The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present The Pacific Story. The Pacific Story In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea. The drama of the peoples whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here, as another public service, is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story The Pacific Story I didn't know as I stood on Ching Pai Lu, the main street of Koon Ming, that I was seeing the last of the old Yunan, the cobbled streets teeming with activity. Rickshaw men darted between the mules and ponies of the caravan. Chickens and pigs and dogs scurried out of the way. Bullets dragged rumbling carts. The air was heavy with dust and insinuating smells. I walked down toward the great gate. This day was a little different from any other day in Koon Ming. Traffic like this had been going on here for ages. Caravans had been coming and going. But then as now, Koon Ming was the gateway to the little known hill country. It hardly seemed possible that Koon Ming was a mile high, for towering above it were mountains, some of them 16,000 feet high. Magnificent, are they not? Oh, Dr. Wu. I never tire of looking up at those mountains. They are so forbidding and austere. They look almost impassable. They are, Mr. Conover. Men have cut trails through them and taken caravans through them for long years. But they have never really conquered them. No. It's always seemed to me that those caravan roads lead out to strange lands. That is right. Out there beyond is a different sort of a world, the different peoples. Yes, I've seen some of them. The ones that came down from the hills down here to Koon Ming. There are many different peoples back there. Perhaps no one knows for sure how many different tribes there are in Yunnan. Well, are some of them really barbarian, as they say, Dr. Wu? Well, Yunnan was once called the land of the southern barbarians. But what is meant by barbarian? They are different from us. Yes, I've seen some of them here. Then you can judge. But there are others too, aren't there? Yes. There are the Shan and the Meiao and the La Shan tribes and others that we know even less about. Well, do you know, Dr. Wu, there's always seemed to me to be something strange or inconsistent about this situation here. Yes. I mean that here where there are so many wild tribes and where one people can hardly understand the other, even though they've lived as neighbors for centuries, that here in Koon Ming there should be a center of culture and there should be scholars here such as you. I have been here all these years because of this situation, Mr. Conover. Well, I guess that. Yet it seems that I have learned little. I have seen the caravans move through the city and out through the gateways into the mountains. And I have seen the caravans come back. And I saw the railroad built here from Indochina. And I have watched the opium traffic. But now, looking back, it seems that I have learned very little of what there is to know about Yunnan. You know more about Yunnan and Koon Ming, Dr. Wu, than anyone who... What is that disturbance, Mr. Conover? I don't know. There seems to be some excitement over there. Yes. Come on, let's see what it is. The Japanese struck last night in the dark. Hello, Chen. What's the matter? Oh, Mr. Conover, the Japanese have made an attack on us outside of Beiping. What? Fighting has broken out in North China around Beiping. What do you... Oh, you mean the Japanese. The Japanese have attacked us. And this morning they have already taken some of our strong places around Beiping. It's come, Mr. Conover. Yes. They say that the fighting is... It would be a long war, Mr. Conover, and we may never live to see the end of it. The fighting was thousands of miles away, and yet we could feel every pulsating froth. Beiping has fallen to the Japanese, and they are now moving in force. Beautiful Nankai University at Yansin has been destroyed by the Japanese, and they are now driving... Shanghai is being shelled by the Japanese, and they have now landed strong units who are striking... The Japanese are hitting with full force in the direction of the capital of Nanking in our unit. With the coming of the war, the old Kunming and the old Yunnan passed. For many years, this isolated province of the interior, directly above Burma, wedged in between French Indochina and Xikong, had been independent. Then it was subdued by the fabulous Kublai Khan, and for years after that, it was the center of bitter dispute. Warlords, dynamic and ruthless bandits, rose to power and fell. Yunnan is the most corrupt part of all China. God your tongue. There is no mercy in those who rule us. They are not our rightful rulers, and they are corrupt. Your blood would be a high price to pay for your loose tongue. The strong ones fight for the taxes that are wrung out of our very lives, and for the wealth they get from the opium traffic. And we get nothing but misery. Hold your tongue. That one dares, but the leaders who rule us. Our lives do not belong to them, and Yunnan does not belong to them. Our hope is in waiting until we have help against these usurpers, and that time will come. Opium brought in more taxes and food stamps. As a result, many people of Yunnan starved, and more than that suffered the consequences of opium. And Yunnan's connection with the central government was thin. The coming of the war changed this. The opium production had to make way for food production, or the people had to grow food or starve. And the coming of the war brought central government agencies into the province, and drew it closer toward Chungking. We in Yunnan could feel the war approaching. By the first part of 1939, the Japanese had sealed off most of the ports of entry into China. The refugees moved inland. They poured into Yunnan. We have come all the way from Tien-Sin. You brought all those heavy cases all the way across China from Tien-Sin? There are books in them. It is all we have left of Nankai University. I remembered. The Japanese had blasted Nankai University from the face of the earth. You were an instructor there? Yes. Many of our students helped us bring the books across the country. For weeks and months, the students struggled in Tukunming. Others came from Tsinghua University, a national at Beiping. Still others from Sun Yat-Sin University at Canton. We are organizing the exile universities into a joint university here, Mr. Conover. It will be called Southwestern Associated University. You see, the will to learn and to progress cannot be crushed. Tukunming doubled in population. More scholars came to mingle with the strange people from the hills. And government men came, and military men. For now, supplies that could not be brought in through China's ports were coming in over the Hanoi-Kunming railway from Hindo, China, and over the caravan trails. Tukunming was becoming a great depot, a center of communications with the outside world. But the sky was darkening over Tukunming. The Japanese have occupied Hanoi and Haifeng in French-Hindo China. Occupied? Let me see that dispatch. Here. Yes. This means that the Japanese have control of the terminal port of the Hanoi-Kunming railway. It means that they will permit no more supplies to be brought into Hanoi over the railway into Yunnan. Yes. Yes. They are determined to blockade us. It is even more serious than that. You mean they will use the railroad against us? You can be sure of it. They will bring their supplies into Hanoi by ship and then move them up the railroad against us. Will we destroy the railroad, the portion in Yunnan? We cannot afford to destroy it. We will tear it up and move it inland. We will have use of it elsewhere. Yunnan was left without one railroad line to the outside world. Now the caravan trails that led out through the mountains became China's arteries, a very lifeline. Trucks straining under the loads made their torturous way over the Perma Road from Lashio up through Wanqing and Lungling to Kunming. They brought in gasoline and airplane parts and a thousand other things needed to carry on a war. But still we cannot get enough gasoline for our airplanes. No, I don't see how you can. We are training 600 Chinese pilots in the three schools in this vicinity. We must have gasoline. Do you have enough training planes? Not enough, no. But if we had the gasoline, we could keep them in the air throughout the hours of the day. And in this way we could give instruction to many of our cadets. The gasoline had to be brought to Rangoon by ship up to Lashio by railroad and by trucks over the Perma Road to Kunming. We have plenty of willing hands. We have built that airplane factory over there and that textile mill down there. But we cannot get enough supplies to run them. Japanese bombers coming! Air raid! Air raid! Japanese bombers coming! Throw yourself down, Mr. Conover! Lie down! Lie down! Yes, come on, get down yourself! There were no shelters then in Kunming. Those who were lucky escaped the flying fragments of the bombs and the bullets of the Japanese machine guns. But all were not lucky. The fields were littered with wrecked planes and spattered with blood. Now it was started. And we knew the Japanese bombers would be back again and again. Under the shower of bombs, trucks continued to roll over the twisting Perma Road. But the greatest blow was still to fall. Under pressure from Japan, the British government has agreed to close the Perma Road to the transit of war materials for a period of three months with Britain blasted unmercifully from the sky by the Nazi blitzkrieg, the Churchill government entered into this temporary agreement. The rain drove down and despair settled upon Yunnan. What are we going to do? Some supplies are still being smuggled into us. Not one millionth of what we need. And the Japanese are concentrating on stamping out this source. Supplies were piling up in Burma. There was no way to get them across the mountains to Yunnan. I don't think they will ever open the Perma Road again. Britain has cut us off from supplies. And the United States goes on selling scrap iron and oil to Japan. Will no nation help us? When October came, Britain was still standing up to the Nazi blitz. And in the first week of October, Britain reopened the road. The Nazis began to roll into Yunnan once more. From Yunnan they were dispatched to China's war fronts. Now, Kunming buzzed with rumors. I would say that the tension between the United States and Japan... If you ask me, there's going to be a showdown between Japan and America in the Pacific. The Japanese are going to try to close the Burma Road again. Japan and the United States are going to be at war in a matter of weeks. In September 1941, Americans showed up in Kunming. You see, Conover, it's going to be a lend-lease deal. Now, this map will show you where the railroad is going to be. And to hook on down at Lashio, eh? Yeah, yeah. You see, here's Rangoon down here. Uh-huh. A section of the railroad from Rangoon up here to Lashio was completed, oh, 40 years ago. Now, our plan is to start here at Lashio and extend the railroad right across here, up here to Kunming. About 400 miles, eh? Yeah, yeah. And when it's completed, it will link the Indian Ocean with Yunnan and Kunming. That's going to be an enormous job. Rugged country through there. Well, we'll probably have to use from a quarter of a million to half a million workers. And these workers will have to operate. The situation in the Pacific had become crucial. Word came that the Flying Tigers under Shinoke had landed down at Rangoon and Tunggu. And we're getting ready to come up here to Kunming. This is the tip-off. We're going to be at war with Japan any minute now. That's the way they talked here. And while we waited for the Flying Tigers, another message came. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. What did I tell you? What did I tell you? Twelve days later, Shinoke's Flying Tigers winged down over the mountains into Kunming. And the next day, the Japanese attacked. Oh, that's what I call a score. Ten Japanese planes and every one of them either knocked down or damaged by the Tigers. Wahoo! Kunming had become more important than ever before. Now we had pilots and planes to fight the Japanese bent on stopping the traffic over the Burma Road. Now also we knew that it would be only a matter of time until the Japanese would move in and take the Burma Road. French in though China and Thailand are already in the hands of the enemy and the Japanese are now invading Burma. The Burma Road is lost. Not only the Burma Road. Work has been stopped on the Yunnan-Burma Railway. They have cut us off from the outside world. But now China had allies. Now the United States and Britain and Russia were on her side. Yunnan was blockaded, hemmed in like a village in a stockade. The only way to bring in supplies now was by air over the hump from India. This meant more air base facilities. New fields were built. Old fields expanded. New supply depots set up. Supplies came in but not enough. But now among the teeming hundreds of thousands in Kunming a new word was heard. Lado. Lado. They're building a new road from India into China. Lado. I flew over the hump into India. Then I went up the railroad that ends at Lado. They were starting the road from there. It's a matter of chopping your way through every inch of the way. Talk to an engineer. Look at those men over there, hanking their way through. There were American soldiers, many of them Negroes, and Chinese and Indians. The bulldozers do the heavy work. The bulldozers plowed into the jungle, drove ahead, backed away, and drove ahead again. You've got to fight your way through it. Yes. You see those mountains up ahead of us there? Yes. Those are the Petkhoi Mountains. We've got to cross them. Well, I don't see how you're going to get over that terrain. Mountains, deep valleys, and all of it covered with jungle. The terrain isn't the worst of it. There's the weather and malaria. I know. It rains here five months out of the year. And when it rains, there's malaria everywhere. What about the enemy? There are Chinese scouts ahead of us. But I've got an idea. It's not going to be long before we'll be hearing gunshots, or even be closer than that. It wasn't long. The Japanese swallowed up all of Burma and attacked western Yunnan. I went back to Yunnan. It was an embattled citadel. They have taken Tenchung and Longling here and here. Chinese general pointed to the map. We have had the Japanese to the east of us here in Indochina for nearly two years. And now, with them here, we are blockaded from the south. This country here is where the Lido Road is coming through, isn't it? Yes. That is the region we must clear of the enemy. They have occupied this country here west of the Salween River. That means that they are between us here in western Yunnan and the road crews working eastward from Lido. They are between us, yes. And our objective is to clear them out. It was a race for time. A bloody, ruthless, terrible race. Whereas the Japanese were hemming us in, in Yunnan, they were driving westward toward Yichang and toward Chungking in an effort to knock China out of the war. China needed supplies. Needed them pitifully. If the Japanese could be cleared out of northern Burma, western Yunnan, the road could be pushed through despite the heartbreaking terrain, the pouring rain and malaria. That mortar fire is coming from that ridge up there. Yes. And the machine gun fire is coming from just below it. And we cannot move up until we silence them. You have your orders. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Keep down. All right. Move up. That's the way it was. Every ridge was a fortified stronghold. The Chinese fought up the steep slopes of mountain ranges, eight and ten thousand feet high. They fought down through lush water-soaked valleys, so tangled with jungles that they could hack their way through only a few hundred meters. In the meantime, General Stillwell's forces were fighting their way from Lado toward Michenov. All the time Brigadier General Louis A. Pick was pushing the road through the jungles. The word just commenced that a Japanese force is moving down toward us. Our enemy isn't the Japanese here. It's water. Yes, sir. Our advance patrols are probably already engaged in Japanese. And we'll keep on working. Keep me informed. Yes, sir. All right. Bring up that bulldozer. When the road would be pushed through, we didn't know. China's need for supplies grew. Day by day, the big transport planes came swooping down over the hump from India. The supplies they brought were absorbed as the sponge takes up water. With each passing day, Yunnan was becoming more important as the United Nations base. This is to be another new barracks, Mr. Canova. Well, how many are going to be built? As many as we need. This country is being transformed so rapidly, I can hardly realize. Yes. Since the war here in Yunnan, we have opened new tin and copper mines. We have built a copper refinery, a copper wire plant, an electrical power plant, a chemical works... And an electrical equipment plant. Yes. And many others. Well, the old Yunnan is gone. Yes. And a new Yunnan is being born. The fighting went on in the jungles. In May 1944, the Chinese crossed the Salween River, routed the Japanese out man by man. Still those forces cleaned up Michinaw and drove on. And General Pick pushed the road through, and the Chinese were able to get through. By 1945, we in Yunnan could see daylight. The old road was completed. Hey, this is something to write home about, isn't it, Mr. Canova? The young American flower stood next to me on the street. And I thought, I'm going to go home and get some fresh air. Hey, this is something to write home about, isn't it, Mr. Canova? The young American flower stood next to me on the street in Kunming. This is like the Fourth of July. Listen to those firecrackers. The streets of Kunming were jammed. People looked down from the roofs. People crowded every window. Women and children, soldiers, coolies, Americans, Chinese, people of the hilltribe. Ah, gee, this is something. It's like Thursday back home, only more. Can you see the trucks coming? Oh, that's it. Oh, this is a great day, Mr. Canova, huh? Oh, Dr. Wu. Yes, it is. It certainly is. I am as excited as the youngest child. Well, everyone is. This is the end of 30 months of blockade. 30 months. Hey, hey, there's the first one. It's a jeep. The first convoy of trucks over the Lado Road was coming into Kunming. I am so happy I could weep. Dr. Wu stood on his tiptoes and strained to see the coming trucks. There it is. There's the first one. Look, it's all decked out in flags. Yahoo! Who is that in that first truck, Mr. Canova? Let's see. Why, I think that's Brigadier General Pick. Yes, yes, it is. I've seen his picture. Hey, hey, look, Mr. Canova. There's General Pick in that first jeep. Flags and running decked the trucks. And as they passed, their crews, as joyous as the people of Kunming, shouted greetings. Ding-ho! Ding-ho! Ding-ho! Ding-ho! Right back at you! Nice going, guys! Ding-ho! Ding-ho! Ding-ho! Ding-ho! Ding-ho! Even old Dr. Wu returned the greetings. As the trucks rumbled by, dozens and scores of them. Dr. Wu's face grew solid. Each of these trucks was bringing in a cargo of supplies. This was just the first convoy. From now on, there would be an endless line of convoys. This road has been paid for in blood, Mr. Canova. Dr. Wu watched the passing trucks, not an expression on his face. Then he spoke again. Every foot of it was paid for in human life. They died, those thousands of Americans and Indians and Chinese and all the others, so that we might gain strength to fight for our lives. The Thousand-Mile Road to Kunming is dotted with the graves of the men, even the women and children who died fighting and working through the jungles. At one time, 80% of the workers on the road were ill. The men were killed by the Chinese when Burma was taken in 1942. This stretch was rebuilt almost entirely by women and children. I saw them working there. Children as young as 11 years old, women as old as 65, and many young mothers carrying babies on their backs. That's why they call that stretch the Road of the Women and Children. The day's supplies are rolling into Kunming by the thousands of tons. Those are military supplies being unloaded there. Munitions? Yes. Military supplies have a priority over all other stuff. We have to get those supplies out of here. What about the military supplies? The military supplies are being unloaded there. Can you see the military supplies? Yes. I see them. there. Munitions? Yes. Military supplies have a priority over all other supplies, but we are also bringing in supplies for civilians, health equipment and medicine. What is your potential over the road as compared with the supplies that used to come in over the hump? Well, our potential, Mr. Conover, is several times the amount brought in over the hump, but we have several problems before we can achieve that. Lack of trucks? We need more trucks, of course, and we need spare parts and machines for our repair stations, but we also need to train truck drivers. Yes, I can see that. In your country, you have an almost unlimited number of men who can drive trucks, but we do not have that in China. Therefore, right now we are preparing to train 5,000 truck drives. I talked to a military man. We expect to bring in about a thousand tons a day. That will be about enough to keep ten infantry divisions in combat for about seven days a month. Thirty thousand tons of supplies a month, plus what will be brought in by plane over the hump. We cannot count on what will be brought in over the hump. The road will relieve the pressure on the Air Service, but for a long time the 14th Air Force has needed more than could be flown in. Now it will be possible to devote the entire capacity of the Air Service to General Chanoult's Air Force, but that indirectly will help us, for it will give us more strength in the air over our operations on the ground. So you see, Mr. Connelly... Your road was named the Stillwell Road, and to us here in Kunming it became the highway to hope, and Kunming has become a symbol of fortitude and resistance, and more. From an isolated caravan city, the little-known interior of Yunnan, it has become one of the most vital military bases in Asia. Yeah, it's just a routine one day's flight from Kunming to Calcutta now. This is the young flower in the Air Service over the hump. They tell me it used to take two months by caravan and boat to make the trip. I can hardly believe it, and yet lots of times while I'm flying over that rugged country, I think about the guys that put that road through. Over that road, rolling into Yunnan, in the endless procession of trucks, are drivers who know well how the road has changed Yunnan. As they roll over the twisting turning highway, they drive through an arch at the 37th boundary stone of the Yunnan frontier. They stop and read the inscription on the arch. On one side it says, to Tokyo, and on the other side it says, we won. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. To repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Peluso. The principal voice was that of Jack Edwards Sr. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
