Life and Leisure

Forgotten heroes

By Cheng Yingqi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-14 08:06

Sun Chunlong has helped 20 Chinese army veterans who lived in exile in Myanmar after World War II return home in the past year. Wang Jing / China Daily

Soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force joined British and US troops to fight the Japanese, but ended up marooned in a foreign land and are only now returning. Cheng Yingqi reports

Journalist Sun Chunlong has helped 20 army veterans from China who lived in exile in Myanmar after World War II return home in the past year, opening up a path for the more than 1,000 volunteers in China who are trying to help former soldiers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force (CEF) to follow.

Dispatched by the Kuomintang government, CEF joined British and United States forces, from 1942 to 1945, to resist Japan's military advances in Yunnan province.

CEF didn't get its due recognition until Chinese President Hu Jintao gave a speech in September 2005 recognizing its contribution.

Even so, few people today know that some of these CEF soldiers "have been struggling at the bottom of society in other countries," the 35-year-old Sun says.

Some CEF soldiers stayed in Myanmar, or in bordering areas close to Yunnan, when the war came to an end, because they did not want to return to the mainland to fight against the Communist Party.

"Most of them were hard to reach, because no one knew of their existence," Sun says.

"I went all out but found less than 30 CEF veterans in Myanmar, while their population is estimated to exceed 1,000," Sun says.

The CEF soldiers came from inland provinces such as Hunan, Hubei, Henan and Sichuan, and did not understand the Burmese language, so they were discriminated against when they tried to find employment.

Most veterans survived by marrying local women, but few were given permanent residence by the government. They changed their Chinese names and lost contact with their families.

As the government did not recognize their identity until recently, it was impossible for them to return to China, either.

"I feel we owe these veterans so much," Sun says.

Sun first met a CEF veteran in 2005 at a small inn in Myanmar that is part of the Golden Triangle, one of Asia's opium-producing areas.

"I thought he would reveal some secrets about opium. But he just kept talking about World War II history, which I was not interested in at the time," Sun recalls.

"I asked if he had fought against the Japanese. He jumped at my question, yelling, 'If we had not, how did those buried in the Anti-Japanese Memorial Park die?'"

In Memorial Park in Tengchong county, Yunnan province, is a tablet that records the names of 9,168 CEF soldiers who died in the war.

"The soldier was so angry, but I was simply lost," Sun says. "To be frank, I knew little about this history."

So, he found out more.

"Certainly, there are some people who have come to notice this history and have showed their concern for these veterans," Sun says. "As a journalist, I felt obliged to let more people, who used to be as ignorant as me, know the history."

In 2008, Sun went to Myitkyina, in north Myanmar, and found the 90-year-old veteran Li Xiquan in a shabby wooden house on the outskirts of the city.

Li joined the CEF in 1943. He was severely wounded and was left in a hospital in Myitkyina when the army left Myanmar and headed to Northeast China.

Li lost track of his family in China and has lived in Myanmar ever since.

Sun recalls Li saying that whenever he missed home, he would take a look at a worn-out map of China, pointing to Hunan province.

Returning to China, Sun wrote up Li's story for Oriental Outlook magazine and posted it on his blog. The next day, Sun got in touch with Li's hometown, with the help of a netizen.

When Sun eventually managed to tell Li about the news, the veteran who made a living selling matches, burst out sobbing because he could not afford the 1 million Burmese Kyat ($1,558) to return home.

"I felt ashamed because I was incapable of changing Li's circumstances," Sun says.

Sun finally received 200,000 yuan ($30,034) in donations from an entrepreneur in Hunan province, Li's hometown, to cover Li's traveling expenses.

But while crossing the border, Li was refused entry to China because he did not have a passport or Chinese ID card.

After a heated debate with officials from the Yunnan public security bureau, Li finally stepped on the plane to head home, thus setting a precedent for handling similar cases.

"The first time was tough, but later we received support form every side, so the process has become smooth," Sun says.

After Li, Sun helped another 19 veterans return to their homes in China. He even persuaded army personnel in Yunnan to give military salutes to the returning veterans at the airport.

"Everyone needs recognition, especially those old veterans who already have one foot in the grave," Sun says. "Returning like a hero means a lot to them."

Sun says he's not alone.

"There have been quite a number of volunteers before me, like Chinese residents in Myanmar, staff at the embassy, journalists, entrepreneurs, officials and others who have worked in obscurity," Sun says.

Still, many old veterans died before they could return home. Sun receives news of their deaths almost every month.

The Sichuan veteran Han Tianhai is Sun's greatest regret.

"Every time I met him, Han said he would tell me the story of his life when I had the time," Sun says. "But I was always in a rush. He died in 2009."

Sun wrote the veterans' stories up as a book, Yiyu 1945, which literally means "wandering in a foreign country since 1945." Published in September, the book is available at Xinhua Bookstores across the country.

Now Sun does not have to go to Myanmar himself to help the veterans. He uses the Internet and keeps in touch with volunteers by phone.

"The organization is a loose one, but it works."