大象传媒

My own stories of WW2
2nd Nov 2003

I always wanted to write a book, which would tell the story of my family.

My father is Taiwanese, my mother is Japanese and I was born in the capital city of China 鈥� Beijing. I have lived in China, Japan and Britain.

My husband鈥檚 father is Chinese, his mother is British and he was born in the U.K. My husband has lived in China, America, Japan and Britain.

Having lived in all the different countries, influenced by the different cultures, and there are so many stories. Some of them are happy stories and some of them are sad.

But I had never thought that my story had anything to do with WW2, until this morning when I watched an announcement on 大象传媒 news about writing your own stories of WW2 and something caught my attention. Looking back and thinking about it, all of sudden I realized that without WW2 my parents would not have been married, neither would my parents in-law. Without WW2 I would not exist, neither would my husband. What a surprise discovery!

My mother in-law had a worse experience than I had

One day in the small kitchen of our flat in Beijing in 1985, I had a talk with my mother in-law 鈥� Dorothy. I was complaining that my husband went to work in New York and left me with our 3 years old daughter, and to deal with all the problems of daily life, just like a single mother. (Actually my husband left me when I was 6 months pregnant and when he came back to visit us for the first time our daughter was already 1 year and 9 months old. He was sent to New York to open up a new branch for Bank of China.) Trying to comfort me, my mother in-law said: 鈥淚 had a similar experience as you are having now. Just after I marry Michael鈥檚 (My husband) father, he went to Beijing to have a meeting in the head office of Bank of China. It took much longer than I expected before he came back to London. I was alone and worried a lot.鈥� I was not totally convinced by her. I thought her situation was not as bad as my situation at that time.
I should never forgive myself for that I must have said something, which made Dorothy make a difficult decision to tell me a secret that she has not even told her son. That was: Her fianc茅e had died in the WW2! 鈥淚f it was not for WW2 I would have married him,鈥� Dorothy said sadly. 鈥淲e were engaged and he joined the army and went to fight for our country and never came back again.鈥� She continued. WW2 changed my mother in-law鈥檚 life in the saddest way. I do not think there is anything that can cause more sadness than your loved one having died before your wedding.

鈥淚 thought that I would never get married.鈥� Dorothy said. My father in-law P.K.Liu had thought the same way, after his first wife died.

My father in-law had a similar experience as my mother in-law had

P.K.Liu was born in a big and wealthy family in the old days of China. His biological mother died when he was very young. On the surface his stepmother treated him very 鈥渘icely鈥�, but young P.K.Liu could tell it was not genuine at all and he lacked self-confidence and always felt that he was a second-class member of the family. Only when he passed the entry exam of Qing Hua University (one of the best Universities in China) he then realized he was not bad at all.

No matter how P.K.Liu refused, his father arranged the first marriage for him when he was quite young. As soon as the bride joined the family, the maid was sacked and the new bride has to do all the housework. The main purpose of the arranged marriage was clear.

Although P.K. Liu and his first wife had never met before the wedding, the bride had the softest personality, she was very sweet and kind, talked very little but worked very hard and she loved P.K.Liu dearly. P.K.Liu was deeply moved and fell in love with his first wife. My father in-law told me that he had helped his wife to carry buckets, which were full of water, when she hand-washed all the cloths for the big family well into her pregnancy. He insisted to help even when his father shouted at him: 鈥淲hat are you doing? You are losing all men鈥檚 faces!鈥� In the old days of China, the wife was in charge of housework, if the husband did housework it would be considered loosing face.

Unfortunately his first wife died of disease. P.K.Liu always regretted that he had not even taken his wife to see a film. Whenever he said it, I always saw tears in his eyes.

鈥淲hen my first wife died I was in so much grieve that I wanted to die and I thought that I would never get married again.鈥� My father in-law said to me.

Two survivors of WW2 got married in London

When P.K.Liu was grieving and wanted to die, Bank of China wanted to sent an employee to it鈥檚 London Branch from China. In order to bury all the sad memories, P.K.Liu offered and later arrived in London during WW2. Dorothy had been working for BOC London at the same time and she was in charge of air defense. When bombers approached and the air raid sirens wailed she would help people to go down to the basement. P.K.Liu was a troublesome one, who was not afraid to die at all or who just wanted to die. Whenever Dorothy called him to go to the basement, he just ignored it. It made Dorothy very angry and she shouted at him: 鈥淵ou Chinese don鈥檛 mind to die, but we British have to take the responsibility. Did you hear me? 鈥� P.K.Liu shouted back: 鈥淲ho need you to take the responsibility, go away!鈥�

China has a saying: 鈥淏u Da Bu Cheng Jiao鈥� (A friendship may start from a fight.) Believe it or not, they got married a few years later in 1949 and their son Michael 鈥� my husband was born in Britain.

WW2 changed my father鈥檚 plan

My father was born in Tai Nan City in the south of Taiwan in 1923. He had two brothers and three of them were all fond of painting. Among them my father painted the best and he also spoke the best Japanese. When he was 20 years old (1943) they put their money together and sent my father to go to Tokyo to study oil painting. They had a plan, which was after my father completed studying he should go back to Taiwan and open up a gallery with his brothers.

Unfortunately my father was never able to complete his studies at the Tokyo Fine Arts Academy. Just one and a half years after he arrived in Tokyo the war (WW2) was getting closer to Japan and the government started to recruit soldiers from students. To avoid becoming a soldier my father left the academy. 鈥淛apanese people ran to the countryside to avoid the bombings. I was young and strong, I joined the air defense and helped in the streets of Tokyo trying to stop the fire, which was caused by American fire bombs.鈥� My father told me.

Later a massage came from Taiwan, which said that one day a bomber approached my fathers鈥� house in Taiwan. Although his brothers had hidden in the basement, but because the bomber dropped a bomb right on top of the basement, his brothers did not make it. As my father鈥檚 brothers died, therefore their dream of the 鈥淏rothers Gallery鈥� was broken.

One day in 1945 the American鈥檚 bombed a part of Tokyo and caused a huge fire. 鈥淚 was trying to stop the fire at first, but very soon I had realized that I was surrounded by fire. I covered myself with a wet straw mat and ran to the local council. There were two big cement made fire-fighting buckets about one meter high and one meter wide in front of the gate of the council building. I saw a man and a girl were hiding in one of the buckets, I also hided into it.鈥� My father told me 鈥淎fter a while, the fire seemed to be getting smaller and the other two climbed out of the bucket, I followed them out. As soon as we left the bucket, just in about 2 seconds, there was an enormous sound and the gate of the council exploded and at the same time an immense fire gushed from the gate engulfing the buckets where he had been hiding. I was so lucky! I could have died.鈥� My father said gratefully.

My father continued: 鈥淣ext day, I realized that I was wounded by the fire. The fire burned one of my ears and my tummy, I really don鈥檛 know when and where it happened. In the daybreak of that day I saw scorched dead bodies everyway and trucks were passing me one by one full of dead bodies.鈥�

Another two survivors of WW2 got married in Tokyo

In China there is a saying: 鈥淒a Nan Bu Si, Bi You Hou Fu.鈥� (If you were not dead in a tragedy, you must have luck in the future.) Later another two survivors of WW2 got married in Tokyo in 1947.

My parents married in a basement. The photo of the wedding was so dark because there was not enough light. I could only see that my mother was wearing a Kimono, which was white and had a flowery pattern. Other guests all wore dark colours, which just merged into the dark background. Please imagine a black and white photo, which has several faces floating in the dark and only one of them had a visible body that was my mum.

Although my mother told me the reason that why she married my father was: his art works had been continuously displayed in Japan National Gallery. My father always believed until this day that my mother did not have much choice because in those days lots of Japanese men died during the war.

Everything never the same after WW2

Later my father鈥檚 tutor - professor UME HARA RYUO SA BUROO visited my parents at their home and showed my father some paintings, which he painted when he went to Beijing. My father was moved by the ancient architecture in Beijing. After all my father is an artist and the way of his thinking was kind of romantic. In spite of the fact that none of them (My parents and my older brother) could speak Mandarin and as soon as they arrived in Beijing they would become in effect deft and mute. He just bought three one-way tickets and took my mother and my brother to Beijing to chase after his dream of art.

A few years later I was born in Beijing. Later my husband was sent to Beijing to study Chinese at his parent鈥檚 decision. Beijing is the place where my husband and I met.

Without WW2 none of this would have happened. My mother in-law would marry her fianc茅e and have their child. My father would finish his studies and go back to Taiwan and marry a Taiwanese girl and have their child.

WW2 have changed my parent鈥檚 and my parents in-law鈥檚 life and made my husband and me.

Selina (Words 1933)

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