List of Flying Tigers airmen missing in China during WWII released, search launched

NANJING -- A name list of missing members of the Flying Tigers, the US air units that fought alongside Chinese forces against Japanese aggression during World War II was released on Thursday, while the general public is asked to provide clues regarding the final whereabouts of these personnel.

According to Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, the list was compiled by cross-referencing official data from US institutions including the National Archives, the Air Force Historical Research Agency, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Flying Tigers first coming to China. At a ceremony in Nanjing, capital of the eastern province of Jiangsu, the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, the foreign affairs office of the Nanjing municipal government and the Nanjing Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs Memorial Hall jointly launched an information solicitation campaign for the missing Flying Tigers personnel.

The Nanjing Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs Memorial Hall currently has names of 2,605 US anti-Japanese aviation martyrs inscribed on its monument. A cross-check conducted by the memorial's staff between the list provided by Greene and the inscribed names revealed a high level of consistency.

A preliminary comparison found that some of the listed names matched those already inscribed on the memorial, while the identities of others remain subject to further verification, said Jiang Qinyuan, a staff member at the memorial hall.

Names provided by the foundation that do not appear on the memorial will become the focus of future historical research and verification, Jiang added.

"This effort will take time and patience and a great deal of careful work," said Greene. "However with every American airman who can be found and properly identified, all of us will be adding an important level of closure, to families across the United States, who have been quietly and yet hopefully waiting, for more than eighty years, for words that their missing 'Flying Tigers' have been found and will eventually be 'coming home.'"

The Flying Tigers, officially known as the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, which was formed in 1941 by US General Claire Lee Chennault. More than 2,000 Flying Tigers airmen lost their lives in the war, and the Chinese people, at great personal cost, came to their aid, rescuing more than 200 pilots in distress while thousands of Chinese sacrificed their own lives during the rescue operations.

Earlier this month, at a ceremony held in Central China's Hubei province, Greene presented commemorative flight jackets to the representatives of six newly named Flying Tigers friendship schools in the province.

More episodes of China-US cooperation during World War II are also being commemorated. China has designated the Memorial Hall to the Doolittle Raid as a new national patriotic education base.