To people worldwide, America has always stood as a beacon of hope and freedom in a world that has been plagued by oppression, war and genocide.

To people worldwide, America has always stood as a beacon of hope and freedom in a world that has been plagued by oppression, war and genocide. As citizens born in America, most of us will never know the horrors that exist in other parts of the world, but for those like Saratoga Springs resident James Chang, who migrated across the world’s vast oceans to reach the United States, they know all to well the obstacles that can plague people outside the country’s borders.

Chang has lived in Saratoga Springs for more than 35 years, but before moving to the rural Upstate surroundings he was born in Shanghai, China in 1935. He is the fifth son in a family of eight children. However, due to the lack of medical advances in China at the time, only four of the eight children would survive to reach adulthood.

In 1937, two years after Chang’s birth, the Japanese invaded his homeland, eventually occupying the country in a war known as the “Second Sino-Japanese War.”

At the time, his father was an executive sales manager for Eastman Kodak Company and often spent a vast majority of time traveling to the far reaches of the country on businesses trips. Upon attempting to return home after one particular trip to northern China, he found that the Japanese had occupied part of the territory he was attempting to return from - blocking his passage back to Shanghai and more importantly to his family, for a period of five years.

Over the five-year period, his mother became the head of the household doing everything she could in order to keep the family together and financially sound. Luckily, Chang’s father had bought stocks with the extra money he had earned from his job, buying stock in soap, oil and rice, among other commodities.

“Our next door neighbor was a stock broker and my mother would ask him when to buy and sell the stocks and that is how she was able to help us survive,” Chang said. “We had a good mother who happened to be a very good business woman.”

The Japanese Occupation of China was a devastating era in the country’s history, as they lost much of their land to the invaders, including being the victims of what is called one of “the most brutal massacres in the history of war” during what has come to be known as “The Rape of Nanking.” The massacre would lead to more than 100,000 innocent Chinese civilians slaughtered and raped at the hands of the Japanese military. The event was so brutal that the Japanese kept it a secret until the end of the war.

In 1945, during the second World War, the Americans who had invaded Japan due to their attack on Pearl Harbor issued the Potsdam Declaration on July 26. The declaration called for the immediate and unconditional surrender of Japan or “its complete and utter destruction.” Upon the Japanese refusal to sign the peace treaty, the United States dropped one atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and another on Nagasaki. The bombings would lead to the Japanese signing the Potsdam Declaration on August 10, which in turn freed the Chinese from Japanese rule.

“It was the Americans that ended the war,” Chang said. “After their surrender, we went in to the streets to celebrate, chanting praise for the Americans.”

Chang’s father would eventually return home to be reunited with his family after the war had ended.

“It was faith that kept my father struggling and living throughout those years,” Chang said.

Aside from the struggles that Chang and his family faced he had managed to become bi-lingual by the age of 5 and tri-lingual by the age of 7 in the languages of Chinese, Japanese and English.

He eventually would study textiles in college at the Nottingham Textile Institute in England - ultimately becoming a professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute before moving to North Carolina in 1970 to work in a textile factory. After not receiving the promotion he had been promised by the company Chang relocated to Saratoga Springs where he would work at the Van Raalte knitting mill as a technical supervisor. When the mill closed in the early 1980s he began a career as an insurance salesman, where he became their top salesmen winning numerous awards and accolades for his achievements in sales.

“I contribute much of my success to being honest and people trusting me,” Chang said.

While working in the insurance industry, Chang realized that back problems plagued many Americans, which led him to start using his background in the textile industry to invent a stretchable synthetic fabric, which he retrofits to wheelchairs, office chairs and hospital beds to help give relief to people who suffer from back pain. The fabric has been used by numerous nursing homes throughout the area, including Helen Hays Hospital and Fort-Hudson Nursing Home. His invention has helped many people who suffer from back problems and has also eliminated bed sores for patients restricted to hospital wheelchairs and beds.

Chang’s invention is not the only feat he has accomplished in recent years. On July 4, 2007, while the rest of America was celebrating the country’s independence, Chang was celebrating a milestone of his own when he became an official American citizen after living in the country for 38 years.

To many, American’s freedom is something taken for granted, but as the old cliché goes ‘freedom isn’t free’- and James Change can certainly contest to that.

“America is a free country and that is what has kept me here all these years,” Chang said. “A lot of people will say it’s not, but what they don’t realize is that you have to do your part to earn your freedom and then the country will make sure you have the rest - I am still trying to do my part.”