Author: William Tang
(Vice President of Arizona Chinese History Association)
Editors: Qiang Fang, Jenny Z
Translator: Joyce Zhao
ABSTRACT
This paper tells the heroic yet little known stories of some Chinese women who served in the US army during WWII and after.
Corporal Helen M. Lee of Willows, California, joined the Women’s Army Corps(WAC) in August 1943 and was assigned to be the Chinese translator of GI training films at Lowry Army Air Field in California.
Sergeant Julia Larm Ashfield joined the WAC in 1944 and served in the Pacific Theater of Operations. She remained in the Army until 1948 when she enlisted in the newly formed Air Force where she served until 1953.
Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP)worked directly with the Army Air Forces on the home front during World War II flying planes from factories to air bases, testing planes for mechanical problems, and towing targets for aerial gunnery students to practice shooting. Thirty-eight WASPs died in the line of duty, one being a Chinese American, Hazel Ying Lee.
Maggie Gee started as a mechanical draftsman at Mare Island, California.Who was accepted by the WASP. Gee took military pilots up for qualifying flights to renew their instrument ratings and co-piloted B-17 Flying Fortress bombers through mock dogfights staged to train bomber gunners.
Army nurse Helen Pon Onyett risked her life tending wounded soldiers from the landing craft that came ashore in North Africa. She was awarded the Legion of Merit for her actions during the war and retired from the Corps as a full colonel.
Marietta Chong Eng enlisted in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service(WAVES). The Navy trained Eng as an occupational therapist. Eng helped rehabilitate sailors and officers who had lost arms and legs in the war, teaching them to accomplish the many tasks of daily living.
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The U.S. Women’s Army Corps (WAC) [1] is the women’s branch of the U.S. Army. During the Second World War, on May 15, 1942, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was first established [2]. On July 1, 1943, the WAC was formally established.
The U.S. military lowered the requirements for height and weight in order to allow multi-ethnic women reach standards required for joining the army, so a group of Chinese women joined the WAC.
We checked historical data, and we found six Chinese heroines who served in the Women’s Army Corps.
Helen M. Lee
The entry of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women into the army began in World War II. After the establishment of the WAC, thousands of AAPI women signed up. The WAC recruited fifty bilingual Japanese and Chinese young women that were born in the United States and sent them to the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) in Fort Snelling, Minnesota. There, they were trained as military interpreters.
Among them, 21 young women of Japanese descent were sent to the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS) in Camp Ritchie, Maryland. There, they studied the captured Japanese documents and extracted information related to military plans; at the same time, they also studied the political and economic intelligence affecting Japan’s combat power.
Other Chinese translators from the WAC, such as Helen M. Lee, were assigned to help the U.S. Army communicate with the Chinese Allied Forces.
Corporal Helen M. Lee was a native of Willows, California. She joined the WAC in August of 1943 and was sent to Lowry Army Air Field in California [3], where she was a translator for educational films for the U.S. army.
Julia Larm Ashford
Sergeant Julia Larm Ashford joined the WAC in 1944 and served in the Pacific Theater [4]. After the war, Sergeant Ashford followed the women’s regiment she served in the Pacific theater to Germany, which was occupied by the allied forces. The talents of many other Chinese women were not valued and utilized. If more Chinese women had been taken into the army to use their Asian language expertise, it may have been possible for the United States to win sooner. She remained in the Army until 1948, then joined the newly formed Air Force and served in the Air Force until 1953.
Hazel Ying Lee
Li Yueying
Hazel Ying Lee was born on August 24, 1912 in Portland, Oregon. Her ancestry could be traced back to Taishan, Guangdong, China. In 1932, when she was 19 years old, she entered the Chinese Flying Club of Portland (CFCP) in Portland, Oregon, USA to learn how to fly, becoming the first Chinese American female pilot with a pilot’s license. At that time, less than one percent of pilots in the United States were women.
In 1933, Hazel Ying Lee returned to China with a male student from the flying school, hoping to join the Republic of China Air Force. Unfortunately, the Republic of China Air Force did not accept female pilots at that time, so she stayed in China and worked for a while.
In 1937, when the war between China and Japan broke out, she again failed to request to join the Republic of China Air Force, so she engaged in advocating and opening schools. In 1938, she returned to New York as a buyer of the Nationalist Government in the United States.
In 1943, Hazel Ying Lee joined the newly established U.S. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) [5], the first to pioneer Chinese female pilots. This team’s women served as Air Force pilots. They flew the aircraft from the aircraft factory to the air force base for testing to see if there were any problems with the machinery; they towed targets for the training of fighter pilots. Male pilots were always on the front lines, while female flight crew members were responsible for performing these tasks, which were actually more dangerous. She was assigned to the Third Ferrying Group and delivered aircraft across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom many times. She was the first Chinese female pilot to fly across the Atlantic.
Hazel Ying Lee performed well. The U.S. Air Force awarded her the rank of lieutenant and sent her to a fighter pilot academy in Kansas to learn how to fly various types of fighter aircraft. During World War II, the United States supported about 15,000 fighter planes for the Soviet Union. Hazel Ying Lee’s mission was to assist the Soviet Union aircrafts to a designated location — the Niagara Falls International Airport in Montana. Because of engine failure, Hazel Ying Lee was forced to make two emergency landings. On one occasion, the plane made an emergency landing in a wheat field in Kansas. The farmer thought she was a Japanese who had invaded the United States and pointed at her with a pitchfork. Hazel Ying Lee asked the farmer to put down his pitchfork in fluent English, and asked the farmer’s son to call the base to clarify the misunderstanding and send a car to pick her up.
Hazel Ying Lee was one of thirty-eight WASP pilots who died on their missions during World War II.
On November 10, 1944, Hazel Ying Lee aided a P-63 Kingcobra aircraft of the Soviet Union [7] from the Bell Aircraft Corporation [6] airport in Niagara Falls, New York to Grand Falls, Montana. The male pilot flew to Alaska and handed it over to the Soviet pilot.
She was delayed by the dangerous weather in North Dakota and was forced to wait until the weather improved to continue flying. At about two o’clock in the afternoon on November 23, 1944, when Hazel Ying Lee was about to land at Grand Falls in Montana, many planes arrived at the same time. There was a communication system failure of another fighter jet behind her, and the pilot could not follow the directions of the tower. The pilot flew close to the same runway and prepared to land with a beacon. The tower commanded Hazel Ying Lee to fly again, but was unable to contact another fighter plane. As a result, the fighter plane collided with Hazel Ying Lee’s plane, which was climbing up and was about to fly again, and both planes exploded simultaneously. Hazel Ying Lee, who suffered extensive burns in the accident, died in the hospital on November 25.
Hazel Ying Lee’s family was devastated at the news of her passing. On the third day after the bad news came, the Lee family learned that Hazel Ying Lee’s brother, who was serving in the U.S. Tank Corps and fighting in the French battlefield, had also died for the country.
Racism in the United States was still serious at the time. When the Lee family chose a scenic hillside cemetery overlooking the Columbia River as the burial site for the siblings, they met opposition from the cemetery who believed that people of color could not be buried in a “white area”. After a lengthy struggle, the Li family finally fulfilled their wish to hold a non-military funeral in the chosen cemetery.
In 2010, Li Yueying was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.
Maggie Gee
Zhu Meijiao
Maggie Gee was born on August 5, 1923 in Berkeley, California, and she had aspirations to fly since she was young. After the outbreak of World War II, when she heard that the tuition fee of aviation school in Nevada was only 800 U.S. dollars, she began to save every penny for the tuition fee of learning how to fly. Finally, her dream came true. After two months of training at the aviation school, she accepted an interview with the WASP, soon joining the team after. In March of 1944, Maggie Gee joined the U.S. WASP and became the second Chinese woman to join the Women’s Airforce Service after Hazel Ying Lee.
Maggie Gee was assigned to the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to receive military training as a pilot. They helped male pilots train and transported fighter aircraft.
Maggie Gee, who had flight experience at the age of 18, obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, and she also took graduate courses in physics at the school. She worked for the U.S. military in Europe for three years, and then she worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for more than 30 years.
When she was growing up, Maggie Gee also suffered racial discrimination because of her skin color.
Her flight story was widely spread. A children’s English inspirational book that focused on her story, Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee, has been published.
In 2010, Maggie Gee was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal. She passed away on February 1, 2013.
Helen Pon Onyett
Helen Pon Onyett was born on August 14, 1918 in Waterbury, Connecticut. From a young age, her parents encouraged her to become a nurse.
She received training at Waterbury Hospital Nursing School, and she later decided to join the army.
During World War II, she served in the Army Nurse Corps, visited the Mediterranean base, and also served in the United States. After patrolling on the medical ship many times, she was sent to serve in a tent hospital in North Africa. Helen Pon Onyett took good care of the wounded soldiers and used the captured German wool blankets to keep them warm.
She ate food rations from the army and worked long hours under extremely tired conditions.
When she interacted with the German prisoners of war, she learned their language and often said in German: “no work, no food.” This trick made the Germans think she knew German, and they didn’t dare to speak in front of her.
Helen Pon Onyett worked at Patrick Henry’s Camp in Virginia, responsible for neuropsychiatric, venereal disease and infectious hepatitis wards. She was awarded the Legion of Merit.
In 1971, Helen Pon Onyett was the first Chinese-American woman to be promoted as colonel.
She joined the army in 1942, and after the war, she left the army. Later, she joined the Army Reserve and retired from the Army in 1978. Her military career reached 36 years. She died on May 18, 2005, at the age of 86.
Marietta Chong Eng
Marietta Chong Eng was born into a Chinese family in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. During World War II, she decided to join the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) [8] because her brother was already serving in the Navy.
After she was trained as a physiotherapist in the Navy, she was assigned to work at the U.S. Naval Hospital on Male Island, California. Marine Lieutenant Marietta Chong Eng was responsible for caring for the wounded soldiers who lost their hands and feet in the war, helping them regain their ability to take care of themselves, and teaching them how to deal with daily life.
She felt proud whenever she put on the military uniform. Whether on the streets of San Francisco or at the naval base, she attracted people’s attention and envy. But one time when she was crossing a busy street in New York City, a young hooligan pointed at her and exclaimed in surprise: “Look, a Chinaman.” She thought that the shock must be from seeing a Chinese person wear a military uniform. She loved to wear the military uniform and was proud to wear the military uniform, so she even wore her military uniform at her wedding.
Marietta Chong Eng settled in Oakland, California after the war and gave birth to three children. She was a physical therapist for many years.
Closing Remarks
During World War II, many Chinese American women resolutely joined the army, defending the country from fascist aggression and assisting the Allies. Among them, there are many inspirational stories. Helen M. Lee, Julia Larm Ashfield, Hazel Ying Lee, Maggie Gee, Helen Pon Onyett, and Marietta Chong Eng are just six of them.
Even after the end of World War II, Chinese American women must continue to overcome ethnic barriers and give full play to their talents.
Notes:
- Women’s Army Corps, WAC: the women’s branch of the U.S. Army, whose purpose is to equip American women with national defense knowledge, skills, and special training.
- Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, WAAC: a combat organization that works with the U.S. Army. The U.S. Army provides food, uniforms, accommodation, wages, and medical care for 150,000 WAAC members.
- Lowry Army Air Field: the base for training the U.S. military. It was opened in 1938 and concentrated on the technical training of military personnel.
- The Pacific Theater of Operations: during World War II, the Pacific Ocean and its islands, where the Allied Powers and the Japanese Empire fought at sea, began to form on March 20, 1942.
- Women Air Force Service Pilots, WASP: the women in this team became pilots through training, specializing in testing aircraft, transporting aircraft, and training other pilots.
- Bell Aircraft Company: manufactured the first supersonic aircraft Bell X-1 aircraft in World War II.
- Assisting the Soviet Union: during World War II, the United States assisted the Soviet Union with 15,000 various aircraft, 44,000 American jeeps, 375,883 trucks, 8,071 tractors, 22,800 tanks and armored vehicles, and more than 35,000 motorcycles.
- Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, WAVES: during World War II, the women’s branch of the US Navy Reserve.
References：
- womensmemorial.org
- findagrave.com
- Pinterest.com
- Li Yueying (a Chinese female pilot during World War II) _Baidu Baike
- Zhu Meijiao _Baidu Baike
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