Address at the Opening Ceremony of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Museum

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

William J. Nottingham, Ph.D.
January 23, 2007
Nanjing, China

Photo: Dr. William Nottingham and Dr. Xiaoling Zhu are watching the Grace Bauer’s diary and a Rosette rouge aux bordures bleues blanches de l’ordre Jade honored by Chinese government July 30, 1938. (Nanjing Yangzi Paper, by Cai Yunqi)

Distinguished hosts and administrators of the Drum Tower Hospital, officials of the city of Nanjing, honored guests Marjorie Hancock, Carolyn Sandison, Dr. and Mrs. Ryan, and Dr. Xiaoling Zhu, and all present, good afternoon. I bring greetings from Dr. David A. Vargas, president of the Division of Overseas Ministries and Dr. Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada.

We are gathered here on an historic occasion which unites the past with the future. We celebrate a friendship between peoples which began in the 19th century, includes the whole of the 20th century, and begins the 21st century. We honor the Chinese and North American doctors and nurses who have made the Drum Tower Hospital an example of service and heroism to the people of China and especially to the young generation.

I am very happy, and it is a great honor, to represent the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada at your kind invitation to inaugurate the 1892 Memorial Hall and Hospital Archives. I remember the spirit in which this hospital was founded by Dr. Macklin with the help of his wife Dorothy DeLany Macklin, one Canadian, the other American. They served over 40 years, until 1927, and would have retired here if they could have. Two baby daughters of the Macklins, Marion and Edith, are buried here. We remember the work performed through the hospital for many years until today by Chinese and missionary partners and friends. What spirit led them? Of course, it was in the name of Jesus. But it is the spirit of Genesis 9:16 in the Bible, which tells of the Divine Wisdom creating the rainbow as a sign of an “everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” It is the attitude of heaven’s mercy and justice towards all people and for the earth itself. In that spirit Chinese and North Americans were one. Respectful and loving service was their life commitment. We gather to testify that this spirit continues among us.

When William Edward Macklin, M.D., (1860-1947) arrived in Nanjing April 16, 1886, Emperor Kuang Hsü had not yet reached majority, and the Manchu empress dowager ruled. It was 12 years before the consequential 100 Days of Reform and 25 years before the Republic of Sun Yat Sen. Dr. Macklin fought the injustice of the opium traffic by opening the hospital as an opium clinic. Later he opposed Western economic imperialism by paying from his own pocket for the translation of progressive books like Progress and Poverty by Henry George and The History of the Standard Oil Company by the adversary of Rockefeller Mrs. Ida Tarbell. He also had translations made of history, philosophy, and biography, but he was interested in reform and would be happy by the progress China has made through the 20th century until today. Not all missionaries thought as he did, but he had a social as well as a medical or religious program in mind. Theologically, Dr. Macklin showed his love for China by quoting St. Paul that people of other cultures have the law of God written on their hearts. Today, we call that dialogue. His first teacher and scribe King Siang Ru, a Muslim, he called “a brother to me” and admired his scholarship.

Englishmen Albert Saw and Edwin Hearnden soon joined Dr. Macklin and then the Meigs and Williams family. The first great healing of addiction at the hospital was Shi Kwie Biao who became a prominent leader in the community until he died in 1926. Mr. Meigs raised money in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana for building the hospital we see in 1892, which became part of the Nanjing University Hospital system in 1911. Other doctors and nurses included Dr. Paul Wakefield, Dr. Edwin Layton, Dr. Elliott Osgood, Dr. Daisy Macklin, Lilly Molland, Dr. James Butchart, and through the University system Dr. Williams, Dr. Beebe, Dr. Stuart, Dr. Lucy Gaynor, and of course Grace Bauer. Friends Emma Lyon and Mary Frances Kelly both cooperated with the hospital for over 30 years.

The Drum Tower Hospital was also the place for five very important heroes of the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, who gave protection and assistance to the victims of the tragedy. They are Dr. Miner Searle Bates, Dr. Lewis S. C. Smythe, Miss Minnie Vautrin, and Miss Grace Bauer, who were also sent by us.

Miss Grace Bauer, the aunt of the Ryans who are with us today, was director of training of laboratory technicians from 1919 to 1941 at Drum Tower Hospital and was a member of the honored International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. She demonstrated the spirit of compassion and justice of the hospital and refused to leave when the invasion came. She was engaged in very important relief work in the spirit of the hospital. Grace Bauer showed the tradition of unconditional love for others which called her to dedicate her life and work to Drum Tower Hospital and the people in need who came there. She did specialized study at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University and in Beijing in order to help others more. She was one of fourteen Americans honored by the Chinese government with the Order of the Purple Jade. She died in Baltimore in 1976.

Dr. M. Searle Bates, Dr. Ryan’s and my professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1950, former Rhodes scholar at Oxford, taught history at the University of Nanjing from 1920. He was among those who chose to stay in Nanjing after the Japanese invasion to share in the fate of the people. He helped organize safety zones and negotiated some degree of security from the Japanese authorities. He was member of the International Committee and put his own life in danger for the people in Nanjing. In 1946, he testified at the trial of Japanese war criminals at the Far East Military Court and went on to work for good relations and understanding between the United States and the New China.

Lewis S.C. Smythe, with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, taught sociology at the University of Nanjing from 1928 until his return to the United States in 1951, except for the years of war 1944-46. He was a member and secretary of the International Committee, recording the atrocities of the massacre, which he reported with John Rabe the chairman almost daily to the Japanese embassy in protest. At the end of March 1938, he conducted a census with the help of students called War Damage in the Nanjing Area. He was a witness at the war crimes trial in 1946 and filed an affidavit with expert documentation.

James H. McCallum arrived in China in 1921. He worked with the church and boys school at South Gate in Nanking until 1937. He was a member of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone and is described as working night and day driving the hospital ambulance to save wounded civilians and soldiers. After the massacre, the McCallums continued working in Nanking, and was eventually placed under house arrest by the Japanese, then repatriated on the “Gripsholm.” After the war he was co-secretary for Disciples of Christ in China with Dr. Luther Shao. He presented an affidavit in the War Crimes Trial in 1946 and is always quoted in memorials.

Miss Minnie Vautrin was in Nanjing from 1912 to 1940. When the bombing began in 1937 and Chinese and internationals evacuated the city, as Dean of Ginling College for Girls she chose to remain and to try to protect the young women. There were many teachers, students and thousands of people who could not leave, and she voluntarily shared their suffering for four and a half months. There was much cruelty and violence. We are told that she met all tasks with calmness and courage, and she was called an angel in Nanjing. The price she paid was the emotional strain which caused her to take her own life back in the United States on May 14, 1941, a year to the day she left Nanking with Miss Katherine Schutze.

We honor the Chinese who served faithfully through 100 years, especially when the hospital was under siege in 1911 and 1913, then saving many lives in 1937 within the International Safety Zone. Since liberation, the hospital has served the population in a spirit of solidarity with the people of New China. My predecessor Joseph M. Smith, who lived in Wuhu in the 1940s, enabled our church to respect the struggle for liberation and refuse to build a wall of anti-communism between us and the people of China. His slogan was, “The Chinese must decide.”

We move from this day into a new period of cooperation and harmony for peace and good will in the world. We are grateful for the wisdom of the leadership of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital and our Dr. Xiaoling Zhu. With him, we promise not to betray your friendship. We want to learn from you and cooperate for the making of a better world for “every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth,” as the Bible says. Thank you.