Evening star., 1937-08-05
JAPANESE ATTACK
..LEAVESGHOST CITY
U. S. Mission School Teach
ers Tell of Massacre
at FungchoW.
By Re- dlo to The Star,

PEIPING, China, August 5.-The
japanese Army opened the gates OF
Tungchow to a small group of Amer
leans today for the first time since the
massacre last week. Once the busting
capital of the puppet East Hopei Prov
ince, Tungchow is ghost city. Most
of its $4,000 inhabitants have fled,
leaving none but old women and
children.
The streets stand silent and empty
but for japanese sentries and occa-
sional tWo-Wheeled carts freighted
with corpses. At the North China
American School in the southern out
skirts of the walled city, James A..
Hunter, bespectacled teacher from
Peoria, Ill, and Harry Martin of New
York, also teacher, went through
terrifying days of aerial bombardment
and street fighting without injury, al
though using their own words, I'VE
had several real scares"
There is plenty of evidence of the
miraculous escape of the two Amer
leans, and the thousands of Chinese
refugees in their charge. The main
gate of the school was reduced to
crumbled masonry by shell explosion
above the wreckage of which feebly
f1uttered the tattered United States
flag, itself blown to shreds.
10000 Filled Campus.
inside the campus, three 15-foot-
VIDE craterS in the lawns and fields,
furnish further proof of the bombing
OF this American property by japanese
planes. A fourth bomb crashed into
the wall of the school auditorium and
fell to the lawn, where it still lies un-
exploded, awaiting the japanese to
came and take it away.
1T was pretty bad for a while"
Hunter confessed. The japanese
barracks was next door to our campus
on one side and the Chinese barracks
on the other side. Consequently, we
were subjected to dangerous cross
fire. To add to our problems, refugees
poured in by the thousands seeking
the protection of the American flag,
There we're 10000 of them at the
homes and buildings on the campus.
There are still 1000 with us afraid
to go to their homes. I have lust
taken census of my home and find
loO croWding my cellar. Naturally.
whenever airplanes bombed we re-
treated to the cellar"
Mlraculously, the only casualty in
the school was Chinese woman shot
through the thigh, and her wound
Is minor one.
Stores, Houses Looted.
A few dead troops and civilians
still sprawled grotesquely in the streets
IN the vicinity of the American school,
although gangs of conscripted labor
ers are rapidly clearing up the grislv
reminders of the battle. All the jap
anese dead have been collected, MANY
OF them fished from the beautiful
lotus pond in the heart of the CITY
where they were tossed after the
shooting. Others found on roof tops
OF homes and in bitches we're. in most
instances, mercifully shot, the only
cruelty coming to the attention of
the Americans being the case of a
child whose leg muscles had been
severed by big sword.
In their search for japanese and
Chosen natives, the rebel peace pres
ervation corps ransacked the govern
ment buildings and made shambles
OF japanese restaurants. tea houses.
bawdy houses and narcotic Joints.
There is evidence, too, that the city
was pretty thoroughly looted by the
retreating Chinese, nearby shops be-
Ing broken into and despoiled, in
many cases the contents spilled into
the streets. The japanese barracks
was reduced to a SCARED shell by the
Chinese fire. Many trucks and hun
dreds of cases of gasoline went up in
smoke.
tCopyright, 1879