Remains of 3 U.S. Airmen Sent Home
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BEIJING — The United States on Saturday sent home the remains of three American airmen killed in World War II when their plane crashed while ferrying supplies to China.
The United States was the wartime ally of China’s Nationalist government, and this was the first time since the Communists took power in 1949 that China has returned American war dead.
“Their sacrifice in contribution to the just cause of the Chinese people will live forever in our hearts,” Ma Zhengang, director of the Foreign Ministry’s North American Department, said in a ceremony at the Beijing airport.
U.S. Ambassador Stapleton Roy said China’s swift return of the remains, which hunters found in September on a remote mountain slope in Tibet, reflected a new cooperation between the two sides in locating U.S. servicemen missing in action from various wars.
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