An American teacher in Kai’s kindergarten, asked the children to go home, because the kindergarten was full of refugees from Amoy. Before she made her announcement, she stopped playing the gramophone to the children, who were enjoying Handel’s ‘Water Music’, when some yellow uniformed Japanese soldiers accompanied by two policemen wearing Sikh scarves came into the campus, searching for suspects.
Kai saw the glare of the soldiers’ bayonets. He ran home. Although he was only three years’ old, he used to run around this international settlement islet actually controlled by British.
‘Mum, what are refugees? Why did so many of them come to stay in our school? When are they leaving Kulangsu?’ Kai asked
‘Go ask your father,’ his pregnant mother said to him impatiently, touching her belly. ‘Your baby brother’s coming soon.’
Kai got no answers from his mother, so he ran to his father in their grocery store in commercial street corner of Dragon Head. He was about to ask his father the same questions, when he saw the bayonets pointing to one man tied up, stumbling in front of those Japanese soldiers. He hid behind his father immediately.
‘Sons of b..th Japs!’ His father clenched his teeth and muttered.
The Japanese bashed the man from time to time to keep him going ahead. The man moaned bitterly, sometimes loud. ‘Ah! …Ah! … Ah!…’
‘What are refugees?’ Kai asked, knowing the Japanese were taking the man to the ferry for the occupied Amoy.
‘Boy, they are homeless poor fellows from the other side of the sea. Japs killed many of their relatives. They had to come up to this side,’ his father answered, taking some silver coins from the drawer behind the counter. ‘I’m going to the Chamber of Commerce meeting to give the money for settling the refugees. Come with me, boy.’
Kai went with his father to Gospel Church. When they passed the dragon and golden bottles ornamented roofed Wudao Temple, his father said to him ‘Son, many of us respect and worship Doctor Wudao as a charitable and merciful god to poor people. We need to learn from him.’
They saw many people gathered in front of the Temple shouting ‘Down with Japanese Imperialism!’ Many students from Anglo-Chinese College stopped playing or watching soccer, shouting similar slogans.
Kai and his father found the venue of the meeting for settlement of refugees was transferred from the Church across the street to the open space of the Temple. People normally watched local operas or religious rituals there. But today, a meeting to help the refugees was held here. Many donated their silver coins to the organisers. They paid some of the money to barge and junk owners, who would carry some refugees to the nearby mainland counties. The rest of the donated money was used to pay foods for those who remained on the islet.
On a winter day in the following year, the headline of Kulangsu Bulletin was ‘Pearl Harbour was bombed yesterday!’ Janpanese yellow uniforms appeared like ghosts in streets on Kulangsu that day. When the day dawned, those yellow uniforms raided Chaoho Soy Sauce workshop. Bang! Bang! Bang! Shootings were heard for few hours.
‘They confiscated many weapons, and burnt the workshop,’ one in the street said in low voice. ‘Did they find anyone there?’ the other asked.
‘Two died, and many were arrested, and some escaped in their barge to Haitieng,’ the former one said quietly.
In the following days, Kai saw many westerners, who were bashed, being chased to American Consulate near Sanchiutien Wharf. They were locked up there. He saw more bayonets flash under the bloody setting sun that afternoon. He ran to his father’s store. Someone was talking with his father.
‘They will be sent to a concentration camp in Shanghai soon,’ Kai heard the man told his father in the store.
His father saw him listening to their conversation, and said to him with worries, ‘Go home to read, son. Don’t ask any more questions.’
Kai ran home, touching his younger brother Nam’s head, ‘I fear we’ll become refugees soon, brother,’ he cried, while his one-year-old brother reaching out his tiny hand holding a half chewed candy, giggling at him.
One day three years later, two fellows in plain clothes came to the store. They handcuffed his father suddenly.
‘What are you doing?’ his father shouted in surprise.
‘Ha ha, we found you finally. You are arrested for your anti-Great Japanese Empire movement in Taiwan. It took us seven years to get you finally!’ One of the men said in Japanese accent.
The store closed.
Now, Kai’s mother had to take Kai, his two younger brothers and his new born baby sister to Chuanchow, which was still in control of Chinese army. It took them two days and two nights of a fearful journey, because some pirates or Japanese patrol boats often fired at many other sailing junks with refugees on them.
‘Look, OUR national flag!’ Kai pointed at the flag for Nam. ‘Marco Polo left this harbour back to Italy!’
Kai and Nam were excited to see some Chinese soldiers on the wharf with a Chinese national flag flying on a pole when they got off the sailing junk.
‘We are refugees,’ Kai told Nam in tears.
‘You are free, boys! Welcome to OUR zone!’ One of the off-duty soldiers said to them with a smile, handing them a cooked crab to eat.
‘When I grow up, I’ll become a general, fighting Japs!’ Kai said, eating a half of that crab.
‘I’ll follow you, firing a machine gun!’ Nam said, too, while eating another half of the crab.