Now available is “American Flygirl,” a new book by Susan Tate Ankeny.
The book is about one of World War II’s hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee, the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot certificate, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.
In 1932, Hazel, a 19-year-old American daughter of Chinese immigrants, sat in on a friend’s flight lesson. It changed her life. In less than a year, she earned her pilot’s certificate 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, say officials with the publisher, Kensington Publishing Corp.
“In America, Hazel felt the oppression and discrimination of the Chinese Exclusion Act,” publishing officials noted. “In China’s field of male-dominated aviation she was dismissed for being a woman and for being an American. But in service to her country, Hazel refused to be limited by gender, race, and impossible dreams. Frustrated but undeterred, she forged ahead, married Clifford Louie, a devoted and unconventional husband who cheered his wife on, and gave her all for the cause of achieving more in her short remarkable life than even she imagined possible.”
The biography is written by Susan Tate Ankeny, a former educator and a member of the Oregon Chapter of the 8th Air Force Historical Society and the Association des Sauvetuers d’ Aviateurs Alliés. The daughter of a World War II bombardier and great-granddaughter of Oregon pioneers, she lives in the Pacific Northwest.
The book, priced at $28, is available where books are sold.
For more information: SusanTateAnkeny.com, KensingtonBooks.com
Sounds like a great book. I will have to pick up a copy. Just think where we would be not only in aviation but everything else if the barriers of discrimination against people of color and women had never happened. It’s sad some still face this today.