CHINA: Victory

CHINA Victory

When news of the Japanese surrender offer was flashed around the world, China surrendered to joy. Chungking had waited years for this moment. The news reached its cliffside streets about a half hour after dinner. The first shouting came from houses not far from the Kialing River. It was echoed downriver, then upriver. Soon the separate shouts merged and swelled into the cacophony of a nation delirious with the victory it had scarcely dared to hope would ever come.

Cheering, laughing, crying people flowed through the streets in a human flood. Searchlights danced across the sky. Firecrackers cracked and sputtered victory.

Every U.S. soldier was mobbed by Chinese, by more hands than any G.I. could shake, more gifts of.cigarets than he could smoke, by boundless gratitude in cries of “To hsieh, to hsieh—Thank you, thank you very much!” and “Mei-kuo ting hao —America is swell!” One celebrant was asked: “Where will you be in a month?” He answered for China: “Not Chungking, not much. Nanking! Nanking! Nanking!”