Chinese civilians heroically rescued US and UK soldiers in WWII, forging lasting bonds of gratitude and friendship.
Beijing, China, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In April, a group of Americans traveled thousands of miles to visit Quzhou, a small city in East China’s Zhejiang Province. While there, they expressed their respect and gratitude to the local people, who selflessly rescued some US pilots during WWII, after their planes were forced to crash.
Earlier in March, a documentary made its British premiere, telling the poignant story of Chinese fishermen on the Zhoushan Islands, East China’s Zhejiang Province, who rescued some British POWs from a Japanese ship during WWII. As the credits rolled, the audience members, deeply moved by the fishermen’s compassion and care, rose to their feet in applause.
What happened in those skies and seas over China more than 80 years ago? How did ordinary Chinese people save foreign soldiers they had never met amid the chaos of war? Moreover, decades later, what invaluable connections have these rescues forged for those involved, and how do they continue to symbolize the enduring friendship between China and the world in the fight against fascism, and showcase the kindness and love of the Chinese people that transcend borders?
‘A message of hope and respect’
“Historically, such instances are rare where the citizens of a nation take immense risks to aid those from foreign lands, helping them resist the brutal actions of another group of foreign invaders,” said Jeffrey Greene, Chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, during an event on April 18 that commemorated the Doolittle Raid Rescue, which took place 83 years ago.
The Doolittle Raid was a surprise attack that significantly influenced the course of WWII. On April 18, 1942, 16 US bombers, led by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, launched from the USS Hornet and conducted an air raid on Japan in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The operation was later adapted into the film Thirty Seconds over Tokyo in 1944.
Before their departure, Lieutenant Doolittle and his crew agreed to reunite at the airport in Quzhou. However, due to various challenges, including loss of communication and low fuel, the planes ran out of fuel before reaching Quzhou Airport.
As a result, 75 of the about 80 raiders on the bombers parachuted into the areas of East China’s Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Fujian provinces. Among them, three lost their lives, and eight were captured by the Japanese army, while the remaining 64 were rescued by local civilians.
Under the help of Chinese civilians, the rescued US pilots later gathered in Quzhou before collectively traveling to Chongqing. In Chongqing, they either chose to return home or stay in China and join the Flying Tigers to continue their fight against Japan.
Liao Mingfa, an 88-year-old resident of Jiangshan county in Quzhou, still remembers that on April 19, 1942, when he was just a boy, his father, Liao Shiyuan, rescued a foreign man in the local mountains. Despite not knowing the man’s identity or the reason for his presence in a remote village thousands of miles from home, Liao Mingfa’s parents cared for their mysterious guest, tending to his wounds and treating him with medicinal herbs.
During a time when the Chinese people faced dire living conditions, the Liao family went to great lengths to care for their foreign guest, who turned out to be Lieutenant Charles Ozuk (1916-2010), one of the Doolittle raiders. They prepared special meals of rice or eggs for him while subsisting on corn paste themselves.
It is remarkable that, under such perilous conditions, ordinary Chinese civilians managed to execute such an effective rescue, that Zheng Weiyong, vice president of the Quzhou Doolittle Raid Historical Research Association, expressed his astonishment when he first learned of this miraculous rescue 20 years ago.
Since then, Zheng has become deeply fascinated by the extraordinary bond between the American raiders and the Chinese civilians. He has spent two decades traveling across Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, and Jiangxi, piecing together the details to reconstruct the full narrative of the Doolittle Raid rescue. “When the Doolittle raiders returned to the US with great honor, we must not forget the Chinese civilians who aided them,” Zheng told the Global Times.
It is important to note that the rescue came at a tremendous cost. Following the Doolittle Raid, the airport in Quzhou was subjected to intense bombing by Japanese forces, and Japan also waged biological warfare in Zhejiang, resulting in significant civilian casualties.
‘Always very grateful to them’
On March 17, the Chinese documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru made its British debut. This poignant film tells a story of some British prisoners of wars (POWs) in the Lisbon Maru incident in 1942 during WWII, filled with blood, tears, love, and humanitarian compassion. More than 80 years after the incident, this powerful narrative has finally returned to the homeland of these POWs through the documentary.
The Sinking of The Lisbon Maru reveals the long-buried truth of the 1942 sinking of the Lisbon Maru, an armed Japanese cargo ship that participated in WWII. In October 1942, the Lisbon Maru transported more than 1,800 British POWs from Hong Kong toward Japan, without bearing a sign indicating it was carrying POWs – a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
After being struck by a torpedo from a US submarine, Japanese soldiers, instead of trying to save the POWs, cruelly battened them down below deck, left them to drown, and even shot at them, leading to the deaths of 828 prisoners.
When the ship went down off the coast of Zhoushan Islands, 384 POWs were fortunately rescued by the local Chinese fishermen who risked their lives to pull the POWs from the water. Despite the danger of being killed by the Japanese soldiers, they brought the POW survivors back to the village, offered them food and clothes, and even cut off their own quilts to make shoes for the barefoot survivors.
“My dad always said that the Chinese fishermen were heroes. He was always very grateful to them,” Denise Wynne, daughter of one POW survivor Dennis Morley, told the Global Times. “Without them, I wouldn’t be here.”
Time has passed, but the friendship forged in blood and fire endures in the hearts of the Chinese and foreign people.
In June 2024, descendants of 15 British POWs surviving from the Lisbon Maru incident traveled to the Zhoushan Islands. On the shores that once echoed with the sounds of war, they embraced the descendants of the Chinese fishermen who had rescued the POWs, calling each other brothers and sisters.
During this special trip, Wynne expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the fishermen’s descendants. She shared her hopes of bringing the younger generations of her family to China in the near future, to further explore the country and learn more about the deep connections they share.
Since the 1990s, descendants of the Doolittle Raiders have frequently visited Quzhou, inviting their Chinese rescuers to commemorative events in the US. On April 17, representatives of the participants in this year’s Doolittle Raid Rescue commemorative events, along with a group of local high school students from Quzhou, planted trees near the gravestone of Leland Faktor, one of the Doolittle Raiders who died after parachuting into Quzhou.
The article first appeared in the Global Times:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1334058.shtml
Company: Global Times
Contact Person: Anna Li
Email: editor@globaltimes.com.cn
Website: https://globaltimes.cn
City: Beijing
Disclaimer:
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies (including product offerings, regulatory plans and business plans) and may change without notice. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
