Among the images collected by the editors of Ex-CBI Roundup (through reader submission), and shared with the Remembering Shared Honor project, were a series of images provided by Dorothy Yuen Leuba (seen in image above, taken during her time in China during the war). Because of her travels over an extended time in China, her photos include a sprinkling of locations across China, both north and south. A short biography for Mrs. Leuba is below.
In the CBI during WWII.
Dorothy Yuen Leuba
I was born in 1922 in New York City of Swedish and Chinese parents. My father came to the United States from Shanghai, China to study at Columbia University. In 1935, I was living in Shanghai with my family, where my father had inherited an engineering factory. The factory was lost when the war between China and Japan broke our in August 1937. When Chang Kai Shek requested all overseas students to come to the aid of their country, father was commissioned a colonel in the Chinese Army, Corps of Engineers. The rest of the family was evacuated to the Philippines.
One year later we returned to China to join my father. Those were very difficult years. Never very far from the frontline, we suffered the hardships of constant bombings, epidemics and famine. In 1943, I first came in contact with United States soldiers in Kukong. Kwangtung province. The 23rd Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group set up a radio control station at Kukong. I was given a job in the mapping room, where I translated into English the location of enemy aircraft given us by the Chinese authorities.
When the Japanese made their advance on Kukong, my family, except my father, evacuated to Kweilin. There with the help of Sergeant Fred Ifft, I got a job with the Chinese Air Service Command at Yang Tong Air Base as an administrative clerk on Civil Service status. I spent the rest of the war years moving, working at Liuchow, Kunming, Chihkiang, Chanyi, Chengtu, Chungking, and Peishiyi. I served with the China Air Service Command, Northern Sub Depot, 14th Air Service Group, 12th Air Service Group and Military Advisory Group. After the war, we closed up the bases in China and went to Shanghai in November 1945.
In Shanghai, I went to work for General Chennault, who was organizing a civilian airline known as CNRRA Air Transport (later changed to Civil Air Transport or CAT). I was chief secretary until my return to the United States in January 1947 due to illness.
As an active member of the 14th Air Force Association, I have served on the board of directors. I am also active in the China-Burma-India Veterans Association. For my service to the U.S. Army Air Force, I received the Civilian Service Award, and the Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Recently I received the China War Medal. In 1980, a book called Gentle Tigress, a story of my twelve years in China, was written by C. O. Lamp.
In Sept 1948, I married Colonel Richard H. Wise (now deceased). In 1965 I married Harold Leuba, a Certified Public Accountant.
(Written 2009)
