Chinese walked tall in military uniform
‘ We were respected as a human,’ veteran says Many suffered under racist policies
Frank Louie became a “ human being” for the first time in 1944, when he put on a Canadian military uniform.
It was a frightening if empowering experience for the “ ghetto boy” from Vancouver’s Chinatown, one that allowed him to forget the humiliation he had endured. In uniform, Louie could walk tall outside the enclave without having to veer into the gutter to make way for a white person, or be ordered to leave whites- only premises in a part of Canada where Chinese were often segregated in schools, public pools and theatres.
“ I used to wake up every day ( feeling) like someone was physically kneeling on my chest, like a slave who couldn’t dream of being free,” recalls the retired grocery store owner, who served in the army from 1944 to 1946. “ When we were in our uniform, we were respected as a human. That’s what it was.”
For many Chinese-Canadian veterans, World War II was as much a war at home as overseas. They won both, though one battle lingers undecided. Many would have joined up earlier if not for a ban imposed on them until 1944, over fear that letting them serve would force concessions to racist policies embodied in the infamous “ head tax” and the Chinese Exclusion Act that replaced it in 1923.
“Only white British subjects could join the military. Canada didn’t want any of us; they were trying to discourage Chinese immigration. Many of the veterans who were born and raised here fought for the country before they were granted citizenship and given the right to vote,” explains Larry Wong, curator of Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Military Museum. “They wanted to join the military so they could be treated equal when they returned.” About 600 Chinese enlisted in 1944, after Britain asked Canada to recruit Chinese for a special- ops force to infiltrate Japanese- held territory in Asia. Trained in demolition and sabotage, many worked behind enemy lines.
Chinese- Canadian pride was shortlived, though; after the war, veterans faced fresh hardships and rejection.
Attached to the Royal Canadian Signal Corps as a teletype operator, Laura Wong, now of Toronto, was among a handful of Chinese women who served.
“ A couple of my friends got hired by CN and they said I should apply. The manager said he had no problem hiring me, but he wasn’t sure if the rest of the staff would like it,” says Wong, 81. Change did come, with Chinese war veterans, always in uniform, aiding the successful effort in 1947 to lobby Ottawa to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act and grant the Chinese full citizenship. But veteran Mary Ko Bong, 88, who moved to Toronto for work after serving with the Canadian Territorial Services Corps, is still upset at their treatment. Like Laura Wong and husband Larry, Ko Bong’s family had paid the head tax. And after the war, the vets were rejected by Canadian Legion branches. Chinese veterans formed their own: Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada, Pacific Unit No. 280. “ You always have this lump in your throat for the dignity lost,” says Ko Bong. Edward Lee, who served in India, was separated from his mother more than 12 years because she left Canada in the 1930s and was not allowed back until the exclusion act was rescinded.
Lee, 79, who represents 57 surviving veterans as president of Pacific Unit No. 280, felt compelled to write a letter to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage last week over its approval of Bill C333 — a bill intended to make amends for Canada’s anti-Chinese past, but which offers no apology and rejects individual redress to the handful of head- tax payers still alive.
“ Yes, we won the battle at home with the repeal of the exclusion act, and they’ve opened up the doors for us,” notes Lee. But we recognize the issue of the head tax redress and an apology from the government is foremost important to those who were wronged.”
Every Remembrance Day, as Louie, now 80, presses his uniform and polishes his medals, he recalls his disappointment at returning from war and “ being a nobody again.”
“ The redress,” he says, “ isn’t about money at all. All we’d like to hear from the government is an apology. It is a symbolic gesture to show that Canada is sorry for the wrong they did to us in the past, so we can move on before our time runs out.”