travel Archives - Page 5 of 5 - Johnny Isaak

Twice Wounded in Battle

Searing hot shrapnel from a Chinese Nationalist bomb lodged itself deep in my back next to my spine. The blast killed our battalion commander, who was standing next to me. I was 17 years old.

I was the commander’s personal radioman and communicator in a battalion of about 500 men as part the 4th New Army of the People’s Liberization Army (PLA). We were engaged in ground combat with Guomindang (Kuomintang) ground forces fighting for the high ground on a ridge line to our front when Nationalist airplanes bombed our position killing and wounding soldiers around me.

Fortunately for me the commander was killed in the blast, otherwise the evacuating soldiers would have taken him instead and left me for dead as we were getting overrun by the advancing enemy forces.

One of the simple pleasures of living in Shanghai is taking a shower in the pre-dawn hours and gazing through the wide open bathroom window from our 22nd-floor apartment to the city streets below. Standing under the stream of hot water with the cool breeze blowing in from a tall narrow window, it’s almost like showering outdoors in the warm rain under an urban banyan tree situated deep in the vast expanse of an enormous concrete jungle.

Awake before in the fading darkness while the megalopolis still sleeps, I am able to peer through my little portal to the world and catch a clear view of deserted city streets trailing off into the myriad of high-rise buildings and skyscrapers that is Shanghai. A gentle wind whispers through the window. The misty scent of fresh rain touches my nose.

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