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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3662)	5/17/1998 7:39:00 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

I know the Chinese were for some part of WWII on the side of the Allies- because the Axis powers included Japan, and Japan was invading China. Of course at the time the struggle with the communists was going on so one could argue that the China that allied itself with us then no longer exists.

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3662)	5/17/1998 11:25:00 PM
From: Michael Sphar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Ah Ha! Mohan, you must have had a misspent youth, or are much younger than yours truly. We had a surfeit of WW2 movies on the tv (black and white days) when I grew up and I can tell you unequivocally that the Chinese were staunch allies when it came to fighting the Japanese. Seriously, as the US pursued the battle of the Pacific, many bombers making conventional bombing runs over Japan launched from Pacific Island bases such as Guam, Tinian and Saipan (after these were secured) as well as carrier based. Some made one way runs. Not enough fuel to return to base they sought refuge in China. Japan of course was pursuing a pan-Asian hegemony and invaded China as well as just about every other country in Asia. After the morally reprehensible Rape of Nanking they generated an irredeemable enmity in the hearts and minds of the Chinese. So the Chinese fought back but were woefully unprepared for the invasion which pushed into the Chinese heartland. The US sought to aid the Chinese after securing bases in Burma by flying over the "hump" (the mountainous western region of China near the Tibetan Plateau) in things like the venerable gooney bird (the C47). These ancient war birds, still to be seen in disparate airports all over the world, mainly collecting dust, saw all sorts of duty in that war. They hauled equipment, hauled troops, hauled gliders, and even were gliders. The old Asians who have memories of that war, remember well the roll the US and allies such as Britain, Australia and NZ played and hold a special place in their hearts for those intrepid warriers. A number of years ago, I had the privilege of attending an evening show at a small resort on the River Kwai deep in Thailand near the Burma border. Though I couldn't understand a word of it, the theme was readily recognizable as a reenactment of WW2 memories. Quite an emotional event, and this was in the 90s. Once during my tenure in the Vietnam Police Action, I came across an aeronautical chart of land including Western China/Tibet, who knows what it was doing in that C141 cockpit, but anyway, as I studied that map it revealed an incredibly high region of mountains, deserts and lakes. How those planes of the 40s period ever handled that sustained high altitude mountain flying is beyond my imagination. Folklore stories such as the old cartoon "Terry and the Pirates" and tales of the Flying Tigers, ancestor to an airline of the same name were rooted in those old warbirds. Don't get me started.