Tung-Sheng Liu

Tom a MUCH belated condolence on the death of your dad. Get in touch if you like... we havent corresponded since a few years after you moved to Dayton!
[email protected]

Saved by powers marvelously, we expect good confidently, what may come.
God is with us in the evening and in the morning and most certainly on each new day.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Liu when he came back East to a reunion/conference for members of the Doolittle Raiders, with both of his sons. What a personal pleasure for me.

Memorial Day used to be a big event for our father, Tung-Sheng Liu. He looked forward to participating in the Columbia, Mo. "Salute to Veterans" parade, many times with his good friend Col. Travis Hoover by his side.


Here's a remembrance of both men offered by Mike Pound of Joplin, Mo. -- where Col. Hoover lived -- as a tribute to their enduring friendship:


I'm not much for asking people for their autographs. Oh sure, if I saw Bob Gibson, I might gather up the courage to approach him and ask him to sign something for me, but for the most part, I figure one person's signature is as good as another person's.


But there was one time when I, without any hesitation, asked for an autograph. It was in 2003, and I was talking to an elderly man at the Webb City Health and Rehabilitation Center. The man, whose name was Tung-Sheng Liu, was not a resident at the center. He was there to visit a friend who was a resident.


Tung-Sheng's friend's name was Travis Hoover. And their friendship was forged more than 60 years earlier in the mountains of China.


Travis Hoover, who passed away in 2006, is probably better known as Col. Travis Hoover. Col. Hoover was a member of Doolittle's Raiders, the famous all-volunteer B-25 bomber group led by Col. James Doolittle.


Col. Hoover was one of 16 pilots who, along with four-man crews, took off from an aircraft carrier 670 miles east of Tokyo and bombed mainland Japan four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.


After the successful bombing mission, Col. Hoover, desperately low on fuel, was forced to crash-land in China. A group of Chinese guerrillas battling the Japanese quickly hustled the airmen away and hid them from patrolling Japanese soldiers.


At the same time, Tung-Sheng -- an English-speaking Chinese aeronautical engineer -- was making his way through the area, on his way to Shanghai and a job in an airline factory. Tung-Sheng was contacted by the guerrillas, and quickly agreed to serve as both an interpreter and a guide to lead Col. Hoover and his crew to safety.

It was an incredibly selfless and brave thing to do. Tung-Sheng literally risked his life for five men he had never met.


Beverly Zerkel, of Joplin, is Col. Hoover's stepdaughter. Beverly said Tung-Sheng showed unbelievable courage. "I don't think anyone realizes the extent of danger he was in," she said. "The Japanese wouldn't have just killed Tung-Sheng. They would have tortured him and
then killed him."

After the war, Tung-Sheng managed to make it to the United States. He earned a master's degree at the University of Minnesota. In 1948, while at the university, he saw in a local newspaper that the Doolittle Raiders were holding their annual reunion in Minneapolis.

Tung-Sheng gathered up his very pregnant wife, Man-Ming, and went to the reunion. When he walked into the hotel room where the airmen were holding their reunion, Tung-Sheng was mobbed by Col. Hoover and the other crew members.

Col. Hoover and Tung-Sheng would remain close friends until Hoover's death. Beverly said she can't remember not knowing Tung-Sheng. "They were more than friends," Beverly said. "They were like brothers."


Tung-Sheng Liu passed away on Sunday. He was 92. Tung-Sheng's oldest son, Tom, sent me an e-mail Wednesday telling me about his father's passing. I called Tom on Thursday. Tom told me that his father's experience during World War II was a big part of his life. Tom said his father was immensely proud of his experiences with the Doolittle Raiders.

But that pride was mixed with a large amount of humility, Tom said. "He would talk about it when asked, but it wasn't something that he dwelled on," Tom said. "He was pretty humble about it. He used to say, 'I was 26. I didn't think too much about the consequences of what I was doing'."


Tung-Sheng, who was made an honorary member of the Doolittle Raiders, went on to a successful career as an aeronautical engineer. Tom said his father was extremely proud of his work in developing the C-5 military transport plane.

But Tom said that most of all, his father was proud of his family. "Family was everything to him," he said. "Family was just about the most important thing there was."

Tom said his father was active in Chinese-American community groups in California and also was a devoted fan of Chinese opera.


I mentioned that his father was a tough act to follow, and Tom chuckled. "Yes, he was. But he allowed us to develop our own ways," Tom said.


Beverly mentioned to me that once, many years ago, she tried to tell her son, who was about 7 years old at the time, that his grandfather was a hero. And he said, "If he's a hero, how come people aren't asking for his autograph?" Beverly said with a laugh.


Well, Col. Hoover was a hero. And so was Tung-Sheng. That's why I asked for his autograph.

####

Among Tung-Sheng Liu's dearest friends were Col. Travis Hoover and other members of a Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders crew that crashlanded in WWII China and were assisted by Liu. This photo(left to right), taken somewhere in China during that time, shows Lt. Carl Wildner, a district commissioner Chu, Lt. William Fitzhugh, Lt. Travis Hoover, Tung-Sheng Liu, Lt. Richard Miller and Sgt. Douglas Radney. Hoover died in 2006.

I had the honor of meeting, and spending time with Mr. Tung-SHeng Liu during the filming of my movie "Raiders Remembered". What I "remember", is a humble man full of honor, and courage, but most of all his smile. Men like this come rarely in a lifetime, and I am proud and fortunate to have met him.

Our father's dear friend, Susan Tsui, gathered remembrances from the Chinese-American community in Dayton, and contributed them for this guestbook:

Liu Tung-Sheng (1916-2009)
A Pioneer in Dayton’s Chinese Activities
Susan L. Tsui


I was saddened by the phone call of Miss Tsai (Tsu-Tsu Tsai). Mr. Tung-Sheng Liu passed away on May 3, 2009. He was a long-time friend for many of us old timers.

Yuegen Yu and Daijian Wang invited me to write something about our beloved late friend. Feeling that this is a meaningful thing to do for him and his family, I collected information from his friends and came up with this tribute.

Mr. Liu and his family came to Dayton in 1956. He found fewer than ten Chinese families in town at the time. Chinese immigrants began to move in only since the 60s.

In the fall of 1973 the University of Dayton invited him to participate in its International Tea activity. Borrowing from friends’ Chinese arts and crafts, he came up with a display of a traditional Chinese scholar’s study. He also entertained students with questions and answers.

At the same time, the Dayton Council on World Affairs came into existence and invited various ethnic groups to participate in an international festival the following year. Under Mr. Liu’s leadership, Dayton Association of Chinese Americans (DACA) was founded as a non-profit organization. Since then, DACA has faithfully participated in the activity in good times (like when we made money in the old days) and in bad times (like more recently when we did not make money). This enduring tradition bears witness to DACA’s passionate spirit in sharing our culture with the world.

According to Molly Chuang, Mrs. Liu (Man-Ming Wang Liu) was the first to open her family to other Chinese children and to teach them Chinese language. There were only four students at the time. Forty-some years have passed. Today we have two Chinese schools and over 200 students. High schools in Dayton have begun to offer Chinese as an elective foreign language. Times have changed.

Out of his own pocket, Mr. Liu sponsored a Chinese opera group to perform in a Dayton theater. For the first time, American people were exposed to a traditional Chinese art form here. The Liu’s were also one of four couples engaged in Bible study at home. Each family was responsible for a monthly gathering. Today we have two Chinese churches in Dayton.

In addition to his heartfelt warmth for Chinese friends, he was a well-trained engineer and an expert in wind tunnels, an important aerodynamic tool for building aircraft. In March 1975 he went to Taiwan to help the Center for Flight Development put together a wind tunnel. He suffered a fall while on the job, developed a subdural hematoma, and was rushed back for brain surgery. This was learned from Joseph Cheng. Mr. Liu seldom told people what he did. He was the kind of person who enjoyed doing good deeds silently.

I've put together here what I’ve learned. For sure more of his good deeds have gone unmentioned. Mr. Tung-Sheng Liu was truly a person with vision and passion, a good leader who listened to suggestions and acted with wisdom. We Daytonians are fortunate to have had a friend and leader like Mr. Liu. I will always remember his kind and genuine smile.

Dear Liu family. I have had the honor of meeting and speaking with your father at some of the Doolittle Raiders reunions. We appreciated his gracious spirit and his friendship for these men. I was sorry to hear of your loss and pray that you will find comfort in the Lord.

My father Tung-Sheng Liu lived a full life, during an historic era. They don't make history like that anymore. He lived that rich life in two worlds: one being his birthplace China, and the other being his adopted homeland America. Here are additional details about his life, for those of you who've asked to know more:

Tung-Sheng Liu, who risked his life to help American pilots in China during WWII, died of pneumonia in Monterey Park on May 3, 2009. He was 92.

Born to a merchant family in China, Mr. Liu devoted much of his life to fostering a deeper understanding between China and America. He studied aeronautical engineering at one of China's most prestigious universities, Tsinghua, and dreamed of furthering his studies in the U.S. At Tsinghua he also met Man-Ming Wang Liu who became his wife and shared his dream of studying in America.

One of the most dramatic examples of how Mr. Liu brought Chinese and Americans together took place in April 1942. In a defining moment in his life, he helped rescue members of a U.S. B-25 crew which had crash-landed near the Chinese coast. They were members of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders, daring U.S. airmen whose planes had taken off from an aircraft carrier to bomb Japanese military targets.

Acting as interpreter and guide, Mr. Liu helped lead the Americans through Japanese-occupied areas to a dusty air strip where they flew to safety. "During our whole trip under Liu's guidance, our treatment was superb," navigator Lt. Carl Wildner was quoted as saying in 'Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders', a book written by Lt. Col. Carroll V. Glines about the attack. "He had risked his neck for us."

After WWII ended, Mr. Liu fulfilled his youthful dream of traveling to the U.S. to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota. Through a lucky coincidence, he met up again with the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders, led by the legendary Gen. "Jimmy" Doolittle. Mr. Liu was extremely proud to be named an honorary member of the Raiders; he maintained lifelong friendships with the airmen he'd helped in China and eagerly took part in most of the Raiders' yearly reunions.(He was too ill to make the most recent gathering in late April when just four Raiders -- out of the original 80 -- took part.)

Although Mr. Liu and Man-ming did not plan to stay in the U.S. permanently, the outbreak of China's civil war and the communist takeover in 1949 led to his settling in America. He became a U.S. citizen in 1954 (and was not to reunite with family members -- including eldest son Guangyuan -- in China again until a quarter century later). In 1956 he began work as a civilian aeronautical engineer at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, where he helped develop the C5 military transport aircraft.

After retiring, he moved from Dayton to the Los Angeles area in 1981. He was active in Chinese-American community groups such as the Dayton Association of Chinese-Americans, the Tsinghua University Alumni in South California, and the Chinese Committee on Aging in Los Angeles. Mr. Liu was an avid fan of Chinese opera.

Mr. Liu was married for 58 years to Man-Ming, who passed away in 1999. Dearly missed, Mr. Liu is survived by his sister Shii-Sheng and four children -- Guangyuan, Tom, Melinda and Sheridan -- as well as three grand-children and two great-grandchildren.

The funeral was Friday, May 8 at 1:00 pm at The Rainbow Chapel, Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 Workman Mill Rd. Whittier, CA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to The Communities Foundation of Texas for the James H. Doolittle Scholarship Fund, 5500 Caruth Haven Lane, Dallas, TX 75225.