Gaspar Schotte (1907-1980) werd in maart 1943 geïnterneerd in het Japanse strafkamp van Weihsien.

Een metgezel beschreef zijn aankomst in het kamp als volgt:

In August 1943 the Chefoo group arrived in Weihsien Camp after a difficult journey by ship and train from Chefoo, where we had been interned since November 1942. I was 18, and the senior Chefoo School student. We arrived on lorries from the Weihsien station, and were driven through the front gate of the camp with its three Chinese characters, meaning "Courtyard of the Happy Way". This was the name given to what had been a large American Presbyterian mission station, but it was not a particularly apt slogan as a Japanese camp for 2,000 inmates. We were lined up the camp church while the Japanese Commandant read out the regulations, warning us that any non-compliance would be severely dealt with. Then we were surrounded by dozens of the local internees who had already been here for five months. They were tanned, thin and barefoot, looking like creatures from another world. We realised that it would not be long before we would have a similar appearance. They spoke with British, American and Continental accents.

Een half jaar later werd hij met zijn mede paters, broeders en nonnen overgebracht naar Peking waar ze verbleven tot aan de bevrijding van 15 augustus 1945. Captives of Empire (https://captives-of-empire.com/) vermeldt:

Approximately 500 Catholic fathers and nuns were collected from outlying areas of North China and originally interned in Weihsien. In August, 1943, the Japanse agreed to a proposal put forth by the Apostolic Delegate in Peking, Archbishop Zanin, that these internees be allowed to reside in religious houses in Peking. They were transferred to nine different segregation centers for missionaries. Maison du Sacre Coeur, off Morrison Street, housed 29 nuns, while the remainder of the houses, in the Tartar City, were Christ the King Convent (77 women and another 25 in the annex), Franciscan House (96 men), Peitang Ming Tao Yuan (41 men), the Catholic Orphanage (3 nuns), Maison Chabenel (96 men), Scheut Mission (64 men), and the Fu Jen Girls' School (7 nuns)”.

But .... “Oddly enough, the internees were under more restrictive rules in these houses than when they were interned in Weihsien.

Meer over Weihsien

In 1951 werd hij naar Congo gestuurd voor het helpen van pater van Haelst bij zijn filmwerk voor Luluafilm