p 56#1098
Futlz + Ashley letters on MARBLEHEAD,Shanghai + Hawaii
Harold Fultz letter from pages 508-510 Sophie memoir #12 Commander Harold Fultz, who was Jack's friend on the cruiser MARBLEHEAD in l926-l927 and also saw Jack frequently at PEARL HARBOR and in Waikiki during World War II wrote from Glen Ridge New J where he lives in retirement at age eighty-one: On April l7, l970 he wrote, "Dear Sophie, Your letter has come. I got out my scrap book, and there was the picture of Jack and me bedecked in leis. Taken 3 pm 25 March l927 as we sailed out of Honolulu for China. I shed a tear or two.Jack was a good officer and a loyal and esteemed friend. How well I remember your hospitality to me (Waikiki. You had a good home that Jack looked forward to returning to. And John what an appealing fine boy he was. He must be a real asset to you now.On the MARBLEHEAD I was assistant engineer and for a time communications officer. The run to China was a record, because of the anti-foreign trouble there.- eight and a half days, I believe - still stands We burned 450,000 gallons fuel oil, and our turbines revolved l9,584,000 times. - Six hundred miles per day - four thousand five hundred miles.The MARBLEHEAD had a superb engineering plant. Assuming you want details- One officer in the Engineering department decided he didn't want to go way off to China- so he resigned. After the ship sailed, he tried to withdraw his resignation and got turned down cold.We all chuckled and decided he got just what he deserved when he turned chicken at a time of international crisis.On 3 April l927 we steamed into the Whangpoo and moored along the Standard Oil Company at Shanghai.You would go ashore until ten PM in civilian clothes but steer clear of the native city.The people were excitable - easily influenced and there had just been a strike in the mill - in the melee a Chinese had been shot by the police, - and the hue and cry went out that foreigners were mowing everyone down.Miss Madge Ashley, Secretary to the Standard Oil boss, entertained us in her home.Born in China and having always lived there, she was well informed.She now lives nearby here in Ridgewood, New Jersey and lectures on China (Mickey Ashley and her sister Maimie were Jack's good friends in l927, and I met them later in l93l in Shanghai, with a resulting good friendship.Sophie Barrett note). I recall doing the following, and it must have been in the MARBLEHEAD (Jack left June 4, l927 to New York duty via Japan and Seattle). We went six hundred miles up the Yangtze to Hankow - the extreme limit for a ship- and sailed out of there in emergency in the night because the river was near low stage, which might have trapped us half way down. The populace were not frightened by our armament.They said our guns were of course wood, or we would sink.I recall going up the coast to Tientsin and entraining for Peking.October l9 we crossed to Nagasaki, Japan, and in the Inland Sea conducted our annual full power test, to the dismay of small craft. On November 2 we went to Manila. On May 26, l928 we achored in Heavenly Honolulu (no longer that way). On 23 June we took fuel at San Pedro - left 6 July for Boston where we arrived 26 July and cut up our "Homeward Bound" Pennant (chiffon silk $250) It did me good to think about you all again. If we journey to Boston, we'll man the 'phone. Sincerely yours, -Harold Fultz. P.S. don't recall the White Russian friends or Ah Sing or Cockeye the Tailor." p. 520 On July 29, l970 Commander Harold Fultz wrote again from Glen ridge New Jersey: "I was Executive Officer of the REPUBLIC at the beginning of the war- the big transport.We evacuated civilains from Honolulu. Had to give many of them a drink to get themaboard. No sane sould would leave Honolulu for the SA. Some of the kids we evacuated had never worn shoes. Oner of my jobs was to p,ay the piano in the large theatre space to quiet passenger nerves. Our warning to mothers that in event any child got overboard we would not stopwas not exactly a happy prospect.And I was skipper of the hospital ship COMFORT for ten months. She was bombed when I was skipper but not hit.The navigational problems of a hospital ship in wartime were amazing.Except in rare places all navigational coastal lights were extinguished, and we had to "grasp at a straw" to get around,because we were on the move day and night.Without forest fires and moonlight and lightning we would often have been in difficulty.And in the October 20 typhoon the COMFORT came through by the grace of God. Forty nurses that night were scared to death, but not one even let their helpless patients know it. Seventy craft were lost that night." A lost letter of Harold Fultz recounts in his early years, when he was navigating on the east coast of Ireland, he was confident he knew the exact location of all the Lighthouses, but his skipper called his attention to regulations that required him to consult the books each time for latitude and longitude as a safety procedure and not rely on his memory.It was a lesson he never forgot.He often came to 2415 Ala Wai for swim and supper. Harold Fultz died heart attack Aug 1973 in hospital Glen Ridge NJ. That morning [before going to hospital] he looked at pictures of the Dahlquists' Alaska cruise sent by Sophie Barrett but could not read Phil's detailed account of the cruise because he thought the chest pains he was suffering were emphysema pains suffered in each attack.But whe he got no relief from all the usual treatments Charlotte Fultz telephoned the doctor who told Harold to go to Emergency in the hospital.There the doctor said he had had a heart attack, and he was put in intensive care. he seemed to be recovering but suffered a second attack in the hospital and passed away in his sleep.He did inquire about Mickey Ashley but never learned she had passed away a few days after he enterred the hospital. He was angry that his illness interfered with his voluntary tutoring of disadvantaged persons. --letter from Charlotte Fultz: "8 Ridley Court Glen Ridge New Jersey 07028 Aug 24, 1973 Dear Mrs. Barrett, Thank you for your long full letter The old China days, the young officers' friendships were all so revived and real! I just knew Harold by letter then. When he got back to Boston Navy Yard and Hingham, Massachusetts,he used to come to the city and took me out a few festive times. I was enchanted, of course-but knew he was "awfully good to" a whole list of old folks and handicapped and young folks too. But although I was still in art school and really didn't aspire so high,HE was paying attention and could tell me seventeen years later,what I wore and where we went.Too bad he felt such a heavy sense of duty that he couldn't combine care for his mother and getting married, too.Well we had twenty-five and a half years anyway. Mickey Ashley died of cancer, which he [Harold] did not know about- he thought it was her heart, like her sister's.Anyhow she died about three days after he got in the hospital. I couldn't tell him of course - too much emotional jolt.When he was a wee better,he asked me if I'd news of Mickie,and I told him that her sister-in-law had phoned- but didn't say "what" and he was just sick enough to assume it was the same old news, and let it go. So he never knew.I took care of the memorial church plantings type of gift that he had done for her sister, and that was the end of the China friends.With best wishes to you both, Charlotte D. Fultz." MADGE 'MICKEY' ASHLEY letters 1937, 1970 - #79 Ashley letter l937 war crimes Shanghai: On November l2, l937 our good friend in China Mickey Ashley wrote from 94 Canton Road in Shanghai China "During July I went to a party & an Indian juggler entertained us.The year so far had been a quiet one & I was wondering what I could put in my usual Christmas letter,so I asked the man to put his performing python around my neck- at least that would be something to write about.Now I've seen so much I don't know where to commence.The war has lasted over three months & we are still in a tight spot.We hate to see the Japanese win, but selfishly hope they will drive the Chinese a few miles out of Shanghai so that our lives & property will be safe.It is a strain to hear guns going day & night,planes droning,explosions, not to be able to sleep.The company (Standard Oil) never mentioned evacuation or took any steps in that direction regarding stenographers in spite of all the U.S. authorities were urging, so I did not evacuate & my sister would not leave without me. However,all the wives & children were sent away at the Company's expense. After the first terrible air raid when everything in Shanghai was at a standstill,with no transportation facilities, they told me to stay home for a couple of days,but we've been working regular hours ever since.Being short staffed-five girls away,three on leave,& two evacuated because they couldn't stand it any longer- we were often very rushed,especially when four fell ill.However,my sister & I took the precaution of having our pasasports ready & the necessary papers made out to enable us to have our little Chinese girl accompany us to the United States if conditions became decidedly worse.I told the office I wasn't staying if the Japs used poison gas in Shanghai. What a lot of red tape- there were so many signatures & guarantees when the Consulate knew an emergency existed & we couldn't possibly leave the (adopted) child here (their adopted daughter, the Chinese child named Topsy- Sophie Barrett note).The greatest danger was the air raids while going to or returning from the office.The horror of the first one will always live in my memory, especially as I saw the planes & heard the antiaircraft guns just as I was approaching the devastated area of "Bloody Saturday" bombing.The huge crater was roped off,but skeletons of charred cars still remained.To watch the white smaoke in the air, to hear the pounding of guns & to know that any moment your own self & car may be a similar tangled mess wasn't pleasant.My stomach felt as if a giant had squeeezed it tight in his huge hand, & only a vacuum remained.Then to know that we were driving into the danger - the Jap men-of-war were firing from the river- & upon arrival at the office to feel the building shake & hear the bang, bang, bang as if a thousand bricks were being flung against the windows- was really terrifying.That same day & during that raid shrapnel fell at Maimie's feet when she left our car.Every day one sees hordes of refugeees with their small bundles without any idea where to go in this crowded place, little lost children- poor bewildered dogs following - cats & other animals are left to wait for death- horribly wounded people, nasty-smalling coffins conveying away soldiers or victims of shrapnel- sick & weary lying on roadsides & families parked for weeks on sidewalks with only straw mats.No wonder disease is rampant.We have all had inoculations against typhoid & cholera & been vaccinated against smallpox.Already two dear friends have paid the price of staying here-they died of dysentery.One was head of the Blind school where my little "Pine Tree" was taken in. The school has been badly damaged & how frightened the blind *& deaf boys must have been.Another friend is dangerously ill with typhoid.The doctors ran short of medical supplies.The pity & tragedy of it all just because a group of men must have more power.If it were possible, I would condemn such to intense suffering the rest of their lives.So many homes had to be abandoned- palaces & cottages alike.The very best of everything was looted- but that wasn't enough.Furniture was hacked to pieces - the Japs say eventually they must buy Japanese goods. food not eaten was strewn about, & malicious damage done whever possible.In a garden section of the eastern division where we once lived, the Japs have put furniture on the sidewalks while their horses are placed in dining & drawing rooms.Mills have been dismantled & their machinery shipped to Japan for scrap iron.An old friend now seventy-three "Auntie" we call her-has lost practically everything, her beautiful collection of linen, furs, silver, stamps, books- the treasures of fity-two years.She was so overcome over the condition of her home - her own property-that when we visited her that same evening, her face was grey with misery,& she wept- something I've never seen the little person do.Her husband was an artist & art collector- all his ivories & scrolls, stamps - his son's paintings his own embroideries were all gone.Oil paintings not taken were pierced by bayonets - doors & trunks hacked open.The Chinese had been driven out of the district long ago & the Japanese were in complete control as nobody is allowed to carry a bundle without numerous examinations by Japanese sentries-all of her things must have been carried off with the cognizance of the Japanese military.While the fighting continued in the north, & east, we were more or less safe once at home. What beautiful weather & delightful moonlit nights there were -it was difficult to believe that only a few miles away, men were being slaughtered.We preferred rain, because in fine weather planes would drone, then guns roar,-tracer bullets in gay colors would light up the sky,& anti-aircraft guns would spoil the beauty of the night.As the Japs drove the Chinese from the east & north,we in the west then came in danger,but not before those two districts were swept by fire as far as the eye could see.From a tenth story apartment we watched the destruction- our eyes glued to the holocaust-& our hearts sank with pity for those who had escaped the shells but now must run from the fire.. We thanked god fervently those two nights that there was no wind & that a creek separated us from that part of Shanghai.Every day we heard the guns & explosions a little nearer.Fortunately, from the beginning we had dismantled our pretty little home.Cases stood in the hall & only bare necessities were being used. On October 28 the nearness of guns made it imperative to move. 539 On the thirtieth while at dinner shells whizzed past the house- then I decided the hour had come.No trucks could be had at that late hour, so they were ordered for 8:30 AM. We packed until twelve & tried to sleep.I was the last to leave on my bicycle leading the dog.(Now) our one room apartment the size of Maimie's bedroom is jammed, crammed with things, but my sister is clever & has made it liveable.Some of our furnture is with friends, the balance in a garage.Where the sixty-eight thousand poorer Chinese refugees stay I don't know, though numerous refugee camps have been erected.We don't know what emergency awaits us.One morning a huge shell fell in the warehouse adjoining our office- at the same time big department stores were bombed.U.S. Naval experts say that had it exploded, it would have damaged all buildings within a radius of one acre. Our office & we would have gone up in smoke as the yard was full of drums of gasoline.We miss our home, those airy rooms,& the garden.. To be cramped into a small apartment & not even know which trunk contains one's clothes isn't important- but annoying.It's funny how one can tolerate the roar of cannons & explosions & get fussed over petty things. At the office where men's nerves are raw, it is not easy to work. I've seen as many as eleven planes over our place.We are making quilts for refugees., also helping Topsy make strips for gas masks. I hope you will receive this. So many of our cards & letters have gone astray.-Mickey Ashley."In l939 or l940 Mickey Ashley left Shanghai to work for Standard Oil's New York office because the value of "Mex" (Chinese currency ) had fallen so low she could not afford to accept her Shanghai "Mex" salary.We saw her in New York. Now she is retired & lives in Ridgewood New Jersey after years of lecturing about China. #70 Ashley letter SHANGHAI "June 30,l970 from Miss Madge Ashley ("Mickey") 7l5 Hilldrest Road, Ridgewood New Jersey 07450 Dear Sophie (P.S. For twenty years I lectured before women's clubs & garden clubs on China).It is a long time since I heard from you.The last was a card from Honolulu. I hope Jack did not suffer long. I lost my dear Maimie the same year & feel very lost without her.She had a long illness- it was heart. In September l969, I suppose it was too much for me.I had an acute coronary thrombosis & was in hospital a month, two weeks in a nursing home,& had home care for three weeks.I had to learn to walk again & now am going very slowly.I have been at Cape May for a vacation.It is lovely here- so very clean-& the food is excellent. We face the ocean. About twenty years ago my sister & I bought this little house in Ridgewood,& we have been very happy in it.The number is 7l5 Hillcrest Road (not 3l5) Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450. Ridgewood is a purely residential district,& it is kept very nicely.The people were marvelous to me when Maimie died & during my illness.All the years that I worked in New York & when I retired we have kept in touch with Harold Fultz.He suffers badly from emphysema.You asked about my brother. He married a Shanghai American school teacher from Kentucky.They came to the United States over thirty years ago.They have two daughters,who are both married.One has three boys -eight.six & four (years)-& Bob her husband was a Captain in the Marines.He went to Vietnam after three years in Okinawa.He left the Marines & is now with Kodak. The other daughter lives in Dallas & is now a government accountant. They have two girls (six & four years).Brother & Dorothy l;ive in Louisville, Kentucky.I am sorry to say Maimie- who remained in Shanghai while I came to New York to get a job- never saw (her adopted Chinese daughter) "Topsy" again after she was put in the Japanese (concentration) camp where they nearly starved to death until rescued by American fliers.I am "Mickie" & Madge is my real name.You want to know how we met Harold & Jack.The MARBLEHEAD was anchored at the Standard Oil wharf Pootung.The foreigners at the installation were under my boss- therefore I met them all when they came to the office.The families would invite me for weekends, etc.,& include some Navy officers,& then they would escort me home the next day & stay for "tiffen" - lunch & dinner..Several came that way.How my father went to China is that he wanted to see the world- so went on a sailing ship as many pioneers did- & liked the Far East so much he stayed first in Hong Kong- where he met my mother & then in Shanghai.He & a fellow American started the first volunteer fire brigade in China. All the equipment- even the huge fire bellls- came from New York.There were so many civil wars that we got used to storing rice & canned goods, filling both tubs with water, & hiding the family silver.Some of our friends were killed, but Maimie only suffered when the Japanese were so rotten to all foreigners.I don't know GraceLiang. The two Russian sisters (Gala & Vera Tsirentchikoff) I hardly knew. I met Gala once at a party,& that's all.I sent your letter to my brother.He represented Lloyd's of London & two steamship companies, so he knew Ah Sing well.We knew Cockeye & "Jelly Belly" (because he had a fat tummy) the tailors.Most American gunboats went to Tsingtao - a summer resort first made beautiful by the Germans- a bit of Europe in China & after World War I taken by the Japanese. One night in Shanghai (spring l927) the MARBLEHEAD gave A CONCERT & later a dance.During the show we were asked not to applaud as "There had been a death in one of the Standard Oil families." Then Harold (Fultz) told me confidentially that little Billy Robertson (his father was manager of the installation) had died of cholera.He took ill at noon & was dead in a few hours.Had any of us known I doubt that we would have gone to the dinner & dance, as cholera is a terrible thing, especially as there were so many salads & cold food on the table. ....On November 4, l970 our friend Mickey Ashley of China days whose l937 letter appears in this chapter wrote: My sister Maimie was in the Japanese concentration camp- starved & sick with malaria, but she was never beaten. Some Americans were.Topsy came to the camp & called,'Miss Ashley, Miss Ashley' outside, but Maimie's friends advised her not to answer because the Japs would ill-treat all Chinese who favored Americans. Maimie never saw her again. We presumed she was dead. We lost ever so many valuables, & our Chinese money went to nothing overnight. Our lovely home went for seven thousand dollars U.S currency, & we were lucky to get it.Mickey.
Futlz + Ashley letters on MARBLEHEAD,Shanghai + Hawaii
Harold Fultz letter from pages 508-510 Sophie memoir #12 Commander Harold Fultz, who was Jack's friend on the cruiser MARBLEHEAD in l926-l927 and also saw Jack frequently at PEARL HARBOR and in Waikiki during World War II wrote from Glen Ridge New J where he lives in retirement at age eighty-one: On April l7, l970 he wrote, "Dear Sophie, Your letter has come. I got out my scrap book, and there was the picture of Jack and me bedecked in leis. Taken 3 pm 25 March l927 as we sailed out of Honolulu for China. I shed a tear or two.Jack was a good officer and a loyal and esteemed friend. How well I remember your hospitality to me (Waikiki. You had a good home that Jack looked forward to returning to. And John what an appealing fine boy he was. He must be a real asset to you now.On the MARBLEHEAD I was assistant engineer and for a time communications officer. The run to China was a record, because of the anti-foreign trouble there.- eight and a half days, I believe - still stands We burned 450,000 gallons fuel oil, and our turbines revolved l9,584,000 times. - Six hundred miles per day - four thousand five hundred miles.The MARBLEHEAD had a superb engineering plant. Assuming you want details- One officer in the Engineering department decided he didn't want to go way off to China- so he resigned. After the ship sailed, he tried to withdraw his resignation and got turned down cold.We all chuckled and decided he got just what he deserved when he turned chicken at a time of international crisis.On 3 April l927 we steamed into the Whangpoo and moored along the Standard Oil Company at Shanghai.You would go ashore until ten PM in civilian clothes but steer clear of the native city.The people were excitable - easily influenced and there had just been a strike in the mill - in the melee a Chinese had been shot by the police, - and the hue and cry went out that foreigners were mowing everyone down.Miss Madge Ashley, Secretary to the Standard Oil boss, entertained us in her home.Born in China and having always lived there, she was well informed.She now lives nearby here in Ridgewood, New Jersey and lectures on China (Mickey Ashley and her sister Maimie were Jack's good friends in l927, and I met them later in l93l in Shanghai, with a resulting good friendship.Sophie Barrett note). I recall doing the following, and it must have been in the MARBLEHEAD (Jack left June 4, l927 to New York duty via Japan and Seattle). We went six hundred miles up the Yangtze to Hankow - the extreme limit for a ship- and sailed out of there in emergency in the night because the river was near low stage, which might have trapped us half way down. The populace were not frightened by our armament.They said our guns were of course wood, or we would sink.I recall going up the coast to Tientsin and entraining for Peking.October l9 we crossed to Nagasaki, Japan, and in the Inland Sea conducted our annual full power test, to the dismay of small craft. On November 2 we went to Manila. On May 26, l928 we achored in Heavenly Honolulu (no longer that way). On 23 June we took fuel at San Pedro - left 6 July for Boston where we arrived 26 July and cut up our "Homeward Bound" Pennant (chiffon silk $250) It did me good to think about you all again. If we journey to Boston, we'll man the 'phone. Sincerely yours, -Harold Fultz. P.S. don't recall the White Russian friends or Ah Sing or Cockeye the Tailor." p. 520 On July 29, l970 Commander Harold Fultz wrote again from Glen ridge New Jersey: "I was Executive Officer of the REPUBLIC at the beginning of the war- the big transport.We evacuated civilains from Honolulu. Had to give many of them a drink to get themaboard. No sane sould would leave Honolulu for the SA. Some of the kids we evacuated had never worn shoes. Oner of my jobs was to p,ay the piano in the large theatre space to quiet passenger nerves. Our warning to mothers that in event any child got overboard we would not stopwas not exactly a happy prospect.And I was skipper of the hospital ship COMFORT for ten months. She was bombed when I was skipper but not hit.The navigational problems of a hospital ship in wartime were amazing.Except in rare places all navigational coastal lights were extinguished, and we had to "grasp at a straw" to get around,because we were on the move day and night.Without forest fires and moonlight and lightning we would often have been in difficulty.And in the October 20 typhoon the COMFORT came through by the grace of God. Forty nurses that night were scared to death, but not one even let their helpless patients know it. Seventy craft were lost that night." A lost letter of Harold Fultz recounts in his early years, when he was navigating on the east coast of Ireland, he was confident he knew the exact location of all the Lighthouses, but his skipper called his attention to regulations that required him to consult the books each time for latitude and longitude as a safety procedure and not rely on his memory.It was a lesson he never forgot.He often came to 2415 Ala Wai for swim and supper. Harold Fultz died heart attack Aug 1973 in hospital Glen Ridge NJ. That morning [before going to hospital] he looked at pictures of the Dahlquists' Alaska cruise sent by Sophie Barrett but could not read Phil's detailed account of the cruise because he thought the chest pains he was suffering were emphysema pains suffered in each attack.But whe he got no relief from all the usual treatments Charlotte Fultz telephoned the doctor who told Harold to go to Emergency in the hospital.There the doctor said he had had a heart attack, and he was put in intensive care. he seemed to be recovering but suffered a second attack in the hospital and passed away in his sleep.He did inquire about Mickey Ashley but never learned she had passed away a few days after he enterred the hospital. He was angry that his illness interfered with his voluntary tutoring of disadvantaged persons. --letter from Charlotte Fultz: "8 Ridley Court Glen Ridge New Jersey 07028 Aug 24, 1973 Dear Mrs. Barrett, Thank you for your long full letter The old China days, the young officers' friendships were all so revived and real! I just knew Harold by letter then. When he got back to Boston Navy Yard and Hingham, Massachusetts,he used to come to the city and took me out a few festive times. I was enchanted, of course-but knew he was "awfully good to" a whole list of old folks and handicapped and young folks too. But although I was still in art school and really didn't aspire so high,HE was paying attention and could tell me seventeen years later,what I wore and where we went.Too bad he felt such a heavy sense of duty that he couldn't combine care for his mother and getting married, too.Well we had twenty-five and a half years anyway. Mickey Ashley died of cancer, which he [Harold] did not know about- he thought it was her heart, like her sister's.Anyhow she died about three days after he got in the hospital. I couldn't tell him of course - too much emotional jolt.When he was a wee better,he asked me if I'd news of Mickie,and I told him that her sister-in-law had phoned- but didn't say "what" and he was just sick enough to assume it was the same old news, and let it go. So he never knew.I took care of the memorial church plantings type of gift that he had done for her sister, and that was the end of the China friends.With best wishes to you both, Charlotte D. Fultz." MADGE 'MICKEY' ASHLEY letters 1937, 1970 - #79 Ashley letter l937 war crimes Shanghai: On November l2, l937 our good friend in China Mickey Ashley wrote from 94 Canton Road in Shanghai China "During July I went to a party & an Indian juggler entertained us.The year so far had been a quiet one & I was wondering what I could put in my usual Christmas letter,so I asked the man to put his performing python around my neck- at least that would be something to write about.Now I've seen so much I don't know where to commence.The war has lasted over three months & we are still in a tight spot.We hate to see the Japanese win, but selfishly hope they will drive the Chinese a few miles out of Shanghai so that our lives & property will be safe.It is a strain to hear guns going day & night,planes droning,explosions, not to be able to sleep.The company (Standard Oil) never mentioned evacuation or took any steps in that direction regarding stenographers in spite of all the U.S. authorities were urging, so I did not evacuate & my sister would not leave without me. However,all the wives & children were sent away at the Company's expense. After the first terrible air raid when everything in Shanghai was at a standstill,with no transportation facilities, they told me to stay home for a couple of days,but we've been working regular hours ever since.Being short staffed-five girls away,three on leave,& two evacuated because they couldn't stand it any longer- we were often very rushed,especially when four fell ill.However,my sister & I took the precaution of having our pasasports ready & the necessary papers made out to enable us to have our little Chinese girl accompany us to the United States if conditions became decidedly worse.I told the office I wasn't staying if the Japs used poison gas in Shanghai. What a lot of red tape- there were so many signatures & guarantees when the Consulate knew an emergency existed & we couldn't possibly leave the (adopted) child here (their adopted daughter, the Chinese child named Topsy- Sophie Barrett note).The greatest danger was the air raids while going to or returning from the office.The horror of the first one will always live in my memory, especially as I saw the planes & heard the antiaircraft guns just as I was approaching the devastated area of "Bloody Saturday" bombing.The huge crater was roped off,but skeletons of charred cars still remained.To watch the white smaoke in the air, to hear the pounding of guns & to know that any moment your own self & car may be a similar tangled mess wasn't pleasant.My stomach felt as if a giant had squeeezed it tight in his huge hand, & only a vacuum remained.Then to know that we were driving into the danger - the Jap men-of-war were firing from the river- & upon arrival at the office to feel the building shake & hear the bang, bang, bang as if a thousand bricks were being flung against the windows- was really terrifying.That same day & during that raid shrapnel fell at Maimie's feet when she left our car.Every day one sees hordes of refugeees with their small bundles without any idea where to go in this crowded place, little lost children- poor bewildered dogs following - cats & other animals are left to wait for death- horribly wounded people, nasty-smalling coffins conveying away soldiers or victims of shrapnel- sick & weary lying on roadsides & families parked for weeks on sidewalks with only straw mats.No wonder disease is rampant.We have all had inoculations against typhoid & cholera & been vaccinated against smallpox.Already two dear friends have paid the price of staying here-they died of dysentery.One was head of the Blind school where my little "Pine Tree" was taken in. The school has been badly damaged & how frightened the blind *& deaf boys must have been.Another friend is dangerously ill with typhoid.The doctors ran short of medical supplies.The pity & tragedy of it all just because a group of men must have more power.If it were possible, I would condemn such to intense suffering the rest of their lives.So many homes had to be abandoned- palaces & cottages alike.The very best of everything was looted- but that wasn't enough.Furniture was hacked to pieces - the Japs say eventually they must buy Japanese goods. food not eaten was strewn about, & malicious damage done whever possible.In a garden section of the eastern division where we once lived, the Japs have put furniture on the sidewalks while their horses are placed in dining & drawing rooms.Mills have been dismantled & their machinery shipped to Japan for scrap iron.An old friend now seventy-three "Auntie" we call her-has lost practically everything, her beautiful collection of linen, furs, silver, stamps, books- the treasures of fity-two years.She was so overcome over the condition of her home - her own property-that when we visited her that same evening, her face was grey with misery,& she wept- something I've never seen the little person do.Her husband was an artist & art collector- all his ivories & scrolls, stamps - his son's paintings his own embroideries were all gone.Oil paintings not taken were pierced by bayonets - doors & trunks hacked open.The Chinese had been driven out of the district long ago & the Japanese were in complete control as nobody is allowed to carry a bundle without numerous examinations by Japanese sentries-all of her things must have been carried off with the cognizance of the Japanese military.While the fighting continued in the north, & east, we were more or less safe once at home. What beautiful weather & delightful moonlit nights there were -it was difficult to believe that only a few miles away, men were being slaughtered.We preferred rain, because in fine weather planes would drone, then guns roar,-tracer bullets in gay colors would light up the sky,& anti-aircraft guns would spoil the beauty of the night.As the Japs drove the Chinese from the east & north,we in the west then came in danger,but not before those two districts were swept by fire as far as the eye could see.From a tenth story apartment we watched the destruction- our eyes glued to the holocaust-& our hearts sank with pity for those who had escaped the shells but now must run from the fire.. We thanked god fervently those two nights that there was no wind & that a creek separated us from that part of Shanghai.Every day we heard the guns & explosions a little nearer.Fortunately, from the beginning we had dismantled our pretty little home.Cases stood in the hall & only bare necessities were being used. On October 28 the nearness of guns made it imperative to move. 539 On the thirtieth while at dinner shells whizzed past the house- then I decided the hour had come.No trucks could be had at that late hour, so they were ordered for 8:30 AM. We packed until twelve & tried to sleep.I was the last to leave on my bicycle leading the dog.(Now) our one room apartment the size of Maimie's bedroom is jammed, crammed with things, but my sister is clever & has made it liveable.Some of our furnture is with friends, the balance in a garage.Where the sixty-eight thousand poorer Chinese refugees stay I don't know, though numerous refugee camps have been erected.We don't know what emergency awaits us.One morning a huge shell fell in the warehouse adjoining our office- at the same time big department stores were bombed.U.S. Naval experts say that had it exploded, it would have damaged all buildings within a radius of one acre. Our office & we would have gone up in smoke as the yard was full of drums of gasoline.We miss our home, those airy rooms,& the garden.. To be cramped into a small apartment & not even know which trunk contains one's clothes isn't important- but annoying.It's funny how one can tolerate the roar of cannons & explosions & get fussed over petty things. At the office where men's nerves are raw, it is not easy to work. I've seen as many as eleven planes over our place.We are making quilts for refugees., also helping Topsy make strips for gas masks. I hope you will receive this. So many of our cards & letters have gone astray.-Mickey Ashley."In l939 or l940 Mickey Ashley left Shanghai to work for Standard Oil's New York office because the value of "Mex" (Chinese currency ) had fallen so low she could not afford to accept her Shanghai "Mex" salary.We saw her in New York. Now she is retired & lives in Ridgewood New Jersey after years of lecturing about China. #70 Ashley letter SHANGHAI "June 30,l970 from Miss Madge Ashley ("Mickey") 7l5 Hilldrest Road, Ridgewood New Jersey 07450 Dear Sophie (P.S. For twenty years I lectured before women's clubs & garden clubs on China).It is a long time since I heard from you.The last was a card from Honolulu. I hope Jack did not suffer long. I lost my dear Maimie the same year & feel very lost without her.She had a long illness- it was heart. In September l969, I suppose it was too much for me.I had an acute coronary thrombosis & was in hospital a month, two weeks in a nursing home,& had home care for three weeks.I had to learn to walk again & now am going very slowly.I have been at Cape May for a vacation.It is lovely here- so very clean-& the food is excellent. We face the ocean. About twenty years ago my sister & I bought this little house in Ridgewood,& we have been very happy in it.The number is 7l5 Hillcrest Road (not 3l5) Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450. Ridgewood is a purely residential district,& it is kept very nicely.The people were marvelous to me when Maimie died & during my illness.All the years that I worked in New York & when I retired we have kept in touch with Harold Fultz.He suffers badly from emphysema.You asked about my brother. He married a Shanghai American school teacher from Kentucky.They came to the United States over thirty years ago.They have two daughters,who are both married.One has three boys -eight.six & four (years)-& Bob her husband was a Captain in the Marines.He went to Vietnam after three years in Okinawa.He left the Marines & is now with Kodak. The other daughter lives in Dallas & is now a government accountant. They have two girls (six & four years).Brother & Dorothy l;ive in Louisville, Kentucky.I am sorry to say Maimie- who remained in Shanghai while I came to New York to get a job- never saw (her adopted Chinese daughter) "Topsy" again after she was put in the Japanese (concentration) camp where they nearly starved to death until rescued by American fliers.I am "Mickie" & Madge is my real name.You want to know how we met Harold & Jack.The MARBLEHEAD was anchored at the Standard Oil wharf Pootung.The foreigners at the installation were under my boss- therefore I met them all when they came to the office.The families would invite me for weekends, etc.,& include some Navy officers,& then they would escort me home the next day & stay for "tiffen" - lunch & dinner..Several came that way.How my father went to China is that he wanted to see the world- so went on a sailing ship as many pioneers did- & liked the Far East so much he stayed first in Hong Kong- where he met my mother & then in Shanghai.He & a fellow American started the first volunteer fire brigade in China. All the equipment- even the huge fire bellls- came from New York.There were so many civil wars that we got used to storing rice & canned goods, filling both tubs with water, & hiding the family silver.Some of our friends were killed, but Maimie only suffered when the Japanese were so rotten to all foreigners.I don't know GraceLiang. The two Russian sisters (Gala & Vera Tsirentchikoff) I hardly knew. I met Gala once at a party,& that's all.I sent your letter to my brother.He represented Lloyd's of London & two steamship companies, so he knew Ah Sing well.We knew Cockeye & "Jelly Belly" (because he had a fat tummy) the tailors.Most American gunboats went to Tsingtao - a summer resort first made beautiful by the Germans- a bit of Europe in China & after World War I taken by the Japanese. One night in Shanghai (spring l927) the MARBLEHEAD gave A CONCERT & later a dance.During the show we were asked not to applaud as "There had been a death in one of the Standard Oil families." Then Harold (Fultz) told me confidentially that little Billy Robertson (his father was manager of the installation) had died of cholera.He took ill at noon & was dead in a few hours.Had any of us known I doubt that we would have gone to the dinner & dance, as cholera is a terrible thing, especially as there were so many salads & cold food on the table. ....On November 4, l970 our friend Mickey Ashley of China days whose l937 letter appears in this chapter wrote: My sister Maimie was in the Japanese concentration camp- starved & sick with malaria, but she was never beaten. Some Americans were.Topsy came to the camp & called,'Miss Ashley, Miss Ashley' outside, but Maimie's friends advised her not to answer because the Japs would ill-treat all Chinese who favored Americans. Maimie never saw her again. We presumed she was dead. We lost ever so many valuables, & our Chinese money went to nothing overnight. Our lovely home went for seven thousand dollars U.S currency, & we were lucky to get it.Mickey.
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