These Gorgeous Color Photos Show What China Looked Like On The Eve Of Communism

In 1941 before the United States entered World War II, 300 young Americans were secretly trained to combat the Japanese Air Force in China. The American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Airforce, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was comprised of pilots drawn from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

In the days after Pearl Harbor, the group went on to capture the public imagination in both China and the United States with their daring tactics and distinctive airplanes painted with shark teeth.

Members of the squadron (most prominently, William L. Dibble and H. Allen Larsen) took a huge collection of color photographs that depict the nation adopting new urban and modern modes of living along with the rural practices of the past.

The photos, taken from 1944-1945, depict a number of cities in Southern China including Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Hangzhou.

H. Allen Larsen stands next to a Curtiss P40 Warhawk, the Flying Tigers' signature aircraft, at the Air Force Base in Kunming, a city in southwestern China.

William L. Dibble

Army workers construct the airport runway in Kunming.

William L. Dibble

A city gate in Kunming.

William L. Dibble

A young man waits for clothes to dry outside U.S. military barracks in Kunming.

William L. Dibble

The Huguo Gate in Kunming.

William L. Dibble

An arch in the Yunnan province in southwest China.

William L. Dibble

A Chinese farmer sits on a buggy in southwestern China.

William L. Dibble

A crowded street in Chongqing, the largest city in inland China.

William L. Dibble

Carriages filled with sand travel the dirt road to the Air Force Base in Chongqing.

William L. Dibble

Chinese soldiers walking over a bridge on the outskirts of Chongqing.

William L. Dibble

This is the U.S. Army 14th Air Force base in Chongqing.

(H/T Shanghaiist)