NANCHANG, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) — Gazing at a black-and-white {photograph}, 94-year-old Guan Dongxiang drifted again to a wartime encounter that unfolded 84 years in the past.
The photograph exhibits a bit lady with quick hair standing behind an American pilot in a flight jacket, her mouth spherical and eyes vast with shock.
“That’s me,” Guan murmured. The pilot within the body was one of many Doolittle Raiders, whom Guan’s household risked their lives to assist a long time earlier than.
On Sunday, within the Yangcun Village committee workplace in Shangrao, east China’s Jiangxi Province, Guan was ready for the raiders’ descendants, who had traveled all the way in which from throughout the Pacific.
Footsteps approached from the doorway, and the descendants walked in. Among them was Thomas Macia, whose father, James Macia, had served as navigator and bombardier for Crew No. 14 of the Doolittle Raid.
“There she is,” Thomas mentioned excitedly. “I knew she existed. I had not met her before. So I think the greatest thing is that she is a direct connection to 1942.”
Thomas stepped ahead shortly. Guan instantly reached out. When their fingers clasped, the aged girl smiled and her eyes lit up.
Thomas bent down to check the {photograph} alongside Guan, gesturing and saying that he had recognized this image since he was this age.
The picture had left a deep impression on him since childhood. When Thomas was 9, he first noticed it in his father’s album: a younger Chinese lady standing beside co-pilot Jack Sims.
The story behind the photograph traces again to April 18, 1942, when a bunch of 16 U.S. bombers took off from the USS Hornet and bombed Japan in retaliation for the assault on Pearl Harbor.
After the raid, 15 planes heading for an airport in Quzhou in east China’s Zhejiang Province ran out of gas and crashed in numerous localities in east China, together with Jiangxi.
Chinese villagers risked their lives to rescue the parachuting airmen and helped them evacuate to security. Of the 75 airmen aboard the planes, 64 had been rescued by the Chinese folks.
Their rescue, nevertheless, got here at an incredible price. Many locals had been suspected of sheltering the Americans, and a few had been tortured and even killed by Japanese troopers.
In China, the Doolittle story has lengthy been thought to be an emblem of the friendship cast between the Chinese and American peoples throughout their joint combat in opposition to fascism.
The historical past has left a deep mark not solely on Thomas, but additionally on Guan. Though age has blurred lots of Guan’s day by day recollections, the spring of 1942 stays sharp.
“It was the morning of April 19, 1942,” she recalled. She was 9 and grazing cattle by a discipline whereas her father, Guan Wenqing, the village head, labored close by.
Sims parachuted onto the mountainside, soaked and wrapped in his parachute. He slept till morning earlier than Guan Wenqing and the villagers discovered him and introduced him down the mountain.
“We cooked hot noodles, but he couldn’t use chopsticks and wasn’t used to them,” Guan mentioned. Sims pulled out sweet and shared it with the kids watching.
None had seen such international snacks earlier than, and none dared attempt. “I was bold, so I took a bite. It was sweet and delicious,” she recalled.
Together with Chinese troopers, Guan Wenqing then escorted Sims to the county seat. Nine days later, Sims returned to Miliang’ao Village with a digital camera and took the picture.
The {photograph} was carried again to the United States and stored in James Macia’s album.
James Macia had additionally been saved by locals after bailing out of his aircraft. He as soon as pointed to a spot on a map and advised Thomas that his life had been saved by the Chinese villagers, officers and troopers there — folks he remembered till he died in 2009.
Unable to return to China in his lifetime, James Macia fastidiously stored the {photograph}. Thomas later made it his mission to revisit the positioning and meet the descendants of those that had helped.
In 2018, Thomas traveled to China for the primary time and met Luo Shiping, a researcher with the Shangrao Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Association. Over the next years, they exchanged practically 1,000 emails.
Thomas combed by means of U.S. archives and offered clues, whereas Luo trekked by means of the mountains of northeastern Jiangxi, interviewing witnesses. Guided by the previous photograph, researchers searched a number of locations and at last discovered Guan Dongxiang, who was by then 90 years previous.
In the postwar years, Doolittle Raiders and their descendants established organizations such because the Children of the Doolittle Raiders. They maintain annual commemorations, seminars and photograph exhibitions to honor the Chinese who took half within the rescue.
Researchers in Shangrao have continued to gather scattered paperwork and oral testimonies, working with their American counterparts to protect this transnational reminiscence.
Before leaving, Thomas posed for a brand new {photograph} with Guan and her household. The descendants of Crew No. 14 promised to return.
“One old photograph captured a chance encounter and life-and-death aid in wartime, while one new photograph continues the story of cross-ocean friendship in peacetime,” mentioned Luo, noting that collectively, they bear witness to a friendship cast in blood and fireplace that has not dimmed in 84 years.