Jonathan’s Historical NarrativeSecond Sino Japanese War

About my Grandpa • Middle School • November 7, 2012

  The  Second  Sino  Japanese  War  was  named  after  the  First  Sino  Japanese  War  which  occurred  in  1894-­‐1895.  The  Republic  of  China  fought  against  Japan,  Germans,  and  the  Soviet  Union.  Japan  bombed  many  places  in  China,  including  Suzhou  where  this  story  takes  place.  The  Japanese  were  merciless  towards  any  Chinese  they  saw.  If  they  found  you  trying  to  escape,  you  would  be  dead  in  a  second.  During  the  war,  the  Japanese  not  only  attacked  China  but  also  attacked  Pearl  Harbor  on  December  7,  1941.  Then  the  U.S.  also  declared  war  against  the  Japanese  the  next  day.  They  fought  until  September  2,  1945  when  the  Japanese  surrendered.

The Second Sino Japanese War

Author’s Note

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Family Tree

The name with the blue box around it is my grandpa

(The main main character in my narrative).

The NarrativeEnjoy :]

Retreat from Suzhou

“Get ready!” my brother hollered. “Try and catch it!” “All right, no problem,” I replied. I started to run out towards

the other side of the garden. Right as my brother was about to throw the ball, I overheard our parents calling for us in a panicked tone.

What was wrong? I thought. They usually encouraged us to come outside and play. This time they were gathering the whole family and screaming, “get out of the house!”

“What is wrong?” my oldest brother asked. “I think I just heard a Japanese bomb plane,” dad replied

with a worried look on his face. Being only four years old, I had no idea what was going on.

Maybe we were just playing a family game of hide and seek. “We should hide under the oak tree,” Mom suggested. “Yes, I agree,” Dad approved. And so we started towards the enormous oak tree that was

standing high in the yard. After almost and hour of our parents discussing ‘what if this

happens’ and ‘what if that happens’ they decided it was safe to

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go back into our house. Right as my Dad got up, we heard a peculiar noise - bomb planes. My dad frantically sat back down to take cover. Little did I know that this might be the last chapter in any of our lives.

Boom! Bam! Pow! The bombs started to explode as they landed on the roofs of houses. I turned around to see if anyone in family was injured. They were !ne, but in front of me remained the burning remains of what used to be my house. For one thing, I knew we couldn’t do anything about it.

“We have to leave,” my dad tried to comfort the rest of us, “the Japanese soldiers are going to return soon.”

Fortunately, my parents already made a plan when the news from the daily newspaper got out saying, “First sights of bombs by the Japanese on August 23, 1937!”

With the devastating bomb that blew up our house, we reluctantly started our journey towards Shanghai’s French Concession with absolutely no possessions at all. Trying our best to stay concealed from any soldiers that might see us, our plan was to securely reach Shanghai and to live with my

grandparents.All of a sudden, as we swiftly got up, all these questions started to pop into my head. Are we going to make it alive? What if they spot us? If so, what will they do? I had no idea. I knew I had to concentrate on escaping.

The Second Sino Japanese War

After running for almost six hours, which seemed to be like a whole day, we entered at the train station. Luckily, it was still operating and the Japanese hasn’t attacked it yet. My dad had ten RMB in his pocket, which was just enough to buy tickets for the !ve of us.

We sat down in the train and it started to move. After about 6 hours from when we set out, the train came to a sudden stop.

“We’re already there?” I questioned surprisingly. “I doubt it,” my parents answered. They peered outside to

see if there was any sign of a train station. All we could see was a deserted !eld on both sides of our cart.

“I’ll go check out the front of the train,” my dad !nally whispered.

“Be careful,” Mom called out to him.Once my Dad got to the third carriage, he could hear an

eerie noise. Gun!re. He rushed back to our cart towards the back and told us to quickly dismount the train.

“What’s wrong?” my brother asked in a slightly calmer voice than my Dad’s.

“The Japanese are attacking the front of the train!” he screamed. And that was more than enough to trigger all the passengers in our cart to panic.

“Don’t panic,” my mom advised. “If the Japanese !nd us, they will kill us all.” My family and I basically went back to the stealth mode that saved us earlier.

Luckily, we got to a river without being seen by the soldiers. “Hey Dad, isn’t that a manure boat?” I examined.“Oh my gosh,” my dad replied. “Yes, that is! And I believe we

might just be able to escape by using it!”After listening to Dad’s ingenious plan, which was to take

the manure boat for a ride to Shanghai, we agreed with him. Though, it would make us seem like we all would have body odor for the next week. Although there were a lot of choices, the others seemed suicidal. Some of those plans were like – swim to

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Shanghai or take down a couple soldiers and dress up as them then walk to Shanghai.

We sprinted towards the manure boat and we “borrowed” it.

“Hide behind the covers,” my dad ordered. He rowed the boat as if he were a one-man army. It took about a day to get to Shanghai, but when we got there, we were almost assured safety.

Since most of us were rested, we jogged towards the French Concession. It was not an easy journey, but when we got there we got extremely ecstatic. I knocked on my grandparent’s door and my grandmother answered.

“Hongsheng! What brings you here?” she asked surprisingly.

“Our house in Suzhou got bombed,” my Dad explained. “That is horrible! Did anyone get hurt?” she questioned. “Fortunately, nobody did,” my mom assured.“Anyways, why don’t you all come in?” she said in a

hospitable voice.And with that, we all strolled into the safety of our new

house that will protect us for the remaining time of the largest Asian war of the 20th century.

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1. How did this effect your life?

At the start he was in Suzhou, Jiangsu. At the time his house was a nice one with a beautiful garden. One day, the Japanese planes started to bomb. He hid in the garden under a big oak tree. The house got hit by one of the bombs and got destroyed; luckily nobody was injured. He took a train from Suzhou to Shanghai with his siblings. They sat towards the back of the train, because at the front, the Japanese were shooting the train. All of a sudden it stopped and they had to run for it. They found a boat, by the river carrying manure. They boarded the boat and headed towards Shanghai. They safely arrived at Shanghai’s French quarters, where his grandma was living. At the time he was only 4.

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1."Second Sino Japanese War." Second Sino Japanese War. Wikipedia, 7 2012. Web. 7 Nov 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War>.

2. McDonald, Jason. "The Second Sino Japanese War." The Second Sino Japanese War. N.p., 7 2011. Web. 7 Nov 2012. <http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/sinojapan.htm>.

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Bibliography

What  specific  challenges  did  you  face  during  this  project?

Ge#ng  historically  correct  informa3on  to  write  my  narra3ve.  And  mee3ng  up  with  my  grandparents  so  I  could  interview  them.

What  did  you  learn  about  your  family  member?  (personality,  character…)

During  the  process,  I  learned  that  both  of  my  grandparents  had  a  hard  start  to  their  life  and  they  got  over  it.

What  did  you  learn  about  yourself  (as  a  learner,  as  a  family  member)?

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Reflection

I  learned  that  my  grandpa  had  a  really  hard  life  at  the  start  of  his  life,  like  hiding  from  the  war  and  trying  to  stay  as  safe  as  possible.

How  have  you  grown?  (as  a  writer…)

I  have  grown  as  a  writer  because  I  now  have  wri<en  a  different  type  of  wri>ng  and  experienced  what  other  historical  genre  writers  do.

Why  do  you  think  doing  a  project  like  this  is  important?

So  we  could  learn  about  what  happened  to  our  rela>ves  in  their  lives.  You  can  also  get  to  know  them  be<er.

What  part  of  this  process  did  you  enjoy  most?  Why?

Even  though  geCng  to  interview  my  grandpa  was  hard,  I  enjoyed  it  because  I  got  to  know  more  about  him.

What  part  of  this  process  did  you  least  enjoy?  Why?

I  personally  did  not  have  a  part  I  did  not  enjoy.  I  thought  the  whole  process  was  really  fun!

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How  do  you  plan  to  share  this  project  with  your  family/  family  member?

During  the  SLCs  I  will  show  my  parents  and  on  the  next  whole  family  occasion,  I  will  show  my  grandparents.  

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