Xinhua
13 Oct 2026

NANCHANG, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Gazing at a black-and-white photograph, 94-year-old Guan Dongxiang drifted back to a wartime encounter that unfolded 84 years ago.

The photo shows a little girl with short hair standing behind an American pilot in a flight jacket, her mouth round and eyes wide with surprise.

"That's me," Guan murmured. The pilot in the frame was one of the Doolittle Raiders, whom Guan's family risked their lives to help decades before.

On Sunday, in the Yangcun Village committee office in Shangrao, east China's Jiangxi Province, Guan was waiting for the raiders' descendants, who had traveled all the way from across the Pacific.

Footsteps approached from the doorway, and the descendants walked in. Among them was Thomas Macia, whose father, James Macia, had served as navigator and bombardier for Crew No. 14 of the Doolittle Raid.

"There she is," Thomas said excitedly. "I knew she existed. I had not met her before. So I think the greatest thing is that she is a direct connection to 1942."

Thomas stepped forward quickly. Guan immediately reached out. When their hands clasped, the elderly woman smiled and her eyes lit up.

Thomas bent down to study the photograph alongside Guan, gesturing and saying that he had known this picture since he was this age.

The image had left a deep impression on him since childhood. When Thomas was 9, he first saw it in his father's album: a young Chinese girl standing beside co-pilot Jack Sims.

The story behind the photo traces back to April 18, 1942, when a group of 16 U.S. bombers took off from the USS Hornet and bombed Japan in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After the raid, 15 planes heading for an airport in Quzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province ran out of fuel and crashed in various localities in east China, including Jiangxi.

Chinese villagers risked their lives to rescue the parachuting airmen and helped them evacuate to safety. Of the 75 airmen aboard the planes, 64 were rescued by the Chinese people.

Their rescue, however, came at a tremendous cost. Many locals were suspected of sheltering the Americans, and some were tortured or even killed by Japanese soldiers.

In China, the Doolittle story has long been regarded as a symbol of the friendship forged between the Chinese and American peoples during their joint fight against fascism.

The history has left a deep mark not only on Thomas, but also on Guan. Though age has blurred many of Guan's daily memories, the spring of 1942 remains sharp.

"It was the morning of April 19, 1942," she recalled. She was nine and grazing cattle by a field while her father, Guan Wenqing, the village head, worked nearby.

Sims parachuted onto the mountainside, soaked and wrapped in his parachute. He slept until morning before Guan Wenqing and the villagers found him and brought him down the mountain.

"We cooked hot noodles, but he couldn't use chopsticks and wasn't used to them," Guan said. Sims pulled out candy and shared it with the children watching.

None had seen such foreign snacks before, and none dared try. "I was bold, so I took a bite. It was sweet and delicious," she recalled.

Together with Chinese soldiers, Guan Wenqing then escorted Sims to the county seat. Nine days later, Sims returned to Miliang'ao Village with a camera and took the image.

The photograph was carried back to the United States and kept in James Macia's album.

James Macia had also been saved by locals after bailing out of his plane. He once pointed to a spot on a map and told Thomas that his life had been saved by the Chinese villagers, officials and soldiers there -- people he remembered until he died in 2009.

Unable to return to China in his lifetime, James Macia carefully kept the photograph. Thomas later made it his mission to revisit the site and meet the descendants of those who had helped.

In 2018, Thomas traveled to China for the first time and met Luo Shiping, a researcher with the Shangrao Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Association. Over the following years, they exchanged nearly 1,000 emails.

Thomas combed through U.S. archives and provided clues, while Luo trekked through the mountains of northeastern Jiangxi, interviewing witnesses. Guided by the old photo, researchers searched several places and finally found Guan Dongxiang, who was by then 90 years old.

In the postwar years, Doolittle Raiders and their descendants established organizations such as the Children of the Doolittle Raiders. They hold annual commemorations, seminars and photo exhibitions to honor the Chinese who took part in the rescue.

Researchers in Shangrao have continued to collect scattered documents and oral testimonies, working with their American counterparts to preserve this transnational memory.

Before leaving, Thomas posed for a new photograph with Guan and her family. The descendants of Crew No. 14 promised to return.

"One old photograph captured a chance encounter and life-and-death aid in wartime, while one new photograph continues the story of cross-ocean friendship in peacetime," said Luo, noting that together, they bear witness to a friendship forged in blood and fire that has not dimmed in 84 years.