Just Like one of the Guys!

Heroes Remember

Just Like one of the Guys!

Transcript

I just act as if I was a white guy. As a matter of fact the fellow that got to be a good friend, Morgan Freyder from Nanaimo, he was sometimes quite forgetful but he was smart enough guy. If we go on a manoeuvre and we generally have a hot meal, and he would forget his mess tin or something, so he would come up with me and we would go up to the chef there or whoever was dishing out the food, can we have two portions, share out of the same can, so sometimes I give him a spoon or a fork or whatever. We ate out of the same can just like brothers, you know, no discrimination at all. But we didn’t’ realize it was so bad; some of them tried to join up they refused them because they were Chinese. A lot of them tried to join the air force they wouldn’t accept them but then it got later on when they needed some people that could speak Chinese and all that to blend with the natives in Burma to go and try to work behind the Japanese line. I think the force was called 136 and they had, you know, radio training and all that stuff and close combat. And apparently what they did was each of those guys were issued a cyanide pill and if they were captured better swallow it because the Japanese were going to torture you anyway, torture and kill you. As far as I was concerned when I joined up discrimination was farthest from my mind especially in Victoria. Victoria was supposed to be bad because it’s a very rich colony, B.C., Victoria. As far as I was concerned, you know, there was nothing like that at all, I was just one of the guys.

Description

Mr. Chow expresses his personal and positive feelings towards being just one of the guys serving in war and how he never felt discrimination at any time during his service.

George Chow

Mr. George Chow was born in Victoria, British Columbia November 5, 1921. Mr. Chow attended school in Victoria and during that time had the desire to join the service. He went to Vancouver for basic training and became part of the 16th Light Battery, 3rd Regiment as an anti-aircraft gunner. Mr. Chow travelled overseas and landed in England and at the end of war he participated in the liberation of Holland. Mr. Chow met his wife overseas and when the war was over they came back to Victoria. Mr. Chow holds great pride for his service and returned to Holland to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands.

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