Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou Makes Top Secret Visit to Yanks Air Museum in Chino, Calif.
By Donia Moore 
Most people love surprises. The people at Yanks Air Museum in Chino, Calif. received a double whammy of a surprise when officials recently arranged a top-secret visit of Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou to the museum. A fan of aviation history and vintage aircraft, Ma came to meet with 92-year-old retired Lieutenant Colonel Harold Javitt, USAF. Javitt is a former member of the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force. Nicknamed the Flying Tigers, the group consisted of three squadrons with approximately 30 aircraft each. It was composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC), recruited under presidential authority and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The fierce shark-faced nose art of the Flying Tigers remains one of the most recognizable images of any individual combat aircraft or combat unit of World War II. The Flying Tigers were responsible for defending China against Japanese forces during World War II. Javitt and his family members have been invited to participate in Taiwan’s military parade held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan. Yanks Air Museum
President Ma toured the Air Museum’s famous and rare collection of more than 200 vintage aircraft with Museum founder, Charles Nichols, viewing World War II planes, including a F-5E Tiger II (originally donated to the museum), a Doolittle’s Raiders B-25 Mitchell, and a P-40 Warhawk. For more than 40 years, the Yanks Air Museum has maintained the highest standard of excellence in finding, restoring, preserving, and showcasing civilian and military aircraft. Comprising one of the largest aviation collections in the world, Yanks Air Museum ranks among the best.
Yanks’ aircraft are uniquely restored and reconstructed to their original factory specifications. The museum grants visitors accessto view the restoration process in detail, as it occurs in the museum’s restoration hangar. Many of their aircraft are the only surviving examples of their kind, so rare that they may never fly. These aircraft embody the very essence of Yanks Air Museum and their commitment to preservation.Flying Tiger DiplomacyPresident Ma was returning to Taiwan after official state visits to Dominica, Haiti, and Nicaragua. The reason for the president’s visit to Yanks Air Museum was two fold. He wanted to express his gratitude to the American airmen of the Flying Tigers, who served in China’s war of resistance against Japan. He is also seeking to uphold the Republic of China government’s campaign to support an interpretation of history, which runs counter to claims by the mainland People’s Republic of China. Beijing has always maintained that the Communist Party of China was the mainstay in the war of resistance against Japan. President Mao disputes that claim.During the war, the Communist Party of China supported two guerrilla forces—the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. They rescued dozens of American airmen who were shot down by the Japanese in their mission against targets in occupied China. However, the pilots of the ROC Air Force who served under Claire Lee Chennault’s Chinese American Composite Wing took the brunt of the campaign when they launched an air war against Japan with their American counterparts. The Flying Tigers bombed Taiwan only twice before the end of the war but downed 296 opposing aircraft while only losing 14 pilots. However, the raid against Hsinchu on Nov. 25, 1943 was the first American bombing against the island after the outbreak of the Pacific War. It became more controversial because all American aircraft that flew in the mission were launched from Mainland China, which still remains a major threat to Taiwan’s national security. Ma was blamed for not viewing history from the perspective of the Taiwanese people.“After all, the communists did not have an air force during World War II,” said Liu Chao-shiuan, the first retired premier of the ROC to serve under President Ma. “It is a legacy that Mainland China can never steal from the ROC.” In order to gain moral support from the United States during the Cold War era, Chennault and Madame Chiang Kai-shek launched their “Flying Tigers Diplomacy.” Chennault remained a staunch anti-communist and a loyal supporter of Chiang Kai-shek until his death from lung cancer in 1958. After he passed away, the ROC government erected his statue in Taipei New Park to honor him at the request of Madame Chiang. The American and Chinese veterans who served under Chennault worked extremely hard to maintain this historical bond between the ROC and USA for decades after Washington switched its diplomatic recognition of China from the ROC to the PRC in 1979. Now that the pendulum is swinging back, President Ma has returned to his policy of “Flying Tiger Diplomacy” to try to repair relations with the U.S. It has received a warm response from his American friends and veterans of both nations. Chen Hung-chuan, former deputy commander for the ROC Air Force who once served as a pilot under Claire Chennault, presented an A-2 flying jacket that the Flying Tigers wore during the war to President Ma in 2013. Ma has worn the jacket on various public occasions, including the New Year flag raising ceremonies held in 2014 and 2015.Ma Ying-jeau is the 12th President of ROC. He was born in 1950 in Hong Kong, the only male in a family of five siblings. It was only a year after his birth that his family relocated to Taiwan from Hong Kong, where they have lived ever since. Ma graduated from the National Taiwan University with a Bachelors Degree in Law. His quest for higher education brought him to the U.S., where he earned a Masters Degree in Law from New York University, and a doctoral degree from Harvard, specializing in Law of the Sea and International Economics.Yanks Air Museum is open from 9 AM to 4 PM Tuesday through Sunday. General admission starts at only $11, featuring $5 entry for children ages 5-11, and offers a discounted rate of $10 for all seniors 65 and over. Experience Open Cockpit adventures on the third Saturday of every month, where children and visitors of all ages can climb aboard and into the cockpits of featured aircraft. Go for a flight on an historic aircraft. Group tours are available and memberships are always welcome. Visit us at www.yanksair.com, or on our Facebook page at YanksAir.
