China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Film revives US pilots’ WWII raid, China’s aid
A new documentary, which premiered in New York recently, details a 1942 US airstrike on Tokyo, the subsequent risky rescue of the US pilots by Chinese civilians, and their relatives’ ongoing friendships.
Unsettled History: America, China and the Doolittle Tokyo Raid was directed by Bill Einreinhofer, a three-time Emmy Award winning nonfiction producer/ director and writer.
It sheds light on a largely unheralded US military operation and the humanity, heroism and people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States that surmounted differences in culture, ideology and nationality.
“History is a very good mirror,” said Huang Ping, the Chinese consul general in New York, who joined the audience for the premiere in mid-May. “I think we should draw (on) a few experiences and lessons from history by telling the story of the Flying Tigers and the Doolittle Raid.”
In 1942, in retaliation for Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec 7, 1941, during World War II, then US president Franklin Roosevelt ordered a ferocious response.
On April 18 that year, 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle were launched from the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet and headed west across the Pacific Ocean toward Japan. Military and industrial targets in Tokyo and other places were targeted.
The Mitchells continued west, with the aim of landing somewhere in China. However, the aircraft ran low on fuel, and the pilots were unfamiliar with the local landscape at night, so the crews had to make forced landings. Some dropped down in Zhejiang province, some landed in Anhui province, and the others in Jiangsu province.
According to the historical archive of the Children of the Doolittle Raiders Association, or CDR, 63 US pilots in total from 15 bombers were stranded in a foreign land in which they had no knowledge of its culture and language, let alone its people.
After the abrupt landings, the US crews were spotted by Chinese farmers and villagers and taken to households nearby. Unable to communicate in words, they managed to get messages across using gestures, facial expressions and signs.
Edward J. Saylor, who flew a bomber during the raid and was among the rescued pilots, said: “The Chinese did all that they could to help us … there was no transportation, no railroads or anything.”
“No matter how different the background, the culture, the ethnic identity, the nationality and the government, there are still ways for human beings to relate and help each other to survive, and that’s the legacy,” said Melinda Liu, daughter of Tung-Seung Liu, who helped the Doolittle crew get in contact with the Chinese government.
Luo Shiping, a retired historian in Beijing, said: “We have to protect our friends’ safety at any cost. At that time, every ordinary Chinese thought so, not just the government officials.”
Luo has over the years led a group of volunteers from Shangrao, Jiangxi province, to collect survival stories of the Doolittle raiders.
The bravery and humanity of the Chinese people, however, came at a hefty price — the vengeful Japanese Army combed possible hideouts along the ZhejiangJiangxi borders and killed many Chinese civilians.
“We didn’t forget; to really understand our current lives and what the future would be, we need to recall the past,” Einreinhofer said.
In 2006, descendants of the pilots established the CDR in an effort to spread stories of both the 1942 airstrike on Tokyo and the China-US friendship.
The friendship is ongoing and only becomes more vigorous as time goes by. In February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit China, the CDR immediately contacted Zhejiang to check its status. Members were mobilized to purchase and ship bulky packages of personal protective equipment to aid their Chinese friends.
Two months later, when the United States ran short of PPE, friends of the CDR in China repaid the kindness and generosity of their US counterparts by donating PPE.
By working together, China and the US can achieve incredible things, helped by revealing the story of the Doolittle Raid, said Huang. “We could see the friendship between two countries deeply rooted in the hearts of both sides.”