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Chinese Americans in the Women Airforce Service Pilots WASP Program

5/29/2019

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Chinese Americans in WASP
For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we will focus on 2 Chinese American women who served in the Women Airforce Service Pilots program during WW2. â€‹
Although the media depict women’s involvement in the war mostly in a sidekick role as homemakers, nurses, and factory workers, they were a lot more than that. They were spies, farmers, nurses, and pilots. This post will be focused on the two Chinese women who participated in the WW2 and their work and sacrifice for humanity. 

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was formed as a civilian women pilots’ organization in order to free up the men for the war. The members of WASP were trained to become test pilots, ferriers, and trainers as women were not allowed to participate in combat at the time. WASP delivered a total of 12,650 aircraft of 77 types. They logged a total of 60 million air miles for the Air Force but wasn’t recognized until 1977. 

The beginning of WASP:
The idea of having women participate in the war was first brought up in a letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt by American aviator Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran once Warsaw fell to the Germans. Jackie also wrote a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Olds, who was organizing the Air Corps Ferrying Command at the time. Jacqueline Cochran at the time was considered to be the best female pilot in the United States. She had caught people’s attention when she received a gold medal for her accomplishments as one of the 10 outstanding women of 1938 by American Women magazine. First Lady Roosevelt was the one to decorate her with a medal. By 1939, Cochran had already become the first woman to make a landing entirely by instrument and had set 17 records for national and international speed, distance, and altitude. 

By 1941, British women pilots were already ferrying aircraft but the idea of a woman ferrying aircraft was still foreign to many. However, Cochran persisted. First, the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron WAFS was formed after Nancy Love’s suggestion. Nancy’s husband participated in the Army Air Corps Reserve. After Nancy’s proposed WAFS was accepted, Jackie was angry that she had been rejected. By the fall of 1942, Cochran’s proposal of forming Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD).

By the summer of 1943, WAFS and WFTD were consolidated to form WASP. 1,830 were accepted for training while 1,074 completed the training. Most of the accepted applicants were Caucasian women, but there were also other women of color who participated including Hazel Ying Lee and Maggie Gee. 
​Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. She was born and raised in Oregon. She was from an immigrant family raised at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was prevalent. She persisted despite the discrimination she faced growing up. She worked as an elevator operator at Lieves Department Store in downtown Portland which allowed her to save up for private flying lessons. By the time she was 19, she was flying in a program sponsored by the Portland Chinese Benevolent Society. 
Lee traveled to China during the Japanese occupation hoping to join the Chinese Air Force. However, she was rejected as they did not accept women pilots. She was assigned a desk job and only flew a commercial plane out of Nanjing before she returned to the United States in 1938. 
Upon returning to America in 1942, she applied to join WFTD and was accepted to train in Texas to fly a variety of military planes. She was then stationed at the Air Transport Command’s 3rd Ferrying Squadron at Romulus Army Air Base in Michigan. Lee died on November 25th, 1944 as a result of injuries sustained on a collision on a runway in Great Falls, Montana. 
Maggie Gee was another Chinese American who participated in WASP. Similar to Lee, she was the daughter of an immigrant family. Her parents owned a successful Chinese importing company and raised the family in Berkeley, California. Her father died of a heart attack on a San Francisco Street in 1929 when the stock market crashed leaving her mother and 5 other siblings around. Gee passed a drafting test and dropped out of college to work as a draftsman for the engineers at Mare Island Naval Shipyards in Vallejo, California. By 1943, Gee saved enough money to move to Minden, Nevada to learn how to fly. Then she applied for the WASP training program in Texas. She served throughout the war as a tow target pilot in Las Vegas Army Airfield, Nevada. After the war, she returned to Berkeley and pursued her degree in physics and lived as a researcher covering the fields of cancer, nuclear weapons design, fusion energy, and other related fields. 

Although women worked alongside men, they did not receive their military status until the 1970s. Their service was mostly forgotten until President Obama signed a bill rewarding the WASP the Congressional Gold Model. 

References
  1. https://www.npr.org/2010/03/09/123773525/female-wwii-pilots-the-original-fly-girls
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20150906182545/http://waspmuseum.org/jackie-cochran-biography/
  3. https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/jacqueline-cochran-blazing-a-trail-for-women-in-aviation-service/
  4. https://waspfinalflight.blogspot.com/2013/02/maggie-gee-44-w-7-feb-1-2013.html
  5. https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lee_hazel_ying/#.XO8hA5NKhhF

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  • Home
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      • Unit 731 - Guide >
        • Background of Biochemical Warfare Development
        • Imperial Japan's Chemical Warfare Development Program
        • Map of Unit 731
        • Personnel of Unit 731
        • Duties of Unit 731
        • Human Experimentation
        • [GRAPHIC] Germ Warfare Attacks
        • Cover Ups After the War
        • [OLD] Cover Ups After the War
      • Philippines' Resistance - Guide >
        • Philippines World War II Timeline
        • The Japanese Invasion & Conquest of the Philippines
        • Bataan Death March
        • Formation of Underground Philippines Resistance
        • Supplies of the Guerrilla Fighters
        • The Hukbalahap
        • Hunter's ROTC
        • Marking's Guerrillas
        • United States Army Forces in the Philippines of Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL)
        • The Aetas
        • Chinese and Filipino-Chinese Nationalist Guerrilla Units
        • The Female Faces of the Philippine Guerrillas
      • Rising Sun Flag - Guide >
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      • Fall of Singapore - Guide >
        • Singapore World War II Timeline
        • History of World War II in the Pacific
        • History of Singapore
        • Japan's Conquest in Asia
        • Japan's Invasion of the Malay Peninsula
        • Sook Ching Massacre
        • Double Tenth Incident
        • Social Changes and Challenges in Singapore
        • Voices from Syonan
        • Return to British Rule
      • Three Years and Eight Months - Guide >
        • Hong Kong before WW2
        • Buildup to World War 2
        • The Battle of Hong Kong
        • Life during 3 Years and 8 Months
        • East River Column Guerrilla Fighters
        • Prisoners of War Camps
        • End of Japanese Occupation
        • War Crimes Trials
      • Siamese Sovereignty - Guide >
        • The Land of Smiles
        • The Thai-Japanese Relationship
        • Phibun’s Domestic and International Policies
        • The Free Thai Resistance Movement
        • Post WW2 Aftermath of Thailand
      • The Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial - Guide >
        • Defendants of Khabarovsk War Crime
        • The Japanese Empire and USSR in WW2
        • The Employment of the Bacteriological Weapon in the War
        • Planning of Japan invasion to USSR
      • Unit 731 Cover-up : The Operation Paperclip of the East - Guide >
        • Establishing Manchukuo
        • The Development of Unit 731
        • Plan Kantokuen and Bacteriological Warfare
        • The Downfall of the Japanese WW2 Era
        • Three Stages of Interrogations
        • Lasting Impacts
      • Marutas of Unit 731 - Guide >
        • How did Ishii Shiro start unit 731?
        • A Beta Testing Site
        • Establishing Pingfan
        • Experiences at the Human Experimentation Complex
        • Vivisection at the Unit 731
        • Anta Testing Grounds
        • Overall Advance from the Laboratory Creations
        • The End of the War
      • Prince Konoe Memoir - Guide >
        • Who is Prince Konoe?
        • Preparation to Tripartite Pact
        • Emperor Hirohito and Prince Konoe
        • The End of Prince Konoe
      • Competing Empires in Burma - Guide >
        • What was the China-Burma-India Theater?
        • When did the China-Burma-India Theater Happen?
        • Who Fought in the China-Burma-India Theater?
        • The Second Sino Japanese War
        • Japan in the South
        • Operation U-Go
      • Battle of Shanghai - Guide >
        • The Battle of Shanghai. Background
        • Shanghai Before War
        • The First Battle of Shanghai 1932
        • Battle of Shanghai 1937
        • Aftermath of Battle for Shanghai
      • Ishi Shiro - Guide >
        • History of Biological Weapons and The Young Ishii Shiro
        • Establishment in Manchuria
        • Pingfang District - Harbin
        • Failures and Corruption
        • Post War
      • Taiwan The Israel of the East - Guide >
        • Background of Formosa
        • Industrialization of Japan
        • China During WWII
        • Taiwan under Kuomintang
        • New Taiwanese National Identity
      • Seeking Justice for Biological Warfare Victims of Unit 731 - Guide >
        • Introduction of Wang Xuan
        • Colonel Memorandum
        • The Beginning of Biological Warfare
        • The Bacteriological Warfare on China
        • Victims in Zhejiang’s Testimonies
        • After the War
      • Rice and Revolution - Guide >
        • The French Colonial Period
        • Anti-Colonial Resistance
        • The Rise of the Communist Movement
        • Imperial Japan’s Entry into Indochina
        • The Portents of Famine
        • The Famine (1944-45)
        • Legacy of the 1944-45 Vietnam Famine
      • Clash of Empires - Guide >
        • Japan’s Imperialist Origins
        • Japan’s Competition against the West: Nanshin-ron and Hokushin-ron
        • Japanese Imperialism Through the Lens of French Indochina
        • The U.S.-Japan Relations and the Pearl Harbor Attack
      • Hunger for Power and Self-SufficiencyI - Guide >
        • The Influence of War Rations on Post-War Culinary Transformations
        • How World War II Complicated Food Scarcity and Invention
        • American Military Innovations
        • Government-Sponsored Food Inventions in Europe during World War II
        • Feeding the Army: The Adaptation of Japanese Military Cuisine and Its Impact on the Philippines
        • Mixed Dishes: Culinary Innovations Driven by Necessity and Food Scarcity
    • Lesson Plans >
      • Reparations
      • Ethics in Science
      • Writing the Narrative of a Pinay Fighter
      • Privilege Journal
      • Environmental Injustices
      • Female Guerrillas
      • Hunter's ROTC
      • Scientific Advancements
      • Seeking Justice: A Humanities Lesson Plan
      • The Hukbalahap
      • Trading Immunity
      • Bataan Death March
      • Biochemical Warfare Development
Contribute