Doolittle Raid descendant turns to film to keep US-China wartime alliance alive

A documentary filmmaker whose grandfather took part in the Doolittle Raid is working to bring the story of American and Chinese forces fighting side by side in World War II to a wider audience, including through a planned feature film.

George Retelas, a descendant of a Doolittle Raider, said his namesake grandfather was serving in the navy in 1942, loading bombs aboard the USS Hornet for the raid. He recalled that of the American airmen forced to bail out or crash land in China, 64 were rescued with the help of Chinese soldiers and civilians, who sheltered them, fed them, treated their injuries and guided them to safety.

"Learning after this affected me deeply," Retelas said. "China and the U.S. may have differences, but our people share the capacity for kindness, courage and compassion. May that shared history inspire the next generation to build a more peaceful future together."

The Doolittle Raid was planned and led by U.S. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle on April 18, 1942. It was an air raid on seven Japanese cities, including Tokyo, carried out in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the raiders ran out of fuel on their return, 64 of the 80 U.S. Air Force personnel involved were rescued by Chinese civilians and troops off the Chinese coast. Fifty-one of them were placed in Wangcun Village in Quzhou City before being transferred to Chongqing and elsewhere.

The episode was recalled at a recent face-to-face meeting between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state. Speaking at a state dinner hosted in his honor at the White House, President Xi noted that during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression from 1931 to 1945, Chinese troops and civilians rescued hundreds of American airmen at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, with the Doolittle Raid cited as one such instance.

Retelas said he plans to produce more films to give American audiences a deeper understanding of the history of US-China cooperation in battle and the friendship forged in that period. His next project, he said, is a feature-length adventure movie about four Chinese children from World War II who find an American pilot who parachutes into their village.

"It's a story inspired by real events, from the Doolittle Raid and the Flying Tigers," he said. "The important thing is to create a story that gets kids excited. And so when they grow up, they'll have that memory of that first movie that was fine and had heroes side by side of Chinese and American."

He added that each return visit has felt like an opportunity to build more friendship.