95-year-old Liu Guiying
- By Li Shen
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 10, 2015
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Chinese soldiers received training in the Ramgarh Training Center in India during the World War II. [File photo] |
"Things in jungles can barely be eaten, but there are many things that eat people," Liu recalled. Leeches were her worst fear. They are similar to worms and look like match sticks, living on tree leaves and puddles. They suck people's blood so tightly that it is hard to remove them with your hands. Liu learned to use fire to deal with the leeches.
Big mosquitoes, snakes, centipedes and scorpions are also lethal. Apart from the smaller ones, big animals like wolves, wild elephants and bears are other threats in the jungle.
As the rainfall reached its peak in June and July, many soldiers lost their lives in the mountain torrents and floods. The miasma and epidemics caused by insect stings and bites also took many lives.
Statistics show that the CEF had mobilized 103,000 soldiers in the first batch. More than 50,000 were killed in retreats. Most of the casualties died in jungles in the Hukawng Valley. Only four of 45 female soldiers in the Fifth Army of the CEF survived the jungles. Liu is the only survivor out of the five nurses in the squad.
"The scenes in the jungles were horrible. I saw dead bodies every few meters. They were covered in flies and worms, reeking overpoweringly," she said.
Liu finally went out of the jungle in August. After resting at a staging post for around half a month, she arrived at the CEF's Ramgarh Training Center in India.
She returned to China in 1944 and became a teacher in an elementary school in Anhui Province in eastern China after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Liu has four children. She now lives with her eldest daughter. She likes reading books and newspapers. Two years ago, her left leg got injured. But she kept exercising every day and now she can walk with a stick. Her daughter said that she is not afraid of anything after she survived the jungle.
Liu has collected many books and materials about the CEF. When recalled that period of history, her eyes filled with tears. When asked if she regrets joining the CEF, she said that everyone should do their duty when their home is attacked. "We just did our duty," she added.
Liu often thinks of Head Nurse Hu Shan's dying words: "We sacrificed our youth and our lives for our country. If you can return home, please tell our compatriots what we have done."
Liu was awarded a gold medal in the commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression by the Central Military Commission in 2005.
