Nearly 20,000 people of Chinese ancestry served in the US military during World War II, including about 40 per cent who were not US citizens due to laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. That law made it illegal for Chinese labourers to immigrate to America and limited the Chinese population in the US for more than 60 years.
Chinese-Americans served in all major branches of the military, including the so-called Flying Tigers, the 14th Air Service that flew missions in the China-Burma-India Theatre. For their service to the nation during the war, Chinese-American veterans were honoured at a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony Wednesday.
