Another side to Flying Tigers' Story

A photo of Chen was taken in 2012 at the opening of the Kunming Flying Tigers Museum. At the time, he had donated his flight jacket to the museum, the same one he was wearing when he jumped out the plane in 1943.

In the photo, Chen was wearing that jacket and burst into tears in front of the big picture of US General Claire Lee Chennault, founder of the Flying Tigers, and his comrades exhibited in the museum.

Other photos in The Forgotten Heroes in US-China Joint Air Forces during WWII include portraits of Chinese Flying Tigers pilots such as Wu Qiyao, Lin Yushui and Liao Tanqing and other veterans of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). Wang Jingfang, who joined the northeast army in 1927, witnessed the September 18 Incident and participated in the battle of Taierzhuang — the Chinese army's first frontal battlefield victory.

Li Chunyang, one of the veterans Liu photographed, was a soldier of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. He joined the army when he was 23 and carried on guerrilla operations to fight the Japanese Kanto army during that time.

"That piece of the story is something we all hold very dear in our mind," said Gu Hongbin, a Chapel Hill Town Council member. "And for myself, it's the first time the story of how American and Chinese pilots fought side by side during the World War II has been told."