Dr. Wilson (5 c◻◻ d◻◻◻ll ◻◻◻◻) Rec'd in N. Y. 2-18-38
Wils◻◻
［以上鉛筆書き込み］
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
University ＜of NANKING＞ Hospital
Nanking, China
December 16, 1937
Dear Family,
You will have to pardon the unceremonious ending of the last installment. When I got home this noon I found that Smith and Stoole were of the last installment. When I got home this noon I found that Smith and Steele were leaving for Shanghai on a Japanese destroyer. I had just time to rush upstairs and jamb the pages into the envelope which I addressed while they were starting the car. Page 35 is the carbon copy because I couldn't find the original. I didn't have time to sign my name.
It would be interesting to see what are in the headlines of your papers. We received confirmation today of the sinking of the U.S.S. Panay on which all of us were supposed to be, by Japanese bombing. You undoubtedly have fuller information thsn we have. Our story sais that an Italian newspaper correspondent and American captain of one of the Socony river steemers were killed and a number wounded including Hall Paxton. The group were taken directly to Shanghai by the U.S.S. Oahu so that we have not seen any of them.
The hospital gets busier every day. We are about up to our normal capacity as far as patients go. There were about thirty admissions today and no discharges. We can't discharge any patients because they have no place to go. About ten of the hundred and fifty cases are medical and obstetrical and the rest are surgical. Neither of our Chinese doctors have the ability to care for them except under careful supervision so that keeps me humping. Yesterday I wrote that I had eleven operations. Today I had ten operations in addition to seeing the patients on the ward. I got up early and made ward rounds on one ward before coming home to breakfast. After breakfast I spent the morning seeing the other wards and then started operating after lunch.
The first case was a policeman who who had had a bomb injury to the forearm shattering the radius and severing about three-forths of muscles. He had had a tourniquet on for about seven hours and any attempt to stop the hemorrhage would have complerely shut off the remainder of the circulation to the hand. There was nothing to do but an[×other×] amputation. The next case was a poor fellow who had a large piece of metal enter his cheek and break off a portion of the lower jaw. The metal was extracted as well as several teeth imbedded in the broken off pirtion of the jaw. Then came a series of cases under the flouroscope with Trim's assistance. One fellow had a piece of shrapnel in his parotid gland, ut having severed his facial nerve. Another had a bullet in his side. It had entered his epigastrium and gone straight through his stomach. He vomited a large quantity of blood and then felt better. His condition is excellent and I don't believe I will have to do a laparotomy on him st all. I got the bullet out of the side without a difficulty. Another case had his foot blown off four days ago. He was very toxic and I did an open flap amputation of his lower leg. Another case was that of a barber bayonetted by Japsnese soldiers. The bayonet had cut the back of his neck severing all the muscles right down to the spinal canal through the interspinous ligaments. He was in shock and will probably die. He is the only survivor of the eight in the shop, the rest having all been killed.
The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling cases of rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayonetted cases are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers came in without warning or reason killed five ir six of their number and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital. I wonder when it will stop and we will be able to catch up with ourselves again.
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↑Dec. 15, 1937 - Jan. 9, 1938 "Dear Family"
Letter from Dr. Wilson to his family
NMP0016
