Approximately 20,000 Chinese Americans served in World War II, which represented about one-quarter of the male Chinese American population resident in the U.S. at the time. This high service rate was the highest of any ethnic group in the country during the conict. Nearly 40% of these service members were not U.S. citizens. On March 4, 1944 a bomber pilot Lieutenant Benjamin Ralph Kimlau was killed when his plane crashed in New Guinea. He was the only New Yorker to have a memorial dedicated to him.