James P. Bevill

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Blackboards And Bomb Shelters

When three Yale graduates traveled to China in the summer of 1941 to teach English to middle-school students, they routinely taught classes outside a bomb shelter. When air raid sirens wailed, classes continued until the Japanese planes could be heard, then all quickly scrambled inside to safety. The US entry into the war turned their educational mission upside down. One was recruited for a stint driving supplies along the Burma Road. A second Yale teacher took a senior staff position with "Flying Tigers" commander Gen. Claire Lee Chennault. The third man, a conscientious objector, remained at the school to keep it running during the war. Their mission was inextricably linked with the broader Yale-in-China medical mission, headed by a young surgeon in Changsha. This is an engaging story of Americans in China, educating civilians, healing the wounded, and supporting Chinese military resistance against Japanese imperialism. It is the untold story of life on the ground in Free China during the Japanese occupation.