BUILDING THE RUNWAYS TO FLY AND FIGHT: Cooperation between Americans and Chinese in World War II

Remarks of Donald M. Bishop
Minister-Counselor for Press and Cultural Affairs
American Embassy Beijing
At the Ceremony to Transfer a Stone Roller to the U.S. Air Force Museum
Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
March 29, 2004

Posted on Apr 5, 2004

Pictures of this ceremony

On occasions like this, it is customary to open a ceremony by greeting the senior dignitaries, the honored guests, the ladies and gentlemen. The Vice Governor and I have agreed. Today's senior dignitaries, today's honored guests, are the men before us, airfield workers in Kunming during the Second World War. Gentlemen, will you stand?

We have gathered today for a ceremony. The government of Yunnan Province has recovered one of the stone rollers used during the war to pave airfields on this battle front against Japanese aggression. They are turning it over to us, representing the United States Embassy, the U.S. Air Force Museum, and the Sino-American Aviation History Foundation. After it is transported to the United States, it will join the displays that commemorate the World War II campaigns in the China-Burma-India theatre at the U.S. Air Force Museum, one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will view the roller each year.

This stone roller is 54 inches in diameter. It weighs 11,000 pounds. From the old photographs, I see that it took a team of nearly 50 strong men to haul it back and forth across the newly constructed runways. Some of those men are with us today to tell the story.

Of the cooperation between the United States and China during the Second World War, we hear much of brave and skilled aviators - the Flying Tigers, the Hump pilots, the 14th Air Force. In the old films, our eyes catch the takeoffs and landings of the aircraft. There were the fighters, like the P-40 and the P-51, with shark's teeth painted on the nose. There were bombers like the B-24 and the B-25. And green and silver transports - C-47s, C-46s - made history flying the harrowing route from India across the Himalayas to Kunming.

But if we think only of the aviators and their aircraft, we miss the two larger stories of the theater. The first story is that of the great wartime cooperation between the United States and China. The second is the story of remarkable achievement by the Chinese people.

The American aircraft, the American aviators, and the American maintenance and support people traveled a long way to reach Kunming and the other airfields in Yunnan Province. Many began their trips in Florida and flew in hops across the Caribbean Sea to Brazil. From the eastern point of Brazil they crossed the Atlantic to Liberia in West Africa. Long flights took them to Nigeria, the Sudan, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and India. Others made long sea voyages to India.

Even when these Americans had reached Assam state in India, they still faced the most formidable leg of the trip - flying across the Himalayas until they reached Kunming. They say a pilot could follow the route from Assam to Kunming by the aluminum trail of aircraft crashes. When the Americans arrived, they had come 10,000 miles. Every man, every aircraft, every spare part, every tool, every radio, every radar, every bulldozer, every bullet, and every gallon of aviation gas came the long distance to join the fight in China.

Welcoming them were the Chinese government and people. Tens of thousands of Chinese worked under difficult conditions, enduring Japanese attacks, to prepare the airfields, to pave the runways, to build the hangars, to dig the trenches, to cook in the dining halls. As they did so, they learned civil engineering and modern logistics and airfield operations. As the war went on, Chinese pilots and gunners and maintenance officers and mechanics, many trained in the United States, joined them.

There were other Chinese contributions to the war effort. One was the contribution of Chinese who provided early warning information by telephone to General Chennault's headquarters. The intelligence they provided on Japanese aircraft movements gave the Flying Tigers an edge in their battles. The Japanese had many more aircraft, but the Americans had many more patriotic Chinese friends, risking their lives to provide the information. The Chinese cancelled the Japanese advantage in numbers.

The second was the many other brave Chinese who helped rescue downed American flyers, to prevent their capture, and return them to fight again. Our archives report that Chinese rescued 890 flyers. I can say this to all the Chinese here - the thousands of children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of these men will never forget.

The Americans of that generation are unanimous in their praise of the role played by China's ordinary people in this great struggle. They saw their hard work, their suffering, and their sacrifices. They saw their firm will to expel an aggressor.

All of this is within living memory. Our honored guests were participants and witnesses. They helped build the airfields. They saw the aircraft take off and return from battle. They saw the crashes and the losses. They recall the Japanese attacks. This roller, when it is at the Museum, will tell their story - China's story - to a new generation of Americans.

It is now six decades since that time. A few years after the war, history took an unexpected turn. Americans and Chinese fought one another in Korea. There were three decades of hostility and estrangement between our two nations. But since President Nixon's visit to China in 1972, China and America have once again become friends and partners.

Now, American businesses invest in China. Now, Chinese and American students learn one another's languages and study in one another's universities. Last year American doctors worked with Chinese counterparts to combat SARS, and now, our two countries have signed an agreement to cooperate against AIDS in the south of China.

American and Chinese aviators again take off from Kunming's runways. The American firm Alteon trains pilots of China's airlines. Their work here is just one small part of an immense new field of cooperation between our two countries, symbolized by the recent visit of the Administrator of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Once again, Chinese and Americans are working together on flight safety, aviation standards, airport safety management, and air traffic control.

So too the armed forces of China and the United States meet once again. Port calls, visits to installations, and study tours are building trust and confidence. We are working on common procedures when ships or aircraft of our armed forces meet. The United States and China are mutually opening the door to more fields of military-to-military cooperation, and we look forward to reciprocally expanding that cooperation.

What united the efforts of Americans and Chinese at that time? We know, of course, that our nations together opposed Japanese aggression and conquest. But there was more, of course - ideals.

In far away Yenan, Chairman Mao noted in 1944 that the Chinese people shared the wartime goals of the American people - ideals that President Roosevelt called the "Four Freedoms." A young American aviation mechanic in Kunming in 1944 might not have much background in international affairs or political science. But he, like the Chinese working with him, carried in his heart some basic ideas - hopes for the peace that would follow the war. He knew that all mankind hoped for freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. It is sixty years later, but Americans and Chinese still share the same ideals. Together we hope that these large ideals may come closer to reality.

Today, then, is a day for thanks and for hopes.

The thanks look back to the cooperation between China and the United States during the Second World War. Today we can express those thanks to our honored guests from the generation that fought the war, even those who hauled this stone roller up and down the runway.

The hopes look forward to our two nations' cooperation in the future. The roller, when it is on display in the United States, will lead American visitors to the Museum to contemplate how Chinese and Americans may work together.

To the young people who are with us today, I say: learn about this period of cooperation during the Second World War. Before you leave, shake the hands of the men who were here, paving the runways. They are passing on to you a great legacy. And think how you may carry forward the ideals that joined, and join, our nations.