Volunteering to fight in China
Heroes Remember
Volunteering to fight in China
Transcript
Chinese Canadian Soldiers posing with Major John Legg
us. And he asked, they just asked the Chinese veterans, you know, I mean soldiers rather, and he, they interviewed us and asked us if we wanted to go to China and help fight the Japanese, so we all volunteered to go. Of course when we were all called up, 99% of 99.9% of us joined general service, which means we can go overseas and the people that didn't go over seas were mostly the French Canadians, and I understand there was over 100,000 of them. And they were known as zombies, (Yes, I've heard of zombies) and there were a lot of home defence, they were actually home defence, they wouldn't go anywhere overseas, so but they were known as zombies. And we were general service, which we had to wear a certain little round badge on our uniform, to show that we were general service, it has a GS on it. It was in the, I believe it was in the winter of ‘44, January I think it was, the month of January if I can recall, we went to overseas on the ship called the Mauritania and we landed in Liverpool, going up the north way, through Iceland on a single convoy ship. It took us about 5 days and I was sick all the way over. It was really rough. We didn't encounter any submarines or anything.Description
Mr. Wong talks about volunteering to go overseas to fight the Japanese in China. They then shipped out in January 1944 for the Far East, first stopping in England.
Victor Eric Wong
Mr Wong was born in Victoria, BC and enlisted in 1944 at the age of 18. He went overseas to fight in China after training at Camp Shiloh in Manitoba. He was a rifleman with the Special Operative Executive that fought in Burma and was trained in guerilla warfare.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 02:25
- Person Interviewed:
- Victor Eric Wong
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
Related Videos
Reasons to Enlist
Mr. Wong talks about why the Chinese community became enthusiastic about enlisting in the service and about the animosity they felt towards the Japanese.
Basic Training
Mr. Wong speaks about the treatment the Chinese received during basic training.
Embarking to India
Mr. Wong talks about shipping out to the far east; his parents' feelings about him having signed up; and his own sense of excitement mixed with trepidation.
Training In Poona
Mr.Wong talks about being sent to Poona, India, and the fact that they were trained for guerrilla warfare.
Guerilla Warfare
Mr. Wong speaks about guerilla warfare training and how each person was trained in a specific area.
The A-Bomb
Mr. Wong talks about how the Chinese supported each other, and how they were just beginning operations when the war in Japan ended. He speaks about how the atomic bomb probably saved his life.
Fighting for Citizenship
Mr. Wong talks about the impact that the war years had on him, and on the Chinese community.
Canada, the best place to live
Mr. Wong speaks about Canada today as opposed to the Canada of yesterday.
- Date modified: