In 1940, China had been at war with Japan for three years. More storm clouds were gathering as the United States and Japan developed strained relations. Our Chinese workers, our Seventh-day Adventist believers, and the foreign missionaries were working under very anxious and stressful times in both Free China and occupied China.
The General Conference continued to send missionaries to China. There were several young missionaries that had arrived in Shanghai from the U.S. during 1940. They were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wittschiebe, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Currie, Mr. & Mrs. A.R. Mazat, Mr. and Mrs. T.S. Geraty, Mr. & Mrs. Doyle Barnett and in October of 1940 Mr. & Mrs. I.V. Stonebrook arrived as the last missionary couple to go to China before World War II.
The situation had grown tense between the U.S. and Japan. The S.S. President Coolidgewas nearing Hawaii when this news broke and most of the passengers disembarked in Hawaii and returned to San Francisco. Our ship, the S.S. President Pierce, was nearing Japan so we proceeded to Yokohama and spent a week at the Japanese Union headquarters in Tokyo. Not receiving any word as to what procedure we were to follow, we then secured passage on the S.S. President Coolidgeat Kobe and sailed on to Shanghai.
We were only in Shanghai two days when the China Division Committee was having some prayerful sessions wondering what moves to make. They had called into Shanghai all the Seventh-day Adventist foreign missionaries that were in Japanese-occupied China. The last six couples that had arrived in China were directed to leave for Burma to study the first year of the Chinese language there, and then later proceed by way of the Burma Road into China where they work would be assigned. Four of the Chinese teachers from Dr. Sharfenberg’s Shanghai language school were also requested to sail to Burma and be the teachers for the six missionary couples.
Eventually we all reached Burma and found housing at the Burma Union summer quarters about 350 miles north of Rangoon in what they called their hill station, a highland area about 90 miles from the city of Mandalay. There we studied daily until word reached us regarding Pearl Harbor. It was very evident that Japan would be making a thrust southward and we would need to leave Burma. The Division had been operating three trucks on the Burma Road bringing supplies from Rangoon to China. It was decided that we should prepare to leave for China. The women with babies were flown to Chungking and the remainder of our group prepared to travel into China with the caravan of sixteen trucks.
It seemed providential the way we secured most of the trucks. A Chinese truck dealer in Rangoon had word that the British were commandeering all the trucks in Burma the next day. He approached our caravan leader, Elder Coberly, about buying all of his trucks. So the agreement was made to buy his trucks with only $100 down and the promise to pay the balance in Chungking when the trucks were sold. For this we were indeed grateful. We hurriedly purchased supplies between bombing raids. Three trucks were loaded with 50 gallon gasoline drums for the trip, many cases of Red Cross bandages for the hospitals, many bales of blue denim and khaki for our workers in China. A large quantity of bicycles and soap were carried in the trucks to sell in Chungking and help pay for the expenses of the trip. Then, too, were trucks hauling in the possessions of our Chinese teachers and that of the missionary couples.
Rangoon fell when our caravan of trucks was at the Burma-China border. We refueled at Lashio and then proceeded on the balance of the 2000 mile trek to Chungking. Due to illness, our progress was at times slow. However, in two months the caravan reached Chungking with no serious mishap enroute. After some much-needed rest there, we were all assigned to respective areas where we were to commence our work along with our Chinese fellow workers.
The young missionaries were full of zeal and continued to serve throughout the war years. The overseas staff was very limited. By the time of the peace there were just the five young couples in Free China plus Elder and Mrs. M.C. Warren and several men who were there alone; Elders James, Longway, Appel, and Fossey.
Our Chinese believers, pastors, teachers and hospital workers were a constant source of inspiration. Dr. Herbert Liu and Dr. Paul Hwang were like a living dynamo in energy and perseverance. Once or twice Elder Hsu Hua and Elder S.J. Lee made the journey from Shanghai through Japanese front lines by foot and every other means of transportation to reach Chungking and join with the brethren there in planning for the work in both Free China and Occupied China.
After driving a truck from Chungking to Yencheng, Honan we labored there for two wonderful years along with our Chinese believers and workers. What a joy it was to reach that center after traveling for 21 days from Chungking to Chengtu, then to Lao Ho Kou and on to Yencheng. We were welcomed inside that compound gate by such a clean, wonderful, hospitable group of workers and their families – like an oasis in a desert!
These were trying years with Japanese planes flying over the hospital and school ground with the freedom of birds. Then the Japanese were losing the war in the Pacific and needed to get their troops back to Japan from the countries to the South, so it was necessary to put the railroad back in from Canton to Peking which meant putting the railroad down again through Lao-Ho-Kou. So it was decided to arrange for ten carts that would carry 2000 pounds each to make the trip westward for 500 miles to Xian. That was a sad day to leave Yencheng loaded with the hospital X-ray, medicines, a partial hospital staff, the third-year nurses, about 30 to 40 personnel including elder and Mrs. C.B. Guild and Elder and Mrs. I.V. Stonebrook and the limited possessions of the group. As this caravan moved along through many towns we could hear the people saying – “Mei Kuo Yi Yuen” (Yencheng American Hospital). We traveled on through the foothills and plains for 23 days to reach Xian. It sounded good to hear a train whistle again.
It appeared that as Japan moved westward Xian might also fall. The Chinese Government was moving heavy equipment northward from the city. The Division Committee asked the Guilds and the Stonebrooks to proceed to Chungking for new assignments there. So we took a train for a night’s journey to Bao Chi. There we hired a truck to take our personal and mission supplies and we “four” two days journey down to the city of Guan Yuen. We then hired a 15-man rowboat to take us down the Chia Ling River to Chungking – another more than twenty days. Elder Guild became president of the West China Union and the Stonebrooks joined the teaching staff at China Training Institute.
There we worked until the war was over when we were sent to Hankow. When we received the call to go to China from the General Conference we were asked to go to Hankow where I was to be the Superintendent of Schools and Youth Director for the Central China Union. After five interesting years we had arrived. So there we labored in largely rehabilitation work until returning to the United States in January of 1947.
The Medical, Educational and Evangelistic work was held together during the war years under most difficult circumstances.The young people graduating from China Training Institute found places to serve in reestablishing the various phases of the work throughout China.