JiaoPing Highway

 

Uncle Arhat and the two mules had been taken away by the Japs, so were most

of the men in the village. They were used in the construction of the Jiaoping Highway and 

life was hellish for these people. I heard that Uncle Arhat had offended one of the overseer

and was beaten and tortured.

 

The conscripted men had leveled the once towering sorghum leaves on both sides of the

highway and the smell of decayed sorghum filled the air. Both sides of the flatten land had 

turned a dark green color by juices of these trampled sorghum mixed with infinite labored 

perspirations of the people. 

 

"It was one tough work!" my father used to tell me.