Photos from W. Elsworth Smith (Smitty), SKD1c, USN, taken in India and China during the last months of WWII, 1945. Chinese-American interactions during World War II shaped both American and Chinese attitudes toward each other and continued to influence the relations between the United States and "the two Chinas" after the war. The Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) operated in China jointly along with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), America's first intelligence agency and forerunner of the CIA. SACO was commanded by General Tai (or Dai) Li, head of the Chinese Nationalist's secret service, and USN Captain Milton E. Miles, US Naval Group China, and was structured around about 2500 sailors and Marines training and operating with Chinese guerilla forces. Among all the wartime missions that Americans set up in China, SACO was the only one that adopted a policy of "total immersion" with the Chinese. The "Rice Paddy Navy" operated in the China-Burma-India theater, advising and training, forecasting weather and scouting landing areas in anticipation of potential US landing, rescuing downed American flyers, and intercepting Japanese radio traffic.
Americans committed to helping the Chinese repel the Japanese were often appalled at the brutality of war on two fronts. Invading Japanese were the targeted enemy, but political struggles in China included years of ruthless insurrection with Mao Tse-tung's Chinese Communist Part (CCP) and Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT). Regime violence during these times was a way of life as the CCP and the KMT fought for political control. The two factions had ostensibly joined forces for the fight to end the occupation, but in the waning months of the war, China, the US and the Soviet Union jockeyed for control of the new order. Some have condemned SACO experience as the epitome of American imperialistic policy of allying with Nationalist forces, while those who served in this campaign never lost sight of their work with the guerrilla forces and the people struggling to regain their country. To the Americans living and working with the Chinese, it was a harsh struggle in a mysterious land.
My father was a Specialist First Class in the Navy, training as a Seabee in 1943, but then volunteered for SACO in the China-Burma-India theater 1945. He has many stories of service in CBI area, and always spoke with highest regard concerning actions of SACO and Captain Miles, and his unit PACT Shot. He observed brutal and methodical actions from both the KMT and Communist forces in their fight to overthrow the Japanese, and establish their own political control. China was an exotic and dangerous place for American troops, and hopefully these pages and pictures will illustrate some of the excitement of the times.
Photographs on this page and more at the google Web gallery document some of the experiences in the closing months of the war in China. These photos were taken by Smitty, and developed when processing was available, and original prints were scanned from his album. Photos begin on the traintrip across India, airlift "the hump" over Burma, and show areas of China including Kunming, Chungking, Nantai, Foochou, Shanghai, and river scenes. (Most references in our documentation use the old Wade-Giles spelling for Chinese names). Please learn, enjoy, and share any information that these pages inspire.
Information on these pages was compiled from a number of sources, including my father's narratives and published citations.
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Randy@computersmiths.com
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