My great grandfather had been in Canada since 1919 and was sending money home to support the family. In 1937 the Japanese invaded China. Because of the war the money was not able to get through to his family. To survive my great grandmother learned how to grow vegetables. For protein they had to eat large bitter caterpillars. Some days they would hike up the mountains before dawn and mine for ore. They would hike back to the village by nightfall and sell the ore to the soldiers to make bullets. They would use the money to buy a piece of pork fat for their meals.Sometimes they would ger robbed on their way home.
They had to escape to Hong Kong for their safety. My great grandmother, with her daughters, walked for weeks to Canton to catch the train. At one point she was not able to carry her one year old any longer and she was going to leave her. But her older sister who was eight refused to leave her and carried her the rest of the way.
They had to pay five hundred dollars to get on the train but the station always sold more tickets than there was room for. Everyone had to fight to get on the train or get left behind. It was very hard for my great grandmother to get on the train with two children.
The war finally ended in 1945, but they were not able to join my great grandfather in Canada until 1949 when the Canadian government finally allowed the Chinese people to come into the country again.
by Keira Jang
