Christmas at Peishiyi

The Christmas holidays were unlike any they had known before for personnel of the Chinese-American Composite Wing stationed in China in 1944, but they celebrated with whatever festivities they could manage.  Thanks to the efficiency of the APO system, packages from home began to arrive at Peishiyi (Baishiyi) during the week before Christmas. The mess hall took on a festive appearance, decked out with holiday red and green. GIs began experimenting with cooking weird concoctions of food on their hostel-room stoves. The Wing’s Chinese officers hosted a dinner-dance for all American officers. Priests, organists, and a choir leader imported for the occasion from Chungking celebrated high mass in the Chinese Recreation Hall on Christmas Eve. Dinner on Christmas Day featured as many traditional holiday “trimmings” as could be acquired. Messages of hope for “peace on earth” brought encouragement to these men who still had many more months of hardship to endure before victory became a reality.