Gladys Aylward: A Price on Her Head

Gladys Aylward

"Soon 100 children were on their way with one of Gladys’s trusted friends. But before a month had passed, 100 more orphans had found their way to the mission.

One day, a Chinese general sent Gladys a message: the Japanese were approaching Yangcheng in large numbers. The Chinese army was retreating. He wanted Gladys to come with them. They would care for the children on the way.

Although Gladys was concerned for the children’s safety, she rarely feared for her own. The children left with the general and his men. Gladys remained at Yangcheng.

Two nights after their departure, a Chinese soldier knocked on her door, telling Gladys he had been sent back to once more persuade her to leave.

“Whether you leave with us nor not, you must leave. We have received certain information.”

“What information?” Gladys asked.

“The Japanese have put a price on your head.”

“You are just saying this to make me leave,” Gladys replied.

He wasn’t. The soldier pulled a paper out of his pocket, one of many, he said, that had been found posted on a nearby city wall. The paper listed three names and stated the following: “Any person giving information which will lead to the capture, alive or dead, of the above mentioned, will receive [a large sum of money] from the Japanese High Command.” One of the names listed on the poster was “Ai-weh-deh,” Gladys’s official Chinese name.

Why did this missionary have a price on her head?"


From "Gladys Aylward: All China is a Battlefield" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater