Wartime Storytelling and Mythmaking: Interpreting and Remembering the Flying Tigers in the United States, 1941–1945

Abstract

This article investigates the storytelling and mythmaking about the American Volunteer Group (avg), popularly known as the Flying Tigers, in the United States during World War ii. The avg was an aircrew of discharged U.S. military pilots and mechanics that China hired to assist in its war against Japan. Although this group was in combat for only seven months, its exploits became legendary in the United States. Based on examination of newspaper reports, magazine articles, Hollywood movies, popular biographies, and declassified documents, this article shows that Americans interpreted the avg’s service as proof of U.S. benevolence and superiority. It demonstrates that wartime stories about the avg helped many Americans regain confidence and assure their identities as racially and technologically superior people after enduring the shock of Pearl Harbor and Japan’s advance in Asia and Pacific. In this mythmaking process, Americans marginalized both the harmful impact of the avg personnel’s misconduct and the important contributions Chinese made to the avg. This article not only challenges the “Good War” image of World War ii in U.S. popular memories, but also seeks to contribute to the broader scholarly understanding of how popular memories of a nation’s overseas interventions affect its identity.