One last bit of healing from a long-distant war played out this month at Taiwan’s diplomatic outpost in Washington in the run-up to this year’s Memorial Day celebrations.
After the B-25s under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle completed their famous, morale-boosting raid on Tokyo in April 1942, many of the planes were forced to abandon their planned landing site and crash-landed or parachuted into the southeast China province of Zhejiang. As Japanese troops searched furiously, local officials of Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China protected the U.S. crewmen and safely delivered 69 of the 80 downed Americans to Chiang’s capital in Chongqing.
But Ruan Yicheng, the provincial commissioner who oversaw the Zhejiang rescue mission, would later express remorse that he had not been able to save even more of the Raiders, recalling his regret in letters to Gen. Doolittle and in his memoirs.
This month, however, Mr. Ruan’s family was able to achieve a measure of peace, and from the man who served as co-pilot to Col. Doolittle on the raid.
As part of a series of events marking the 70th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War II, officials of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), the organization that serves as Taiwan’s diplomatic presence in the U.S., hosted a luncheon at the mission’s Twin Oaks estate in Washington honoring Lt. Col. Richard Cole, 99, Doolittle’s co-pilot and one of just two surviving U.S. participants in the 16-plane raid.
TECRO officials described for The Washington Times how, during the luncheon, Col. Cole and his daughter, Cindy Chal, spoke by phone with Mr. Ruan’s son to express the gratitude of all the Raiders for Mr. Ruan’s efforts.
Ms. Chal “repeatedly expressed that the Chinese had done more than enough in the rescue mission and that the rescuers should not feel regret,” TECRO officials recounted later.
Col. Cole also spoke by phone with Mr. Ruan’s son “and echoed his daughter’s gratitude for all that Mr. Ruan and the people of the [Republic of China] had done for him and for his fellow Raiders.”
The role played by Chiang Kai-shek’s government in saving the downed Raiders is a point of pride for the Taiwanese — and one that came with a heavy price.
After the huge propaganda victory for the U.S. spurred by the Tokyo raid, Japanese commanders launched a brutal offensive in the Chinese province to capture the Americans who carried out the bombing and punish the local Chinese who protected them. The so-called Zhejiang-Xiangshi Campaign of 1942, meant to punish those who helped Doolittle’s men and prevent China’s eastern coastal provinces from being used as a staging ground for future attacks on Japan, killed an estimated 10,000 Chinese citizens, scholars now believe.
The Republic of China’s close alliance with U.S. forces in the Pacific battles of World War II will be marked again this year as some 60 members of the ROC Veterans Association will take part of the National Memorial Day Parade down Washington’s Constitution Ave. Monday. TECRO officials say Republic of China veterans of the war will be riding on a platform truck featuring a replica of the P-40 fighter that was used by famed “Flying Tigers” under the command of Lt. Gen. Claire Chennault.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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