A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling

Author:Zhang Ling [Ling, Zhang]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

East American Chinese Herald: In Commemoration of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan

Third Feature Profile: A Story of Righteous Ardor

Ian Ferguson was born to a family of Chicago brewers in 1921. He turned twenty on Sunday, December 7, 1941. After attending church, his family took him to an Italian restaurant to celebrate his birthday. Seventy-four years later, Ferguson still recalls the dark sky that day, which looked as if it might snow at any time. The restaurant was chilly, and the family, seated and still wearing their coats, had just opened their menus when the music on the radio stopped. The announcer’s voice came on, low and sorrowful, and it took several moments for Ferguson to understand what he was saying. The US naval base in Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese, and there had been heavy losses.

The restaurant was crowded that day, but no one spoke. The silence shaped the air into a thin piece of glass that seemed on the verge of shattering. Eventually, someone stood and slowly walked to a stranger in the room, and they embraced. Ferguson heard his mother sobbing softly. That day forever changed Ferguson’s destiny. At the time, he was an apprentice at an auto repair shop on Chicago’s south side, studying mechanics part time. He was hoping to save enough money to open his own shop after he graduated as a mechanic. Ten years after the war, he realized that dream, moving his family to Detroit in October 1955 and opening an auto repair shop. For over twenty years, he ran a successful business, with three additional branches opening across the city. But on December 7, 1941, he didn’t have mechanics on his mind.

That spring, twenty-year-old Ferguson joined Naval Group China. Gunner’s Mate Ferguson knew when he enlisted that he would be going to China on a secret mission. But he didn’t know how classified his mission truly was until he was pulled from his dorm in the middle of the night, put into a military vehicle covered with black tarp, and whisked away for the intensive training. On a base outside Washington, DC, he spent four months in specialized training for short-range weapons, special explosives, sniping, hand-to-hand combat, cryptography, aircraft identification, evasive tactics behind enemy lines, night navigation, and more. He also had an accelerated course in Chinese language and customs. During her interview with this ninety-four-year-old veteran who assisted China in its War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, senior reporter Catherine Yao learned that he still had in his possession the Chinese textbook and the handbook from the training course. The Chinese textbook included the following description of the oratory principles of Mandarin:

The first tone is even.

The second tone rises as spoken.

The third tone falls and stops with a hesitation.

The fourth tone is cut off quickly.

The handbook contained the following rules:

Don’t call the local people Chinamen.

Don’t call local laborers coolies.

Don’t comment on the Chinese way of reading from right to left.

Don’t comment on Chinese eating habits or call the American diet civilized.

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