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My UlarYears in Hong Kong, China and India Zaza Hsieh Zaza Hsieh (nee Suffiad), an Education student at the University (~f Honl. Kong (BA 1942, wartime degree), moved to China in Aul.ust 1942 where she taught at Lingnan Middle School in Shiukwan (1942-1943). Later, she worked in the British Embassy in Chungking as the secretary C!.fJohn BIC!.feld, cultural attache (1943-1945). The next year saw her in India at the Calcutta Office of the China National Aviation Corporation, where she .first met her husband, Ching Chi Hsieh. Returning to Hong Kong qfter the war, followinp. a few months in Shanghai with the Chinese government, she became the secretary C!.f Bernard Mellor, the new Registrar of the University C!.f Hong Konl. (19521954 ). Staying home to raise a Jamily C!.f three boys became a major priority. In 1968 the Jamily emigrated to the United States and settled in White Plains, New York. After her husband's retirement from Pan American World Airways, they moved in 1986 to their present home in San Jose. I n December 1941 I was a student in my final year at the University of Hong Kong, preparing for the mid-sessional examinations, and eagerly looking forward to receiving my BA degree in Education the following June. However, as fate would have it, my own education was suddenly disrupted by the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, an event that dramatically changed my life, which until then had been a happy one. At the time, I was living with my parents and three sisters in an apartment on Tin Hau Temple Road, on the side of a hill in Causeway Bay. One morning, as we looked out the window, we saw Japanese soldiers, camouflaged with leaves, advanCing towards us. Soon, we heard footsteps circling our building. We became very frightened and dared not make any 39 40 Zaza Hsieh noise. The soldiers searched the area but encountered no one, so they left. Later, when we looked down the hill to King's Road below us, we saw street fighting as the Japanese made their way uptown. My mother immediately began to worry about the four girls in the house, two of my sisters and I, and a friend. Being fast thinking, she took a pair of scissors and cut short our hair so we looked like men. Then she dressed us in men's clothing which she had sent the house boy to get for us. She also thought that it was too dangerous for us to stay at home, as we lived in a secluded area. A safer place would be our grandmother's house on Leighton Hill Road, next to the race course in Happy Valley. In our hurry to get there, we stepped over many dead bodies. People were shot on the street, in cars and trucks, and even in ambulances. It was a terrifying sight. Reaching our grandmother's house, we met cousins and friends who had also gathered there thinking it was safer ground. Unfortunately, that was not to be. That very night, there suddenly came loud banging on the door. Three Japanese soldiers entered, armed with guns and bayonets. In the darkness - the electricity was out - they shone their flashlights at our faces and hands. When they saw a wrist watch, they snatched it. They were also looking for women. When a soldier approached my oldest sister, who was sitting on the floor holding her two-year-old baby, she quickly pinched her baby and he started to cry. That was enough of a distraction that the soldier turned his attention elsewhere. They pulled three of the women upstairs and raped them. One was my cousin, the second a friend, and the third was my older sister's baby amah. There was nothing we could do against soldiers with guns and bayonets. A male cousin, who protested, received a blow from the butt of a gun. My younger sister, Ada, nearly fainted during the ordeal. By disguising her daughters as men, my mother had saved us from a horrible fate. Nonetheless, witnessing such an event was a sad and traumatic experience. The next day, we heard on the radio that Hong Kong had surrendered to the Japanese. Tears streamed down our faces as God Save the King came over the air one last time. We knew we were not safe and had to move again. This time, we went to my uncle's downtown office in...

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