President Truman's declaration of War ????

First of all, please keep in mind that "The Flying Tigers" was a wartime movie, made for purposes of entertainment and propaganda, and that the filmmakers were not especially concerned with historical accuracy. I read somewhere several years ago that the film was actually suggested to Republic Pictures by a couple of former employees of the American Volunteer Group (AVG, the formal name of "The Flying Tigers" fighter group) who had left their employment long before the AVG was officially disbanded in July 1942.

(See http://www.warbirdforum.com/movies.htm , a website about the AVG, which states that two "dishonorably discharged" AVG clerks had something to do with this film. Those two clerks were Lawrence Moore and Kenneth Sanger, who are listed in the "Trivia" section of this film's IMDB listing as uncredited technical advisors. See also http://www.warbirdforum.com/roster.htm, for an AVG roster listing Moore and Sanger, and Daniel Ford's book, "The Flying Tigers," which states that Moore and Sanger were fired from the film after representatives of the AVG complained to Republic Pictures.)

No doubt much of the popular mythology and persistent inaccuracies regarding the AVG originated from this movie. Among the misconceptions is that the AVG was a "mercenary" organization. Technically, yes, the AVG pilots and ground crew were well-paid for their service to the Chinese government. But the term "mercenary" implies that these men were professional soldiers fighting essentially for money.

The AVG was recruited in the spring and summer of 1941, largely from personnel of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps. By that time, it was evident to most people in the U.S. military institutions that the United States would be at war with Japan and/or Germany within a few months, and no doubt many of these men joined the AVG because they hoped to get into combat as soon as possible. Some may have been motivated by a desire to help the Chinese or a dislike of the Japanese, but I suspect that sheer professional interest and enthusiasm was the chief factor in their enlistment in the AVG. The U.S. government encouraged their enlistment by promising that they would be permitted to return to U.S. military service (presumably, after the United States entered the war) with no loss of rank, seniority, or benefits (a promise that was not always honored after the AVG disbanded in July 1942). In some ways, the AVG was a "covert operation" of the United States government, directed against Japan before the United States formally declared war.

The Americans who joined the British RAF and Canadian RCAF prior to Pearl Harbor had been civilians, not active duty U.S. military men, and they did not have the encouragement/cooperation from the U.S. government that the Flying Tigers received. I suggest that service in the RAF/RCAF also was viewed by some as a better deal than service in the AVG, whatever the pay, because China was seen as a remote and rather primitive country when compared to Britain, where most of the American volunteers were posted with the RAF. The Americans who joined the RAF and RCAF were trained, literally, from the ground up and didn't expect or receive any special treatment. The AVG, on the other hand, was hiring veteran aviators and ground crew and paying them well to live and fight against a skilled Japanese enemy, in a difficult environment that had severely hampered previous efforts to develop an effective Chinese air force.

What any of this has to do with racism is puzzling. Japan had attacked China in 1937, and by 1941 most Americans thoroughly sympathized with the Chinese and largely distrusted Japan. From 1939 on, most Americans had sympathized with, if not outrightly supported, the British in their war with Nazi Germany. The fact that American pilots were paid more to fly and fight for China than for Britain had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the relative difficulties of establishing an effective air force in China. The Chinese and their U.S. government allies realized that attracting veteran pilots to the AVG would be easier by offering high salaries; but I suggest that if active duty U.S. aviators had been offered an opportunity to join the RAF in the summer of 1941 (and knew that they eventually could return to U.S. service at the same rank, seniority, etc.), there would have been just as many volunteers, if not more.

If Americans were so racist in their desire to kill "yellow Japanese" rather than "white Germans," it seems that they would have been willing to take LESS money to do so, instead of the other way around. In reality, I'm sure the money the AVG members earned was welcome, but in most cases it had little to do with their choice to volunteer. The people who made this film focused on the unofficial $500 "bounty" (paid to AVG pilots for each Japanese plane shot down) as a plot device to demonstrate Woody Jason's (John Carroll) initial venality, only so he can come around by the end of the film to realize that the war is really about saving China. But don't confuse the movie's characters (including John Wayne's) with the actual AVG.

Look at the "Warbirds" AVG website (http://www.warbirdforum.com/avg.htm), or read Daniel Ford's definitive book, "The Flying Tigers," updated and republished in 2007, for accurate info on the AVG.