An identification or rescue flag, also known as a blood chit, attracted the attention of many visitors on Saturday at the opening of an exhibition for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Sponsored by Academia Historica, the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Education, the exhibition at the Armed Forces Museum features documents and photographs relating to the 1937-1945 conflict.
One section of the exhibition, which is to run until Nov. 28, is dedicated to the American Volunteer Group (AVG), which operated in China during World War II. Among the items on display is a blood chit bearing an Republic of China (ROC) flag and Chinese inscription.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of Lu Wen-fang
The blood chit says: “This foreign person has come to China to help in the war effort. Soldiers and civilians, one and all, should rescue and protect him.”
The item belonged to Delee Boyd Crum, who joined the AVG and piloted C-47s transport planes over the Himalayas from India to China.
The blood chit, issued by the ROC’s Air Force Commission to AVG pilots serving in the China-Burma-India theater, was taken to the US by Crum after the war.
Crum’s son contacted the museum and said that the chit should be preserved and displayed in the museum so that more people could learn about war history.
The ROC’s Air Force Commission produced 10,000 blood chits for the Flying Tigers, a US outfit under the command of General Claire Chennault and members of the American Volunteer Group.
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