Viewing page 88 of 131

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Lee Ya-Ching  2-minute script

Before the second World War began in China, the women of my country were just beginning to emerge from the home. It was my good fortune to be able to take part in their emancipation by learning to fly at an early age. I was the first Chinese woman ever to become an airplane pilot. After studying all branches of the science of flight in Europe and America, I returned to China in 1936. There I covered the entire country by air looking for likely spots, airdromes and aerial routes in the interests of civil aviation. Later I flew as a commercial pilot in China, and helped to organize [[crossed out]] the [[/crossed out]] China's first civilian flying school [[crossed out]] there [[/crossed out]].

When war broke out, I helped to establish refugee camps and an emergency hospital for our wounded soldiers. The Japanese, [[crossed out]] I was told, [[/crossed out]] put a price on my head, [[crossed out]] and called me "The Red Devil." I [[/crossed out]] I heard about it and managed to escape from Shanghai several days after the Japanese occupied that city. [[strikethrough]] in 1932. [[/strikethrough]] That was in 1937. I came to know the full fury of the war that the Japanese had inflicted on my people when I traveled between Canton and Hongkong along a railroad line that was continually bombed. In 1938 I decided I could best serve my country by helping to enlist the aid of Americans in our cause.] I came to America and made my first good-will tour by airplane, representing Chinese organizations organized for relief. With time out for making motion pictures, I devoted myself to traveling and speaking appearances for the last two years, trying to explain the importance to America and the whole world of China's grim struggle against the forces of aggression.

When we are finally at peace again, aviation will prove a great boon to my country because China is so vast and so lacking in modern transportation facilities. The trip from Shanghai to Chungking, our present capital, used to take two months by sedan chair. Now it can be covered, by airplane, in eight hours. Aviation has taught us so much about our country what we might never