Rescued diary in Hong Kong sheds light on Chinese involvement in D-Day
The diary of a Chinese naval officer that was discovered in Hong Kong sheds light on Chinese involvement in the D-Day landings at Normandy.
HONG KONG — A key piece of a little-told chapter of World War II history almost ended up in a landfill.
In 2015, a photographer in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong was exploring an apartment building scheduled for demolition when he discovered a number of items from China’s pre-Communist republican era, including a diary from 1944. Photos he shared online quickly drew the attention of amateur historians.
That diary is now believed to be the only known primary source documenting the involvement of Chinese naval officers in the D-Day landings at Normandy. About 80 pages, it challenges previous assumptions that Chinese soldiers fought only in the Pacific theater of World War II.
The diary belonged to Lam Ping-yu, an ambitious and patriotic idealist who was born to a well-off Chinese family in Indonesia in 1911 and eagerly joined his home country’s navy. Seeking to enhance his skills as China faced Japanese military aggression, he wrote directly to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek asking to be sent for training overseas, a request that was turned down.
That changed after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, which prompted the United States to enter the war on the Allied side. Lam was among 24 Chinese naval officers sent for training in Britain, describing himself in the diary as “beyond excited,” while several dozen others went to the U.S.
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