Nick Cherniavsky Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Nick Cherniavsky 92
Q: h t
=re som of the things they used to make coffee?
A: An enonmus number of material products. only thing that I remember
specifically was the father of this girl that I knew at the time was using
pzune pits. Of course he d d have to acclp~ulate an wnmus quantity of
those and he ms just railling than just like you wuld a coffee nut. It
wasn't a bad tasting coffee by the my. It didn't taste exactly like
coffee but I drank m y cups of that and it ms acceptable.
Q: Ihem was the tobacco grom that you =re using in the cigarette
factory?
A: I believe that SUE of it ws dmestic, Chinese tobacco. Wen the
caapany WB interned by the Japanese forces, there =re still stocks an
hand of 7Mdsh and American tobaccos aich =re used in the higher-priced
brands. 'Ihe carrpany ws very judiciously allotting those particular
tobaccos for rrdxtng with b hstically g m tobacco.
Q: Wlat happened to the British personnel M the Japanese took wer
Tsingw?
A: k11, the process ms , I believe, pretty much uniform thrm&out
w. They wre all interned and there are a number of books written
about Ws. I have read a couple of those by the people srlho had gone to
those camps. The personnel of the British-hrican Tobacco Company, who
had some technical skill in running particular mchines FJhere they
=re ernployed or administrative positions, =re kept an their job for
certain the to let the Japanese and Chinese personnel who ere to take
over eventually, learn the ropes so to speak and learn how to do it
themselves. This was the case in the British-hrican Tobacco Company.
The Amrican and British personnel =re kept on the job for tm or three
months. Then after the administrative personnel that ms put there by the
Japanese occupatid forces ws considered have lead and to have
been trained sufficiently, they took over and the British and krican
people =re sent to those camps, too.
Q: Did it disrupt the tom at all dm~ the British-kricans and the
other maxlbers of the opposite party in the war m e sent: to camp?
A: It 'a really difficult for me to judge because m =re rather new in
tom. arrived in Tsingtao so very shortly prior to the Pearl Harbor
attack vhkh signaled actual involvmmt of Japan in krld kr 11. Wtside
of the brothers who owed this dairy farm dm, as I mentioned =re hrican
citizens--naturalized hrican citizens-w didn't how anybody in that
category. So I don't recall any personal knowledge or any indication that
I was aware of certain individuals by name who that, because they =re
hrican or British, had ken p i M up and interned and dm had to leave
the city in this mmner. So it's really bpossible for UE to ccnrment on
this in any mani@ul my.
Q: Did you ever thirik that you mdght be interned?
A: Not really. TZlle potential for that w s rmst improbable at that tb.
If anything the chances of myself being personally Fnvolved in the wr,
wen prior to my going to military school In Tiatsin in 1943 wxe small.
Nick Cherniavsky Memoir, vol. 2 - Archives/Special Collections - Norris L Brookens Library - University of Illinois at Springfield - UIS