[Video/WeChat account: quzhoufb]

For nearly 30 years, United States veteran Jeffrey Greene has worked to preserve stories of Chinese and American cooperation during World War II, including the rescue of US airmen after the Doolittle Raid.

Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, attended the "See You in Quzhou" China-US people-to-people exchange activities in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, in April 2025, where he was moved to tears while watching a play based on the true story of a Chinese family helping an injured American airman.

On April 18, 1942, 80 US airmen, led by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, took off from the USS Hornet aboard 16 B-25 bombers to strike targets in Japan. After the raid, crew members of 15 aircraft bailed out or made emergency landings in parts of China, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Fujian provinces, after running out of fuel.

Residents risked their lives to search for and shelter the airmen, providing them with food and assistance despite the threat of Japanese retaliation. A total of 64 US crew members were rescued, becoming part of a notable wartime rescue effort.

Among them was Charles Ozuk, a crew member who parachuted into the mountains near Jiangshan in Quzhou, where resident Liao Shiyuan and his family rescued the injured airman. Liao's son later recalled that his mother cooked Ozuk a bowl of noodles with eggs, a precious food for the family at the time.

However, Japanese forces subsequently launched military operations and reprisals in Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Chinese accounts put the resulting death toll at about 250,000.