Monday, September 14, 2015

My Fifth Grade Teacher "Behind the Barbed Wire"

I am sure a lot of students have visions of having teachers locked up.  My 5th grade teacher was a POW during World War 2 and  I recently got my hands on a book he wrote of his experiences.  In my blog are a number of stories of my year with Mr. Biggs at Bradley Creek Elementary School.  A good place to start reading about them is a post I made shortly after his death. To read this post, click here.

The cover photo is of the author
He's dressed in his cold weather uniform
Chester M. Biggs, Behind the Barbed Wire (1995, Jefferson, NC:  McFarland & Co, 2011), 224 pages, some photos and maps.

On the morning of December 8, 1941, the Marine guards at the American consulates in Peiping (Beijing) and Tientsin, China woke up behind enemy lines.  Overnight (on the other side of the International Date Line), the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.  The Japanese had invaded China several years earlier and the American consulates were now inside territory held by the Japanese army.  Although it was a tense situation in the Far East and war was not out of the question, the marines were caught unaware.  They were in the process of packing up and were days away from being withdrawn from China (many of the military members and diplomats of other nations such as Britain had already been withdrawn).   As the war began, the ship sailing to North China to pick up the Marines turned south and those left behind were prisoners of war.  They would spend the entire war as POWs.  One of these Marines, PFC Chester Biggs, the author of this book, was also my fifth grade teacher.  Mr. Biggs would spend 20 years in the Marine Corp (1939-1959).  The latter half of his life he spent in education.  Mr. Biggs died a few years ago, but from what I learned about him, until his death, he would spend time teaching and answering questions for each of the Special Forces POW classes taught at Fort Bragg.  He died in December 2011 at the age of 90.

The book begins by describing the events of December 8, 1941.  Only hours before the Marines awoke, Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor.  The Marines had no idea what was happening or that the day meant war as the Japanese surrounded the compound, disarming the sentries, and forcing their surrender.  Biggs, a young man of 20, finds himself as a POW.  The next two chapters, Biggs described life in Peiping before the war.  China had been at war with Japan for years and the area of the consulate had been securely controlled by the Japanese.  The situation in the countryside, where there were Chinese guerrillas fighting the Japanese, was tense and movement by American personnel there was limited. However, inside the city, where there was quite large contingent of foreigners, life continued as normal.  Peiping, at least in the international section, was a cosmopolitan city with Europeans, Russians and Americans living there.  During this time, there were fancy parties and even premiers for movies such as “Gone with the Wind.”  There were some tension with Japanese soldiers, but with the exception of a few incidents, it appears much was done on both sides remain calm.  After the one incident, US military personnel were restricted to a few clubs near the compound. 

At first, after the surrender, the main change that the Marines noticed was a loss of freedom of movement, the loss of their Chinese workers (they had Chinese laborers that did many of their task from laundry to manicures) and a reduction in food.  Even though they were confined to the compound, one Marine who had girlfriend in the city slipped out and then came back undetected.   The NCOs tried to impress upon the Marines of the serious of such actions, but two others slipped out and were caught.  Although the Japanese had said anyone caught attempting to escape would be shot, they were not.   As Biggs noted, the Japanese could and would be brutal, but their behavior wasn’t always consistent.  Although they were often brutal, at times they surprised everyone.  At the end of January 1942, the Marines in Peiping were transferred to Tientsin and were later transferred to a POW camp near Shanghai.  Before the transfer, the Japanese allowed a Marine from Tientsin requested to marry his English fiancé before they were moved to Shanghai.  His request was granted. During Christmas 1942, the Japanese allowed an American restaurateur who ran a famous establishment in the city to prepare a Christmas dinner for the POWs.  But this was the last great meal they enjoyed for before the next Christmas, all expats in the city including this man were confined into concentration camps by the Japanese.

At first the Marines who had been on diplomatic duty were hopeful they would be exchanged and freed.  The diplomats in China were exchanged six months into the war.  Such hope began to wane as they were placed into a POW camp in Shanghai that included Marines and civilian contractors from Wake Island and British sailors on a ship captured in a Chinese port at the beginning of the war among others.  Interestingly, in 1943, they were joined by Italian Marines stationed in China.  They had been left along as they were part of the Axis, but once Italy surrendered and then declared war on Germany, members of the Italian military in China found themselves as POWs and bunking with Americans and British POWs.   In the Shanghai area, the Marines were held in two different camps.  They were worked hard and the Japanese capturers could be incredible brutal.  The POWs did what they could to keep their spirits up and Biggs tells many incredible and sometimes humorous stories of survival and endurance.  There was even a radio which provided a little news of the war (which was spread via rumor for no one was to know about the radio).

In 1945, the POWs were locked into rail cars and shipped north and then down through Korea.  The travel was hard.  In Pusan, they were placed on a ship bound for southern Japan.  Once on Japanese soil, they were shipped by train north.  Although they could see only a little (the Japanese had covered the windows) they were able to see the devastation done to Japanese cities from American bombing as they moved north.  They knew the war couldn’t last much longer.  The Marines were taken to Hokkaido, where they were put working inside coal mines.  This was brutal work and from the book I have the sense it was the worse of Biggs entire imprisonment.  The Americans were split up and sent to smaller camps where they worked in teams with a Korean miner underground.  After the Japanese surrender, the POWs stayed at the camp as American planes dropped supplies.  It was well into September that Biggs had his first airplane flight in his life as he was being moved from Hokkaido to Yokohama.  However, bad weather forced the plane to turn back.  He would later take a ship south and then on to Guam where the POWs were seen by doctors and navy intelligence officers who record their experiences.    From Guam, they were flown across the Pacific, with stops for hospital visits at Honolulu (to be checked for infectious diseases and parasites) and then on to a hospital in San Francisco. 


Mr. Biggs was 18 when he left his home in Oklahoma for the Marine Corps training base in San Diego.  He was 24 when he returned home on an extended leave after having been a POW for over 3 ½ years.  I found this book to be well written and to give great detail of everyday life in a POW camp.  I wish I had read it while Mr. Biggs was still alive. 

42 comments:

  1. Sounds like an insightful book, specially if you know the author personally

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    1. Sadly, I never saw him after I left elementary school

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  2. Wow! How fascinating that he was your teacher. I'm sure I wouldn't have appreciated his story though, as a fifth grader.

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    1. He quit teaching elementary school the year after we were there and moved to the Jr. College level. We bragged that the Japanese couldn't break him, but we could! He didn't tell us a lot about his experiences, from what I remember.

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  3. That's interesting that you knew this author. I bet it was a fascinating read for you, knowing that the author was your teacher.

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    1. That link, him being my teacher, made it more interesting. I wish I had read this before being in China--some of the areas he told about visiting during the period 1939-41, before becoming a POW, I have also visited.

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  4. I suspect that knowing him made the story all the more interesting. I doubt any of my teachers have written books, but maybe I ought to investigate that. I had a cousin who was a POW in Germany. He wouldn't talk about his time there until he was about 65.

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    1. Interestingly, Mr. Biggs was in his 70s when this one was published. He published another book in his 80s.

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  5. Your 5th grade teacher wrote a book? That's cool! I would buy whatever book one of my teachers wrote. But this one is better since it's about his real life. What an honor to be able to read about his experience as a POW. And to know him.

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    1. He actually wrote two books. I don't have the second and it is not as personal but about the same subject matter: "The United States Marines in North China, 1894-1942." At some point I may read this as I am curious about his research and how it would take the reader from the Boxer Rebellion to the 2nd World War.

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  6. Your 5th grade teacher wrote a book? That's cool! I would buy whatever book one of my teachers wrote. But this one is better since it's about his real life. What an honor to be able to read about his experience as a POW. And to know him.

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  7. What a fascinating story he had to tell, and you, too! How exciting to have this connection to the history of that time.

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  8. Wow, 4 years in such a camp. I can imagine he'd have stories to tell. Just wow.

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    1. Although the treatment was horrible, not knowing what was going on in the war would have also been terrible.

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  9. Oh wow, I can't even imagine what he went through.

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    1. I am glad he wrote this book and I was able to become better acquainted with his experience

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  10. I knew a man in Alaska, Guy McGee who had been a civilian contractor working on Wake and taken prisoner. I believe he was with your teacher for that period in China. He also was then sent to Japan where eventually he was repatriated. Guy was a fascinating man, did not talk much at all about his time as a POW.

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    1. Several times he mentioned the civilians from Wake Island who were in the camp but they were kept in different barracks. It sounds like they loaded all the people from Wake on a ship(s) and send them to China. He said those from Wake were hurting for winter clothes. They were allowed to bring a sea bag of clothes, but those from Wake came with what they were wearing.

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  11. Darn it, another book that I'm going to have to get and read. Fortunately I got a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble for my birthday burning a hole in my pocket!

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    1. It is an interesting book--he wrote another book on the Marines role in China from 1894 to the war... That also might be interesting.

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  12. Knowing an author personally can make the read much more personal and intense. Interesting post. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. I would probably not have read this had I not known him--as it was I was willing to pay $25 for a paperback to learn about his experiences

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  13. What intesresting teacher you had Sage and amazing he wrote a book with his adventures
    And life.
    I had some amazing teachers too and sometimes I think why I dont asked them others things?
    Nice you have the book of your teacher and this is amazing:)

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    1. It is interesting to go from being a Marine to an educator! In high school, our principal was also a former Marine

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. No problem, for some reason this happens on occasion and it seems to happen most often to the same people. I am not sure what causes it.

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  16. Goodness gracious, we've been blogging together for a long time, (and I'm still enjoying every second of reading your posts) I remembered this teacher of yours, and sure enough I clicked on your old post, in December of 2011 and there's my comment. Not my picture there, but you click on my name and presto right to my blog! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful teacher with us.

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    1. It's been great having you following my blog for so long! :)

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  17. Amazing that you knew such a man. :-)

    Pearl

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    1. As a 5th grader, I didn't think so, now I appreciate him a lot more.

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  18. Looks like an interesting read. I've read fiction from people I know in real life--and depending on what they write about, I see a real world connection--but I have yet to read nonfiction from anyone I know well. What an added dimension to one's knowledge of a person. I only had one teacher who said she had written two books, but they were unpublished.

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    1. I probably know more "non-fiction" writers personally but then they are mostly writing within a particular academic field.

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  19. So he wasn't in the Philippians, but part of the garrison in China ?.

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    1. In my early writings about him, I thought he was in the Philippians, but upon his death, in the obituary, I learned he was in China. That was over 4 decades later. He never said much about his experiences except that he was a POW

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  20. That was a very interesting post. I bet that the reason why he didn't say much about his experiences is that they must scarred him deeply.

    Greetings from London.

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  21. It sure does bring it home when you know someone who lived through these experiences. As a fifth grader, I'm sure you couldn't grasp it quite like you can these many years later.

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  22. Fantastic story and review. It is remarkable how survivors make it back to "normal" life and thrive--my husband's grandma was a holocaust survivor, after 8 different work camps she was freed by Allied forces--and her stories still make me tremble, but knowing that a person can overcome those horrors and "live" again is humbling.

    Thanks for sharing!
    Veronica
    http://vsreads.com

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  23. What a wonderful review of an interesting teacher and book.
    What he must have gone through for those years.
    A blogging friends first husband was an English POW.
    She has mentioned it a few times.

    cheers, parsnip


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  24. Wow! The prisoner experience is a side of war that still doesn't get the attention itself. No doubt, your personal connection with the author must have made this all the more meaningful for you.

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