US exhibit commemorates Flying Tigers

Richard Sherman, a 93-year-old Flying Tigers veteran pilot, attends events celebrating the volunteer US pilots who helped China repel the Japanese during World War II. WANG HUAN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE

A US exhibition on Yunnan province and the Flying Tigers provides a boost to cultural exchanges between China and the United States, and it helps people remember the days when US volunteers helped China fight the Japanese invaders, a senior official of the Chinese consulate general in New York said on Sunday.

Li Liyan, cultural counselor of the consulate general, said that by holding the exhibition, US citizens and Chinese alike can look back at that part of history and treasure their happy lives now.

The exhibition to mark the 70th anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) and World War II was organized by the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, the Yunnan Flying Tigers Research Institute and other groups. It has been to several US cities since July and opened in New York City's Chinatown on Sunday.

In December 1941, US volunteer pilots known as the Flying Tigers started to help China repulse the Japanese invasion. Starting in 1943, the Flying Tigers also flew over the Himalayas, helping ship strategic materials from India to China to help the Chinese break through the Japanese defense lines. The Flying Tigers left China in 1944.