Target of Opportunity & Other War Stories

Book excerpt: Thursday, February 1, 1945. "Ai oh! We forgot the small one!," wailed second aunty as the doors to the bomb shelter screeched shut. Gasping for breath she volunteered, "I will go back and get the baby." A screaming verbal exchange between number two Aunty and the air raid warden shattered the brick faced bunker. Raying to the vaulted ceilings, the Wu family heard the welcomed words from the keeper of the keep, "Ok. But hurry." Wu, Wai Mei McKellar was born Thursday, February 1, 1945 in Takao, Formosa (now called Kaohsiung, Taiwan) two hours before an American air raid. The Wu family sustained over thirty bombings between October 1944 and August 1945. Eight members of the McKellar family volunteered for military service during World War one, World War Two and Korea. Five of the eight were stationed in the Pacific area during the Second World War in the U.S. Navy. The Wartime experiences of the Wu and McKellar families lead to an inter-racial marriage that has endured the ravages of time for over thirty seven years. Many events led to World War II. Three crisis in particular jump out of the pages of history; the Japanese battleship building program-1916, The Battle of Shanghai, July 7, 1937And the Panay Incident of Dec. 12, 1937. The name Formosa is used throughout to refer to the island that is now called Taiwan, since all documents and literature use this name as it existed before and during the war. Takao, Formosa is now called Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Taihoku, Formosa is known as Taipei, Taiwan. Like a feather in the wind we follow a time line rather than chapter headings. This book Includes facts not generally covered by the standard historical approach to World War Two And its aftermath. The incidents related are based on research and oral histories. The historical/ events are true. The book is in all essentials factual. *When informed of her daughters' marriage to the author, Wu, Lin Tan, now 104, said, "The monkey and the tiger do not cry the same sound."