Just exchanged some comments with Travis Darian Woo (our younger son) about his adventure today as a speaker at TEDXHumboldt. Travis said that he heard Betty Chinn, a woman speaker who grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China. She wound up homeless (and worse) in China. Now she helps the homeless in Humboldt County. [Ive found links about her and a couple are posted below in the comments.] My parents escape with me from the airport at Shanghai (when I was under a year old) is described in this part of an unfinished essay that I worked on earlier this year in which I used some of what my dad sent to me before he died. Whenever a plane crashed at whichever base he was at, dad went to the crashes to bring out the bodies of other pilots. In late 1948 dad was working at the Kuomintang Chinese Air Force Headquarters in Nanking, the Chinese capital, investigating warplane accidents. I was born in Nanking in 1948 during this assignment. Dad was later assigned to Shanghai. Dad wrote about the family’s escape from Shanghai as Mao and the PRC won the mainland when they conquered Shanghai and routed the Kuomintang. “One early morning in 1949 a pilot from my old Fighter Squadron came to see me. He told me the Squadron was at Kong-wan Air Field. He strongly urge me to visit my old buddies there. Sensing the urgency, as soon as he left, I rode my big Harley to the Air Field 40 miles away. I went into the War Room. The huge map on the wall showed the Commies had surrounded the field; facing them was a thin army defense force. The Field could fall at any moment. The CO told me that the Squadron had been ordered to fly back to Taiwan. The P-51s would leave in one hour. However he had asked Captain Ho to find ways to evacuate my family. Ho, the Aid De Camp to the Air Force Chief of Staff, was assigned to direct CAF activities in Kong-wan Field. Ho was a very close friend of mine. With him in charge I felt much relieved. Big Ho (Ho was over 6 foot tall, big for a Southern Chinese) came in to give me the good news that he has found space for our family aboard a VIP plane for an Air Force General. The plane was scheduled to take off at 10 AM the next day. Meanwhile I watched the P-51s take off for Taiwan with much misgivings. I went back home to get ready to leave Shanghai the next day. We bade my relatives [who had stayed in Shanghai] farewell knowing sadly that I may never see them again. [Note: All of the Woo clan who stayed in Shanghai were executed by the PRC after the PRC took Shanghai. Years later after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution ), we learned that our last surviving cousin had died when the Red Guards [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards_(China) ] sent him to a collective for reeducation and forced labor.] We left at dawn on the Harley for the airport. Margie [my mom] held Ning Ning [my parents’ name for me] on her lap with one arm and the other wrapped tightly around my waist. Except for Ning Ning’s food and diaper in the side saddle bags, we left Shanghai with only the clothes we wore. The trip took us an hour. We waited in the Control Tower for our 10AM departure. 10 came and gone. Then 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 passed by. At around 4 PM two huge trucks laden with furniture and other personal belongings arrived, the load were put on the plane. That left no room for a lowly lieutenant and his ailing family. The Air Force General to whom the VIP plane was assigned was an opium addict. Unfortunately, after some 70 years I’ve forgotten the name of the SOB, otherwise I would happily expose his sins here. Knowing that he was not be able to have his opium for the few hours that took to fly to Taiwan, he delayed the departure so he could have his fix of the filthy junk at home. That night all Tower attendants went home leaving the Tower building deserted except for three of us huddling in the waiting area. All through the night, ear splitting heavy machinegun fire rattled incessantly. Mortar rounds landed nearby violently shaking the building. All glass on the windows and doors were shattered. Acrid fumes from spent gunpowder permeated inside the building causing all of us to have wracking coughs. Cold, hungry, scared and worry about Ning Ning, we decided that as soon as there was enough light to drive the Harley and go back to the city the next day. We would put our lives in the hands of fate and the Communists. However Big Ho found us early the next day. Bid Ho told us that we were to board a C-46 transport plane going to Taiwan for engine overhaul. The plane would be taking off right away. The pilot, Captain Chang Wan-Chon, was our good friend. His wife Emily and Margie grew up together and had remained close. Except for the crew of three, the plane was empty. The Harley was already strapped down. The three of us were buckled down in the metal benches lining the sides of the cargo area. Wan-Chon took the plane to 14,000 feet; then the engines started to backfire. The big bird could not maintain altitude. Wan-Chon nursed the engines skillfully to slow the descent. I [dad] was thinking how ironic it would be for us to escape an uncertain life living under the Communists only to find us bobbling on the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to our ancestors, our plane made the Taiwan airfield. Both engines quit the instant the wheels touched the ground. We were alive!” (The link to the Cultural Revolution gives some more background. Our last remaining 2nd cousins and other distant relatives died in the Cultural Revolution. Most were executed or died after the PRC takeover.)
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 03:06:34 +0000
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