Life in a Flooded Manchurian Town

In the early 1930's, the country of Manchuria, populated by mostly Chinese, was a battleground for the countries of Russia, China, and Japan.  There were few Japanese, 250,000, compared to 28 million Chinese.  The Russians were to be distinguished from the Soviets, after the Communist revolution.  Telling us of life in the town of Harbin at this time is Lillian Grosvenor Coville.  Her article appeared in the February, 1933, issue of National Geographic Magazine, Here in Manchuria: Many Thousands of Lives were Lost and More Than Half the Crops Destroyed by the Floods of 1932.  Manchuria is a country to the west of China.  Today, it is part of China.

 This is a most singularly unique article in the magazine; it is almost entirely negative, and disturbing.  Ms. Coville writes, "Late last night the main southbound and northbound passenger trains were wrecked by bandits a short distance from Harbin.  Among the passengers was an American youth who had been a guest at our house the previous evening.  He was robbed of everything but his life and a shirt.  Is it any wonder that we feel insecure, that we feel the chaos of China is closing in about us?" (p. 233).

Ms. Coville was in Harbin to document the activities of the League of Nations commission (it was the predecessor of the United Nations) which came to investigate the dispute between the Japanese and the Chinese.  The town was almost a war zone with opposing armies present.  Beggars, especially Russian, were quite bold as were the increasing number of bandits. The only positive statement from the author was that all goods and services were extremely cheap.

"The discussion of the latest bandit raid is a daily subject of conversation.  When we picnic across the river a mile from Harbin, guns are always carried and stacked on near-by chairs,  and two privately employed sentries stand watch.

For being in such constant danger, Ms. Coville had a rather cavalier attitude. "My friends always write me, "Well, don't get killed in a war over there," or, "Don't get carried off by bandits," but no one has ever thought to warn me, "Don't get drowned in a flood," (p. 245).  The Sungari River was small but gradually flooded in the spring of 1932.  "Conversation veered from bandits to the flood, and how much damage it had done.  Soon it became apparent that the rains and floods had done more harm than all the military operations and banditry in Manchuria the past year.  Half the crops of North Manchuria had been destroyed," (p. 247).

With the rising flood waters came tens of thousands of refugees into Ms. Coville's European section of the city.  With the refugees and flooded wells came the disease of cholera.  After several deaths, the Japanese carried out a vigorous campaign of forced immunizations - at the point of a rifle.  Disease was stemmed but Ms. Coville reported that even more 'banditry' was rising.  "Already it was not safe to be on the streets, for bandits consider even the most wretched white worth at least one hundred dollars in potential ransom money."  She ends her article, "Nearly every man carries a gun these days - and a permit to use it," (p. 256).  We shouldn't be shocked at these sad events; it is a tale with different places and circumstances in our world today.  The only shock is that the Magazine would use that sort of an article.