Fortune's Retrieval: Sutherlands in China trilogy, #2

By P.Scott Corbett

The second volume in the trilogy of the Sutherland family and its China saga.  In the midst of chaos and conflict, the Southerland missionary family in China faces their greatest test of survival. As the snowballing clashes between the Japanese and the Nationalist Chinese government in Nanking threaten to consume the land, the courageous members of the second and third generation find themselves trapped in the heart of the storm.

 

Amidst the backdrop of a war-torn China, "The Ordeals of the Southerland Missionary Family" is a gripping tale of courage, resilience, and the unbreakable bonds of family. This historical saga unveils the untold stories of those who fought against insurmountable odds, reminding us of the indomitable spirit that can emerge even in the darkest of times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.Scott Corbett
• Release date: Jan 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224394517

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Fortune’s Retrieval

By P. Scott Corbett

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Copyright © 2023 by P. Scott Corbett

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the publisher's express written permission, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2024

ISBN 9798876405494

DAPSHOW PUBLICATIONS

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For AMC and his generation, who accepted their legacies and the challenges of the tumultuous years, they lived through.  And to my wife, who graciously rewards my life.

Preface

This is the second work of a trilogy chronicling the history and experiences of the Sutherland family. They were American expatriates, living, working, and interacting with China for most of the 20th century. This book follows a third generation of Sutherlands as they encountered and survived the challenging war years of the Second Sino-Japanese War which morphed into the Second World War.  It is often the case that during warfare humans are stripped of much of the furbelow and frivolities of ordinary life and their core characters are revealed.  This is such a story.

Dramatist Personae

Harriet Sutherland:  The granddaughter of the missionary patriarch of the Sutherland family and daughter of Ross and Minnie Sutherland.  She was born and raised in Peking and equally at home in China or the West. 

Alvin Sutherland:  The eldest son of Ross and Minnie Sutherland, also born and raised in Peking.

Jack Sutherland:  Based in Shanghai, Uncle to Harriet and Alvin, and the second in command for Standard Oil’s (Stanvac’s) operations in China, based in China.

Minnie Vautrin:  American Christian Missionary administrator at Ginling College for women in Nanking and often referred to as the Goddess of Mercy during the Rape of Nanking.

Robert McMullen:  Provost of Hangzhou Christian College.

Colonel Kenji Isamu: A line officer in the Japanese Imperial Army and later worked for the Special Section in Shanghai.

Sergeant Yamuna:  Colonel Kenji’s chief assistant.

General Iwane Matsui:  Commanding General of the Japanese Expeditionary forces sent to China in 1937.

Ralph Wells:  Jack Sutherland’s assistant in the Shanghai Office of Stanvac.

Rose McGruder:  Young adventurous woman reporter in Peking and Alvin’s close friend.

Wu Fenhua:  Graduate of Yenching University in Peking, friend, and partner with Alvin and Rose.

Fred Funston:  Fellow internee with Ralph in the Philippines.

Langdon Gilkey:  Yenching professor and fellow internee in Shandong.

Kovaks:  An internee in Shandong.

1

Harriet Sutherland sat managing her nerves as best she could while looking into the soft and kind eyes of her boss, 51-year-old Minnie Vautrin, President of Ginling College for Women in Nanking, China.  Minnie had served at the institution since 1919.  Harriet had to ask herself if she had just jumped from the frying pan into the fire when she decided to leave Peking for Nanking.  Indeed, she even had to ask herself why she had even returned to China in the summer of 1936 in the first place.  There certainly had been plenty of opportunities for a college graduate in the United States.  To avoid the possibly jagged edges of that question and delving too deeply into her complicated self, Harriet usually just answered that question by asserting, because I was born here, and I feel that China is my home.  She remembered the serious discussion she had with her parents just before definitely resolving to return.

Harriet, dear, her father continued in his concerned counseling voice.  The situation over there is, to say the least, unsettled.  There’s no telling what will happen.  Your mother and I would rest more easily if you stayed here and got a teaching job nearer to home.

But that’s just it, Father, Harriet struggled a bit.  I don’t have just one home.  There’s here with you and mother and being immersed in pure American culture.  But then there’s China where I feel so familiar with the Chinese and their cultural world that I am totally comfortable there. I feel as though I’m somewhere in between.

We understand that, her mother pitched in.  But consider the dangers.  It is not like when we all lived there before.

Dangers? Harriet’s voice went up a pitch.  It is not like you and father did not face threats to health and safety while living there.  Grandpapa survived more than one potentially murderous incident.  And you all stuck it out, right?  Besides, Alvin is there, Uncle Jack is there, and Grandmama Mary—they are all there.  They’re all hanging on somehow, aren’t they?

True, her father agreed.  But your brother Alvin and Uncle Jack are men. Things are different for them.  And Mary is an old woman whom nobody would want to bother.

And there it was, as far as Harriet was concerned.  It was not a gender thing, though. Being a woman, she had always had to deal with society’s limiting expectations for females.  She did not want to accept hard challenges to prove anything about the capabilities or valor of women.  Instead, she wanted to return to China to validate herself and prove her qualifications for being a Sutherland—a full-fledged member of her family dedicated to what the family had perpetually been committed to—service, service in China.  Mixed in with all of that were the simpler facts: that she had always been close to Alvin and missed him terribly.  Uncle Jack was certainly her favorite uncle, and she missed him, too.  And her step-grandmother Mary had always been a hero and role model to her as much as her mother.  Rejoining them, for however long, now that she was cresting in her development as an adult, seemed important to her as well.  I’m as much a Sutherland as they are, and we are all Sutherlands together.

But the voice of the woman on the other side of the desk snapped her back into the present and their shared circumstances.  It seems that the situation is getting more serious than I first anticipated, President Vautrin said in a measured, calm voice.  I’ll admit that the other day when the Japanese commenced their attack on Shanghai, I did not think they would bomb or attack Nanking so quickly. But as you experienced, we received our first air raid just the following day.

Yes, mum, Harriet agreed quietly.  It was a frightening shock to all of us.  President Vautrin was not the kind to get stuck on formalities and titles.  When she first met Harriet, they both commented on the coincidence that Harriet’s mother was also named Minnie.  So, she did not mind Harriet addressing her as mum.

Yesterday, the American embassy called me to tell me that they were arranging the evacuation of all American women and children to begin tomorrow night.

Harriet noted that the calendar on President Vautrin’s desk pointed right at her registered August 15, 1937.  That’s what I’ve heard, Mum, Harriet said, taking a breath and clasping her hands in her lap rather tightly.  Given the chaos that was beginning to erupt, Harriet assumed that evacuating would be no simple task with each passing day. 

There’s no way to know how everything is going to play out.  We are certainly going to lose a portion of our staff and I want to know what you want to do. You have only been here for a few months, so there is little reason to think that you might stay. But I, and the women we’re trying to educate, will need all the help we can get.

That’s why I left Peking to answer your call for dedicated faculty.  I know I am young, just starting my career...

President Vautrin jumped in. I know your family somewhat.  I met your father at an educational conference back in 1923 hosted by Yenching University.  He seemed like a good man dedicated to serving his students.

Yes, and when I told him that I had accepted this position, he praised you for struggling to build this college for women; he was proud of me.  Life in Peking was complicated and, at times uncomfortable under the informal control of the Japanese.  But for the most part, we foreigners were not often harassed or bothered.

Well, as you know, I am grateful for having you join us.  And as this is the capital of China, one might think that things might be a little better here, right?

That’s the way I saw it, Harriet confirmed.

But things seem to have taken a dangerous turn with full-scale hostilities breaking out just this week, President Vautrin said sadly. What little news we have from Shanghai is that a very fierce fight is raging there.  Your uncle is there in Shanghai, right?

Yes, and my grandmother too, Harriet replied.

Well, let’s hope no harm comes to them.

That’s what I am praying for, Harriet intoned.

Still, the matter at hand is, are you going to accept evacuation with the other Americans tomorrow night?

No. Harriet averred.  I came here to serve Ginling College and help you.  I’ll stay.  This is a civilian institution—a college for women—I can’t imagine it would be a target for the Japanese should they attack the city, right?

President Vautrin took a deep breath. We can only hope and pray. 

Harriet returned to her dormitory room doing her best not to consider her decision to leave Peking and come to Nanking.  She was hoping that the Lord had some plan for her and, therefore, might preserve her.  Sitting alone in her room, she decided to write letters to her uncle in Shanghai and her parents in the United States.

Four days later, on August 19th, the Japanese again bombed Nanking.  What was most troubling about that attack in Harriet’s mind was that word had reached them at the Ginling campus that across town Central University had been struck with its dormitory, auditorium, and chemistry laboratory thoroughly destroyed.  That called into question how safe anyone might be. 

Already the Education Ministry of the Chinese government had requested a delay to the commencement of the fall semester until sometime in September.  President Vautrin decided the same for Ginling College, and it became increasingly obvious to her that the fall semester might never start.  Instead, she decided to transfer instruction and students to their branches in Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chahar.  As far as Nanking was concerned, President Vautrin, with the support of Harriet Sutherland and the few remaining faculty, decided to open a different sort of school teaching essentially home economics to local women, the Homecraft School, and an elementary school for poor neighborhood children. 

On the evening of August 27th, after another serious aerial attack from all directions, the American embassy ordered the evacuation of any and all Americans who had remained in the city.

Just last week we had this conversation, President Vautrin somewhat vented to Harriet.

Yes, Mum.

What do you want to do?  The Embassy says that if any Americans stay in the city, it will assume no responsibility for them.

I’ll stay, Mum.  Though we have only three regular students left on campus, your plan for the Homecraft School seems sound and worthy of my energies.

"You are a young woman, just twenty-two, right?  Are you sure you want to risk your whole future for us?

Yes, Harriet said, as determined as she could be. 

When Harriet returned to her room, she was surprised to receive a letter from Uncle Jack in Shanghai.  She thought surely communications with him would have been cut off but was very glad that at least one message got through. 

Dear Harriet,

I hope this finds you well and safe.  Things here are unsettled and uncertain.  The Japanese and Chinese are bringing more troops into the city and the Chinese forces are aggressively trying to push the Japanese out with the Japanese counterattacking.  The spark that may have lit the fuse was when a Japanese officer attempted to enter the gate of the Hongqiao Airport and got into a scuffle with the Chinese guards.  The officer killed one of them and was killed in return by other guards.  The next day the Japanese Consul General demanded the dissolution of the Chinese Peace Preservation Corps and the demolition of the defenses around the city.  So far, the only danger to us in the International Settlement seems to be from the Chinese air force.  They attempted to bomb the Japanese cruiser, Izumo docked right next to the settlement, but their bombs missed their mark and nearly 1,000 Chinese and foreigners were accidentally killed.  Right now, the Chinese and Japanese forces are engaging each other in sharp urban fighting.  It remains to be seen if the Chinese forces, superior in numbers but inferior in weaponry, can overcome the Japanese superiority in training and armament. 

American civilian representatives joined the British, French, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese in trying to reach a compromise and cease-fire but so far have failed.  The Japanese demanded the complete demilitarization of the city thus leaving it defenseless which the Chinese just cannot accept.  We hear similar attempts for peace there in Nanking have failed as well. 

Grandmother and I are trying to stay as safe in our enclave as possible as are most of the other foreigners.  We hope and pray that it all ends soon and that you’re safe there in Nanking. 

Love, Jack

She put it down and shivered with paroxysms of fear—fear for Jack and grandmother, fear for herself, and fear for all the victims of the hostilities. 

Towards the end of September, President Vautrin and Harriet received a visit from the American vice-consul in Nanking, Mr. J. Hall Paxton, who urged the two of them to leave Nanking immediately.  Instead, they both wrote their own letters to Mr. Paxton explaining that they believed they could be of more service by remaining.  They admitted the significant risks they were taking, but disavowed Paxton, the American government, and Ginling College from any responsibility regarding their health and welfare.  In her letter, President Vautrin expressed the view that it was extremely unwise for the foreign diplomats to leave the city as that would virtually turn it over to the Japanese to act recklessly with no restraints. 

The bitter battles in and around Shanghai continued to extract their toll.  The Japanese were surprised at the stiffness of Chinese resistance, which only served to intensify the ferocity of Japanese attacks and treatment of Chinese soldiers and civilians as they vented their frustrations and exacted their revenge for their losses.  By the end of October, the best units of the Chinese Nationalist Army had been badly mauled, degraded, or even basically eliminated and what remained of the Nationalist Army began to withdraw from the city and retreat towards Nanking.  Given the deterioration of the situation in the city, finally, towards the end of October, President Vautrin called Harriet into her office for yet another serious talk.

Harriet, President Vautrin began.  The situation here is growing more serious and there is little hope that it may improve as the Japanese close in on the city.

I realize that, Mum.

Therefore, I must insist that you leave the city as soon as possible, President Vautrin exhorted.  You have family in Shanghai, right?

Yes, an uncle and my grandmama.

I hear the International Settlement has been left alone by the Japanese.  So go and be with them in these trying times.  We have a branch of the college there, and I have already taken the liberty of appointing you to their faculty.  I’ve got the appropriate letters of appointment and introduction right here, she said, handing two letters to Harriet. 

But what about you? Harriet’s voice was filled with concern.  I could stay and help you here.

You haven’t been here even a year yet.  So, your roots here are not deep. I’ve been president of this college since 1919.  I have very little family left and they are all back in America.  Most people around here have long learned that I am what they call a ‘tough old bird’.  I’ll be fine.  President Vautrin began her already prepared reasons for Harriet’s escape. 

I don’t know . . . Harriet stammered, being caught off guard by President Vautrin’s logic.

You could take some of the ideas and concepts we started here to Shanghai.  You’ve been here long enough to get the gist of our mission.  Most importantly, you could continue to apply all you know to educating Chinese women and keeping the spirit of Ginling alive.

Harriet drew back for a few moments and ran the scenarios and prospects through her head.  She did not want to be a quitter or look like a coward.  But on the other hand, she was worried about Grandmamma and sensed that she could still be true to herself working in Shanghai. 

Harriet broke the silence. Alright, I’ll go.  But how am I going to get there?

President Vautrin smiled with delight at Harriet’s answer and merely replied, We’ll figure something out.

As Harriet prepared to leave the city, she thought she would try to get letters out to Jack in Shanghai and her parents in America.

Dear Mother and Father,

I hope you are well.  I am not sure that’s the case with Uncle Jack, but I hope you have heard from him.  I am disappointed that the situation here has worsened to the point that I do have to admit I can no longer stay here.  We have been informed by the vice-consul here that the admiral of the Japanese fleet in Shanghai has warned that Japanese forces will soon launch attacks with the goal of ending the war quickly by completely eliminating all the military and communications facilities of the city and quickly bringing its population to heel.  I intend to go to Shanghai and teach for the college there and reunite with Uncle Jack and grandmama.  If the Japanese attack here is anything like what we hear has been going on in Shanghai, then I might just be jumping from the frying pan to the fire.  But I hear that the American segment of the international Settlement there has been left largely undisturbed.  I very much feel the need to be close to family and I still want to serve Ginling’s purpose and mission in some way or other.  I’ve already seen enough death and suffering here to be aware of the dangers and cautious in my moves; yet I remain so very, very afraid of what may come. 

Pray for me and all of us.  I fear an avalanche of terror is about to overwhelm this city and maybe the whole country. If I don’t make it, know how much I love you both and our whole family.  I would wait patiently for our ultimate reunion in heaven. 

Love, Harriet

2

Colonel Kenji Isamu of the 3rd Division of the Japanese Imperial Army moved on from slugging it out with the 88th Division of the Chinese Nationalist Army, nicknamed the Hated Enemy of Zhabei.  He promptly arrived on the scene of his division’s next objective.  His orders were to eliminate the Chinese resistance at the Sihang Warehouse situated on Suzhou Creek, right across from the British Concession in Shanghai’s International settlement. 

Colonel, sir, Major Yamada approached his commander, smiling.  This ought to be easy.  It looks like that just a few companies of Chinese troops have filtered into the warehouse to make a final stand.  Seems they are trying to cover for the evacuation of the rest of the 88th Division.

Don’t be so overconfident, Major, Colonel Kenji said sternly.  There is a reason why we’ve been calling them the ‘Hated Enemy of Zhabei’.  Remember how they repeatedly repelled our first attacks on them at Zhabei?

Yes, sir, I do, the Major admitted.  We lost a lot of good men.

So, why are you so confident this time?

Well, sir, they can’t have much more than fifty or sixty men right now.  Shall I order the attack?

Colonel Kenji paused for a minute.  He was proud to be a seasoned line officer in the 3rd Division, one of the oldest units in the Imperial Army dating back to 1871.  The Division had won unit citations for its service in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.  He had served in the Division’s participation in the Allied Siberian Intervention 1918-1922 and the Jinan/Shandong Incident in May 1928.  During that brawl, Chinese troops, led by Chiang Kai-shek as he undertook the Northern Expedition to unify China under the Nationalists and his leadership, clashed with Japanese troops that were in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province.  The Imperial Japanese Army was there to protect Japanese interests, property, and civilians still there from Japan’s occupation of the province during World War I.

Hostility among Chinese nationalists towards the Japanese presence had been growing over the years since back in 1919 and the May 4th Movement.  It reached a boil with the approach of the Nationalist troops.  Japanese civilians had been killed by angry Chinese citizens and brutal reprisals were perpetrated on both sides.  He personally knew nothing of the Chinese claims of the torture and execution of Chiang Kai-shek’s diplomat assigned the task of negotiating a cease-fire between the forces.  The Chinese maintained that Japanese soldiers seized the foreign office building the diplomat used to conduct talks, then cut off his nose and ears, cut out his tongue, and gouged his eyes out before shooting him.  The claims seemed a bit excessive and characteristic of Chinese incendiary propaganda.  But the account of the diplomat’s staff