Forced landings forged bonds of amity
A documentary that recently premiered in New York details a U.S. airstrike on Tokyo in 1942, the subsequent risky rescue of the U.S. pilots by Chinese civilians, and their relatives’ continuing friendship.
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 U.S. 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 last month. “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 U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt ordered a response.
On April 18 that year 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle were launched from the U.S. 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 bombers continued west, aiming to land 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 landed in Zhejiang province, some 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 U.S. pilots 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 U.S. 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 was among the rescued pilots, said: “The Chinese did all that they could to help us… there was no transportation, no railroads or anything.”
Melinda Liu, daughter of Tung-Seung Liu, who helped the Doolittle crew get in contact with the Chinese government, said: “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.”
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.”
Over the years Luo has led a group of volunteers from Shangrao, Jiangxi province, to collect survival stories of the Doolittle raiders.
However, the bravery and humanity of the Chinese people came at a hefty price; the vengeful Japanese Army combed possible hideouts along the Zhejiang-Jiangxi borders and killed many Chinese civilians.
“We didn’t forget,” Einreinhofer said. “To really understand our current lives and what the future would be, we need to recall the past.”
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-U.S. friendship.