Sally+and+Kristie+Rev.+James+MacCallum+119-127

Interviewer: Hello. We have here today, James MacCallum, nice to meet you!

MacCallum: Nice to meet you too!

Interviewer: So, Mr. Mccallum, a short introduction for those of people who do not know you. Born in Olympia, Washington on November 1893, attended and graduated from University of Oregon. Earned his B.D. at Yale and returned to College of Missions and married Eva Anderson.

MacCallum: Yes

Interviewer: Well, now that we know a little background from where you're from, my first question. How did you end up in Nanking anyway?

MacCallum: Well, I went on a honeymoon to Nanking with my wife in 1921, to China. Then I went back to California, to serve as a pastor of the Christian church there. We returned to Nanking in the fall of 1931. When we heard that the Japanese were invading, my wife and children evacuated. But I found out that they needed a business manager to help to run the hospital in University of Nanking. I decided to work as a business manager there, though I knew that I had to be apart from my family for a while.

Interviewer: mmmm, pretty complicated! So, You worked in a hospital in Nanking, what kind of job did you do within the International Safety Committee?

MacCallum: Yes, well..I occasionally went out into the battlegrounds in search of food for the refugees in the Safety Zone. I felt an obgligation to go to such extents to help the Chinese people.

Interviewer: I heard of your quite interesting job at the hospital too, that you had to send mothers and newborn babies back "home" within the refugee camp. How did you like this and do you think you did a good job?

MacCallum: Like all jobs, it probably had some ups and downs. It was really nice to see several people finding their families occasionally, but in most cases, the wives were miserable. They either did not have any “home” to go back to, or could not find their husbands because the Japanese army took them away forcefully. in worst cases, they could not find both. Looking at those women broke my heart.

Interviewer: Oh my… that’s sad.

MacCallum: Yes, indeed.

Interviewer: So how was being in Nanking generally?

MacCallum: It was horrible! People were told to get out of the city, people were shot, the whole city was on fire, and women were taken away by Japanese soldiers. Those soldiers had no mercy at all!

Interviewer: If Nanking was such a merciless place, how would you compare it to what was happening outside the city walls of Nanking?

MacCallum: I did not have much time to see the surrounding environment of Nanking, but I heard from some people living outside the walls and a few times I went outside the walls in search for food. It was not just Nanking, but the people who lived outside the walls of Nanking were just as tortured as those within Nanking.

Interviewer: I really would not want to be there! It would probably not be a pleasant idea to be in the way of the Japanese at the time. Well, anyways, with that question, we will end this interview. Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Mccallum!