The Death of Helga Johansen (October, 1944)

As we mentioned in our post about Dr. Marie Nielsen, there was a typhoid outbreak in Manchuria in 1944 and the Japanese required Siuyen Hospital to admit typhoid patients from a nearby forced-labor camp despite the risk to the other patients and hospital staff. Dr. Marie, head nurse Anna Busch, and nurse Helga Johansen all contracted the disease. Dr. Marie and Anna Busch survived. Sadly, Helga Johansen did not.

In her 1937 book on the D.M.S. missions in Manchuria, Gullach-Jensen wrote this entry about Helga Johansen, who was a brand-new missionary at that time:

"During her childhood and youth, she heard about God and respected him, but only about the age of 19 did she learn to know Jesus Christ as her Savior, and shortly after that she realized that her future work should be in the missionary field.

"With this as her goal, she started training to be a nurse. After finishing her training at Skive Hospital, Miss Johansen addressed herself to D.M.S. with a request to be sent out as a missionary, but at that time it was not possible.

"During the wait, Miss Johansen worked as a community nurse and as a trainee at 'Marthabo' and finally she went to a Bible school in Glasgow. In October 1936, D.M.S. sent her to Manchuria. After a short stay in our mission field, she went to the language school in Peking, from where she sent her first letter to the Dansk Missionsblad (Bl. 1937, pages 176-177).

"The intention is that Miss Johansen shall start working shortly, first at the missionary hospital in Suihuafu and thereafter in Siuyen."

In her first letter home to the D.M.S., written in 1937 while she was in language school in Peking, Helga Johansen wrote about Chinese Christian art. We began our post on that topic with her discussion. In the same letter, she spoke about her early experiences in China and her growing love for the Chinese people:

"In this my first greeting from China, I want to send a heartfelt thanks both to the D.M.S. Board and to the Friends all over the country. Thank you for sending me out as your envoy. These first months have been rich in experiences and encouragements. It was a great pleasure to be received and welcomed by the Danish missionaries in Manchuria. The first three weeks I stayed with Miss [Karen] Gormsen. But greatest thing of all is being permitted to discover how God's love towards this country and its people grew in my heart and thus confirmed me in my missionary vocation.

"Language study is very interesting. It is like going on a voyage of discovery trying to find out what those mysterious signs and squiggles mean. It requires hard work, but it also brings joy when what first seems hopeless and unintelligible gradually becomes clear. We are about 150 language students, of which about 80 live at the school; 15 nations are represented. I am the only one from Denmark."

She continued the letter with her discussion of Chinese Christian art which we already posted, and then signed the letter, "Affectionate greetings, Your joyful envoy, Helga Johansen."

Anna Bøg's accounting letter to Axel Christensen of October 25, 1944, contained the following entry about the death of this enthusiastic and "joyful envoy" after only seven years of missionary service:

"You probably have heard that H. Johansen died October 16, at 2:00 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Willer* came in the 20th, and she was buried on Sunday the 22nd. A very beautiful funeral. First a Danish service in her room, then a Chinese service in the Hospital yard. All the nurses, men and girls, carried her to the cemetery, her casket covered with Dannebrog [the Danish flag], and all the nurses clad in white . . . In the evening, we had a Danish Communion. . . ."

Sources:
Bøg-Madsen, Anna; accounting letter to Axel Christensen; October 25, 1944, from the D.M.S. archives in the Rigsarkivet. Courtesy of Kirsten Berggreen Buch. Original in English.
Gullach-Jensen, Thyra; D.M.S. i Manchuriet (D.M.S., Copenhagen, 1937), pp. 125-126. Translated by Preben Jørgensen.
Johansen, Helga; "En Hilsen fra Peking," Dansk Missionsblad; Vol. 104, Nr. 12, 1937 (exact date unknown); pp. 176-177. Translated by Preben Jørgensen
All D.M.S. items used with permission.

Image:
Photograph of Helga Johansen from the Dansk Missionsblad; Vol. 110, Nr. 44, November 26, 1943, p. 626
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*"Mr. and Mrs. Willer" - This refers to Rev. and Mrs. Ludvig Willer. Rev. Willer was born on October 7, 1900. He was the son of the pastor in Aulum. He obtained his theology degree in 1924, was the secretary for K.F.U.M. in Horsens until 1927, then a pastor until 1933. D.M.S. sent him to Manchuria in 1934. He was based in Dairen. (Jensen, D.M.S. i Manchuriet, pp. 22-23.)