Rita Wong, a Chinese nurse who cared for injured members of a
United States Air Force squadron known as the "Flying Tigers"
during the Second World War, died at the age of 95 on Tuesday in
Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Wong, also known by her Chinese name as Huang Huanxiao, was born
in Guangdong in 1912, and obtained a degree in nursing at the
University of Hong Kong in 1941.
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Rita Wong at the age of 23
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She voluntarily went to the headquarters of Allied Forces with her
nursing certificate and applied for a job from where she was sent
to Yunnan, which was badly in need of English-speaking nurses. She
joined the hospital of the US 14th Air Force, which was then
stationed in Kunming.
The airmen, whose planes were painted with shark teeth, were
known in China as "Fei Hu", or "Flying Tigers", for their courage
in battle. They flew with members of the Chinese Air Force on the
air supply route over the Himalayas known as the "Hump". From this,
derived Wong's nickname of "Hump Angel".
"The flights were very dangerous and planes crashed almost every
day. Often the airmen were never found," Wong wrote in her
diary.
China and the United States lost more than 500 airplanes and
more than 1,500 airmen during that time.
"She died with a smile, just like her Chinese name suggests - it
translates into joy and smile," said Gao Demin, Wong's eldest
son.
During Wong's final years, she was visited by some former Flying
Tigers and their descendants from the United States, and
descendants of Chinese pilots.
"I've always worried that the memories about that special time
will fade as people who lived through that part of history die, and
we all hope the next generations will not forget history," said
Antonucci Dario, who was then a telecommunications operator in the
American Air Force, two years ago.
(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2007)