Chinese-Canadian WWII veterans honored

Chinese-Canadian soldiers who fought for Canada in the Second World War, despite being second-class citizens without the right to vote at the time, are the subject of a new exhibition opened in Vancouver Tuesday.

The Chinese Canadian Veterans: Loyal to Country exhibition is the latest project of the Chinese-Canadian Military Museum Society. Through old photos, personal artifacts and documents, it examines the role and the achievements of the approximately 800 Chinese-Canadian soldiers who fought for the country during the conflict.

At the time, Chinese-Canadians, either born in Canada or immigrants to, were essentially second-class citizens. Between 1885 and 1923, the Canadian government imposed a head tax on Chinese, the only race the practice was applied to, to deter their arrival. When that was abolished in 1923, the Oriental Exclusion Act was imposed through to 1947.

The practice effectively ended any Chinese immigration to Canada for 24 years, keeping families apart for decades.

Wai Young, a member of the Parliament representing Vancouver South, whose own grandfather paid the head tax, called it a "dark chapter in Canada's history."

"This exhibit commemorates the impacts of the Head Tax and the Chinese Immigration Act, as well as the wartime discrimination and stigma experienced by Chinese Canadians veterans and their families," she said at the opening ceremony.

"The government is committed to recognizing these immigrant experiences so that the stories are not lost."

Despite such exclusionary practices at the time, many young Chinese-Canadians enlisted or were conscripted for the country's armed forces and fought in Europe and Southeast Asia. Others stayed in Canada, helping the war effort working in logging camps, munitions packing plants and in food processing, among others.

Both believed their efforts would help change how Canadians perceived the "yellow race" and end the discriminatory practices.

Corporal Frank Wong enlisted in the Canadian military after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. A few days after D-Day in 1944, he landed on the beach at Normandy and along with other Canadian troops helped in the liberation of Europe.

He said initially many Chinese were reluctant about enlisting as the attitude was 'why should we fight for Canada when we're not a citizen of Canada?'

"And then I think the majority of the Chinese felt that by fighting for Canada after the war we could petition the government for the right to vote, so we're very happy and proud of that."

Lieutenant Commander Herbert Lim joined up while still a student at the University of British Columbia in 1944. He explained after Britain had conscripted ethnic Chinese in the then-British colonies of Singapore, Malaya and Hong Kong, Chinese Canadians were encouraged to enlist.

Seconded to the British army, Lim, one of about 150 Chinese Vancouverites in the Canadian military, fought in Malaya helping to stop the advancement of Japanese troops.

"I think that they (Canadians) appreciated what we tried to do, because at that time we didn't have the vote. When I was going to UBC I could not take up medicine, law, accountancy or be a school teacher. We could not study for that," he said, adding everything opened up after the war.

"There were opportunities job-wise. Then they started hiring the people and for business it was better for the local community. Everything opened up. Then you have the Oriental Exclusion Act finished in 1947, Chinese started coming in then."

In June 2006, after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of the government to Chinese-Canadians for its exclusionary practices, nearly 5 million Canadian dollars (4.94 million U.S. dollars) was allocated to the program as "a community redress fund to assist community groups in preserving their special history and creating a more inclusive telling of Canada's history."

The Chinese Canadian Veterans: Loyal to Country exhibition is held at Vancouver's Chinese Cultural Center through Jan. 28, and moves to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa in March.