Hilary Young's story on her Grandma - Rona Young

Recently Hilary Young asked me to post this essay  She says:

I did this assignment for coursework in IGCSE English in 2010. Where we had to write about a historical event from first person or third person perspective. My grade for this assignment was an A

It is written in first person perspective as I am looking through the eyes of my grandma (Rona). 

I am the fifth granddaughter of Rona, daughter of Frank the second son of Rona. 

Well down Hilary - and thanks for the contribution!  Kirsten

 Worlds Away From Home

My Grandmother, Rona was born in Wellington on 15th June 1922 at Lambton Quay in Wellington. She was born to Van Chu-Lin and Chun Yee Hop. She is the sixth oldest in a family of eighteen children. This is my Grandma’s story.

Being born Chinese was tough for me and my siblings because I could not speak and had a limited understanding of English. Like a lot of the other Chinese families in New Zealand, my parents owned a fruit shop in Wellington and so, growing up I was constantly needed to help mind the family shop. Being Chinese, my father obviously wanted me and my siblings to have a “good Chinese education” and “keep good ties with China”, this was very significant to my father. So, my father moved my entire family back to China to achieve his goal to get a Chinese education for the children. This would also ensure that the family would still have genuine ties with China, even if we would decide to move back to New Zealand later. My parents and eight of my brothers and sisters went to China while my adoptive brother called Sun Teem stayed in New Zealand to look after the fruit shop. Unaware of the vicious trauma which would lie ahead I unquestionably left New Zealand, on 8^th of February 1928 to go to my new home in Guangzhou, China.

My entire family moved to China in 1929 and we stayed with my father’s first wife, Yim Yung. We got an education in China but, for my parents and my brothers the visit was soon cut off and they returned back to New Zealand on 31 December 1929. My parents needed to go back to tend the shop and my brothers had gone back because they were too young to stay in China without my parents there. My older sister, Mavis, also returned back to New Zealand shortly after them, as she was needed back in the family fruit shop because of her invaluable English skills. From 20 January 1931 there were only six of us left in China, my four older sisters went to school in China while my younger sister, Rosie, and I stayed at home as we were too young to walk to school and we were to go to school when we were older.

While I was there I got to know Yim Yung, my stepmother, very well and learned to love her as a mother. She was very considerate to us and looked after us well, not yelling at us unless it was necessary and even then she would not give us any whippings. My father had hired two servants to help out around the house in China, so all Yim Yung had to do was look after us. I was quite happy in Guangzhou at the time not knowing of what disasters would happen next.

When it finally came time for me to go to school, in 1931, the Japanese came to the village and we had to escape to Saijo village to try to avoid them. The Japanese had already annexed Manchuria and I was horrendously scared that they would execute my treasured sisters. This was the start of the Second Sino Japanese War, the Chinese military was much too weak to even challenge Japan and China was alarmed of what would happen next. China had encountered the prodigious power which Japan had possessed and so went to seek other countries for help however, the rest of the world would do nothing to try and stop Japan. The lack of protection which China possessed had petrified me and the panic which had spread across China only intensified. My adored sisters and I had never dreamed of encountering the monstrous war which had erupted in China. My father had some land in Saijo so we were able to move without the anguish of puzzling over where we would live next.

It was much too treacherous for my valued sisters and me to live in China with the horrifying war going on. By now the Japanese had launched air attacks on China, these attacks killed millions. From February 3^rd 1937 my beloved sisters had gradually started to return to New Zealand starting with the oldest, Enid. The next to return was Anna, on the 5^th of July 1937, then Phyllis on the 16^th of August 1937, leaving only Rosie and me to keep Yim Yung company as this was what my father wanted. During these circumspect years Rosie and I became inseparable and undivided. Rosie and I had spent the next three wary years in Saijo we were very nervous that the Japanese would invade us at any second.  Staying in the countryside meant that we would be better protected and we would have a much better chance of survival there. I had three years of school in the village and was very distressed that I had to leave my school. The nights that I had spent throughout those years were sleepless and I was in a state of constant fear that the murderous Japanese would invade our home at night and terrorise us. I often had violent, vivid nightmares that my family would be taken away from me and I would be helpless to stop it. These frightening dreams had affected me during the day and when I went out I was daunted of what might happen to my irreplaceable younger sister.

In 1940 Saijo was crawling with Japanese soldiers. When they had taken over the village they made all the villagers had to line up on the side of the road while the Japanese commander road past on a decorated horse, his celebrating troops followed closely behind. I was terrified when this happened as this not only meant that our village was captured but the invasion of the village also meant that everyone could possibly be executed in an instant. The commander looked horrifyingly powerful up on his gleaming horse. In response to the sudden over taking of Saijo Yim Yung rapidly wrote to my father to tell him to send my sister and I home as it was much too precarious in China. Rosie and I were very distressed and we wanted to stay with Yim Yung as she was the only mother Rosie had ever known. We spent our last night together filled with tears as we reluctantly left.

Rosie and I had to leave very hastily and in obscurity as this was our only chance to get away. We had to carefully plan out how we would get out of Saijo and into Hong Kong. This plan included when the guards would be off duty, where we would be staying, how to get from place to place and exact times to leave. A Chinese lady helped us to sneak away in the cloaked darkness of the night from Saijo to another neighbouring village on foot. I had to carry Rosie because she had a severe leg wound and could barely walk herself. When we were trying to get away from Sajio the solider almost caught us they started firing the guns at us but we fortunately escaped. We ran from the ear shattering guns and the endless blood filled fighting which followed closely behind us. Whilst in the neighbouring village we hid in an abandoned house the Chinese lady had provided Rosie and I with food and we stayed there for several days.

Rosie and I discretely went to Hong Kong by train from the neighbouring village. The entire trip was terrifying for fear of being caught. The secrecy which surrounded the journey to fight for our freedom was exciting. When we got to Hong Kong I found that it was very peaceful compared to all the horrors I had seen and experienced back in Saijo. I was relieved that our trip was almost over and that after one boat ride back to New Zealand we would finally be reunited with our parents and be back home to New Zealand. From Hong Kong Rosie and I had to sneak onto a boat and exit the country.

On the 27^th of August 1940 Rosie and I had finally returned home to New Zealand, away from the fighting and the devastating war which was unravelling back in China. Upon arriving home I was shocked to see how my parents had aged as I had not seen them for ten years. I discovered that while I was gone my parents had seven children and after that I carried on my life as normal.

Yim Yung had died in the war shortly after my Grandmother and Rosie had left her. My Grandmother and Rosie were the last people in the family to ever see her. Rosie died on 24^th of July 2004. My Grandmother also passed away earlier this year on the 1^st of May 2010.