American Flygirl

“American Flygirl is an important story told in a simple straight-forward and concise way . . .”

Although not clear from the title (or the introduction), Susan Tate Ankeny tells the story of Hazel Ying Lee, American born daughter of Chinese immigrants who became the first Asian American of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) in World War II in American Flygirl. Already notable as a female pilot, her status was also important for her parents’ homeland at that time that was defending itself, and losing the war, against a brutal invasion by Japan.

Ankeny provides background on the aviation, feminist, and racial aspects of this unique story. That task proves daunting as Lee led an exceptional life for any woman of her time. The future pilot was born on August 25, 1912, in Portland, Oregon, during the dawn of the Age of Aviation, but also during the great period of legal discrimination against the Chinese American community.

The author explains that the Chinese in America “could not vote, own land, live outside designated Chinese communities, serve on a jury, apply for citizenship, or attend public schools.” With some exceptions, Chinese immigrants were barred from the United States and discouraged from returning if they left.

In 1932, at age nineteen, Lee’s life came together in Portland after a few years of failing to find a job or a purpose, at a time made worse by the Great Depression. The Chinese government was seeking pilots of Chinese descent to resist the Japanese invasion and aviation pioneers, including Amelia Earhart were breaking records. Flying was becoming big in Portland.

Lee took her first flight that year. She also pushed to be allowed to be an elevator operator in a department store, a job denied to Chinese, but succeeded and obtained the money needed for flight lessons. Fortunately, her flight instructor was Al Greenwood, only a few years older, and willing to teach a woman student. He was also training young men for the Chinese air forces.

Lee was not the only Chinese woman in Portland learning to fly. At that time, however, America had only 200 female pilots, representing only 1% of all flyers. Before 1932 ended, she did become the first American born Asian woman to receive a pilot’s license, and only the second Chinese woman in the United States to do so.

Lee also broke the rules to become one of two women to join Greenwood’s Chinese Flying School to serve against the Japanese. The school drew Chinese Americans from across the country.

This new female pilot and her friend Virgnia Wong were the only women pilots in China and were made lieutenants. “They earned no admiration for this distinction, only disapproval and suspicion.” They were accepted into the Chinese Aeronautical Library but not the Air Force.

Although Lee’s parents were among the 86% of immigrants who came from Taishan, near Canton, she spoke Americanized Cantonese not Mandarin, the new national language of China, which she had to learn. Nonetheless, she began a school for teaching Chinese commercial pilots, including women.

Lee did not return to the United States until 1938, as Japan began successfully capturing all of China’s ports, making the nation land locked. Her friend Virginia Wong and others close to her in China had died, some directly due to the war.

In New York, the first Chinese American female pilot worked as a stenographer for a company buying war materials from the United States government. In 1942, she joined the women signing up for positions as non-combat miliary pilots started by the famous aviator Jacquiline Cochrane. This idea would imitate a successful program used in wartime Great Britain.

Conditions and training for the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots in Texas, described in most of the book, was demanding, and candidates were frequently dropped, almost including Lee. As pilots, who often would be ferrying planes alone, they received more training than the men. She became the program’s only Asian American.

The author explains that Hazel Ying Lee loved being a pilot, and she married a pilot in the Chinese Air Force. Her adventures as a pilot ferrying planes from the factory to the military came to an end in Great Falls, Montana on November 25, 1944. A male pilot in a plane crashed into her P-63 as the two planes attempted to land, each unaware of the other. She died from the burns after having flown the plane across the country.

Only the dangers of flight did not discriminate. Her body was turned away from a funeral home that only served white deceased. As a WASP she was not considered a veteran, and her family was denied her burial beside her brother in a military cemetery. Her family also did not receive insurance money, had to pay for the shipment of the body, and her funeral. They went silent on her existence.

Hazel did not live to see the disbanding of the WASPs, a month later, or President Obama recognizing and honoring these women pilots in 2010. Ankeny writes, however, that “Hazel’s courage continues to inspire today.”

American Flygirl is an important story told in a simple straight-forward and concise way for younger readers, but the text proves confusing at times to anyone unfamiliar with the subject, even the title could have helped with an appropriate subtitle. This work has annotation and photographs.