Stilwell Memorial Hall

Stilwell Memorial Hall

During the two years of the War of Resistance, four-star General Joseph Stilwell lived in Chongqing to direct military operations. He was probably the American who contributed the most to ending Japan’s occupation of China.

Since then, the Chinese people have held General Stilwell in high esteem. Today, this brave and sharp-tongued commander, nicknamed “Vinegar Joe,” is the only figure in the U.S. military—and perhaps among all Americans—to have a memorial hall in China, a reminder that relations between China and the United States have not always been filled with discord and mistrust.

Since the memorial hall opened to the public in 1991, tens of thousands of visitors—most of them American—have made pilgrimages here along the pathway to this scenic spot perched on a cliff, overlooking the sparkling waters of the Jialing River.

From 1942 to 1944, this was the headquarters of General Stilwell, who was then the commander of the U.S. forces in the China-Burma-India Theater. Here, he planned strategies and became fluent in Chinese, often pacing in his room over how to deal with Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist government.

As Chiang’s chief of staff, Stilwell found the leader to be selfish, erratic, and untrustworthy, referring to him dismissively in cables as “Peanut” (other critics accused Chiang of having great power but lacking in command ability).

They clashed over the deployment of Chinese troops; Stilwell believed Chiang cared more about another adversary—the Chinese Communist Party—than fighting the Japanese invaders.

The Communists and the Nationalists had declared a truce in their civil war to fight the Japanese together, but Chiang wanted to preserve the strength of his elite forces for a future showdown with the Communists.

Stilwell was furious.

“Stilwell fought the battles, but Chiang wouldn’t fight,” said Colonel Clayton Lawrence “Horton” Freeman, the U.S. assistant naval attaché in Chongqing at the time, who lived not far from Stilwell.

China also remembers fondly that Stilwell supported the secret wartime mission in 1944 by the U.S. government to establish contact with the Chinese Communist Party.

Stilwell Memorial Hall (No. 63, Jialing Xincun, Yuzhong District): Located atop the lofty Futo Pass, overlooking the surging Jialing River. General Stilwell, the Chief of Staff, experienced both the joys of success and glory, as well as the pains and sorrows of defeat.