【China's Long Journey of Blood and Tears】
V-1 Tientsin Honeymoon
Judith Tien Lau 田之雲
It
was dark by the time the early morning Beiping train pulled to its final
destination in the Tientsin Old Dragon Head Station (Lao Long Tou) in the evening of Sept. 13, 1938, delayed over ten hours by the many regular and
irregular Japanese Kempetai inspection stops.
A
sense of unspoken relief permeated the train compartment, as palpable as the
hint of the scent of the nearby Bohai sea coast.
Handing their pieces of luggage down to the eager porters with identity armbands, Father and Mother were cooly directed, under the appraising eyes of the Japanese patrols, to the shorter line of the 1st class passengers for security inspection. The mass of exhausted passengers pouring out of the standing room only compartments, were contemptuously shoved into long lines to face questioning by the surly guards who brazenly rummaged through their personal items and sometimes dragged off an unfortunate individual or family for whatever reasons.
As
relieved as Mother was to escape from the intimidation of the Japanese
controlled train, she could not help looking back at the still heaving
locomotive that had been her final connection to her mother, her 5 brothers and
her beloved hometown.
The
honeymooners’ deliverance to Tientsin from the terror of 12 hours of a mood of
impending doom, allowed Mother to feel emotions other than fear - to feel
sorrow, to feel the visceral tearing of her heart and a splitting of her
identity from whom she once was: an indulged daughter, a beloved sister, an
aspiring Beida student and a proud Chinese resident of Beiping.
Years
later she would quote the last lines of a poem written by the Tientsin poet prodigy Zha
Liang-zheng (查良錚, pen name Mu Dan 暮旦)
who was among Father’s small 1938-1939 Lianda class in
Trying
their utmost to appear composed and not overly anxious to rush out of the
Japanese managed train terminal, Father and Mother crossed under the station
portico toward a neutral zone and the British Concession across the river. The
British Concession was a large settlement guarded by two battalions of
approximately 2000
Father
and Mother felt like they had finally slipped out of the vicious wolf pit into
the sanctuary of safety. Nevertheless, the irony of finding refuge with the
first invaders of their country, the British victors of the Opium Wars
(1838-1840 and 1856-1860), was not lost on them. Since the Opium Wars, over 90
Chinese cities had been conceded to more than 20 foreign countries, as well as
the vast Manchuria resource rich lands to
Like
Beiping, Tientsin had also been occupied by the Japanese since August 1937
after the
[1] "[送人上車] … 掉回頭來背棄了, 動人的忠誠, 不斷分裂的個體
[Sending one off on the train]… turning my head, turning my back,
abandoning a heartfelt loyalty, a never
ending dismemberment of my being" by Mu Dan 穆旦 （1918-1977). 馬潤潮Laurence JC Ma, my Taida classmate, helped me with this
translation.
8 Nation Alliances + USA Occupation In Tientsin |
Japanese print of the 8 Foreign Alliances Occupation forces in |
8 Nations |
Treaty Ports,
1900-1920 |
Grandfather
Tien had believed this abeyance of Japanese hostility toward the European
colonials could come to a sudden halt at anytime through miscalculation,
accident or deliberate Japanese strategies, during the same period that
Since
the 1937 Japanese summer invasion at the Marco Polo Bridge, Japan had moved
swiftly with brutality, capturing major Chinese river ports, and great cities
like Beiping,
By
closely monitoring the collapse of the Chinese frontline defenses, and the
advance of the Japanese forces, Grandfather Tien had, with the help of
Grandfather’s widespread network of Chinese and foreign friends, meticulously
threaded his son’s and his daughter-in-law’s escape routes through the shifting
Sino-Japanese battlefields toward the currently undisturbed hubs of the
European colonies in Asia.
It
was popularly murmured among the Chinese that while the European tigers had
been luxuriously lounging for a century in
Japanese Advances during 1938 and 1939
Once
out of the train station, and settled into a hired car, Father and Mother
breathed in the refreshing evening air off the Bund of the
Arriving
at the broad steps to the British hotel, flanked by soft lights, Father
fastidiously put on his tailored suit jacket which he had taken off in the
morning when the train had gained speed out of the sweltering Beiping train
station. Then, in measured English, as coached by Grandfather Tien, Father
registered at the hotel front desk, the model of a young, cosmopolitan Chinese
businessman with his lovely wife on a honeymoon and business junket to
As
fatigued as Mother was after the ordeal of their long day’s journey, Tientsin
revived old memories of her father’s tales of his work at the
Founded
in 1920 by Fan Hsu-dong at
Safely ensconced in their room in the British hotel, Mother brushed aside her melancholy reveries of old joys, soberly restraining her heart’s nostalgia to visit her father’s old office and to stay safe within the British Concession. She tried to sleep off the new griefs of the past years since her father’s untimely death as the next day would launch the newlyweds off to the second part of their journey on a British Jardine Matthiessen steamer from the Tientsin Tang Gu Port, southward to the British colony in Hong Kong, 1700 nautical miles away.
天津蜜月行(I)
周素鳳 譯
1938年9月13日一大早從北京發出的火車，終於在傍晚抵達終點──天津的老龍頭站。這段車程原本只需要兩小時，日本人來了之後需要花12小時，因為一路上有許多日本憲兵隊的檢查哨，他們有時在定點上來檢查，有時是無預警突擊檢查。
火車到站，車廂內的乘客彷彿聞到附近渤海飄過來的味道，感覺鬆了一口氣。行李伕焦急地站在火車門口等待，手臂綁著日本人發的識別布條，父母親將行李交給他們後，日本安檢人員以讚賞的眼神引導他們到比較短的那一列排隊，專門給頭等車廂旅客排的。火車的無座位車廂蜂湧而出的人擠來推去，萬頭攢動，日本兵大聲喝斥，把他們推趕到另一邊都是大排長龍的隊伍。他們要面對的是粗暴的訊問，行李也會被仔細翻看查找。運氣不好的個人或一家人還會被帶到另一處，進一步追究盤問。
母親在下了火車心情比較輕鬆，那種威脅欺壓的氣勢讓人惶惶不安。但此時此刻，母親忍不住回頭看了看那一列冒著煙、喘著氣的火車，那列火車是她和外婆、五個舅舅，以及故鄉的最後的連結。
他們的蜜月列車經歷了十二小時日軍的巡邏監看，終於抵達天津，母親心裡的激動多過於畏懼，她黯然神傷，以往曾經具有的身分：被驕寵的女兒、被鍾愛的姐姐、胸懷抱負的北大學生，以及讓人引以為傲的北京人，此後都離她而去了。就在那一刻，她彷彿心碎地在向過去的自己告別。
多年之後，母親常常引用詩人穆旦(查良錚) 所寫的：「......掉回頭來背棄了╱動人的忠誠，不斷分裂的個體」作為自況。穆旦是父親在1938年到1939年就讀西南聯大時的同學。穆旦的這首〈智慧的來臨〉描繪自我背棄與分裂的痛苦，那是母親一生的寫照。
父母親走出已經成為日本人管轄的火車站，盡其所能地裝作若無其事，不要顯露寬慰之色。他們走過站前的門廊，揮手叫了車子，把行李放好後，車子經過海河開往英租界。緊臨租界旁的外灘上，有約2000名英國兵和一隊美國兵駐守。
父母親擺脫了虎視眈眈的日本人，感覺脫離了虎口，如釋重負般前往安全的避難所。反諷的是，他們尋求庇護的英租界，屬於第一個侵略中國的英國。爸媽都沒有忘記，英國在1838年-1840年以及1856年-1860年兩度發動鴉片戰爭，逼迫中國簽署租借協定。當時中國有90多個城市落入20多個西方國家的手中，而物產豐饒的東北也落入日本之手。 1931年九一八事變之後，日本佔據天津，歐洲八個列強在天津租界的貿易獲准持續，原本享受的權益也依舊維持。
祖父一直認為日本對歐洲列強只是暫時容忍，他們可能隨時突然終止一切，其原因可能是估計錯誤、某個意外事件，甚至是經過縝密考量後的政策。這段時間，德國在歐洲明目張膽地侵略鄰國。從1937年盧溝橋事變開始，日本迅速掠奪中國數個主要港口和城市，包括北平、上海、南京。
中國在前線的守軍節節敗退，日軍更加肆無忌憚。祖父仔細研究整個情勢，參考中國友人與外國友人的意見，仔細規畫父母親離開北平的路線，決定避開中日已經發生衝突的戰火地區，選擇的路線經由歐洲殖民國在亞洲的屬地。
當時中國人流行一句話：「前門拒虎，後門進狼」，意思是歐洲列強像老虎般大搖大擺地強行撬開中國的前門，而日本人像狼一般從後門偷偷溜進來。
父母親坐上出租車，駛離天津車站後，聞到橫貫天津市區的白河散放出來的味道。一路上，父母親看到租界區裡街道鋪設齊整，還有一棟棟歐式建築，複製各國傳統風格的建築，洋溢各國的文化特色，如奧匈帝國、比利時、法國、德國、義大利，當然還有大英帝國堂皇的英式建築。
早上父親在擁擠悶熱的北平車站搭上火車後，就將身上那套訂製的西裝脫下來，此時出租車已經駛到英租界，父親講究地將西裝穿上再下車。他踏上旅館前寬長的階梯，兩側的燈柱溢散著柔和的燈光。走進旅館後，他依照祖父事先的安排，以恰如其分的英語在櫃檯辦理入住手續。他和母親兩人看起來就是一對事業有成的年輕夫婦，計畫到香港度蜜月，順便洽談生意。
母親搭了一整天的火車感覺非常疲累，但是她到了天津，不免想到外公生前就在此地的久大精鹽公司工作。1937年，外公去世後三年，久大被日本佔領，併入華北的鹽業公司。外公的辦公大樓在現在的和平區赤峰道63號，是范旭東在1920年創辦的，後來擴大為天津勃化永利化工公司，是中國現代化學工業的搖籃。父母親辦好入住手續後進到房間，感覺放鬆舒適多了。
母親冷靜地壓抑著想去外公的公司的衝動，努力不讓自己沉浸在過去的回憶，最後只好用睡眠來讓自己忘卻外公過世後這三年來心裡的痛。這一對新婚夫妻第二天就要繼續第二段的旅程，到塘沽搭乘查定·麥蒂森號輪船，往南到1,700海浬之遠的香港。