Post by NZBC on Sept 17, 2008 17:57:50 GMT 12
www.nzchinasociety.org.nz/kathleenarticle.html
Kathleen Hall: Dr. Bethune's Angel
By TOM NEWNHAM
(This article appeared in China Today in 1997)
GENERAL "Vinegar'' Joe Stilwell was the top U.S. military man in China during World War II. He once stated that North China, where Japanese forces numbering about two million were held up for eight years, was the pivotal theater in the Pacific War. I am sure he was right, and that this fact played a major part in saving Australia and my country, New Zealand, from invasion by the Japanese.
It was the Communist 8th Route Army, led by Mao Zedong, which bore the brunt of the fighting from its base in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Area. This is the Wutai Mountain Area, where the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, and the former province of Chahar met.
Mao appointed a Canadian, Dr. Norman Bethune, to be in charge of medical services. Bethune had to start virtually from scratch at a time when the region was totally surrounded by the Japanese. He learned that a New Zealand missionary nurse, along with two Chinese nurses, was running a tiny cottage hospital in "no-man's land'' on the edge of Japanese-held territory. He decided to ask for her help.
Kathleen Hall: Dr. Bethune's Angel
By TOM NEWNHAM
(This article appeared in China Today in 1997)
GENERAL "Vinegar'' Joe Stilwell was the top U.S. military man in China during World War II. He once stated that North China, where Japanese forces numbering about two million were held up for eight years, was the pivotal theater in the Pacific War. I am sure he was right, and that this fact played a major part in saving Australia and my country, New Zealand, from invasion by the Japanese.
It was the Communist 8th Route Army, led by Mao Zedong, which bore the brunt of the fighting from its base in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Area. This is the Wutai Mountain Area, where the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, and the former province of Chahar met.
Mao appointed a Canadian, Dr. Norman Bethune, to be in charge of medical services. Bethune had to start virtually from scratch at a time when the region was totally surrounded by the Japanese. He learned that a New Zealand missionary nurse, along with two Chinese nurses, was running a tiny cottage hospital in "no-man's land'' on the edge of Japanese-held territory. He decided to ask for her help.