They Saw Me as a Hero
Canadian International School of Hong Kong , Harris , Thomas - 13
I watched them from the small , empty restaurant as the sirens wailed . The bombs dropped as screams echoed through the grey sky . Xiu Ying , the waiter , covered my eyes to shield me from my parents death . I rapidly scraped and tugged at her hands and tried to pull them off my face , but they wouldn ’ t budge . After two long minutes , she released her hands from my eyes . The window was as red as a dragon ’ s flame . I felt cold water trickle down my cheek . Suddenly , shouts and the sound of marching filled the air as hundreds of Japanese troops stormed the train station , wearing their bloodied khaki uniforms . It sickened me that it was most likely the blood of their enemies on their uniforms . Tugging my arm , Xiu Ying pulled me into the dumbwaiter .
Suddenly , it was dark and cold . Sounds of gunshots echoed through the air . I heard the store door open as the bells jingled . All of a sudden , I heard screams as Xiu Ying shouted incoherent Chinese and abruptly an ear shattering gun shot louder than a . I heard her body collapse and time stopped . I heard nothing — no footsteps , no gunshots , no screams , no shouts . Closing my eyes , I wiped away tears that were now coming out like a waterfall .
I suddenly opened my eyes to ear shattering gunshots . I had just realised that I fell asleep . I sat there listening for footsteps , but this time they really were gone . I got out and ran down the street . My first instinct as a child was to run home . “ Get down on your knees and put your hands up !” I saw a man wearing a tan jacket . There was the imperial flag of Japan on his shoulder . He had a thick Japanese accent that made it hard to understand him . I quickly got down on my knees and raised my hands as if I were in class . The man tied a rope tighter than the braces gripping my teeth . “ Please don ’ t hurt me ” I cried , as my voice echoed throughout the street .
That was when I was eleven . It was late 1944 , I was fourteen years old . The conditions in the internment camp were horrific , I had to sleep in the third lane of the bowling alley . It was an oven in there , the floor was practically rock . The wood had rotted away and we were sitting on hot charcoal like concrete . There were about four hundred people in the camp We got ten grains of rice per day , everybody was extremely skinny and occasionally somebody would steal your rice . Despite all this , we knew we had better conditions than the Jews in Germany at the time . In fact we were lucky the Japanese decided to keep us alive .
One day changed everything , we woke up as usual . I walked to breakfast and waited for thirty minutes in a line , grabbed my food for the day and waited for another thirty minutes to go to the bathroom . After eating , we went to work farming the fields . If we made one wrong move , a cold whip would be brought across our bare back . Left of me , there was a Japanese guard making his rounds and watching closely that we weren ’ t up to anything . After he left , I heard the sound of a snake , it started getting louder and louder . Sssstttt sst psst . I looked to where the sound was coming from and to my relief it was one of the American prisoners trying to get my attention . “ I ’ m going to trip up the soldier as he walks by next , you grab his gun , ok ?” he whispered . “ No ! are you trying to get us killed ?” I replied anxiously . “ What is going on over there ?” the soldier yelled in his thick accent . He quickly jogged over and the American nodded at me and tripped him up . Hastily , I grabbed his weapon and threw it at the American . Did I agree with his plan ? No . But anything , including death , was better than being in that hell hole . He cocked the gun and shot it straight at the fallen over soldier ' s face . The gun was a stolen Thompson submachine gun , the Japanese had many American captives who were armed with various types of guns . All the captives raised their heads over the fields to look at what had made such an ear shattering sound . Suddenly gunshots were flying towards us , we were positioned on top of a hill , which gave us an advantage . Like dominos , the captured civilians started tackling guards and stealing their guns . After hearing the gunshots , the Japanese army was sure to advance and try to wipe us out . We ran to the armory and grabbed all the weapons we could carry and packed the ones we weren ’ t holding in a bag . I ’ ve never held nor shot a gun before yet I still got a pistol . I remember my dad owned one of these , the colt M1911 . It was an iconic American pistol . I don ’ t know why they gave it to me , as I told them over and over again that I wasn ’ t going to shoot anybody .