'My dad was as patriotic as you could get': son of Chinese Canadian force member honoured by stamp

Canada Post is putting the spotlight on Remembrance Day, but it's commemorating soldiers you've probably never heard of. It was called Force 136, and it was part of Britain's Special Operations Executive. It included Chinese Canadians who took up arms for a country that ostracized them. They were trained in espionage, guerrilla warfare, and jungle survival for parachute deployment behind enemy lines in Southeast Asia. Its members were also sworn to secrecy. My next guest's father, Hank Wong, was one of the 13 members, which was the test group for Force 136. And Rick Wong joins me now from Toronto. Appreciate you taking the time to talk about this. This is a fascinating story to talk about, now that their heroics are being brought to light. But can you tell us, how did you learn about your father's role in this force? So when we were growing up, my father never really held a kid that he had. I had met a... military history. There was, you know, his training manual was around. He had a couple of hand grenades on his desk. He had a parachutist switchblade in his drawer, a bunch of things like that. But we always thought it was just sort of dad's stuff. He was, because they were trained essentially as spies, their training was secret and they were held to secrecy about About revealing the full story of what they were doing. And the historical significance, I think, didn't come out until much later. Some of the work from the Chinese Canadian Military Museum in Vancouver started to highlight and put together the dots as far as how the story went. And there was a pamphlet in some of his photographs by Doc Gipp and Irving Himmel advocating for full rights for Chinese Canadians. At the time. The Chinese Exclusion Act was in force in Canada from 1923 until 1947, where basically all Chinese were banned from coming into Canada, unless you happen to be a diplomat or there was a couple of other minor categories, but very, very few Chinese could make it into Canada at that time. Canada was actively trying to rid itself through attrition of the Chinese population. So, through understanding... The history in greater detail from work like Catherine Clement in Vancouver and the Chinese Military Museum in Vancouver, starting to get a wider picture of what the importance of their willingness to serve at a time when they're being basically treated as second class citizens. And, you know, they stepped up for this. And so how did Operation Oblivion and your dad contribute to the war in Asia and the wider Allied effort? What did you learn? So I learned that their role was to be trained in basically espionage. And at the time, Britain had done well with... helping out resistance movements in Europe against fighting fighting the Nazis they wanted to get similar kinds of operatives getting behind the lines of Japanese lines in Asia and that was that was difficult for them because they couldn't use the operative they had in Europe they were all they were all Caucasian and so they looked through the Canadian they thought well there's There's Chinese Canadians. They went to Canada. You know, there was very few Chinese Canadians that actually managed to get into active service. And of those, they collected a group of, I think it was about 24, and then interviewed them and narrowed them down to a group of 13. So, you know, even just being Chinese Canadian wasn't enough. They were looking for a specific aptitude for this group. They trained this group. It was highly trained demolitions, jungle warfare. uh using all kinds of different weapons because they couldn't use they were going to be dropped in as spies they weren't allowed to use allied weapons they were trained to use japanese weapons and other other local weapons and captured weapons um demolition uh radio radio Thank you. at that time uh telecommunication kind of uh services and um That group, the Operation Oblivion group, passed with flying colors and brought up the call-up for the rest of Force 136, which was a larger group that went to India and was trained there. So they, overall, the Chinese-Canadian saw action in various engagements. Their role was to disrupt enemy shipping lines work behind the lines work with local local forces and and help to coordinate and mess up things for for Japanese occupiers very much. Did your father ever really talk about what he did and serving a country that, as we all know, was ostracizing Chinese Canadians? He talked about his role, you know, prior to that, he was actually, before he got into that group, he served in the general Canadian military, and he did guard duty in Halifax, you know, the Germans were dropping off spies along the coast, the U-boats were sinking ships coming out of Halifax. He was also stationed out in British Columbia and went up and down the coast guarding power plants. At one time the Japanese sent a tester force up into Alaska and he was part of the group that went up to find out what they were up to. I think it was a tester force they had by the time he got up there. My uncle Norman, there's a photograph of him, he's got a Union Jack painted on his back So that people wouldn't think he was Japanese and try to shoot at him. So, yeah. Quite a good history there. Quite a history, Rick. And this recognition for Operation Oblivion and Force 136 and your father comes more than 80 years after the Second World War ended. I think we're going to be able to show the stamp here is this commemorative stamp. What does it mean to you to have him being remembered in this kind of way? I think in general, Canada is trying to come to grips with a whole lot of things within its history and realizing, you know, I do some activist work down in Chinatown, and I found out through one of our projects that I'm actually a descendant of a head taxpayer. My grandfather came in 1903, Christmas Eve, didn't get a Christmas present. He had to pay the government $100 to And they were trying to keep up with my grandfather. Correspondingly, they're trying to keep up my father, and then they're trying to keep up me, they're trying to keep up people like me. And so to realize the contribution, drip by drip of all the members of the community, pushing things forward, willing to, you know, I asked him, I said, It's called Operation Oblivion for a reason. It's basically a suicide mission. They estimated at least 80% casualties. They were told, save your last bullet for yourself, and here's a sign I'd tell if you get caught. And they knew that if they were captured, they would be tortured and killed. And I said, didn't this give you pause for thought? And he was like, No, you just got to do what you got to do. You know, like, I think they saw an injustice in the world and they just wanted to step up. And even though they were treated as second class citizens, they felt. patriotism. My dad was as patriotic as you can get from having served all the way across the country. When I was a teenager, he took us on in camping trips. And, you know, we went up to all these places where he had trained and where he had defended and stuff. And like we were in Tofino and he's like, what happened to the bomber base? We defended, you know, and it's like, you know, now it's the tourist resort and things like that. But he was Mr. Canada. I mean, really. He sounds like he was a very special man, and we appreciate you sharing some of these memories with us, Rick. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for taking interest in this. And, you know, Canada has come to grips with a lot of aspects of its history, so I think it's really important that we recognize the contributions of the Chinese Canadians and that we stand on their shoulders. Rick Wong. Rick Wong. In Toronto, his father, Hank, was one of the 13 members, which was the test group for Force 136.