Brother Fu: Chu Nieng Fu and the Last P-40s

Chu Nieng Fu 趙仰富, known in the family as "Brother Fu", was the son of Chu Tui Goon's brother. Before and during World War II, Hong Hock How and Tui Goon adopted him into their family, hoping to give him the opportunity to one day emigrate to the United States. Hock How treated him as a son, and to their children he was simply "Fu Goh" 富哥 — "Elder Brother Fu."

A photograph from around 1938 captures this bond: on the rooftop of the family home in Canton, Fu Goh stands with Larry — the eldest of the Hong children — and a young Jack, the three practicing kung fu together in easy camaraderie, the clouds of war still somewhere on the horizon.

Rooftop, Canton, c. 1938: Fu Goh (Chu Nieng Fu) with his younger cousins Larry and Jack Hong, practicing gung fu on the rooftop of the Hong family home in Canton.

Later that year, the Second Sino-Japanese War forced the family from Canton. Tui Goon and the children first relocated to Hong Kong, then Rangoon, Burma. In December 1941, Japan expanded the war — striking Pearl Harbor to the east and driving southwest into Indochina. The family escaped Rangoon in late February 1942, just weeks before it fell. They spent a month traversing the treacherous Burma Road to Kunming, a vital wartime hub in southwest China. 

Fu Goh attended boarding school there alongside Larry. Food was scarce; meals from huge communal pots offered little more than rice with preserved vegetables and chili oil. In 1945, Fu Goh had the chance to accompany Larry to the United States, but chose instead to remain and serve in the Chinese Nationalist Air Force, flying in the final years of the war against Japan and into the Chinese Civil War that followed.

A photograph sent to Jack from Hong Kong in December 1948 shows Fu Goh in his aviator helmet, half-seated on the fuselage of a Flying Tiger Curtiss P-40 Warhawk with its distinctive shark toothed maw. The inscription on the back reads: 連卓表弟，仰富表兄 卅七年十二月於香港 — "[To] younger cousin Jack, [from] older cousin Nieng Fu, December 1948, Hong Kong."  [In the 37th year of the Chinese Republic.]

Hong Kong, December 1948: Chu Nieng Fu in pilot's gear, seated on the fuselage of a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. Fu Goh inscribed the photo to his younger cousin Jack with their names, date, and location: 連卓表弟，仰富表兄 卅七年十二月於香港

By that point, the famed American Volunteer Group — the "Flying Tigers" — and the Chinese American Composite Wing had been deactivated since August 1945, but their P-40s remained in service with the Republic of China Air Force in training, escort, and patrol roles as the P-51 Mustang took over frontline duties. With Communist forces winning decisive battles across Manchuria and sweeping rapidly southward, Nationalist pilots and aircraft were pulling back toward Hong Kong's Kai Tak aerodrome. The photo captures a quietly poignant moment: a Chinese Nationalist pilot on one of the last P-40s, sheltering in a British colony as the cause he had fought for was rapidly collapsing.

In 1949, as the Nationalist government completed its withdrawal to Taiwan, Fu Goh went with them. But separated from his family on the Mainland, he made a decision — to commandeer an aircraft and fly back. It was not a decision made lightly. Flying an unauthorized aircraft across a heavily militarized strait was potentially fatal — Nationalist air defenses on one side, Communist forces on the other. In the early 1950s, defections ran in both directions, as pilots on both sides were actively courted to cross over with their aircraft. The PRC offered amnesty and incentives — a working plane was a prize — and by most accounts Fu Goh was welcomed rather than punished. Over time his family fared well. Any prospect of returning to Taiwan or reaching the United States vanished the moment he crossed the strait.

What is not known is when he went, what aircraft he flew, or how the crossing unfolded. What the Hong family knew was the outcome: he went back and he stayed.

Nearly fifty years later, in 1997, Jack, his wife Rose, and son Kenneth traveled to Guangzhou to visit family. A photograph from that reunion shows Jack and Rose crowded around a small dining table with Fu Goh and members of the Chu family — Fu Goh to Jack's left, surrounded by the family he could not bear to leave behind. The photograph its own quiet testament.

Guangzhou, 1997: Jack and Rose Hong with Fu Goh (Chu Nieng Fu, seated to Jack's left) and Chu family members at a restaurant in Guangzhou, 1997.