Stephen Bonner, an ace US fighter pilot and one of the last surviving members of the swashbuckling “Flying Tigers” who fought the Japanese for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during World War II, has died, friends and colleagues announced on Thursday.
He was 103.
The Flying Tigers, an assembly of US volunteer fighter pilots forming the Aviation Volunteer Group based in Kunming, China, operated out of what was then Burma in the early 1940s in support of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) against the Japanese, conducting dangerous missions over Japanese-occupied China and shooting down hundreds of enemy bombers.
They initially operated as mercenaries with the tacit support of the US government, given Washington’s official neutrality toward imperial Japan before the attacks on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in late 1941.
Serving under US Army lieutenant general Claire Chennault — who led the Republic of China (ROC) Air Force during the war before the KMT’s retreat to Taiwan in the Chinese Civil War — in 1943 and 1944, Bonner flew “five confirmed and five probable aerial victories, and additionally was credited with damaging two more fighters and bombers,” Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation chairman Jeff Green said.
“With his remarkable longevity, Steve would become the last living ‘Fighter Ace’ to have flown in China during the Second World War,” Green said, describing him as a “gallant soldier and a Christian gentleman.”
Later in life, Bonner became an advocate for the commemoration of the Flying Tigers’ legacy and US-China dialogue, founding the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation and receiving the Congressional Gold Medal.
He also visited China with fellow veterans in 2005, where they were named honorary citizens of Kunming.
Public Television Service produced a documentary series on the Flying Tigers, which operated in the Chinese-Burma-India region — known as the CBI Theater — during World War II.
“The Flying Tigers squadron forms a very important chapter in Taiwan’s wartime history, where the Republic of China and the US air forces worked together with outstanding camaraderie, spirit and cooperative fellowship,” then-ROC Air Force chief of staff Liu Shou-jen (劉守仁) said when the series was first aired in 2014.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS