Dr. Ikenberry recalls stories of war
Campus Times
March 12, 1999
Ernest Ikenberry, a missionary of the Church of the Brethren in La
Verne, flashes a smile next to the new memorial plaque that has just been
added in the church. The plaque is a memorial to three Brethren missionaries
that were captured in China and killed during the Japanese/Chinese war in
1937.
Four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan declared war on
China. Within weeks in late 1937, Japanese troops occupied large parts of
Northern China, an area where American missionaries from the Church of the
Brethren were active. Three of them were carried off by the Japanese and
disappeared on Dec. 2, 1937.
This is the historical setting in which Dr. Ernest Ikenberry, former
professor of chemistry at the University of La Verne, grew up.
Born Aug. 17, 1924, in Ping T'ingshow a province of Shansi, located
about 350 miles southwest of the Chinese capital Bejing. Ikenberry spent
the first 17 years of his life there.
Ikenberry's parents came to China as missionaries on an exhausting journey
by ship in 1922. It was their honeymoon after their marriage some months
earlier.
Looking back on his years in China, Ikenberry said, "I never really
felt handicapped growing up in China." He and two of his three sisters,
who were also born in China, were taught by his mother. The young boy had
many friends among the children of the international missionary community
in China.
Still, this peaceful situation changed dramatically when the province
was taken by the Japanese. Even if the Japanese soldiers "did not do
anything to us," they searched houses and baggage of the missionaries,
"and they certainly did not help," said Ikenberry.
The missionaries did not distinguish between the local people and the
invaders. They helped whomever needed help.
In the morning of Dec. 2, 1937, Japanese soldiers came to the missionary
station in Show Yong, about 40 miles from where Ikenberry and his family
were living, and asked for medical help for some wounded comrades.
Church of the Brethren missionaries Alva and Mary Harsh and Minneva
Neher went with the soldiers and never came back to the mission.
"Since the war, we have no information where they were maintained,"
said Dr. Ikenberry, who met the three missionaries some months before they
disappeared.
The American government tried to investigate the case, but the Japanese
military command denied any responsibility for the incident.
For Ikenberry, it is obvious. "No question, they were killed."
Yet, there is no official confession of the Japanese government and most
likely the case of the three missionaries will never be totally solved.
Today, a memorial in the Church of the Brethren on Bonita Avenue and
E Street reminds people of the lives and work of the Harshes and Neher.
The missionaries continued their work until 1941 and were evacuated
right before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Asked about his fears living in a war zone and among hostile soldiers
who already killed some Americans, Ikenberry said, "I never really
worried about it." The 16- or 17-year-old children used to drive fast
with their bicycles in the direction of Japanese soldiers just to swerve
in the last second. "I wonder why they didn't shoot us," said
Ikenberry.
In 1941, when the Church started to evacuate the missionaries, the family
made its way to the coast and escaped in a small coastal boat to Shanghai.
About halfway, they were picked up by a French minister who owned a motor
boat. It was the first time Ikenberry drove in a motor boat. "It was
fun for us children."
After their return to the United States, Ikenberry and his family stayed
in La Verne for about six months where he attended Damien High School. He
was very impressed by Damien High. "I never visited a school with a
swimming pool before," he said.
In 1942, the family moved to Idaho since the father was offered a job
as a minister. Ikenberry did not stay in Idaho but moved to Kansas, where
he graduated from McPherson College in 1947. In McPherson, he also met his
wife, who was "the girl next door."
After he got his doctorate in chemistry from Kansas State University,
he worked for about eight years for the Continental Oil Company, before
he returned as an associate professor of chemistry to La Verne College in
1956.
Rejecting another offer from Elizabethtown College, Pa. Ikenberry accepted
the half-cut of his salary when he changed from Continental Oil to LVC.
"I always wanted to teach," said Ikenberry, and at La Verne, he
was able to work on problems which had occurred during his work at the oil
company. Another reason for his decision to come to LVC was that he liked
the West Coast much better than the East Coast.
Ikenberry retired as a professor from ULV in 1989.
Following his parents' footsteps who went back to China in the '50s,
Ikenberry took his wife on a 19-day journey to the most important sights
of China in 1983. They also stayed in Ping T'ingshow, the place where he
was raised.
"I hoped to see the mission, but it was gone," he said. The
area where he spent his childhood hosts several apartment buildings now.
When his wife tried to take some pictures behind the hospital, where
Ikenberry was born, the officials would not let her.
Many things have changed in China since the communists took power in
1949. Still, "the communists did not kill the church.
"When we went back to China in 1983 ... there were more Protestant
Christians then when we left," said Ikenberry.
Today, the Church of the Brethren is not active in China. But Ikenberry
emphasized with some pride that the minister, who baptized former President
George Bush's daughter while Bush was the American ambassador in China,
used to be a minister of the Church of the Brethren in the '30s.
Ikenberry said he would not support a new missionary program in China.
He said, "it would be wrong to do" explaining it would only
cause trouble for the Chinese Christians.
In his long life, Ikenberry has been around the world plenty. However
even still with his world traveling, he admits he is not really satisfied.
Together with his wife he always planned to visit the Holy Land and
Europe. Their plans have yet to be achieved. With his daily plans, Ikenberry
said if his extensive activities from computer courses to driver's tutoring
for elderly people permit some freedom, he might be able to fulfill this
wish in future years.
