The bishop and the blanket: Returning a World War II gift

It was a whirlwind trip for Bishop McConnell, who spent three days in China and also was able to meet with leaders of China’s growing Christian community in Shanghai.

The ceremony, held at the Western Yunnan War Memorial and War Museum, grew out of ties that Bruce McConnell had developed with the Chinese over the years in such areas as cybersecurity. He works as a vice president for the nongovernmental EastWest Institute, which promotes security cooperation around the globe.

In remarks at the ceremony, Bruce McConnell said the U.S.-Chinese cooperation during World War II should serve as an example against a new kind of adversary.

“It is global,” he said. “... It confronts us in the form of climate change, terrorism, forced migration, cybercrime and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

Bruce McConnell added in an interview: “This family connection is important because family is so highly valued by the Chinese.”

During previous visits to China, when he discussed his father’s history, “they would say, ‘Thank you for what your family did to help China.’ “

Bishop McConnell said during the ceremony that his vocation as bishop is as a “minister of reconciliation.”

“Some may think this blanket is a small thing, and in some ways it is,” he said. “But we have offered it as ... part of a great bridge of reconciliation.”

During the visit the brothers also paid tribute at the memorials to 19 Americans who died in the fighting around Tengchong. In a ceremony, each person placed a chrysanthemum on one of the memorial stones.

Bishop McConnell placed one on the memorial to Pfc. Joseph Kowalick, about whom he knew nothing at the time.

Post-Gazette research indicates that he was a native of Lost Creek, a mining camp in Schuylkill County, who died at age 23 on Aug. 18, 1944.

He came from a Polish Catholic family of miners in the anthracite coalfields, said Pfc. Kowalick’s nephew, Anthony Kowalick of Barnesville, Schuylkill County. The latter said he was born after his uncle’s death and didn’t know much about him.

A surviving sister of Joseph Kowalick, Eleanor Gomosky of Frackville, Schuylkill County, said her brother was friendly and well-behaved, and she recalled that the grief-stricken family held a memorial at its local Catholic church.

Bishop McConnell said those at the Chinese war museum were eager to learn more about the U.S. servicemen whose names are memorialized there.

“I was struck by their desire to nurture friendships with Americans,” he added. “This period of history is burned into their memory, and they will never cease to be grateful for Americans’ sacrifice on their behalf against the Japanese.”

The China visit has added significance to the brothers. Their mother, Sally McConnell, was also working for the Allies, and she and their father metandmarriedinAsia.

Gen. McConnell, who eventually went on to become chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, died in 1986.

“I think both Mao and my father knew what was coming” after the failed peace talks of 1945, said Bishop McConnell. “The Americans were firmly on the side of the Nationalists and firmly antiCommunist. But there was this moment of recognition of what America had done for China and some hope that somehow in the future there mightbe a relationship.”