Alice Kim Chong (1909-1972; Chinese names 张秀金 and 张秀俊) was one of Claire Chennault’s two female interpreters at Kunming between 1943 and 1945. Here they are outside the HQ building at Kunming in 1943. Eloise Witwer, Alice’s roommate and best friend, at left. Alice Kim Chong (1909-1972) at right.
Alice Chong was American-Born Chinese, born on Kauai, and educated (B.A. 1933) at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.
from when she taught at the Bridgeman Academy (具满女子中学校) in Peking (1933-1936), the same high school that the Soong sisters had attended earlier, before they married Sun Yet Sen and Chiang Kai Shek, respectively. The second one (on the right) is from when she taught at Ginling College (金陵女子文理学院) from 1938 to 1943. Originally she had gone by Zhang Xiujin (张秀金), but at Ginling she changed one character, and went by Zhang Xiujun (张秀俊).
She spoke three different Chinese languages, Japanese, Hawaiian, and English.
She had previously evacuated the Ginling College girls from Shanghai after the Japanese attacks on Nanking in 1937-38, and taught at Ginling in Exile for five years.
Alice Chong was involved in the war early on, and knew the pilots of the Chinese Air Force, beginning in 1937, while Chennault was teaching them tactics, long before he formed the Flying Tigers in 1941. She later joined the 14th U.S.A.A.F. specifically at Chennault’s invitation. She was assigned to Special Services.
Alice was the on-call translator for Japanese radio intercepts, and for messages from stay-behind Chinese informants. Her translations made much of the successful targeting of enemy shipping and land forces possible.
Alice Chong was, without any doubt, a most unique American woman, who played an important role in WWII. She survived the war, against all odds, and lived quietly in Honolulu, teaching English in high school. She left behind a rich and precious collection of her 300+ personal letters related to the CBI, her three photo albums, and her binder of newspaper articles.
(Images and information primarily courtesy of Brian Dillon. Edited by Patrick Lucas.)