Myitkyina: History
The area surrounding Myitkyina, including what is now Waingmaw, has been an important trading zone between China and Myanmar since ancient times. The nearby town of Katkyo, from the Shan Kat Kio (lit. 'Irrawaddy bazaar'), had its legendary founding in 1294 on the left (east) bank of the river. The region was then under the rule of Möng Kawng and other Shan states until the Konbaung dynasty, when it increasingly came under the control of Burmese and Kachin authorities.
American Baptist missionary George J. Geis and his wife arrived in Myitkyina in the late 1890s and in 1900 they requested permission to build a mansion in the town. Herman Tegenfeldt, a later Baptist missionary, built a church in his honor in the 1950s, naming it Geis Memorial Church. It is one of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) churches in Myitkyina.
Japanese forces captured the town and nearby airbase during World War II in 1942. In August 1944, Myitkyina was recaptured by the Allied forces under General Joseph Stilwell after a prolonged siege and heavy fighting between Nationalist Chinese divisions, the Chindits, and Merrill's Marauders of the Northern Combat Area Command and the besieged elements of the 33rd Imperial Japanese Army under General Masaki Honda. The town was strategically important not only because of its rail and water links to the rest of Burma, but also because it was on the planned route of the Ledo Road.