US honours Chinese-Americans who served in WWII
- Chinese-Americans served in all major branches of the US military
- Veterans honoured at a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony
Seventy-five years after World War II ended, Congress is honouring thousands of Chinese-Americans who served the United States in the war, earning citations for heroism – including the Medal of Honour – despite discrimination that included limits on numbers allowed in the US.
Nearly 20,000 people of Chinese ancestry served in the US military during World War II, including about 40 per cent who were not US citizens due to laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. That law made it illegal for Chinese labourers to immigrate to America and limited the Chinese population in the US for more than 60 years.
Chinese-Americans served in all major branches of the military, including the so-called Flying Tigers, the 14th Air Service that flew missions in the China-Burma-India Theatre. For their service to the nation during the war, Chinese-American veterans were honoured at a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony Wednesday.
“Despite coming from different backgrounds, Chinese-American service members fought alongside their fellow Americans with a shared love for their country,’’ said Congressman Mark Takano, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
Chinese-Americans “flew bomber missions over Europe, served on our ships in the Pacific, stormed the beaches of Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate Central Europe,’’ Takano said during an online ceremony Wednesday. The ceremony was originally scheduled in April but postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.