Monument to the Martyrdom of Short

Monument to the Martyrdom of Short

The Monument to the Martyrdom of Short is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City.

The Monument to the Martyrdom of Short is located in Gaodian Village, Chefang Town, Suzhou Industrial Park.

Robert Short, born in 1904 in Tacoma, a port city in the western part of Washington State, USA, was a former pilot in the United States Army Air Corps. In 1930, he was hired by the American Boeing Aircraft Company to come to China as a Boeing fighter instructor. On February 20, 1932, while flying from Shanghai to Nanjing, Short encountered and engaged Japanese fighter planes that had invaded China. In the dogfight, he shot down one Japanese aircraft, becoming the first pilot to down an enemy plane during the War of Resistance. On February 22, while flying back from Nanjing to Shanghai, Short’s plane was again engaged by Japanese aircraft over the outskirts of Suzhou. During the battle, he destroyed the lead plane flown by Japan’s ace pilot, Captain Kotani. Surrounded by six Japanese planes, Short was hit and his plane crashed in Chefang Township, Wu County, where he died a heroic death, becoming the first foreign pilot to perish in China’s fight against Japan.

On February 25, residents of Suzhou spontaneously placed his body in a camphorwood coffin and held a grand funeral procession. On April 28, over ten thousand people attended a memorial service for Short held at the Suzhou Public Stadium. Funds were raised to erect a monument behind the Minde Pavilion in Suzhou Park. The people of Chefang built a granite memorial pillar at the site of Short's martyrdom to honor his memory forever.

In March 1986, the Monument to the Martyrdom of Short was designated as a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City by the People’s Government.