Hazel Ying Lee: Flying for China

Hazel at the Portland Flying Club, 1932.

Museum of Chinese in America (MOAC)

When Japan invaded Manchuria, the large northern province of China, in September, 1931, it caused great concern for people who lived thousands of miles away: Chinese Americans, many of whom had settled on the West Coast of the United States.

The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Portland, Oregon, decided to take action: it raised $20,000 and donated it to the local Chinese Flying Club in order to train young Chinese Americans to fly in Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's air force...

In March, 1933, Hazel and 16 other Portland Flying Club trainees left for China. But when she arrived, Hazel was told that the Chinese Air Force would not allow any woman pilots to fly military missions. Why? The Chinese Air Force officers claimed "women are erratic in combat."

Hazel was given a desk job with the Chinese Commission on Aeronautical Affairs and also flew for commercial flights, sometimes flying Soong Mei-ling, wife of the Generalissimo from place to place. She also flew over highly populated areas, dropping pro-Chinese leaflets to encourage Chinese resolve against the Japanese.

Her base of operation eventually became the populous southern city of Canton, where she opened a school for her young Chinese relatives. 

Hazel was still in China in 1937 when the Japanese began their campaign to conquer the entire country. When Canton was bombed in the spring of 1938, Hazel found safe shelter for herself and her family. Her friend Elsie Chang asked why she seemed so fearless. "If everybody else is afraid," Hazel replied, "there has to be somebody that could take over. And I'm the one to take over."

From "Hazel Ying Lee: American Flygirl" from Women Heroes of World War II.