CHRONICLES OF HEROIC ARIZONA CHINESE- AMERICAN SERVICEMEN OF WORLD WAR II  (2)

In May 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea halted a new Japanese offensive in the south Pacific. A month later the Japanese suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Midway in the central Pacific. Chief Petty Officer John Jung served under Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid during the great battles in the Pacific. Aviation Machinist Mate Sol Levitt served on the U.S. Ranger Aircraft Carrier.

    Seaman Second Class Arnold Smith was on the USS President Hayes, where they won the Navy Unit Commendation for exceptional meritorious service in action against Japanese aircrafts, shore batteries, submarines and mines in the South Pacific campaign.

    The American resources were slim. When MacArthur arrived in Australia in March 1942, he found, to his dismay, that he had a little to command. Australian militia and a few thousand U.S. airmen and service troops were his only resources. The Australian 7th Division soon returned from North Africa, and two U.S. National Guard divisions, the 32nd and the 41st, arrived in April and May. MacArthur had enough planes for two bomber squadrons and six fighter squadrons. The American and Australian forces were able to begin two small counteroffensives. With only these forces, MacArthur set out to take Papua, while Admiral Nimitz, with forces almost equal, attacked Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

    Of all the places where GIs fought, Guadalcanal and Papuan peninsula may have been the worst. Separated by 800 miles of ocean, the two were similarly unhealthy in terrain and climate. The weather on both was hot and wet, rainfall may exceed 200 inches a year, and during the rainy season sometimes 8 to 10 inches of rain occur daily. Temperatures in December reached the high eighties, and humidity seldom falls below 80 percent. Terrain and vegetation are equally forebodes-dark, humid, jungle-covered mountain island, and smelly swamps along the coasts with insects abound. The soldiers and marines wet every day; most fought battles while wracked by chills and fever. For every two soldiers lost in battle, five were lost to disease especially malaria, dengue, dysentery, or scrub typhus, a dangerous illness carried by jungle mites. Almost all suffered "jungle rot." ulcers caused by skin discase.

    Guadalcanal lay at the southeastern end of the Solomons, an island chain 600 miles long. Navy carriers and other warships supported the landings but they could not provide clear air or naval superiority. The marines landed on 7 August 1942 without opposition and quickly overran an important airfield. The carriers sailed away almost as soon as the marines went ashore. Then Japanese warships surprised the supporting U.S. Naval vessels at the Battle of Salvo Island and quickly sank four heavy cruisers and one destroyer. Ashore, the Japanese Army fought furiously to regain the airfield. Through months of fighting, the marines barely held on. But gradually land-based aircraft were ferried in to provide air cover. The Japanese continued to pour men into the fight for Guadalcanal.

    Slowly American resources grew, while the Japanese were unable to make up their losses. In October, soldiers of the American Division joined the battle. In November, the Navy won a smashing victory in the waters off shore and in early 1943, the army 25th Infantry Division was committed as well. The Japanese lost the ability to supply their forces and they began to stave in the jungles. But not until February, six months after the initial landing - Guadalcanal was finally secured.

    Meanwhile, 800 miles to the west on the eastern peninsula of New Guinea, another offensive began. Even after the Battle of Coral Sea, the Japanese persisted in their efforts to take Port Moresby, a strategic town on New Guinea's southern coast. In late July 1, 1942, they landed on the north coast of the huge, mountainous island and began to make their way south toward Port Moresby, across the towering Owen Stanley mountains. Almost impassable, the trail they followed was a quagmire under constant rain. Supply became impossible; food ran short, fever and dysentery set in. They were defeated just short of their goal by Australian defenses, the Japanese retreated. General MacArthur decided to launch a counteroffensive against the fortified town of Buna and other Japanese held positions on the northern coast. He sent portions of the Australian 7th and the U.S. 32nd Divisions over the same mountainous jungle tracks used by the Japanese. The result was the same. By the time his troops reached the northern coast, they were almost too fatigued to fight. Around Buna and nearby village of Gona, the Japanese hold up in coconut-log bunkers that were indestructible to small arms and mortar fire. The Americans lacked artillery, flamethrowers, and tanks. While they struggled to dig the defenders out, malnutrition, fever, and jungle rot ravaged the troops. Like the troops on Guadalcanal, the Aussies and the men of the 32nd barely held on. Cpl Jick Lee was with the 190th quartermaster Gas Company in the participation of the battle of New Guinea.

    The growing American air power made it impossible for the Japanese Navy to resupply their forces ashore, and their troops began to run short of food and ammunition. By December, they were on the edge of starvation. January 1943, the last Japanese resistance was eliminated.

    While Nimitz crossed the central Pacific, MacArthur pushed along the New Guinea coast, preparing for his return to the Philippines. Without carriers, his progress was slower. After cleaning the Buna area in January 1943, MacArthur spent the next year conquering northeastern New Guinea, the eight months that followed, Admiralties, Bora Bora, Biak, Netherland West Indies, PFC Don Woo was in most of those islands. He was later awarded the Bronze Star for his heroic actions. Sgt. Jack Hom also saw action at the island of Panay and was wounded and received the Purple Heart Medal. Cpl. Don C. Tang was nearby with the 13th Air Force was able to look him up while he was in the hospital at Leyte.

    MacArthur's Island leaps were measured precisely by the range of his fighter bombers. The primary task of Nimitz's carriers was to support and defend the landing forces. As soon as the landing and islands were secured, land-based planes and personnel were brought in to free the carriers for other operations. Because he had to cover hit landing with be land-based planes, was limited to 200 miles. Further, he had to build airfields as he went. As each Island was secured the 13th Air Force moved in with their aircraft and personnel. With them came the planes, men, and equipment Cpl. Den C. Tang was among those personnel arriving. Almost nightly, they would have bomb raids from the Japanese aircrafts Lt. Conrad Woo was assigned to the 5th Bomb Group of the 13th Air Force flying B-24 missions as a bombardier raiding Japanese islands, air fields, and supplies.

    On November 1943, Nimitz's island-hopping campaign began with his assaults on Tarawa Atoll and Makin, a 100 miles north. Naval gunfire and air attacks had failed to eliminate the deeply dug in defenders and landing craft grounded on reefs offshore where they were destroyed by Japanese artillery. The 2d Marine Division encountered stubborn and deadly resistance.

    Like MacArthur, Nimitz determined to bypass strongly held islands and strike at the enemy's weak points. During January 1944, landings were made in the Marshalls, at Kwajalein and Eniwetok, followed by Guam and Saipan in the Marianas during June and July. Because the Marianas were only 1,500 miles from Tokyo, the remaining Japanese carriers came out to fight. The resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea was a disaster for the Japanese. In what U.S. Navy pilots called "the great Marianas turkey shoot". The Japanese carrier power was effectively eliminated.

    By October 1944, MacArthur was ready for a leap to the Philippines, but his objective was beyond the range of his planes. Nimitz loaned him Admiral William F. Halsey's heavy carriers, and on 20 October 1944, MacArthur's Sixth Army landed on Leyte Island in central Philippines Tech 4 Fee "Barney" Ong was with Co. A, 154th Combat Engineer Battalion, on 17 Sept. 1944 at the campaign of Anguar Island, Barney was wounded while crawling to deliver a message between positions. He was awarded the Purple Heart. Cpl. Jick Lee was with the 190th Quartermaster Gas Co. and participated in the So. Philippine campaigns. M/Sgt Jack Yue was a radio operator in the liberation of the Philippines.

    The Japanese reacted vigorously. For the first time in war, they employed Kamikaze attacks, suicide missions flown by young half-trained pilots. They used their last carriers as decoys to draw Halsey's carriers away from the beachheads. With Halsey out of the battle and the landing forces without air cover, the Japanese planned to use convention --al warships to brush aside the remaining American warships and destroy the support vessels anchored off the beaches. They almost succeeded. In the naval Battle of Leyte Gulf, the big guns of the big ships, not carriers planes, decided the battle. The Japanese Naval forces were decimated. Japan no longer had an effective navy. Seaman Dong M. Hom served on the USS Quiross, an oil tanker, that supplies fuel to all the fighting ships. Radio Tech Sing Yee, Jr. was aboard the Amphibious Attack Cargo Ship, the USS Athena, АКА-9.

    Sgt. James Sing was with the 345th Medium Bomb Group. The Liberty Ship SS Thomas Nelson, carrying the ground echelons of the 345th HQ, 498th and small contingents from the 500th and 501st Squadrons had been lying in the harbor of Dulag on the Island of Leyte, Philippines for two weeks waiting to be unloaded. At 1124 hours, Nov. 12, 1944, the ship came under kamikazi attack as it road at anchor. A Japanese fighter dropped a bomb on the No. 5 hatch, then caught a wing tip on the 30 ton main boom, ripping it loose and flinging it overboard. The plane spun to the deck and exploded spreading burning gasoline over the ship. The 345th lost 89 men killed or died of their wounds. Sgt James Sing was among those killed in action.

    On July 5, the Philippine campaign was over. The American had annihilated four hundred and fifty thousand of Japan) best remaining troops.

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA

    "We got a hell of a beating," Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell told the crowd of reporters in the Indian capital of New Delhi. It was May 1942, and the American General, who had only recently arrived in the Far East to assume the position of chief of staff to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, was chafing at failure in his first command in the field.

    Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the previous December, the Japanese had won victory after victory, extending their empire from Wake Island in the Pacific to Malaya and Singapore in Southeast Asia. When Stilwell had arrived in the embattled Chinese capital of Chungking in March, the Japanese were already driving into Burma, capturing the capital of Rangoon on 6 March. The American General took command of two Chinese divisions and, in cooperation with the British and Indians, tried to stem the Japanese onslaught Defeated, he and his staff endured a rugged.  140 mile hike over jungle-covered mountains to India By occupying Burma, the Japanese had not only gained access to vast resources of teak and rubber, but they had closed the Burma Road, 700 miles of direct highway that represented China's last overland link to the outside world.

    The objective of restoring a land route to China originated specifically to keep China in the war to tie down Japanese troops and serve as a base of future operations against Japanese home islands. It also reflected an idealistic view of China as a great power, capable of a major contribution.

    The Americans soon found the situation to much more complex than they had anticipated. The Chinese government and army were riddled with inefficiency and graft. Chiang Kai-shek preferred to leave the defeat of Japan to the other Allies and keep his resources for a postwar showdown with his mortal enemies, the Communists.

    The recovery of Burma would be the preoccupation of the American theater commander, Gen. "Vinegar Joc" Stilwell. He had served in China during the interwar years, knew the country, and could speak its language fluently. He served as chief of Chiang's joint Allied Staff, and commanding officer of the China-Burma-India (CBI) theaters of operations. It's primary mission to supply China. Cargoes entered at Karachi, Pakistan or Calcutta, India. Then proceeded by rail, road and ferry to Assam, the Indian province close to the Burma border. Assam was an incredible 67 day journey by rail from Calcutta-but they were congested and inefficient. Once the goods reached Assam, C-46 & C-47 transport planes had to fly them over the Himalayas to China. Pilots flying this route, call it the "Hump", and had to contend with poor weather, 15,000 foot mountain peaks, and enemy fighters operating from a base at Myitkyina. The India Air Task Force, later the Tenth Air Forces, was responsible for the supervising and protection of the supply flights over the Hump and supported Allied ground efforts with close air support and operations against Japanese communications and supply installations in Burma.

    Far northeast of Calcutta, along the Indo-Burma border, American engineers in late 1942 began to construct a road meant to restore China's land communications with the outside world. Taking over the project from the British in October 1942, they began construction from Ledo in December with the goal of arriving at the Burmese city of Shingbwiyang, about103 miles. The road was called the "Burma Road".

    Early 1944, the Allies finally agreed to launch an offensive into Burma. While the Chinese Y Force advanced from Yunan into eastern Burma and the British IV Corps drove east into Burma from Manipur State, Stilwell's Chinese-American force would attack southeast from the Shinbwiyang area toward Myitkyina. Capture of that key North Burma city and its airfield would remove the threat of enemy fighter from harassing transports flying the Hump and also enable the Allies to connect the advancing Ledo Road. Capt. William Toy trained Chinese Armies in India and returned to Northern Burma to engage the Japanese Army. Capt Toy while in the field observed an American transport plane crash land near his area. He drove his jeep near the sight, but the air crew, not knowing if he was friend or foe, started shooting at him. After he convinced them he was friendly, he rescued them. General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, need groups of Chinese Americans who could speak and write Chinese for assignment to Kunming, China for communication services. Sgt. Num J. "Jack" Yee was one of the 400 who was selected for that assignment.

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