He coughed dryly to clear his throat and continued: "Soon you will set out for the Neutral Zone, where the Communists will try every trick to lure you back to them. This will be the most crucial point in your lives, so please keep your minds clear and don't agree to return to the mainland. To tell the truth, if you yield to the Reds, they will practice the Policy of Three Heads on you. What's that? you may wonder. Let me explain. First, they will nod their heads smiling at you. Second, the moment you leave the Neutral Zone and enter their territory, they will make you hang your heads to confess your 'crimes.' Third, when you have crossed the Yalu, they will chop off your heads. That's their Three Heads Policy, which is already being implemented. Brothers and friends, don't be taken in by them. Come join us. We'll always treat you benevolently like blood siblings. With our joint effort we shall prevail and retake China."
The officials brought us a lot of gifts. Every prisoner got a picture of Chiang Kai-shek, a T-shirt with the Nationalist flag printed on its front, a woolen overcoat, a canvas satchel, a box of sugar cubes, two cans – one of stewed pork and the other of pear halves in syrup – and five ounces of green tea wrapped in a plastic bag. In addition, each enclosure was given basketballs, soccer balls, volleyballs, books, pens, magazines, drums, gongs, cymbals, bugles, horns, three dozen sets of playing cards, and chess sets. There were also four bolts of white cloth bearing over 100,000 civilians' signatures expressing their support for the inmates' cause.
Many of the prisoners were overwhelmed by the gifts. Some even wept while chewing bonbons and drinking hot tea, which we hadn't tasted for more than two years. Some said they would never forget the generalissimo's kindness and generosity. What a difference this was from the Communists, who just forced you to charge at the enemy while feeding you like cattle. The inmates talked on and on; everyone was intoxicated. Then to make themselves look more like the Nationalist warriors, some had their heads shaved bald. Within a week we all got rid of our hair.
I tried to remain levelheaded, knowing the Nationalists well, though I too enjoyed their gifts. The truth was that they badly needed men for their army, whereas the Communists had millions of troops and the largest reserve of manpower in the world. That made the two sides treat the POWs differently. I daresay it was the desperate straits the Nationalists were in that forced them to value the prisoners much more. By contrast, the Communists wanted us back mainly to save face.
If only I had known more about the business of the persuasion. Then I might have worked out a plan. Despite longing for my homeland, I was unsure if the Communists would ever absolve me from blame. How could I explain to them my return to this pro-Nationalist camp? I didn't even know whether Commissar Pei and Ming were still alive. If they were dead, it would be impossible to defend myself. On the other hand, if I went to Taiwan, I wouldn't be able to ease my guilty conscience either. How could I let my mother and my fiancee suffer for me while I lived abroad in peace and safety? The harder I tried to think of a way out, the more disappointed I became. My mind was in turmoil, though I had to appear cheerful. I spent more time reading the Bible to curb my apprehension, particularly the Book of Ecclesiastes, which I read repeatedly and which deepened my sense of human futility. These pages calmed me down and taught me that even though I couldn't find a solution now, it didn't mean there wasn't one. I must be patient and learn to resign myself to waiting. There is a time for effort and a time for repose; a time for knowledge and a time for ignorance. At present all I could do was wait with an alert mind.
34. A GOOD COMPANION
That summer I grew attached to Blackie, a dog that roamed our compound. Though people began to think of me as his owner, I could hardly take care of him. A dog doesn't eat grass like a chicken, so I couldn't feed him and he had to look for food on his own. All I could do was fill a chipped crock with water for him. Whenever possible, he'd steal a bite from the kitchen, where some of the cooks would threaten him and even thrash him with a broom.
There were a good number of animals in Camp 13. Our kitchen raised a pig and a dozen chickens. We often heard hens cackle, but had never seen an egg drop in our soup. Apparently the leaders and the cooks ate them. Several inmates each raised a chicken themselves and bartered eggs for things they needed. One man even kept a small nanny goat that wasn't old enough to give milk yet, but he didn't have her for long – the animal got out of the camp one day and didn't return. We guessed she must have been killed or shut away by some civilian. Her owner was devastated and for days waited in vain at the front gate, expecting her to reappear.
Blackie had wandered into our closure the previous winter and stayed. He must have felt safe in the camp, because he wasn't a strong dog; somewhat stunted, he couldn't fight the wild dogs in the marshes. Besides, the Koreans loved dog meat and wouldn't think twice about catching and killing a stray dog. The prisoners called him Blackie on account of his dark coat. He was small in size and almost devoid of fur, scarred in places, but he had a fluffy tail and white eyebrows like a pair of moths. Some men believed he was a Japanese pointer and some said he was a Chinese retriever. I'm not sure what he was, maybe a hybrid. I often patted and stroked Blackie, who enjoyed being touched, and any expression of human affection seemed to give him intense pleasure. Sometimes I would beg the young cook named Nanshan to give him some leftovers – half a sweet potato or a ball of stale barley. Like the inmates, Blackie was undernourished, his ribs showed sharply, and he always seemed hungry, hanging around the mess lines at mealtimes and licking up spots of spilled soup.
As I spent more time with him, he seemed to acknowledge a special bond between us, following me whenever I was in his view. He'd trot beside me with an air of some importance. I was glad to have him around. Before Blackie, I had never really liked any animal, but now my thoughts would turn to him first thing in the morning when I woke up. I wouldn't let him get out of the camp, fearing he might go astray. Whenever I returned from swimming, he would prance at me, whining with such happiness that I would be moved to caress his lop-eared head or squat down to play with him for a while. He would roll on the ground or lie on his back with his paws held back for me to poke his belly, which I would do. Sometimes he nuzzled my face and sniffed at my hand as though eager to get something tasty from me. He made me realize that none of us, the POWs, could ever have his kind of simple pleasure and genuine trust in a man. This realization made me treat him more like a friend, who evoked in me a tenderness that I dared not feel toward anyone around me for fear of embarrassment and betrayal. For this beneficent influence I was grateful. I promised him that I would feed him a lot of meat once we were free.
Most prisoners called Blackie by whistling, at which he would run to them, wagging his tail. If he recognized the man, he'd leap up and place his paws on him, expecting to be stroked. He was such a friendly dog; he seemed to know only the goodness of man.
One night in early August Blackie sneaked through the fence and didn't come back. I searched here and there within the enclosure but couldn't find him. I was afraid some Korean might have kept him or even slaughtered him. Blackie was a grown male now and might have been in rut. To my knowledge there weren't many dogs around the camp. He would have to go a long way to a fishing hamlet beyond a lagoon to find a bitch, and those fishermen wouldn't hesitate to butcher him if they caught him. I waited and waited that night, but he didn't return.