Victor Wong is a WWII veteran from Victoria, BC. He was one of thousands of Chinese immigrants enlisted by the Canadian forces during the war and assigned to the British forces. The British territories in Asia had been occupied by Japan, and English speakers of Chinese origin were sent there to engage in guerrilla warfare and take back the territories. At that time, Chinese immigrants were not allowed Canadian citizenship. Victor recalls:
“‘Why should you go when you’re not even a Canadian?’ So we all decided in our town hall meetings that the best way to do is to go and sign up and go and come back and lobby for the franchise. This is exactly what we did.”
By fighting in WWII, Chinese immigrants won not only freedom for Europe and Asia, but also won Canadian citizenship for their community. You can read and hear more of his story at http://www.thememoryproject.com/stories/480:victor-eric-wong/
The picture of Victor and his army discharge certificate have been digitized in partnership with the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society (http://www.ccmms.ca/) and are part of a project “Chinese Canadian Stories: Uncommon Histories from a Common Past” (http://chinesecanadian.ubc.ca/).