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On a forgotten front of World War II, an all-Black Army unit, the 823rd Engineer Aviation Battalion, was tasked with a perilous project. Their mission: build an international highway to send supplies to China, a US ally fighting Japanese invasion. Dubbed the “Ledo Road” by the high command and the “Road to Tokyo” by the men who built it, the supply line crossed the China-Burma-India Theater, one of the most rugged and remote war zones. The highway snaked through deep valleys, virgin forests, and the southern slopes of the Himalayas—and its construction took a grim human toll.
The Road to Tokyo tells the remarkable story of how Black engineers and truck drivers, along with their white and Asian comrades, built this little-known route. Yinghong Cheng chronicles how these ordinary soldiers connected their hard work and sacrifice in an isolated corner of the world to their country’s eventual victory. Black GIs accomplished their mission while fighting Japanese harassment, a treacherous natural environment, and pervasive racism. For many, their experiences while building the highway became a form of political education, linking the war abroad to the fight for civil rights at home and the desegregation of the military. Highlighting the patriotism and internationalism of African American soldiers, The Road to Tokyo reconstructs a crucial episode in the Black and Asian experiences of World War II.
— Marc Gallicchio, author of The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945
Focusing on a forgotten chapter of World War II—the grueling construction of the eleven-hundred-mile-long Ledo Road over the mountains and through the jungles of India, Burma, and China—Yinghong Cheng offers a new, engaging account of Black American GIs’ experiences in the Second World War and their often-overlooked contributions to the Allied victory.
— Thomas A. Guglielmo, author of Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America’s World War II Military
The Road to Tokyo is most thorough history of the vital role African American troops played in building the Ledo Road during World War II. By highlighting GI and activist Evelio Grillo and medical pioneers Dr. Wilbur Strickland and Dr. Robert Wilkinson, historian Yinghong Cheng shows how Black soldiers maintained morale in the face of racial segregation and grueling working conditions.
— Matthew F. Delmont, author of Half American: The Heroic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
The Road to Tokyo is a meticulously researched account of the key part played by Black GIs in building a vital supply line to China during World War II. Yinghong Cheng casts African American servicemen as active agents, shaping everyday life and labor conditions within a segregated military.
— Chris Dixon, author of African Americans and the Pacific War, 1941-1945: Race, Nationality, and the Fight for Freedom
Acknowledgments
Map
1. The Road to Tokyo
2. Everyday Heroism
3. “The Longest Road in the World”
4. Doctors, News Editors, and Musicians
5. Black Americans, White Americans
6. Black GIs Among Asians and Others
7. Black GIs on the Road
Conclusion: “Token of Appreciation”
Notes
Bibliography
Index