Singapore pilot, 99, on wartime Hong Kong and being a Flying Tiger War veteran Ho Weng Toh has released a memoir of his years as a pilot for the First American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force. by Dewey Sim
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong
- Ho Weng Toh, one of the last surviving members of the First American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, has published a memoir
- He got to know tycoon Robert Kuok at Malaysia-Singapore Airlines in the 1960s and the latter remembers the ex-pilot as ‘Uncle Ho’
It has been almost eight decades since Hong Kong fell into the hands of Japanese forces during World War II, but war veteran Ho Weng Toh can still remember the fear that plagued the city.
One particular memory that stands out for the 99-year-old was seeing Kai Tak Airport – Hong Kong’s international gateway from 1925 to 1998 – go up in flames in front of him.
“From the balcony, I had a clear view of the Kai Tak Airport … The airport had always been a pleasant sight for me. That day, it was not,” said Ho, who was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, but was studying at the University of Hong Kong at the start of the war.
“Above the airport were plumes of black smoke rising up to the sky.”
Japanese aircraft bombed the airport and other areas in Kowloon in December 1941, when Ho was living in HKU’s May Hall hostel, with – as he recounts – a valet who would make his bed and polish his shoes.
In a newly released 312-page book titled Memoirs of a Flying Tiger: The Story of a WWII Veteran and SIA Pioneer Pilot, Ho describes the Japanese occupation as a “very fearful period” and tells of how he went on to sneak supplies to prisoners of war. Eventually, he fled Hong Kong for mainland China, managing to evade capture by Japanese troops hot on his heels.
As part of the Flying Tigers, Ho trained in various places, including Kunming, India and Colorado. He eventually took part in several missions during the war flying the B-25 bomber, aimed at destroying Japanese warehouses and routes to cripple their advance.
Ho was honoured in Beijing and Taipei for his contribution to the anti-Japanese war effort during the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in 2015.
At 99, the former pilot is still “remarkably fit and erect”, said former Singapore foreign minister George Yeo in the preface of the memoir.
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