NANCHANG, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — A particular exhibition shedding mild on Shangrao’s extraordinary but largely untold function in one of the exceptional rescue operations of World War II — the Doolittle Raid rescue — is at the moment open to guests on the Shangrao Museum in east China’s Jiangxi Province.
Professor Luo Shiping, who has lengthy been researching Jiangxi’s rescue efforts associated to the Doolittle Raid, narrated the tales behind the light images on show to a latest group of tourists. “The American airmen who risked their lives bombing Japan were heroes, and so were the Chinese people who rescued them,” he instructed the group.
This particular exhibition, which is the primary of its sort to be held in east China’s Jiangxi Province, permits guests to realize an understanding of the town’s function within the Doolittle Raid rescue.
On April 18, 1942, a bunch of 16 U.S. bombers took off from the USS Hornet plane provider and air-raided Japanese cities in retaliation for the assault on Pearl Harbor.
As the group of planes turned south after the raid, they ran low on gas and crashed in varied areas throughout jap China. Local residents risked their lives to rescue the parachuting airmen, and helped them evacuate to security.
The concept for the exhibition started to take form in 2018, when Luo got here throughout a timeworn enterprise card that had been preserved for 76 years.
At a commemorative occasion that yr, Thomas Macia, who’s the son of the Doolittle Raid’s Crew No.14 navigator James H. Macia, confirmed Luo a yellowed card he had been left by his father. It bore the phrases “Wangjia Lane, Shangrao.” The card captured Luo’s consideration immediately.
“This card belonged to Chen Baocong,” Luo mentioned. “Preserved for over half a century, it had traveled all the way from Arlington, Virginia, back to Shangrao. I knew this card might be the key to unlocking a forgotten chapter of history.”
Over the previous six years, Luo has exchanged over 560 emails with descendants of the Doolittle Raiders. Through this trans-Pacific dialogue, he regularly pieced collectively the complete story of the rescue that occurred in Shangrao.
Luo helped Macia observe down Chen Kangqian, the daughter of Chen Baocong. “I’m proud of my father and I’m also happy about the friendship between the Chinese and American people,” she mentioned.
This March, Macia obtained one other electronic mail from Shangrao — this time containing a long-awaited shock. Researchers had pinpointed the precise location the place his father’s aircraft had gone down in wartime China.
“Many of the landing sites were in Japanese-occupied regions. Some crew members from other aircraft were seriously injured or captured. All five members of Crew No.14 were fortunate to land near Shangrao, where they encountered kind-hearted people,” Macia mentioned.
He can nonetheless clearly keep in mind a second from his highschool years in 1960, when his father had pointed to a distant nook of a world map and instructed him that the Chinese individuals there had saved his life.
Among his father’s cherished images, Macia discovered one other intriguing picture: a younger lady with brief hair standing behind an American man in a flight jacket, her eyes extensive and her mouth open in shock.
The man was Jack A. Sims, co-pilot of the Doolittle Raid’s Crew No.14. The shy lady within the picture was Guan Dongxiang, the youngest daughter of native resident Guan Wenqing.
“I was only 9 when I first saw the American airman,” Guan, now 92, instructed Xinhua. Her father and different locals had found Sims wrapped in his parachute on a hillside and introduced him safely again to their house.
“My father gave the airman two baked sweet potatoes, and we made tea for him,” Guan continued. “After eating, he took out what looked like bean-shaped candies and shared them with us.” She nonetheless remembers the style of the American sweets.
Today, the Doolittle Raiders and their descendants have shaped organizations that maintain annual commemorations to honor and thank the Chinese individuals who took half within the rescue.
“The Doolittle Raid involved 16 aircraft. Fifteen went down over Chinese provinces, mostly in Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Sixty-four airmen were saved by Chinese soldiers and civilians, and 18 of those received help right here in Shangrao,” Luo elaborated to the group of tourists. “The people of Shangrao spared no effort and made enormous sacrifices to ensure these men reached safe areas.”
The rescue got here at a tragic price. In retaliation for the raid, Japanese forces launched a brutal marketing campaign towards Zhejiang and Jiangxi, deploying organic weapons on a big scale. Approximately 250,000 Chinese civilians misplaced their lives because of this.
Earlier this yr, in one other tribute to this shared historical past, a China-U.S. people-to-people trade occasion was held on April 17 and 18 in Zhejiang’s Quzhou to mark the 83rd anniversary of the Doolittle Raid. Representatives of Children of the Doolittle Raiders, the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation and the USS Hornet Museum joined Chinese specialists.
The occasion additionally noticed the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation launch a partnership with Zhejiang Quzhou High School underneath the Flying Tigers Friendship School program, deepening understanding and friendship among the many youth of the 2 international locations. The Flying Tigers — or the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force — had been led by U.S. General Claire Lee Chennault and assisted China in resisting Japanese aggression throughout WWII.
As this yr marks the eightieth anniversary of victory within the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the timing of the Shangrao exhibition carries particular significance.
Thanks to Luo’s efforts, increasingly more individuals are regularly studying about this once-buried historical past. The exhibition is now set to turn into a everlasting function on the Shangrao Museum.
“The bond between the Chinese and American people, forged through the Doolittle Raid, transcends borders and time — even life and death,” Luo famous. “It represents the very best of humanity: ordinary people willing to risk everything for strangers, simply because it is the right thing to do. That is our most precious legacy.”