This is a story about two comrades in arm, an American soldier in the American Air Force and a Chinese soldier in the Chinese Air Force, both of Chinese descent. This is a service beyond the call of duty by Helen Shirakawa, Harry Lee's youngest daughter. My father was a Master Sergeant in the American 14th Air Force with the 555 Air Service Squadron, 14th Air Service Group. He was in charge of two mobile units (mobile units 1 and 2) in the Chihkiang Air Base in central China, part of the 23r composite wing, flying P40 and P51 's. He performed 3rd and 4th echelon work on airplanes that were damaged in combat such as changing engines, landing gears, replacing wings and repairing bullet holes in the fuselage that got shot in combat. His job was to get the planes back into the air as soon as possible, doing whatever it took to make them flyable. While performing this duty for a few months, one day an Air Force captain came up to my father and introduced him to Lt. Robert Ching, who was an interpreter for the Chinese Air Force. He said Lt. Ching had a little duty for my father to perform once a week and said he would leave my father with the lieutenant since the captain had to leave and head back to headquarters. Lt. Ching explained to my father that the American government and the Chinese government have this agreement called "Lend Lease" and said whatever the Chinese government performed, it would help pay for the Chinese government buying war equipment and supplies from the Americans. It was part of a program that would help pay for all of this. Lt. Ching took my father to a compound a few miles away from my father's base where the work was performed. It was a part of a Chinese compound that was a liaison between the Chinese and American government, and it was a headquarters for the Chinese forces. There were a lot of statements and bills that had to be signed by the American army personnel in order to get credit for the Lend Lease program. It was all written Chinese and my father couldn't read Chinese but he assumed that everything was legal and whatever had to be done he did. Lt. Ching brought a stack of paper, somewhere around 15 to 20 to start, and my father signed his name, rank and serial number and then returned them back to the lieutenant. As mentioned earlier, all the statements and bills were written in Chinese, and my father couldn't read Chinese and he didn't know what was on them. But it could have been a bill for $10 or $10,000,000. He didn't know; he might have been liable for what he signed but evidently he didn't think there was anything he would be liable, but he was signing something in the name of the American government. This work went for a quite a few months. During that period, the Japanese were pressing hard to gain control of my father's air base in Chihkiang because it was one of the main fighter air bases that was inflicting a lot of damage to their army, their supply lines, and other insulations the Japanese had in that part of China. The Chinese army was flying in combat units day and night into my father's air base to reinforce the line to keep the Japanese from taking over the base. It was getting pretty serious and one day Lt. Ching came up to my father while he was busy with his two crews trying to get the planes back in the air because if they had to evacuate the base they would want to fly everything out of there before the demolition came in and destroy everything so it wouldn't leave anything behind for the Japanese army. Lt. Ching was pretty desperate and he told my father, "Sgt. Lee, I am in trouble and I need help". My father replied, " I'll do the best I can because I am just a master sergeant in the American army and I am not even an officer." Lt. Ching further went to say, "You're the only one I know and we have known each other for quite awhile and have become good friends". My father then said, "Well lieutenant, tell me what you need and I'll see what I can do". He said he needed to go behind the Japanese line and bring his family back over and my father said that was something not done by the average soldier. Even an officer wouldn't think of doing something like that unless it was for one of his own American family and then they would have considered it, but this is for an army officer's Chinese family and even a higher ranking officer in the American army wouldn't consider doing it. But my father thought for awhile and being young and adventurous, he told the lieutenant he would get his jeep, trailer, and about four to five cans of gas and be down in the lieutenant's compound first thing next morning. My father armed himself with only a machine gun and side arm and the lieutenant with only a side arm. The lieutenant gave the directions; he knew the area and all the roads. They drove all day and went around the outskirts of the Japanese army around the left flank of the Japanese army and went back into the interior where his family was. They got there about evening. My father parked the jeep and wasn't sure if it was safe to leave it because he didn't know if he needed to guard it all night or not since he was in enemy territory but the lieutenant told him "No". He said the Chinese magistrate would take care of protecting it even though they were in Japanese occupied territory. The Chinese magistrate still had some authority there. The Japanese army didn't bother the local people that much at that time because they were concerned trying to capture my father's air base. My father ate dinner and stayed overnight there in the village where Lt. Ching's family lived. The next morning, they loaded everything in the jeep and trailer and took off what appeared to be in the same way they came. Since my father being was unfamiliar with the area, the lieutenant provided the directions to which way to go and my father drove all day and half of the night before getting back to the American compound. In the meantime, while driving at nighttime, my father ran into a little trouble with his jeep. The headlights would keep coming off. He would be going 40 to 50 miles an hour and all of a sudden it would be completely dark in front. Luckily, there was no traffic at all on the road, but my father had to stop and open the hood and shake the wires to see where the short was and then the lights would come back on and that happened about three times during the night before they reached the compound. When they did get back to the compound, he dropped Lt. Ching and his family off where the Chinese army compound was and my father headed back to the American compound. My father was in a position where he had no officer who told him what to do. He was more or less, in fact, billet as an assistant engineering officer, and he was completely on his own and nobody told him what to do or when to do it. He did everything that had to be done under conditions he was in as far as deciding what to do or where to go or what not. It was still up to him. There was no other officer above him. He recalled the only guy in his outfit was tech sergeant, Bill Chen, who was the mobile unit #1 chief, that knew my father was gone, but if any officer came around, he would have covered for my father and told them he was busy somewhere else working. But, fortunately, during that time every personnel in the base was busy gearing up for the most serious emergency because the Japanese was threatening the base so no one had any leisure time to check around. My father went back to the compound and stayed over night. The next morning, he went back to his two mobile units to see what was done and what had to be done and tried to get all the planes in shape so that they can fly out of there in case of Japanese's advancement and losing that air base. Anyways, nothing happened as my father got back, but a short time later, they started to evacuate some of the personnel from the base because the situation was getting tense and the Japanese were about ready to take over the base. Most of the personnel, my father estimated about half or more, were evacuated to the interior bases of China further inland. The essential ones stayed behind until last minute to evacuate; if they were to lose the base, they would leave at the last moment and leave the demolition crew to destroy everything as the base was evacuated. All the personnel were evacuated and that was the last time he saw Lt. Ching because even the Chinese army personnel were being evacuated from the area too. My father thought probably Lt. Ching took his family and evacuated further into the interior to another base out of reach of the approaching Japanese army. However, my father and Lt. Ching met up the next day. The lieutenant came over and said to my father, "Sgt., my wife wants to invite you over for dinner". My father was astonished with all the food; it was enough food to feed about 20 people. It was only the lieutenant's family, my father and the lieutenant who ate there. But, it was a big feast they prepared. It was their way of showing their appreciation for what my father did. But not only that but he was doing everything that was completely uncalled for, completely illegal. If he was caught by American personnel, he probably would have been court martial. He would never have been able to tell this story and he would still be in prison yet. And if Lt. Ching and my father were caught by the Japanese army, they probably both would have been killed and this story would never have been written. But they were very lucky, very fortunate to have gotten through this little ordeal. As the Japanese army was approaching, part of the 555 Air Service Squadron and some of the 14th air service group personnel were the last ones to leave at the last moment. Those who were the last to leave were awarded the bronze star for being in the area of combat. That was a fairly big citation to receive overseas. They were evacuated to another air base, which my father believed was Tushan Air Base. They were there for 2-3 months. By that time, the American 10th Air Force was preparing to drop an atomic bomb in Japan. The first atomic bomb they dropped my father's outfit was in Tushan Air Base, which was further inland in China. They heard in army news that the Americans dropped an atomic in Hiroshima, Japan. The second atomic bomb they dropped, the Japanese couldn't endure the damage so they called it quits. They never did advance anymore. The war stopped. My father's air base in Chihkiang was still intact; they never got into it. After that, a lot of the signing of the treaty happened in the Chihkiang air base. Some of the 14th air base personnel witnessed the surrendering conditions. My father and others went back to Chihkiang the very last moment to regain some of their equipment and before they were completely discharged. When they got back there, all the troops were being sent back to Shanghai and then back to the United States and most of the 555 and 14th air service group personnel were sent back to the U.S. My father thinks there was a hand full of them, among them were my father, Ed Lum and few others that stayed behind very last moment before they turned the base over to the Chinese Air Force. That was the story my father has never told to anyone and doesn't mentioned it very much. He felt that it was safe now to print it in the 14th Air Service Group reunion manual for the fellow servicemen to read so that they can see what some of the U.S. servicemen made sacrifice for helping out a fellow countrymen. But, he hesitated to print it in the Jing Bao Journal, which is the 14th Air Force bi-monthly news magazine, which covered the 14th Air Force in all of China. But unfortunately, all these years gone by, he just regretted not keeping track of Lt. Ching. Lt. Ching gave my father an address in Hong Kong and was told that when the war was over to have my father to look him up in Hong Kong and through a Bank in Hong Kong which my father still has the address. When the war ended when my father came back to the U.S., it wasn't until maybe 45 years later before my father returned back to China for a visit. By that time everything had changed. With the Communist coming down from the north, my father was thinking probably Lt. Ching and his family went over to Taiwan and maybe not Hong Kong because him being an interpreter in the Chinese Air Force and educated in Hong Kong, he spoke very fluent English. My father and Lt. Ching spent quite a bit of free time together. They became real, good friends. It was too bad they didn't keep this friendship for the past 50 years. My father doesn't know what has happened to him if he is still living or his family in Taiwan or where. If Lt. Ching is still alive, it would be nice if he could contact my father. My father may put his address in the Jing Bao Journal, 14th Air Force Association Journal, and maybe someone might see it. It would have to be an American personnel who went to Taiwan to be in contact with Lt. Ching because he was an interpreter, very necessary to communicate with the Chinese army. He said he did it for a friend that he made and he felt very proud and rewarding that he was able to help a fellow countryman in the service. This is the end of the story.  

	Harry Lee and Lt. Ching
Lt. Ching, son and daughter
	Lt. Ching, Wife and Son