were shot to pieces. Bullet indentations by the hundreds showed in the areas of brick construction. For those of us who cooped up in a dark back room the days began to be long and the nights endless; 15 days with little real sleep and without so much as the freedom to remove one’s shoes.
Towards evening of a most fateful day it became quiet for over an hour and we undertook to get some sleep. We selected the most sheltered area in several rooms and promised ourselves and each other to get some sleep. Nothing came of this because by this time the silence was more nerve wracking than the shooting. At about 9 PM we heard the most fearful fighting, seemingly right out in the yard. Bullets crashed into the roof and swished through the house. We who were upstairs could hear weeping at the lower level and it was evident that tragedy had struck. Mrs. Sovik then opened the downstairs door and shouted that we should come downstairs immediately because Nelson had been shot. Taking the stairway down seemed like certain death but we came safely downstairs. All there had lain down on the floor when the intense shooting began but Nelson chose to remain upright a bit longer. A bullet struck him in the temple. Without a sound he bowed his head and fell to a kneeling position. He died at 1:00 AM. There was sadness at the thought that this was the thanks China gave him for 36 years of love and faithful service. Daniel Nelson was our mission’s founding pioneer. He was 74 years of age at his death. Our Chinese pastor obtained a casket for Nelson from the Red Cross. The casket was placed in the church where it remains as I write this because it is impossible as yet to go to the cemetery.
We were tired and depressed and Nelson’s death seemed to take the last of our strength and confidence. Over 1000 refugees had sought refuge at the mission station. There was a shortage of water and food and the sanitary situation in the yard where the Chinese refugees settled in was beyond description. There were many sick and also dead bodies within the mission compound walls.
On Thursday there was a ground attack by the southern troops who forded the river and occupied an area from the South Gate all the way to the railroad station. In the mission station area they took positions by the church and dug many trenches in the street and among the various buildings of the mission station. It was evident that there was increased danger to us with troops within the mission but the new southern army officials promised, (on their lives and honor!), not to attack the enemy from this point and only to answer enemy fire in extreme circumstances. This promise was kept for a while. Now that we were in association with the southern troops who held much of Sinyang’s outlying areas the authorities provided the opportunity to send a message to Loshan, a mission in a nearby city where Pastor Bertin Nelson, Daniel Nelson’s son, and Pastor Hesla were located. We also hoped that the change in circumstances would enable us to vacate Sinyang and go to Kikungshan. On the next day we received permission to hire 20 carriers and proceed to Kikungshan on foot and most of us at the South Gate station left. My husband was ill with a high fever for the past several days and was too ill to travel; however a week later he was able to proceed in a sedan chair.
Our missionary families at the West Gate station, the Bly and Anderson families had, if possible, even more trying experiences. They spent a whole week with 6 small children in a dark cellar. On the first day their house was shot up with direct rifle fire by robbers who went in and out and took all they could find of food, clothing and other property. The two men were forced to stand with arms over their heads as each new group of robbers searched their pockets and clothes for valuables. All doors, windows and furnishings in the mission homes, as well a school buildings (including a large high school), were completely wrecked.
After much negotiation with the military the West Gate missionary families arranged for a boy to bring a message to the mission hospital at the North Gate. Dr Skinsness, the resident missionary physician, was able to make arrangements for the traumatized West Gate missionaries to proceed to the hospital. The hospital and nearby girls’ school was for a time less affected but towards the end of the 4th week the Hupeh (southern) troops dug positions near the hospital as the defending troops on the near by city wall began shooting that smashed the widows in the hospital that faced the city wall. The defending troops not only shot at the southern troops in the hospital area but also shot at the doctors and nurses as they went to and from the hospital. Ironically the hospital facilities were being used principally to care for some 150 patients of their own wounded Shensi (northern) troops.
Ultimately it became necessary for the medical missionaries to leave and permission was granted by the controlling southern officials for a military train to take them to Sintien (some 20 miles), the railroad station at the foot of Kikungshan. Just as they were beginning their trek from hospital to railroad station there was a terrific bombardment from the city wall and they were forced to take extended refuge in a small Chinese hut. They finally were able to proceed without casualties to board an ammunition train from Sinyang to Sintien below Kikungshan.. Dr. Skinsness soon returned to the hospital and the other men rotated work in Sinyang. At this time all of the male workers are there. That only one, and not more of us, was shot (in the Sinyang hostilities) is a great wonder.
Words can’t describe peoples’ suffering and misery in a city under siege. In Sinyang proper the dead are stacked in huge piles while outside the city wall the dead still lie where they fell and become food for dogs and crows. The death toll is huge on both sides. Non combat civilians have been shot by the thousands. People who, for family or other circumstances, have been unable to flee the fighting may be executed indiscriminately, men and women, young and old. Soon spring will be here with its heat and then we will see war’s partner, disease, emerge. How can we ever erase these frightful pictures from sight and memory !
We missionaries of Sinyang, unfortunately, are far from alone in the experiences I have described. Many other cities and many other missionaries have met and will continue to meet the same problems throughout the country. As this is written the situation is little changed. Peace negotiators time and time again attempt to arrange a cease fire, or some sort of a political compromise, but no progress is evident so far.
Kikungshan, Honan
March 8, 1926 -- Danielle Nesse
The newspaper story written for a Norwegian newspaper (DAGEN) by Mrs. Nesse was translated to English by Arthur Nesse, Hans and Danielle Nesse’s youngest son.