Museum to honour Chinese Canadian troops who fought in war and for citizenship rights
CTV
The service of Chinese Canadian soldiers in the First and Second World Wars will be honoured by an exhibition at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver.
Former B.C. judge Randall (Bud) Wong remembers getting out of bed early one morning when he was five to greet his uncle at the train station in Vancouver at the end of the Second World War in 1945.
His uncle Delbert Yen Chao was returning from India after years of service as an infantryman.
“I remember very vividly my uncle coming off the train, and he was wearing his army uniform and knapsack,” said Wong, 83.
“We were so happy to see him that we took him home, and then he came to live with us.”
The service of Chinese Canadian soldiers like Chao in the First and Second World Wars will be honoured by a new exhibition at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver's Chinatown.
The exhibition, titled "A Soldier For All Seasons," is scheduled to launch in spring 2025.
The museum says that by the end of the Second World War, Chinese Canadians were in every branch of Canada's armed forces -- despite not being recognized as full citizens with the right to vote in federal elections until 1947.
