Built during World War II, the base was used by the United States Army Air Forces 462d Bombardment Group as an airfield to stage B-29 Superfortress bombing missions from India to attack Japan.

[3] On June 15, from Kuinglai, the group participated in the first American Air Force attack on the Japanese Home Islands since the Doolittle raid in 1942.

At the request of Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault at Fourteenth Air Force, the B-29s struck the main Japanese Army supply base in China at Hankow Dec. 18.

It was a preview of things to come in 1945, when the B-29s would use firebombs with devastating effect against the highly inflammable wood and paper structures in the Japanese home islands.

"[3] When the B-29 bombers were moved from India in April 1945 to the newly captured bases in the Mariana Islands, the USAAF use of Kuinglai Airfield ended.