American Flygirl

Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women''s and WWII history books. In 1932, Hazel Ying Lee, a nineteen-year-old American daughter of Chinese immigrants, sat in on a friend''s flight lesson. It changed her life. In less than a year, a girl with a wicked sense of humour, a newfound love of flying, and a tough can-do attitude earned her pilot s license and headed for China to help against invading Japanese forces. In time, Hazel would become the first Asian American to fly with the Women Airforce Service Pilots. As thrilling as it may have been, it wasn''t easy. In America, Hazel felt the oppression and discrimination of the Chinese Exclusion Act. In China''s field of male-dominated aviation she