On March 4, 1942, U.S. General Joseph Stilwell (1883-1946) arrived in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing to help China fight against Japanese aggression, two months after Chinese regimental colonel Xu Zhaojian’s survival of a bitter battle against Japanese invaders in Changsha, Hunan Province in central China. Stilwell was impressed by the bravery of Chinese soldiers in the midst of World War II. But the two army men never had the chance to meet one another.
Half a century later, however, their grandchildren, John Easterbrook and Xu Chongning, became friends thanks to the Stilwell Scholarship program initiated by two of Stilwell’s daughters Nancy Stilwell Easterbrook and Alison Stilwell Cameron.
These close ties are part of a longstanding friendship between