When someone said “Welcome to China” to Mary in the interview, Mary corrected it immediately by saying: “No, we should say I’ve come back to China. I was born in Kaifeng, Henan Province, China. I remember kissing the land when I first came back to China because China is my mother and I was kissing my mother.”

　　Mary Taylor Previte from New Jersey, U.S. is being interviewed by a journalist from Dazhong Website. (Shot by Qi Xiang) 

　　“I wonder how you took part in that rescuing action team dispatched by the United States. What was your first impression of us, the imprisoned people in the internment camp? What was the mission you received before getting on the aircraft that day? When did you go back home after we left the internment camp? …” After the exciting moment of the reunion, Mary, just like the then lovely girl, couldn’t wait to raise a battery of questions. She was curious about everything Wang Chenghan experienced in that rescue.

　　Mary is introducing the letters of thanks she brought to Wang Chenghan. (Shot by Qi Xiang) 

　　During World War II in the early 1940s, the Japanese troops reconstructed a monastery in Weihsien (i.e. Weifang City in Shandong Province today) into an internment camp to imprison aliens. Over 2000 aliens from Europe and the United States (500 of whom were released for an exchange of prisoners later), including 327 children, were collected from all parts of China and imprisoned in this place. At that time, Chefoo School, where Mary, who was less than 9 years old, studied, was occupied by the Japanese troops. Over 200 teachers and students were imprisoned in Yantai for nine months at first, and then they were brought to Weihsien. Thus, Mary, along with her brothers, sisters and her grandfather, started their life of being imprisoned in Weihsien Internment Camp. It lasted for 3 years. During this time, they not only went short of food and clothing and had to endure the extremely severe hygiene conditions for a long period of time, but were deprived of personal freedom as well. Mary couldn’t see her parents for around 5 years.

　　Compared with such bloody incidents which were not frequent, the severe living conditions worried Mary and her fellow sufferers more. As Mary said, the food in Weihsien Internment Camp was awful. More undesirably, the supply of food later was shrinking constantly. What they got every day were merely several slices of dry bread. The rare meats were mostly rotten, still less the meats were overrun by the disastrous mice and flies. Since the children did not get adequate food, the teachers racked their wits and turned the blankets into trousers for children to live through the chilly winters. Wang Chenghan still remembered clearly what he saw when he parachuted to the ground and a large number of fellow sufferers rushed out: “Everybody was only skin and bone. Many of them had no shoes to wear.” Mary told the journalists of Dazhong Website that the doctors (also fellow sufferers) were worried so much that malnutrition might influence the kids’ physical development. To supplement calcium for children, adults even conserved the egg shells (the eggs were bought by the fellow sufferers at the risk of their life from the peasants outside the internment camp wall), dried them, grinded them into powder, and then fed them to the children bit by bit.

　　The tough time ended in the summer of 1945. “August 17th, 1945 is the day I will never forget.” Mary said to the journalists of Dazhong Website. She had a stomachache that day so she lay in a ward in the internment camp. All of a sudden, she heard sounds like the roar of an aircraft from the outside of the window. When she rushed to the window, she saw an aircraft flying lower and lower. There was a symbol of American flag on that plane. Immediately, the whole internment camp was crazy. People took off their shirts, waved them and rushed outside the doors. Mary also hurried downstairs. “Can you imagine it? My stomachache cured itself automatically!” She said smilingly. Later, people saw parachutes falling from the aircraft down to the fields outside the camp. They were the 7-member action team sent by the United States to come to their rescue. And Wang Chenghan was the only Chinese in this action team. Crowds were as joyful as larks. They broke through the defending lines guarded by the Japanese troops and rushed to the 7 people, crying, hugging, and dancing. And then they shouldered the 7 rescuing people and walked to the gate of the internment camp.

　　Giving an account of “the pilgrimage to her hero” for over ten years:

　　A Hug after Seventy-one Years

　　Seven heroes dropping from the clouds made the whole internment camp crazy.

　　Never give up hope. Mary still remembers that even during the hardest times, the fellow sufferers in Weihsien Internment Camp firmly held the belief that the final victory belonged to us. They even made preparations for celebrating the victory in advance. There was an orchestral band composed of dozens of fellow sufferers in the internment camp. Mary recalled that the band would secretly rehearse the new song every Tuesday evening, the one made up of some paragraphs from the national songs of the United States, China, Britain and the Soviet Union. To avoid the close supervision of the Japanese troops, the band even mixed some rhythms of extolling the Kingdom of Heaven. On August 17th, 1945, when the seven paratroopers dropped from the clouds, the people in Weihsien Internment Camp, wild with joy, all played this song, which they had rehearsed so long. It was not only a song celebrating the over 1500 fellow sufferers’ regaining freedom again, but also a song celebrating the victory of the allied countries. “Mr. Wang is my hero and my friend, forever and ever!” Mary said emotionally that we won that war together then, and that a profound friendship is still kept between our nations and between our peoples. May this friendship last forever!

　　“I remember that after asking about sixteen questions, she was finally sure that I was the one she had been looking for. Later on we made a phone call. We got extremely excited.” With a smile on his face, Wang Chenghan reminisced about his getting in touch with Mary in April and May of 2015. Those questions were about the rescue in Weihsien Internment Camp. Only those who lived through the entire event could be familiar with the rescue mission. “I know all the correct answers and Mr. Wang answered the questions quickly and all were correct. He is the hero I am looking for,” Mary added happily.