Why is General Joseph W. Stilwell Museum special?
The General Joseph W. Stilwell Museum is situated in No. 63 Jialing New Road, Yuzhong District in Chongqing, occupying an area of about 1.2 acres. As the name indicates, the main building of the museum is the former residence of General Joseph W. Stilwell, an American general who contributed a great deal to the Chinese people in World WarⅡ. To commemorate General Stilwell's help, the local government of Chongqing renovated the general's former temporary residence in Chongqing, and opened it to the public, as Stilwell Museum in 1991. Since then, Stilwell Museum has received numerous visitors from home and abroad.
General Joseph W. Stilwell Museum Highlights
At the beginning of 1942, General Joseph Warren Stilwell, a four-star U.S. Army general, acting under the orders of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, arrived in China to assume the position of Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces in the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI). The residence became the headquarters of the China Burma India Theater during that period. General Stilwell participated in a series of political and military affairs in the CBI Theatre of World WarⅡ, and cemented a profound friendship with the Chinese people fighting side-by-side in the war in China. In July 1944, campaigns in Northern Burma succeeded and a road between India and China was built under his direct supervision, which made ammunitions and weapons accessible to China and brought an end to the blockade of the fascist states. The road was later named Joseph W. Stilwell Road. General Stilwell returned to Washington in 1944.
The main building in the museum is a three-storied house, including an office, an adjutant room, two meeting rooms, bedrooms and a basement. More than one hundred articles such as household goods, manuscripts and the uniform which was used by the general are displayed. In the residence's courtyard, a monument stands in the center on which engraved a passage of epigraph in both English and Chinese. The epigraph was written by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on May 17, 1944. There is a bust of General Joseph W. Stilwell to one side of the monument, which gives visitors a vivid portrait of this great general.