Flying Tigers and Doolittle Raiders forged a lasting Sino-US friendship
Print Edition
IN April 1942, under the cover of night, American bombers roared off the deck of the USS Hornet toward Tokyo. Weeks later, the surviving pilots, isolated, injured and pursued, found help from Chinese villagers who risked their lives to save them.
Years earlier, American pilots known as the Flying Tigers flew over China, defending besieged cities and forming a kinship in war with people they scarcely knew.
This week, more than 100 people met at Shanghai Library East in the Pudong New Area to hear stories of bravery and alliance.
The event, headlined “History Illuminates the Present, Cooperation Lights the Future,” marked the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
Descendants of pilots, scholars and officials from both countries came together to explore the significance of these recollections for contemporary China-US relations.
The Flying Tigers
American Claire Lee Chennault visited China in 1937 as a military adviser. China’s air force was poorly equipped when the country was under heavy attack by Japan.
“He heard the cries of a people in desperate need,” his granddaughter, Nell Calloway, said in a video speech. “He didn’t let language or politics stop him from doing what was right.”
Chennault established the Flying Tigers, also known as the American Volunteer Group.
They flew Curtiss P-40 fighters, shot down enemy planes and helped defend Chinese cities.
“Our soldiers fought as brothers and won a costly war against a powerful enemy. Today, we face a different kind of enemy — prejudice, misunderstanding and stereotypes,” Calloway said.
One of the most dramatic missions occurred in 1945, when the Flying Tigers carried out a surprise bombing raid on the Japanese airbase at Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport.
Lu Weijun, son of Zhang Fengqi, a woman in the Flying Tigers unit, recalled what his mother had told him about the tension in Kunming’s command center. She worked as an English typist for the Flying Tigers at the Wujiaba airbase in Kunming, Yunnan Province.
“‘Begin the operation!’ Chennault ordered, and the room erupted,’” Lu said. “Sixteen fighters flew from Jiangxi Province and bombed the base. It was like thunder in the sky.”
Doolittle Raid and Chinese rescue
In April 1942, only months after the Pearl Harbor attack, another story of heroism and friendship unfolded.
Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led 16 B-25 bombers off the deck of the USS Hornet on a daring mission to strike Japan. However, the planes ran out of fuel and crashed in east China. This is where the Chinese folks came in.
Melinda Liu, former Newsweek Beijing bureau chief, spoke about her father at the ceremony.
Liu Tung-Sheng, a young aeronautics graduate, was on his way back to Kunming when villagers approached him and asked: “Do you speak English?” He soon came face-to-face with five American airmen.
“My father became their translator and guide,” Liu said. “They were lost and hungry. He led them to safety.”
The cost of that rescue was enormous. Japanese forces retaliated violently, killing up to 250,000 Chinese civilians near the area where the Doolittle Raiders had landed.
Years later, Liu’s father was recognized as the first honorary Doolittle Raider. He attended reunions in the United States and maintained contact with the American veterans he helped save.
For the past 15 years, Melinda Liu has assisted dozens of descendants of the Doolittle Raiders in visiting China to retrace their ancestors’ footsteps. She also proposed establishing a Doolittle Raid museum in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, where the majority of raiders landed and were rescued.
The Shanghai event honored Anna Chennault, wife of General Chennault and a prominent figure in postwar US-China cooperation.
An exhibition titled “Friendship: Forged in Blood and Fire” opened at the library with images, letters and wartime mementos. Chennault’s wartime maps and a Flying Tigers jacket replica were among them. The show ends on October 12.
Jeffrey Greene, president of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, said that his organization continues to bring American students to China to study about this history.
“It’s important that young people know the truth, the reality that 80 years ago, the American airmen and the Chinese people had a tremendous experience and shared relationship,” he said.
In 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote to Flying Tigers veterans that “the hope of the China-US relationship lies in the people.”
This theme ran throughout the event. Eric Zheng, head of Shanghai’s American Chamber of Commerce, said the Flying Tigers’ heritage carries on in corporate teamwork.
“We face new challenges, but also share new opportunities,” he said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
