In his typed application requesting employment with UNRRA, Dad lists his current private medical practice and business office at the Roosevelt Building, 727 West 7th Street Suite 1242, in downtown Los Angeles — near the corner of Flower Street — and said he had been at this same location since 1939. He also listed himself as medical director and chief of staff of the First Street Medical Clinic, 369 East 1st Street, also located in downtown Los Angeles, and the medical director for the Ruth Home and Hospital, community chest agency for the treatment and rehabilitation of girls and young women with venereal disease, at 831 North Gilman Road, in El Monte. Dad listed his current net annual income as $21,000, and he requested employment "outside the United States, preferably in the Far East."
Dad gave his physical description as "6', 168 pounds," and said he was "married, son, age 17 years, in Merchant Marines (Duncan), daughter, age 10 (Tamar), and three younger sons, ages 6 (Michael), 4 (Steven), and 2 (Kelvin)." Under "Languages," he indicated he was fluent in French and could "speak, read, and write it, and lived in Paris as a child." Further, he stated, "Am currently studying the Chinese language, but have not yet acquired any proficiency."
My father's application was accepted and he was hired by UNRRA, effective December 3, 1945, with a position listed as chief regional medical officer for China and a home station listed as Washington, D.C. His official overseas station was the UNRRA regional headquarters office in Hankow, China, and he was granted an annual salary of $7,375.
President Truman had said that China presented the "largest of all the relief responsibilities," and thus it was to China that my father was dispatched in early 1946 with the honorary rank of lieutenant general, complete with a United Nations quasi-military-style uniform.
Although no records exist to establish his exact date of departure to China, I believe he left sometime in early 1946. From a memorandum he wrote that I found in his file, I can establish that he had traveled to and was in his home station of Washington, D.C., between late 1945 and early 1946, before departing for China. During his absence, Dad maintained his downtown medical office at the same address.
As chief regional medical officer in Hankow, Father was provided with a military jeep complete with a three-star flag, a driver, his own personal cook, and two administrative aides to comprise his staff. Exhibits 9 and 10 are photographs taken of Father during his assignment in China in 1946:
Exhibits 9 and 10
Above: Dr. George Hodel, second from right, with Chinese military, 1946 Below: Dr. George Hodel, UNRRA China, 1946
Exhibit 9 (top) is captioned "arbitrator," which meant that my father's diagnosis and opinion regarding a Communist prisoner's medical condition literally meant life or death. If the prisoner was confirmed as sick he passed through Nationalist lines to safety; if he was not, he remained with his captors; which was probably a death warrant. According to the UNRRA rules of engagement regarding my father's duties, UNRRA and my father were responsible for the following:
UNRRA ARBITRATES:
At the request of peace team #9 (Hankow), UNRRA acted as referee on eligibility for transport of sick and wounded Communist soldiers through the Nationalist lines. Following an agreement by the peace team, 618 disabled Communist soldiers, along with 120 wives and children, were moved by special train from Kuangshui in Northern Hupeh to Anyang in Northern Honan, where better hospital facilities exist.
Nationalist medical officers challenged medical eligibility of 75. These doubtful cases were reviewed by an American physician, Dr. G. Hill Hodel, chief medical officer for UNRRA-Hankow. Dr. Hodel upheld the challenge in 26 cases, overruled it in 49.
Father worked with both the Chinese Nationalist and Communist generals in 1946. His position in the center as "peacekeeper" (exhibit 10) between the two powers is significant and demonstrates why it was important for UNRRA to have granted him the rank of three-star general, so that he would be considered by both sides an equal rather than a subordinate in his role as medical arbitrator.
The review of Dad's UNRRA file also contained a fourteen-page typed memorandum, dated March 20, 1946, in response to a Dr. Victor Sutter, who had obviously requested a summary analysis from Dad of the then current problem of venereal disease control in China.
In one of his summary paragraph headings under "Prostitution and V.D.," Dad included the following observations that reveal what I believe to be his personal feelings about women, venereal disease, prostitution, and the attempts made by government to regulate moral behavior:
For 9 years, as health officer and as administrator of an official venereal disease control program, I have observed the workings of "regulation" and of repression. It is my opinion that prostitution is an evil which cannot be caused to cease by legislative or police action, but which can only be deflected into other channels . . .
I have learned, however, from my American experience, that for corrupt policemen to chase loose women from one end of town to another contributes neither to the peace, health, nor morals of a community.
My father's personal "American experience" of "regulation," "repression," and "corrupt policemen," most certainly referred to what he had witnessed in Los Angeles, and especially the corruption he had seen in the LAPD.
Dr. Hodel resigned suddenly and unexpectedly from UNRRA on September 19, 1946. His personnel record cites the reason for his termination as "personal," even though the real cause might have been medical. I have reason to believe that while in China Dad suffered a sudden — and severe — heart attack and was sent back to L.A. for hospitalization. I believe that this heart attack required him to remain hospitalized in Los Angeles for up to a month or more before being allowed to return to the Franklin House sometime in October or November 1946.
It is clear that Dad thoroughly enjoyed the prerogatives of his rank, because once he returned to Los Angeles in 1946 he immediately purchased a military-style Willys Army jeep identical to the one in which he had been chauffeured about in China. These surplus jeeps were first offered to civilians for purchase only after the war, in late 1945 or 1946. But the jeep was only part of Dad's lingering romanticized attachment to the military.
In 1946, Father posed for several formal photographs taken by his close friend the celebrated surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray. In these photographs, Dad chose to wear his UNRRA overcoat, complete with epaulets, which gave him the bearing of a military officer. I have reason to believe that during and after the war years — perhaps up through 1949 — George Hodel assumed the persona of an Air Force lieutenant in his romantic overtures to the many women he pursued. It is also likely that his camouflaged identity was either unnown to these women or that there was a mutual agreement that this was a cover story to conceal his real identity because of his marital status.
Exhibit 11
George Hodel, 1946
Dad had become fascinated with Asia, and during his tour of duty in China had bought a large number of rare art objects, available at what amounted to liquidation prices in Shanghai if one had American cash. He invested heavily in Asian antique artworks: rare paintings, antique silk tapestries, and bronze statutes of Chinese deities.
Shortly before he left for Asia, Father had made another investment: in 1945 he bought the Lloyd Wright Sowden House on Franklin Avenue, to which, while he was overseas, he had all of his purchases in Asia shipped. Upon his return from China, Dad also tried to reconcile with Mother, and the four of us moved into the Franklin House on his return in '46. Although my brothers and I believed we had become a family again, we were actually only there as Dad's guests, unaware of our parents' divorce and of our probationary status.