In 1993, I was traveling in China’s Yunnan Province near the border with Burma. I had heard that there was an old airfield nearby that had been used by the Flying Tigers during World War II — American volunteers who helped the Chinese resist Japanese invaders before the United States had entered the war.

Renting a bike, I rode out to a small village where I located the airfield. As I walked around it, an old man approached me and in broken English asked me if I was American. I said yes and told him I had come to see the old airfield. With that, his face lit up. He told me he had been a boy during the war and had befriended the volunteer pilots. He said he was very grateful to the U.S. for its help in defeating Japan.