FO371-23514 — Page 144

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that tall, strapping sergeant from the North whose disillu- sioned eyes as he made the final decision still haunts me? How foolish I had been to tell them the Japanese would spare their lives! We had confidently expected that they would live up to their promises, at least to some degree, and that order would be established withtheir arrival. Little did we dream that we would see such brutality and savagery as has probably not been equalled in modern times. For worse days were yet to come.

The problem of transportation became acute on the 16th, with the Japanese still stealing our trucks and cars. I went over to the American Embassy where the Chinese Staff was still standing by and borrowed Mr. Atcheson's car for Mills to deliver coal. For our big concentrations of refu- gees and our three big rice kitchens, have to have fuel ay well as rice. We now had 25 camps, ranging from 200 to 1,200 people in them. In the University buildings alone there were nearly 30,000 and in Ginling College, which was reserved for women and children, the 3,000 were rapidly in- creased to over 9,000. In the latter place even the covered passage ways between buildings were crowded, while within every foot of space was taken. We had figured on 16 sq.ft. to every person but actually they were crowded in much clo- ser than that. For while no place was safe, we did manage to preserve a fair degree of safety at Ginling, to a lesser degree in the University. Miss Vautrin, Mrs. Twinem and Mrs. Chen were heroic in their care and protection of the women.

That morning the cases of rape began to be repor- ted. Over 100 women that we knew of were taken by soldiers, seven of them from the University library, but there must have been many times that numbers were raped in their homes. Hun- dreds were on the streets trying to find a place of safety. At tiffin time, Riggs, who was associate of commisioner of housing came in crying. The Japanese had emptied the Law College and Supreme Court and taken away practically all the men to a fate we could only guess. Fifty of our policemen had been taken with them. Riggs had protested only to be roughly handled by the soldiers and twice struck by an officer. Refugees were searched for money and anything they had on them was taken away often to their last bit of bedding. At our staff conference at four we could hear the shots of the execution squad near by. It was a day of unspeakable terror for the poor refugees and of horror for us.

I dashed over to my house for a few minutes on the way to tiffin at Prof. Buck's where I was living with six others. The two American flags were still flying and the pro- clamations by the Embassy still on the gates and front door; but the side gate had been smashed and the door broken open. Within was confusion. Every drawer closet and trunk had been

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