My Memories of War in China

by John T. Ma

Flying Tigers (II)

The fighter planes AVG first used were P-40s. They were faster and more powerful than the Japanese fighters. Chennault taught AVC pilots how to fight the Japanese fighters. When a P-40 was up in the air, it was very difficult tor the Japanese fighter to shoot it down. Most P-40s that were lost were lost on the ground in northern Burma. The air alarm system there was not very efficient. Sometimes the Japanese airplanes would sneak in before P-40s could take off. Then the P-40s on the ground would be destroyed by Japanese bombs.

When we interpreters were being trained in 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The U.S. declared war against Japan. Then the Chinese government asked the U.S. to send her own air force to replace AVG. Later the U.S. 14th Army Air Force came to China. Then the Chinese and American pilots joined forces to establish the U.S.-China United Air Force. As Chennault assumed leadership of all those forces, all members of those forces called themselves "Flying Tigers." But they did not receive the Flying Tiger badges as I did.

Later, the headquarters of AVG was moved from Kunming to Chongqing, the wartime capital of China. My one-year volunteer service to the air force came to an end. I could choose to either remain in the air force or return to school. I decided to return to school and continue my education. But my university refused to keep its promise to let me rejoin my original class. I had to study all the courses of the missing year and therefore graduated one year later.

After I graduated from the National Central University in 1944, I entered the Chungking Post-Graduate School of Journalism (CPGSJ). I will write another chapter about the CPGSJ, but let me finish my Flying Tiger story first.

Many years later, when I was working as the Curator-Librarian of the East Asia Collection of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Colonel Shu Boyan, my former boss at AVG, came to San Francisco, California. Chennault had passed away in 1958. I asked Shu whether or not he knew Madame Chennault. He said yes. As a matter of fact, when she came to interview Chennault as a newspaper reporter, the interview was held in Chennault’s office where Colonel Shu sat and would help if necessary.

I asked Colonel Shu to do me the favor of writing to Madame Chennault and asking her to give the Hoover Institution her husband‘s personal archives. He did.

Madame Chennault responded to his letter with a letter directly addressed to me. She told me that she could not give me Chennault’s archive because West Point and the National Archives had already asked for it. In comparison with those two, Hoover was ranked a low No. 3. After I received her letter, I immediately sent her a reply. I told her that I had three good reasons to ask for Chennault's archive.

First, I was Chennault's code-man. A lot of his incoming and outgoing messages were decoded and coded by me. So his archive is also my archive. As such, I would take very good care of it. Secondly, the purpose of preserving archives is to make them available to scholars and researchers so that they could write a good book or complete an important research project. The library of West Point, as a military school, is not accessible to scholars and researchers. So they would not make optimal use of Chennault's archive. The National Archives has so many archives and it is difficult for anyone to find a personal archive. I did not mention that Chennault was outranked by many VIPs in the National Archives. The third reason is the most important. Chennault’s political rival was "Vinegar Joe", General Joseph Warren Stilwell. Stilwell's archive is in the Hoover Institution. Utilizing this archive, a well-known reporter, Theodore Harold White, edited a best-selling book titled "The Stilwell Papers.” In that book, Chennault’s image is not very favorable. It is very important for Chennault’s to have a correct image in history. And it is Madame Chennault’s duty to ensure that. I told her that if she gave Chennault’s archive to me, I would put it right next to Stilwell’s archive. Then scholars and researchers would be able to see the viewpoints of both men. Vinegar Joe’s viewpoint would be modified and Chennault's standing would become known and understood.

After a few days, I received a phone call from Madame Chennault. She said that she would personally bring her husband's archive to me and would arrive by plane on a specific date and time. She asked me to pick her up at San Francisco airport. A few days later, the Hoover Institution held a press conference to announce the arrival of Chennault's archive. Every year since then, the first person to send me a Christmas card was Madame Chennault. Chen Xiangmei (陳香梅).

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