I said he was a saint of God
-- 1929-1944 Dr. Brown in China
Author: Xiao Hui/Viva
"Love and charity, whether based on religion or humanity, will give us the power of warmth beyond nations, RACES, and time “---- Preface.
Please, please do everything we can to help the poor, especially the wounded.
That eastern food on western digestive apparatus is very nearly incompatible.
Remain as a caretaker of mission property in Japanese occupied territory, but would go wherever my services as surgeon were most badly needed by the Chinese
The Japanese are armed bandits and rapists in China and anyone who says they are neutral in this war is not a Christian.
I hope I can be an example to influence other missionary doctors to do the same thing, the hateful war destroyed China, she has never needed friends so much.
Bethune boasted that he was a communist. I said he was a saint of god.
-- Dr. Richard .F. Brown
1）12.29/2019, John's birthday
It's still in North America Pacific Time on December 28th. In North Vancouver,John's home.
Today is John's birthday according to Chinese time (29th,Dec) he was born in China, the time is right. I explained to John that today was the right time for his birthday.
He laughed and agreed !
I took a small stack of photos from the Costco envelope and handed it to him. Here's a little present for you, I said.
He moved the little table near himself, put on his reading glasses, and started looking at those photos.
This is TsingTao! He said without hesitation.
“ Ah, you recognize it ? I knew he'd recognize it, but would not be so fast!
“This is No 1 Beach”, He held a picture which is with the beach view from height. I have never been to TsingTao, so I do not know the beach is called No. 1 Beach
“I was swimming here, at that time I was six years old, this is probably where we lived.” he said, pointing to the edge of the picture.
These pictures were taken by my friend Heng during the conference in TsingTao this autumn, and I came to Costco and printed them out .
“in 1938, Japanese ships landed here too , and from there they invaded and occupied TsingTao”. He is recalling in front of those pictures.
If only there has a chance to take John back china for a look , my friend Heng ever suggested.
Emm , this is house of 20# FUSHAN ZI RD , John ‘s house in TsingTao in 30’s
I pointed the picture to John and said , my friend Heng specially went over the house next day and took pictures for you .
Thanks him !He squinted at it...
Is the house as it was? I asked him.
Yes, it is.
Unfortunately he can’t entry it .I relayed Heng's words to John.
em, I hope it stays the same. He sighed, and I realized that 78 years had passed.
He was nine years old when he left TsingTao, at the end of 1941.
I pulled out the birthday card that I had scribbled before leaving home this morning. I unrolled it for him, and he took it and read it.
‘Let me read it for you,’ I said and squatted down beside his little table.
It was the first time, I brought my own dubbing with birthday ‘s card. I’m kind of funny.
“Happy birthday! John!”(he said thank you)
“It's an amazing world. You were born in kweiteh(GuiDe) China 87 years ago , today I am meeting you in Vancouver to wish you a happy birthday.
That must have been eighty-one years ago, the winter of 1938, Dr. Brown couldn’t go back TsingTao for Christmas
with his family, but he wrote a letter, and said to your mom :”John's birthday is coming, give him one dollar to go to the Japanese market to buy something.”
John smiled. He must recall something from the comment.
I continue reading : I was very touched when I read this , that was Dr. Brown. He was a soft doctor. a kind father….
For your father, for your family, for the contributions your family did to the Chinese people...”
John was trembling slightly. I stopped reading, He held my hand tightly. I saw the tears in his eyes.
Ivy, who had come with me was sobbing too, while she was snapping pictures
I gave John a hug and kept on finishing the last sentence: for your father, for your family , for the contribution your
family did to the Chinese people, as an ordinary Chinese, I express the deep gratitude: thank you!
I took a deep breath.
All three of us were in tears.
My father loved China. He loved Chinese so much .John choked.
I know, I know. I nodded.
I know….. I have already finished the story.—《I said he was a saint of God》
----------All above is my diary for today, as if it could be the foreword of the story.
Dec 28th,2019 in Vancouver .
2) 1941.12-1945.2 in Camp Santoma, Manila
( John in the center , his sister Rachel on the left , and Barbara (the daughter of another doctor ) was on the right, about 1936 in Kweiteh)
At the end of 1941, John, who was nine years old, and his three siblings boarded a ship with their mother, Elisa, at the port of TsingTao.
They are expected to return to Canada in the near future.
And the war made all ordinary things become uncertain, dangerous. The same situation happened on their journey.
Perhaps John was too young at the time, his memories about his childhood in China are fragmentary. Although, every time, he can speak coherently and clearly when he were talking about boarding the ship and leaving TsingTao.
The following are his memories.
"Six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, around June 1941, my mother was told by the British consul that it was best for leaving China. The message they got was that Japan was going to cause trouble to the world.
“You must not talk about this. You must contact the Japanese military and police, then get their permission to leave.” The councilor said.
My mother took the advice from the British consulate, and decided to leave.
Preparing everything quietly.
We sold our house, got the leaving permission,and bought tickets
First,from TsingTao to Shanghai. The plan is to travel from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore, and then to Australia.
“The scene of boarding the boat is like that it was just happening yesterday."John said.
The inspector checked our tickets, passports and permits.
A Japanese officer stood by, fully uniform dressed, with a long sword. He only checked permits.
He gave my mother a military salute.
He asked politely, Mrs. Brown, does your major Mr. Brown enjoy the Indian weather?
He spoke British English beautifully and fluently.
My mother froze: What?
We hadn't heard from our father for a long time and didn't know where he was.
It was not until we were reunited with my father three years later in Vancouver, Canada, that we were able to verify the meaning of the Japanese officer's question. He knew my father had joined the Southwest Alliance.
Their intelligence was accurate.
In this way, we sailed from TsingTao to Shanghai.
In Shanghai, we boarded a ship, named AnHui, bound for Hong Kong.
After arriving in Hong Kong, we got the ticket to Singapore. However, at midnight on December 6th, the captain of the ship informed us urgently that the ship could not go to Singapore, so we had to go to the Philippines instead. (later, we learned that Singapore was bombed, around the time when Pearl Harbor was attacked)
On the morning of December 7, the ship set out, and as it was approaching the Philippines, it was gotten an airstrike by Japanese.
The hull of the ship swayed, and people screamed.
We were all saved and brought to the city Malina, Philippines.The following month, in January 1942, we were taken to the shelter camp.
The shelter was located on the campus of St.Thomas University.
St. Thomas University, which had a history of more than 330 years, was a private Catholic university.
The walls were high, the trees were green, it's a beautiful place.
But we couldn't go out until February 1945, when the Philippines was liberated by American forces.
We were able to take a boat to Los Angeles and a train back to Vancouver.
What was expected to be a few dozen days of travel to home turned into three years and one month of concentration camp life.
John talked about the experience several times. Almost every time I visited him, the topic would go through this paragraph no matter where it started.
I sometimes think that if he could have described it more vividly, there would have been a historic movie playing in front of me.
His description is always calm. It was just like a usual trip to the neighbor's house.
And when I was surprised at how good his memory was, he said, it was just like yesterday.
"Like yesterday", such gently word but is like the time glacier calving it makes the story surging as a river.
I went to the Wiki to look up information about the Santo Tomas Internment Camp and got a general idea of what was then called an Internment Camp or a concentration Camp or a prison.
John's mother had spent three years there with the three of them, and like all the more than 3,000 people imprisoned there, hunger and disease were inevitable.
There was no connection between them and Dr. Brown.
I ever asked John :were you learning there like at school?
I didn't have ideas about the situation of the asylum when I asked.
John answered: yes, those adults taught us.
(the above pictures from wiki)
3) Dr. Richard Fredric Brown, John's father
"My father has a Chinese name, Bao ZhiDe.(包志德) Chinese colleagues, patients and acquaintances all affectionately call him Dr. Bao（包大夫）. John said.
Surname Bao sounds like Brown, and his first name Zhi De means "ambition and morality" in Chinese. I don't know whether it was himself or a Chinese friend who gave him advice.
The name matched himself very well.
When I read all information which John had given me, and some else I had extended to search from books or online.
When I heard John talked briefly about his father's life.
When I put down the tattered books, I stared at the black-and-white photos.
Several times, I had to get up, walk to the window, and look at the city lights under the night sky, even in the quiet Maple Ridge, the lights from every house on both sides of the Fraser valley are like fireflies twinkling in the black jungle.
What all I see always reminds me that I am in the 21st century, a peaceful era.
The books on the table were spread out in the midst of the war of 1939.
On the morning of November 12 that year, Bethune, who had come from Canada, closed his eyes on the heated K’ang ( heatable brick or stone bed) at the home of a farmer named Di Junxing in Yellowstone Village, Tang county, HeBei province, China, and finished his 49-year journey of life.
(The news spread over The 8th route army wireless system, brigade those who heard it staring and silent, The at its headquarters in the WuTai mountains General Nieh wept while his staff sat down question with bowed heads)
(Dr. Brown sent a message to the Canadian. He said: Bethune boasted that he was a communist. I said he was a saint of god.)
"I said, he was a saint of god." 78 years later, I can't find a better words only copy Dr. Brown's own words which he commented on Bethune to describe him.
Yes, I, a Chinese lady who was not born at that time used his words as the title to write about him 78 years later, to remember him.
In the spring of 2017, it was a cold and wet rainy season in Vancouver. John handed me two books at his house in North Vancouver
“Finally found ! “ he said, The two books he had been rummaging around for a long time.
One is
The other was 《East Asia Inquiry》, with an article called 《China's unsung
Canadian Hero: Dr. Richard f. Brown in North China, 1938-39》 By Min-sun Chen （Dr.Min-sun Chen is a Proffessor Emeritus of History in Lakehead University,Canada.）
John also gave me some photographs and letters, with copies and originals.
Books, letters, and photographs are looking yellowed and aged.
I took the books back to China and read it intermittently under the light int the winter time towards the end of 2017.
The story started at 1930’s Kweiteh which is now known as ShangQiu city
Back to that time, ShangQiu was not called ShangQiu but called Kweiteh,got the name of the Kweiteh Mansion of the ancient city. I got used to hearing John talking about Kweiteh in his recollections.
Kweiteh was on the LongHai railway line.
There was a hospital in Kweiteh called St. Paul's hospital, which was established in 1912.
St Paul’s hospital was the first People's hospital in ShangQiu city.
John unfolded a picture of a city hospital that had been cut out from a newspaper and pointed to the low-slung buildings in the front row. This is the old hospital, where his father worked.
He was born there in 1932.
"Four International Peace Hospitals were set up in China by foreign doctors during the War of Resistance against Japan,1937-1945,of these four hospitals , two were established by Canadians: Dr. Norman Bethune (1890-1939),and Dr Richard F. Brown (1898-1963).while Bethune is a household name in China ,Brown remains an unsung hero
Some Chinese and Western publications even identify Dr. Brown as an American doctor, even though Soong Ching-lin (Madame Sun Yat-sen) , in her account of Chinese Guerrillas Fighters published in 1943 , identified clearly Dr. Brown as a Canadian missionary doctor ,As we celebrate the centennial of Dr. Bethune’s birth in 1990, it is high time for us to recall as well Dr. Brown ‘s heroic career in China in 1938-39.”
This is the starting introduction of story by Min-sun Chen.
Chen mentioned 1938-39 because it was the time when Dr. Bethune was known in China.
Of course, it was also the period of the war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the second period of cooperation between the Chinese National Party and the Chinese Communist Party.
But 1938-1939 for Dr. Brown was just a part of his time in China.
As early as September 1929, 13 years after the end of World War I, Dr Brown arrived in Shanghai. He was 31 years old.
During these 13 years , he went from being one of the youngest soldiers to fight in Europe as a signalman in First World War to becoming an ophthalmologist with a master's degree.
During the three years of World War I, he suffered head, back and arm injuries.
After leaving the battlefield, he embarked on the road of studying medicine, and then went to the battlefield again and again to participate in the rescue of the wounded and the dying. This was a progressive choice made by those who had experienced in living or dying in war. Then cherish to all living beings in return.
Before arriving in Shanghai, he went to London Tropical medical school for ophthalmic training, and also went to four other world famous ophthalmic clinics: Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Rome for training. Before coming to China, he went through south India, where he received training in famous ophthalmic clinics.
Those entire professional training let BROWN became the best ophthalmologist in China at that time.
"My father could spoke fluent Chinese and often translated for Bethune when he worked with him." John told me.
It was 1938, Brown’s tenth year in China. “This Dr. Richard Brown is a fine fellow - speaking Chinese like a native. “ Bethune wrote in his dairy.
Like most foreigners, he couldn't speak Chinese when he first came to China.
In 1929, Brown traveled from Shanghai to KaiFeng, where he reported to the Anglican Church of Canada in KaiFeng and St. Paul's hospital in Kweiteh.
Then he went to Peking Union Medical College Hospital to work in ophthalmology and study Chinese, where he met the love of his life: Elsa Helen from Germany was 21 years old in1930. In that summer they were married in the Beijing Episcopal Church.
Elsa later became John's mother.
"My mother worked in special care at Peking Union Medical College Hospital," said John.
Peking Union Medical College Hospital was founded in 1917 by the Rockefeller’s Foundation, which spent $200,000 to purchase the former Union Medical College.
The Rockefeller Foundation later spent $48 million in a total (a significant portion of his $500 million charitable share) to build the Peking Union Hospital, the most advanced medical institution at that time in the world, on the model of Johns Hopkins University.
I'm just trying to sketch a picture of a group of people in white coats were shuttling, Dr. Brown and his wife Elsa were among them, in Peking Union Hospital in the early 20th century, in Beijing, China.
No matter the magnate Rockefeller or Nurse Elsa. To the depth of time, my respect for them was inspired.
"I believe that God has given me the power to make money and to do my best for the welfare of society " Rockefeller said.
Dr. Brown was the second batch of Canadian missionary doctors, with Dr. Robert McClure, Dr. Girbert (Guo HaiBo) together.
One of from the first group called Dr Roswell , was the grandfather of the now famous crosstalk performer DaShan, who also worked at the hospital from 1922 to 1925. Dr. Roswell’s dormitory was also the place where the second group of doctors lived.
In 1931, after working at Peking Union Hospital and going back and forth between KaiFeng and ShangQiu,
DR.Brown took his pregnant wife Elsa on a train to kweiteh
They settled down at St. Paul's Hospital. The first child, John's sister, Rachel was born on April 18.1931
John was born in 1932.
Peter was born in 1936.
So the family of five lived a happy life in Kweiteh until April 1937 they had to move to TsingTao, which had better conditions since John was sick for a long time in 1936’s winter, Brown was in charge of surgery and ophthalmology in St. Paul's Hospital
Time came to the Marco Polo bridge incident in July 1937 .The fighting was getting tighter.
That year's Christmas, Brown did not return to Qingdao to reunion his family, Elsa was with the three children in the Christmas Eve under candlelight to pray for the peace of the family and the world.
4) Join Bethune
At the beginning of 1938, Kweiteh city on the LongHai Line also fell.
St. Paul's Hospital was occupied by the Japanese.
Here's how Dr. Brown explained the 1938 situation in the CBC( Radio-Canada) “Our Special Speaker “ program which was broadcasted on Sunday ,February 4,1945:
"...Gradually the war came closer, and the young men started to leave their farms to join guerrilla forces, they often came to me at the hospital to ask my advice, they wanted to know how to protect their lives and the lives of their families from the hazards of war . They also asked me too, how they could take their own lives if ever they were captured by the Japanese”
“as the war dragged on, and the enemy came closer we used to see fires in the fields at night, then we knew that the Chang family or the ---had finally decided to burn the home of their ancestors and their crops on which they depended for nourishment –to burn it all in case it fell into the hands of the Japanese.”
Dr Brown, who left Kweiteh in February 1938, went to HanKow to renew his passport, also saw a dentist and dealed with some hospital affairs. While there he learned that doctors and nurses were badly needed in the Northwest, where the guerrillas were. It was also in Hankow that he met Bethune and a nurse Jane Ewen They were from Canada
He must have had a talk with them about the situation before decided to go to the Northwest with Dr.Bethune. This could be seen in Dr. Brown’'s letter to Bishop William Charles White of Toronto on February 19.
“……I feel the hospital in Kweiteh comes under this category and in view of China’s great need I do not wish to vegetate in Tsing Tao. I shall try to go on West after Kweiteh falls “
"The need is so great and I hope by my example to influence other mission doctors to do the same. Poor war wrecked China, if ever she needs friends it is now “ While I read the sentence I found my eyes moist.
"I am not doing this lightly. I feel a definite urge. The Red Cross Society will help me with drugs and equipments. I know also the dangers and hope that should the worst happen the M.S.C.C.and sympathetic friends will help my family.”
We can see in this letter he mentally prepared for sacrifice to head the Northwest.
In his round-trip between Kweiteh and Hankow ,Dr.Brown saw both city Kweiteh and Cheng Chow were bombed terribly by the Japanese.
Got approval from the Church. Dr.Brown boarded the train on April 6 and left for Xi 'an.
The train rolled on, the fields outside the window were no longer green, and the war-ravaged land was at its worst.
His feelings for the land, at that particular time, were all different from those of the correspondent of a British newspaper Freda Utley, the American correspondent of the Associated Press Haldore Hanson, and even Dr.Norman Bethune.
He had loved, married, had children, worked and lived in this land for ten years and would continue to do so. His affection for the land had taken root.
I could guess how he loved the land and people lived in land, just not less than his homeland in Canada.
On the rumbling train, he took out a pen and paper, then wrote to his wife:
Elsa my love:
……
It is an awful decision to make and I am wrecked with agony……But I will not take unnecessary chances
This is a venture of faith as I have only been promised two meals a day,meat twice a week and $ 2.00 per month , I am the first mission doctor to do this and my part will be an easy one compared …I am sure there are many who envy me my opportunity and we must just live for the day of our reunion.
......
Four days later, on April 10, the train arrived in Xi 'an.
Dr.Brown continued to complete the letter:
"Everyone envies me my opportunity, and even my heart is bubbling with the joy and gratitude."
In xi 'an, he got the equipments and medicines which promised by the Red Cross Society
Joining Dr. Robert.B. McClure (another of Canada's unsung heroes) for a short stay in Xi 'an, he left for Yenan on Easter Day, Sunday, April 17, 1938.
At Yenan they joined Bethune and Jane. After a short stay, Dr.Robert retured to Xi’AN. With Bethune, Dr.Brown prepared to be the war zone.
‘Bethune spent three weeks in YenAn, During that time his equipments and supplies arrived from Xi’An, and a fellow Canidian, Dr.Richard Brown arrived from Hankow...He was a skilled surgeon, spoken Chinese immigrants, and he and Bethune took to one another immediately.”
A 1938 Canadian flag hangs on the stairs of John's home
John said that it was Chairman Mao gave to his father as a gift when he was in Yenan in1938.
Every time, as I entered his house,there is no chance to miss out the flag as long as I looked up stairs. The flag surrounds the front of stairs, and it is in dark red. I was a little confused at my first glance at the flag; It was different from the Maple Leaf Flag I am familiar with now. A search on the wiki revealed that the current Maple Leaf flag replaced the old British rice flag on February 15, 1965.
In YenAn they met with CCP leaders and also made a speech to young students.
I didn't read the details of Chairman Mao’s gift of the Canadian flag to Dr. Brown, which is described in - Roderick Steward:
"During a festival in Yenan , the communist party's propaganda department organized an event to invite them (Canadian foreign doctors and nurses) to watch an open-air Soviet film. They sat with the soldiers on wooden benches in the courtyard. After the movie, Mao made a brief speech, announcing that two foreign doctors (Dr. Brown and Dr. Bethune) and a nurse (Jane) would take part in the rescue work in the war zone."
The soldiers clapped their hands and knocked on their benches to welcome them.
A soldier shouted them to sing; and Bethune stood up and sang the folk song of Joe Hill (The Last Will).
Dr.Brown translated the meaning of the lyrics to everyone.
While I read these, it's January 2018.
John called me from Vancouver to greet the New Year. Knowing that he just had a birthdaytwo days ago, I sent birthday wishes to him, though he was far away, and even the greeting was a late.
I wish I could share my all reading with him over the phone and ask him some questions. But he was hard of hearing and he was far away. I could only repeat again and again what he had said: take care, take care of yourself.
John is 86 years old now. He was only 6 years old in 1938. I am reading the story about, that is very interesting and incredible, I seem to traveling back 1938 by the time tunnel.
Sunshine is extremely good; I moved a wooden chair to the balcony.
Turning on QQ music under the warm sunshine, and were looking for the folk songs of JoeHill.
I narrowed my eyes and let the cheerful music dance with the sunlight . Pretend I were a young soldier among them.
Joe Hill was alive, Yenan was alive, might the year 1938 was alive again.
They shouted and shouted, and they danced, and they sang."The Last will," Joe Hill's last wish, I wondered if Bethune also sang out the beauty of the courage which is as same as Joe did to see the death as the life
“......
My body? - Oh! - If I could choose
I would want to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow
Perhaps some fading flowers then
Would come to life and bloom again
This is my Last and Final Will. --
Good Luck to all of you,”
In the warm sunshine, listening to Joe Hill's ballads, squinting and dozing, I would really have gone back the early summer of 1938 to follow their steps.
They set out from Yenan on May 2, and 31 days later, on June 3, they arrived in a county Luan-hsien , Shanxi Province. The headquarter of the 120th Division Commanded by General Ho Lung.
That day, Dr. Brown wrote to Elsa:
"Yesterday we had a terrible ride and covered a distance of 150li. We left at 7:15a.m and arrived at 9:00p.m. in the dark, that makes a total time of 14hours in the saddle , I am glad that I stood is so well…...
Every place is the same, the foreign doctor inspires such hope and confidence！I know girlie you must have felt sad when you got my letter but I also had much pain in making up my mind but now I am thankful I did not weaken. The great problem is money, these people must have more and more. So I hope to go back soon and appeal for funds. I also come across the odd Japanese wounded prisoner whom I also help.”
Now there is a photo in the YenAn museum, and John also gave me the same photocopy cutting out of a newspaper.
From Bethune on the left, Ho Lung in the middle, and Dr .Brown on the right, they sat leaning on the low brick wall, shoulder by shoulder, the tree leaves behind them.
The photo was supposed to have been taken in early June, Their relaxed pose and smiles made us forget for a moment that the flames of war were all around
This photo also reminds us of the friendship between international friends in that context.
and soon after, they went to the WuTai Shan war zone.
Before his departure, Dr Brown wrote to his friend Smedley, who had helped him in HanKou:
"The whole way is one procession of misery and appalling conditions .Many of the wounded have had no attention at all, and some have been on their dirty beds for months ……
The need is great. Money and doctors ……I plan if possible to return to HanKow and appeal for help, if at all possible, also to Shanghai and Hongkong…..”
Dr.Brown and Bethune reached the headquarter of the 18th group in WuTaiShan county which under General Nieh Yung-Cheng commanded
They took part in the rescue of wounded soldiers and civilians on WuTaiShan
The three-month permission from the church expired.
Then in mid of July brown's leave of absence ran out and he had to leave.
Dr Brown stayed in WutaiShan until July 13, the day before he left, had nine surgeries, as ophthalmology expert doctor, Dr.Brown did surgery was not only the eyes, in the case of medical equipment and the doctor shortage, he did all the surgeries which needed to remove the bullets and the necrotic bone surgery.
It's time to say goodbye to the colleagues at work.
Dr.Brown and Bethune had a farewell talk. ”There was a sad leaving talking ,both men too moved to say much ,they had trekked through the mountains together, warmed themselves at same k’ang, and worked side by side in the crude operating rooms“
No one ever thought of this farewell as apart forever ,or that in a war time like that ,everyone was ready to either see each other again or see each other in heaven.
“I hope we meet again on earth, if not then in heaven.”
Soon after Dr. Brown left, Bethune's yearning for him was summed up in this piece of paper: “I need help, Brown has left, I should miss him, he was wonderful doctor, and wonderful to talk to”
Speaking the same language, but also able to translate Chinese, such a handy colleague's leave was not only the emotional, but also the inconvenience of life, work.
General Nieh later assigned Mr.Tung, an assistant doctor who could speak English, to Bethune. Tung stayed with him until his death one year later on November 12, 1939.
5) Established hospitals
Dr. Brown who had to leave the war zone, gave himself a new assignment. He needed to raise money to buy medical equipments and then returned to northwest China to build a hospital.
He went to Hankou.
Let's take a look at a bigger picture at that time: after the Marco Polo bridge July 7th, 1937, the so-called three months to take over China's, Japanese army crazily divided into four ways to invade north China, and there were several fierce battles took place in ShanXi territory in north China, (Qikou battle, TaiYuan battle, PingXingGuan war, ZhongTiaoShan war......)
Giving the bigger pictures just helped to imagine vividly about the situation at that time , and to know how difficult on transportation in the war zone .
It took them 42 days to travel 650 miles from WuTaiShan to Xi 'an.
Dr. Brown was accompanied for 42 days by Associated Press photographer Haldore Hanson.
Haldore Hanson had interviewed Chairman Mao, Lin Biao, Chu The and other leaders . He wrote a book , in which he recorded 42 days trip of suffering and sharing with Dr. Brown.
Let's take a look at Haldore Hanson's photographs and transcripts. Haldore Hanson's widow contributed his photographs to the Carleton College library, where he graduated, and some to China. These photographs are in the Beijing military museum.
( Dr .Bethune on the left ,Dr.Brown in the middle, Hanson on the right)
It was an adventure journey about one thousand kilometers, covered in forty-two days on foot.
Eighth Route Army protected them with a battalion troops as they crossed the ChengTai railway, which was controlled strictly by the Japanese. At other times, only four soldiers escorted them. Two donkeys and a horse called showa, captured from the Japanese army, carried their luggage.
For forty-two days Hanson and Dr. Brown Shared weal and woe. The image Hanson described of Dr. Brown was vivid and special:
" Dr.Richard Brown decided to accompany me to the Yellow River to secure more medical supplies .fortunately for me he had the sort of background that makes an excellent travelling companion . at the age of seventeen he was an officer in the British Army and did his share of hell raising in Paris …..he worked in China for ten years prior to the Japanese invasion, learned to speak the language fluently , and gained a national reputation for cataract operations, he has a way with Chinese people; he bows to old ladies and scrapes before tottering men. But he still conceals a pinch of devil in him. He loves to shock prudish missionaries with his profanity …
Dr. Brown is one of those fellows who likes to be up at the crack of dawn, cover the first twenty miles by noon, and quit bto get up early at dawn and walk twenty miles by noon, and quit before dark .we generally walked till we were tired, then rode on horseback for several hours, and finished the afternoon on foot……
We stopped for a swim whenever we found a suitable stream. In crossing mountain ranges, we hunted for the first streamlet below the crest and drank our fill of unboiled water; that is only fresh water that is safe in China…..
When we stopped in villages at night …DR.Brown would stroll about the village examining people who were sick…once we found a young farmer who had broken his arm, more than a year before, and was still carrying it in a home –made splint. A great crowd gathered as DR.Brown took off the dirty bandage and tried to exercise the limb. The man howled with pain but the doctor hushed him with a sly remark to the crowd that this farmer was as squeamish as an old lady. Such an injury to a man’s “ face” hurts more than a stiff arm….the doctor used the same technique upon a grandmother who was binding the feet of a six-year old girl evils of foot-binding. The grandmother promised to unbind the girl’s feet…"
This was Dr. Brown in Hansen's eyes, more vividly and interesting than the father figure which John had described to me.
Hanson returned to the United States a few months later, at the end of 1938, and his book, was published in the United States in 1939.
After said goodbye with Hanson, Dr. Brown continued his mission journey for life-saving matters.
In xi 'an, he met Chu Teh .At that time, the war zone had reported on Dr. Brown's selfless work, Chu The was moved by his stories, specially wrote a signed statement to him, later he had been carrying this statement around for those speechs to attract donations for the war zone.
The statement read:
"The Eight Route Army expresses its thanks and gratitude for the kindness and help rendered to China by foreign missionaries during her war of resistance against Japanese invasion, especially to those doctors and nurses who work under great difficulties and dangers. Their work in China not only means a great deal to the Chinese Army, but also renders tremendous service to Chinese refugees and people .I hope that our International friends will continue to support China’s war against aggression ,and foreign doctors and nurses in the war zone will remain there to work .furthermore ,we welcome our foreign friends to extend a more broad and concrete movement in aiding Chin and, especially help to take care of the sick and wounded in the war zone .The eighth Route Army has no prejudice against missionaries .on the contrary , we welcome them and wish to co-operate with them. for our war of resistance not only fights for the independenance and freedom of the Chinese nation ,but also for the maintenance of world peace .on the respect our goal is just the same -- Chu Te(signed) "
He came to Hankow, one of the cities that had a concentration of western expatriates who were sympathetic to China's plight.
At the beginning of the year also in this city he met the Canadian Doctor Norman Bethune and Nurse Jane, who later went to Yen 'an with him.
In the city was full of fellow members of churchs, old friends and new acquaintances. One of them was Freda Utley, who had come to China as a British newspaper reporter.
It was in the hot August of 1938 that Freda Utley had been in China for three months. Their intersection remained in the fragments of Freda Utley's book (published in 1939 in England ), which gave the western media, politicians, and the public a concrete understanding of Japan's second war of aggression in China.
Let's take a look at Dr.Brown what from Freda Utley vision:
“A young Canadian missionary .Dr. Richard Brown, came to Hankow from the north-west in August 1938, with a terrible tale of conditions there, A missionary of the primitive kind whose one desire is to alleviate suffering ……he would not ,he said ,remain as a caretaker of mission property in Japanese occupied territory , but would go wherever his services as surgeon were most badly needed by the Chinese
…… in his disregard of personal appearance. He walked the on streets of Hankow with a pair of straw sandals, as same as the Chinese soldiers wore, and a pair of borrowed trousers.He had to borrow a pair of trousers. We can imagine from Wutai Shan trekked to Xi 'an and then to Hankou,How ragged the suits turned to be !
As Freda Utley who had just escaped from Russia to the UK,came to China from the UK after her husband was arrested by the Soviet Import and Export Bureau and even she did not know whether he was still lived.
Freda Utley from England to China, three months on the front line of the war to observing, thinking, recording what was happening
This is also an outstanding woman whom we should learn more from.
Freda mentioned Brown in her book,” DR. Brown was most emphatic concerning the wasteful way in which he considered that the League of Nations had spent the money allocated for anti-epidemic work in China …that with the salary of one such foreign specialist he could maintain a whole hospital in China for the best part of a year…
Nothing aroused Dr. Brown’s Christian ire more than talk of “neutrality”, helping only civilians, performing purely humanitarian services in China.”the Japanese are in China as armed robbers and rapers .” Brown once exclaimed to me , ”and any one who says he is neutral in this war is not a Christian”, Brown was obviously an ardent Christian himself that he had much influence on even the international red cross authorities
There was no doubt that Dr. Brown was such a devoted Christian that he had a great influence on the Red Cross authorities. He has done more than his friend Agnes Smedley.
When the usually calm and witty Dr. Brown returned to the city from the frontline, a fire was burning in his chest. The fire was the helplessness at the loss of innocent life during the war. He was eager to get donations and return to the Northwest to build hospitals and save lifes
So Dr. Brown carried Chu Teh handwritten statement with him and gave speeches at the Red Cross, the churchs, wherever he thought he could get donations. He was no longer just a surgeon with a scalpel or a missionary doctor with a pure mission when he first arrived in China.
In his understanding, the Northwest was not just the Northwest of the Communist Party, it was the Northwest of the beautiful united movement, the best place for China.
Notably, he returned to Canada with his family for a holiday in 1935, via Russia, where he disliked Bolshevism and anti-god propaganda, but he expressed his love and admiration for the Communists of the northwest to Freda Utley: "the people love the Eighth Route Army."
He received 50,000 Yuan (Chinese dollar) from the Red Cross, and then went to Hong Kong and Shanghai respectively in September and October to receive the remaining 50,000 Yuan, for the total of 100,000 Yuan. He planned to reopen the fraternity hospital Liao Chow County to help the woundeds
The plan, revealed in a letter to his wife on July 31, was written during a two-day break at the American Brethren Missionaries Hospital during his trek from WuTaiShan to Xi 'an through Liao Chou
Even now, when I look back on his words, I am deeply touched again
He wrote to his wife: I am well, but tired, and rather thinish in fact with my clothes on I weighted 139 lbs. Yesterday ,I have had two lovely restful days with American Brethren Missionaries –real foreign food again……
..Believe me sweetheart when I tell you I have been busy and supremely happy over this opportunity ,To help the sick and suffering free from petty mission suspicions –you know .I have passed through deep and bitter waters but! The full story will be told in your restful arms and sweet kisses.
And he also sent his tender love of a father for his children：
In two weeks time sweetheart Peter will be two years , Give him the kisses for me , Tell Rachel and Hans (John) I hope they have been good children and Mother’s little helpers.
After completing his planned donation, he returned to QingDao for a short-term reunion with his family and boarded a ship to Hong Kong on Oct. 19.
He stepped to the deck and leaned against the railing. His thoughts was racing; waves were rolling;
He wrote to his wife from the ship:
I hope my love that you will not be too disappointed when I tell you that I shall have to give this money over direct and to take some medical supplies to the refugees myself. I should like to tell you more but cannot .the people in Shanghai are very proud of my work and the Dean also National Christian Council are writing at once to Canada and M.S.C.C…..I have told the people that I must be back at X’mas
Then, two months after Dr. Brown's leaving, Hankou fell too
Accomplished his mission in Hong Kong, he had to fly to Chungking ,then ChengDu.
At Chungking he wrote to his wife again, telling her not worry too much about him. "the separation would have to be even if I went back to Kweiteh at once and whereas doing this I am much happier and really think it worthwhile"
The letter went out of its way for Elsa to greet her German folks, cautioned her not to say too much about his whereabouts
He stayed in ChengTu for two weeks to do some preparatory work and was ready to leave for ShanXi on Nov. 24 with some Red Cross personnel, including two doctors from the former union hospital. In the letter he told Elsa: "do not bother to write to me here, but try to get off a letter once in a while to Kweiteh where I hope soon to pick them up”
"Give my big son (John) a huge kiss and hug for the occasion of his sixth birthday .Buy him something for me or better still let him a dollar and go to the Japanese market .”
At that time, TsingTao had been occupied by the Japanese army.
On November 24, 1938, Dr Brown specifically wrote to Elsa about John’s sixth birthday, which was a month away. Letters were delivered slowly and greetings had to be prepared early.
At that time, He was a loving father on one side and a doctor on the other side.
He worried that his wife's letter would affect his work, and meanwhile was looking forward to getting his wife's letter to read immediately when he was in bed -- such a Brown.
Many days passed, and I continued reading those books, while I was going back and forth between 1938 and 2018
The weather alternated between sunshine and thunderstorms.
Spring was coming again. I hadn’t finished those books yet.
At the afternoon of the first day of the lunar New Year, I received an overseas call from John.
I was so confused that I counted his time was in midnight on New Year's eve in Canada. I said hi John, your New Year has just started. Happy New Year!
Hard of hearing, he asked, what did you say?”
“Your New Year just started! “ At that time, I was walking under the osmanthus tree which are along the path of the community, and when I shouted loudly for him to hear, I suddenly realized that it was just my Chinese New Year.
I forgot for a moment that he was not a Chinese.
His little bit of China complex, in the casual, is always surprised me, his love for China let a Chinese cannot help but moved, I had to remind myself again that he was born in 1932 in Kweiteh, China, his original roots in this land.
November 1938, the North China got into the winter. The pause button of the war was not pressed as in the ancient winter, but casualties in frontline even more seriously increased.
Dr. Brown led a team of doctors and brought equipments to the front line – took over the abandoned American Brethren Missionaries hospital in Liao Chow, which became the ShanXi Southeast International Peace Hospital -- one of four peace hospitals during the war.
Dr. Brown was undoubtedly the founder of the hospital.
It was at the end of December when Dr. Brown's team arrived in Liao Chow.
He kept his promise to build a hospital for the Eighth Route Army, but he did not keep his promise to Elsa to return to TsingTao for a reunion at Christmas.
In the memory of Wampler, the missionary of the American Brethren, that when Dr. Brown landed, he started to work immediately without being settled and patients were rapidly carried to the hospital. Supplies are scarce, but with the equipments Dr. Brown brought and some local purchased, it could soon be as orderly as a good hospital.
...They had to put in a lot of work: "we got up on the morning of January 27th and knew that most staffs were still working at the hospital at five o 'clock in the morning, including the Red Cross doctors, and our administrators, Dr. Brown and Dr. Foster."
Only 19 days later, the Japanese army captured the town and the new hospital could not be used
Dr. Brown they moved the medicines and equipments just in time. After that, they continue to save lives with Mobile Hospitals.
The concept of Mobile Hospital was put forward by Bethune's in the first meeting with Chairman Mao, and it was adopted as a good idea. The purpose of this was to bring mobile medical equipments to get closer to the war zone, so that more wounded people could get timely treatment which was not only physically, but also spiritually.(Mao was particularly surprised when Bethune gave him the figure of 75 percent cure rate.)
It was 1939, after his parting from Bethune in July 1938, Dr. Brown was on his way to raise the money to build a hospital for the Eighth Route Army.
He was not only a doctor, busy on the operating room, but also an initiator and leader of International Peace Hospital.
"John, Of all the books I could find your father's track only to 1939. And then, Where was he?" I asked John once.
"Before we left China, we didn't have any information about him, except that the British Ambassador told my mother that his whereabouts were confidential, no more questions, no more talk.
The news that my father was in India (or so) was only dimly discernibly that he was not in China, or that he was in Mumbai, according the bizarre questioning of the Japanese officer on board.
We were held in a Manila shelter for three years and a month without any news of him, and we lost all contact.
We returned Canada from the concentration camp in 1945 and were reunited with our father, after that we had a few years of stability life in Canada.
In 1948 my father took us to Japan, to the small town called Kuri, near Hiroshima, for reasons known to us as post-nuclear healing and research on the health of the residents.
There was a lack of understanding of how much of an impact radiation had.
I returned to Canada in 1949, and they continued in Japan, where my sister met an American military officer, got married and returned to the United States.
The Korean war broke out and my father went to Korea with my mother and my brother Peter ,It was not until 1953 that he came back to Canada.
My father died in 1963, died of cancer. My mother, sister and brother all died of cancer.
I had prostate cancer too. fortunately was cured."
John told his story quietly, but I was shocked. Especially when he said the rest family members all died of cancer at younger ages.
6)The war is gone; the memory must be carried on
( the artist Ms Ivy and John in my place , Canada Day July 1st,2017)
I finally met John in Burnaby on March 14, 2017, more than one year after I spoke to him last time
One day in 2016 spring, I called and invited him, do you have time to meet for a cup of coffee?
He said, I loved to meet but later. I couldn't leave now. I hadn't got time.
His wife was sick then, and he took care of her without having time for a cup of coffee.
In March 2017, he took time off, and I was sorry to know his wife passed away.
She was ill for almost twenty years, and he took care of her for twenty years.
John was known because of my friend Ivy, they met 20 years ago. John was Ivy's English teacher.
I had overheard Ivy talking about the story of his father, and since then I had been haunting with curiosity and respect whether there would be a chance to know more about the story, but I had not thought to write it like that.
The first time we met, he said something about his family. I was particularly impressed when he said that all five members of his family had cancer. He was no exception.
Is something related to the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima, Japan?
There should be, he said.
On March 23, 2017 I went to John's home in North Vancouver and he gave me some photos and books
He explained them one by one, to me include recent years communication between he and Dr.Cheng-Wu Li who is the same age as John and his childhood playmate in the hospital compound in 1930’s
We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant in North Vancouver and John was generously paid for the dinner. I say next time will be my turn to host a meal, he said with a sense of humor that next time we might fight for the right to pay the bill, then he said the Chinese in order to scramble to pay for the treat, always “ fighting”, only Chinese or “China hand” knows this joke.
I said, I'll win, and he laughed.
There was a detail, he insisted to follow to the parking lot when I drove to park ，and went to the pay machine and insert coins to pay the parking fee for me.
He walked very slowly, even though I was not very familiar with North Vancouver , it is easy to do for such a simple thing, but he was still determined to do it for me .
At that time, I thought of my father who is in China, he is also always willing and persistent to do everything for me.
They both walk with a little wobbly; I was appreciated with their concern and love.
July 1st, 2017 was the 150th anniversary of Canada
I just returned to Vancouver after 40 days wandering in Africa and Europe.
It was a special day, so I invited John and Ivy to my house.
Only very close families and friends I cook for.
"Fried bread sticks and porridge, Chinese breakfast."When John saw the Fried bread sticks in the table, he said in Chinese.
I smiled and said I knew you'd like it. The Fried dough sticks in TsingTao must be a memory of his childhood.
Without congee I added Fried dough sticks to the salad.
In the form of Western seafood five-course dishes, Soup, green salad, smoked salmon starter, lobster with noodles for main course, and coconut cake for dessert.
It’s my idea to have a mixture of Chinese (ginger, green onion fried lobster with noodle is Chinese style) and western food for the special National Day special meeting.
After dinner I drove them to the West Dyke trail, where the Fraser River joins the Pacific Ocean, we sat on a wooden chair and watched the sun set.
In such a big day in Canada, looking at the direction of the ocean west towards China, watching the sunset little by little disappearing, the sea and the sky blend into each other, I looked back John, his face gilded by the soft setting sunlight. There was a hallucinogenic feeling of passage like evening mist filled up me: is this John, who was born in China in 1932, and shared his father's unconditional love for Chinese?
I asked him if he had been here. He said never.
Like the feeling I never been TsingTao .
On December 29, 2018, I called him greeting his birthday. Two days later on the first day of 2019 we met at a Chinese restaurant in North Vancouver for celebrating his birthday
He talked a lot that day. He recalled his time in TsingDao. He recalled his time in the Manila Internment Camp again.
He reminded 20#FUSHAN ZhiLu ,their original residence in TsingTao,He talked about XIAOYUSHAN(Little Fish Mt) park, lot things happened in 1930’s he remembered clearly.
Since the summer of 2017, I have been in the state of yo-yo. I planned to go to TsingTao and Carleton College in the United Statet to find more information, all plans all ran aground.
This autumn, in WeChat saw my friend Heng posted pictures of XIAOYUSHANG Park; I got excited up and though of the places John ever mentioned
This leaded to the beginning of the article where I send these pictures as gifts to him.
John left TsingTao in the winter of 1941 and returned to TsingTao after he retired, with his wife Betty and children.
He said China has changed lot. It was about 1990.
He later went back to TsingTao again on his own to study Chinese at TsingTao University for four months.
"When I came back from China, I thought, I was born in China, but I can't speak Chinese, so I decided to go back to TsingTao to learn Chinese again."He told me so
He could call some authentic Chinese dishes, like咕噜肉gulurou（Sweet and sour pork）
Also he could use Chinese idiom 酒逢知己千杯少 “If you drink with a bosom friend , a thousand cups are not enough .
"I've been back to China five times and I want to go back again."He said several times.
When I called him in 2016, I was confident that I would take him to TsingTao with me.
But now I won’t mention it any more, long journeys become difficult, both in his own physical condition and in the global travel environment.
John also said he will continue to do volunteer work (just not as often), as he has done for decades, at the harbor to help sailors from China.
That's what he said on that day at National Day in 2017.
John, the only one is alive from the Brown family of five who once lived and worked in China, told me this precious story.
I asked myself many times why I had to write this story. Will anyone be interested in reading it ？
The dead ones are gone, Memory is a burden sometimes, it will reduce the present enjoyment of happiness.
I also asked myself what if I don't write the story. The answer is: no. I can't.
It was the god's will to know John. It was the god's will that I should write out the story.
“To the nameless dead, we swear once more
The comrades who fought for freedom and the future of the world
You died for us, and we will remember you."
These are the poem written by Bethune before he left for Spain. It was even meaningful today when I read it.
"He helped us to be free," wrote about Bethune by Min sun Chen. "his work and his memory we will always remember.
I hope we will also have an everlasting remembering about another Canadian doctor who gave us tremendous help during the darkest time in China; he is Dr.Richard Fredric Brown ".
On John's birthday, I read the card to him: as an ordinary Chinese, I would like to express my gratitude to your father and your family for the contribution of the Chinese people.
John cried, and it touched me.
We owe Dr. Brown and his family formal thanks for their kindness and extraordinarily generous help.
We should remember them, though many of us do not know or have forgotten them.
The war is gone, the memory must be there.
The end.
Draft completed, February 2018, Fuzhou, China.
Finalization, December, 2019, Vancouver, Canada.
Attachment: schedule of historical events and resume of Dr. Brown:
World war I: 1914-1918 / Brown, aged 16-20, fought in world war I as a signalman and was wounded.
1918-1937 / Brown 20 -- 39 years old, Finished Medical University, went to work in China.
World war ii (China) : 1937.7.7-1945.8.5 / Brown 39-47 years old in the Chinese Battlefield, Burma battlefield frontline ambulance work.
After the war: 1948 -- 1950 / Brown was 50 -- 52 years old, worked in kuri, Japan.
Korean war: 1950.6.25-1953.7.27 / Brown 52-55 years old worked in Korea.
1953-1963, at the age of 55 to 65, Brown returned to work in Canada during the peace years.
His life was short, a third of it spent on the battlefield, or home front .Only one sixth of the time in peace places in peace years .
His life was the example of a real Christian.
Western digestive systems are incompatible with eastern foods, he said.
He spent almost half his life reconciling his western digestive system with eastern food.
(The Chinese version was published in Dec,29th,2019, and the English edition was completed today July,29th,2020)
