A woman named Barbara Hyde contacted me in June 2005, asking if she could read a poem I had written for my father, called "Dear Dad". It was about his participation in the Salween River Gorge Campaign in China. Basically, the war over there was to open the Burma Road into China. Her father died in the Campaign and was buried in Yunnan Province, China.

At any rate, of course, I gave permission, and this is the info on Wen, the woman who first contacted Barbara McMurrey Hyde.  The poem was read at several ceremonies, then translated into Chinese, framed and it is now hanging in the War Museum in Yunnan Province, China.

Dear Dad - can be found here: http://armymom.ozbard.com/m_family/dear_dad.htm

Today I received a parcel from Barbara, enclosing some river rocks and soil from the edge of the Salween, together with a number of photographs from the trip. I am thrilled to have participated in a small way in this endeavor, and to have a tangible bit of China to hold in my hand is an amazing thing.......Christina

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Wen Jiang

Synopsis

Shortly after the completion of the Salween Campaign in Yunnan Province, China, the city of Tengchong built a memorial for those who sacrificed their lives during the Campaign.  A special tombstone was erected for the sacrificed soldiers of the US Army who came to assist the Chinese.  However, only the name of one soldier was engraved on the stone due to the scarcity of information.

Over the years, the people of Tengchong have been wanting to know who those American soldiers were.  A special search was launched in late 2002 by a joint effort of Chinese historians, Mr. John Easterbrook, the grandson of General Stilwell, and China-Burma-India veterans.  With the help of the Hoover Institute and the US Military History Center, 19 American soldiers were identified as the American casualties of the Salween Campaign.  In September of 2004, the city of Tengchong erected 19 new tombstones for those American soldiers with their full names.  The former president, George Bush, sent a letter to express his appreciation for this effort.

The discovery of the 19 full names was not the end of this effort as the members of the search team believed the family members of sacrificed soldiers should know that the Chinese people never forgot their beloved ones who sacrificed their lives for China.  The daughters of Major McMurrey were located first, and soon several family members of other soldiers were found too.  They were informed about this effort.

Now, a special documentary about the Salween Campaign is being produced in which Chinese and American military cooperation during the Campaign is included.  The family members of some US Salween Campaign soldiers are invited to visit Yunnan in early July, 2005, to retrace their fathers’ route and share their feelings of friendship between the American and Chinese peoples forged sixty years ago.

 Biographical Information

            Wen Jiang was born in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. She earned a

BA and MS from Beijing Forestry University and a Ph.D from the University of Illinois. She was the organizer and leader of the Yunnan TV Network’s tour to interview China-Burma-India veterans for the documentary Over the Hump in the fall of 2002. She was a member of the Chinese delegation to the conference The Memory of History in Washington, D.C. in October, 2002. She was guest host of a TV special by the Yunnan TV Network about the planned raising of a P-40 fighter plane from Dian Lake, Kunming, China in 2003. The raising is said to happen in 2005 and the documentary will be broadcast at the same time. She is a member of the project to search for the names and family members of the American soldiers who died during the Salween Campaign of 1944 and a liaison person of the Yunnan WWII Memorial Park Preparation Committee. She is the author of A Search of 60 Years in Huaxia Cultural Geography (in Chinese) and in China’s Ethnic Groups (in English).