A photo exhibition in Guangzhou, southern China, honored the heroic Flying Tigers aviators who fought alongside China during its War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in WWII.
The event featured descendants of the aviators, sharing heartfelt stories of their families' wartime bravery.
In 1941, General Chennault organized the team of "Flying Tigers," officially known as the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese people to fight the invading Japanese troops.
Over 2,000 American Flying Tigers aviators died in the war, and more than 200 were rescued by the Chinese civilians and farmers.
"This is my Papa. He's sitting on his plane. I'm sure he is sitting there being very proud, and you can see him smiling," Clifford Ray Long, vice president of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, whose father’s legacy was highlighted in the photo exhibition.
Clifford Long Senior, father of Long, was a member of the Flying Tigers, and came to China in 1944 when he was just 19 years old. He was one of the youngest airmen in the Flying Tigers at the time.
More than a hundred historical photos were displayed in the exhibition with Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation being a major contributor. Some of them were showed to the public for the first time.
The exhibition also showcased the latest research results on American air force participating in China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression collected over the recent years by Nanjing Memorial Hall of Fallen Aviators in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
"My father was a very young boy when he came here, and he was only 19 years old. He was the youngest pilot in 1944 in China, and he flew 104 missions. Two of them he got shot down, but he survived. He came home with a love for the Chinese people, and that stayed with him his whole life," Long said.
"Pilots who were rescued and kept from the Japanese, which was hard enough to do, because if the Japanese found a Chinese person who was helping an American, they would kill him immediately. And generally they would kill the families too. So it took a lot of courage. China played a very remarkable part in WWII," said Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation.
At the exhibition, the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation also co-established a friendship school with Zhenguang Middle School in Guangzhou, in a bid to carry out youth exchanges between China and the United States and enhance mutual understanding.
"I am learning Chinese Pipa. I can post my performance videos online so that foreign people can know about traditional Chinese culture," said He Zhiyao, one of the middle school students.
Guangzhou exhibition pays tribute to Flying Tigers, showcasing WWII legacy
