Creation of Special Operations Executive
The British government under Prime Minister Churchill formed Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1939, otherwise known as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Its mission was to counteract secret, worldwide, German and Japanese war preparations, by encouraging resistance in conquered nations; sabotaging and subverting; and disrupting enemy access to resources. When the U.S. joined the war on 8 Dec 1941, SOE worked with the U.S. counterpart, the OSS. By 1942, SOE was also working with Australia in what would later become the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD).
By the beginning of the Second World War, the Chinese in Canada had been without civil rights for fifty years. Unable to vote and alienated in their own country, they faced a wall of discrimination at every turn, yet enlisted – or tried to enlist – to serve in every branch of the military: air force, army, and navy. Only a handful were called up. British Columbia strongly objected to Canadians of Chinese ancestry from being called because it would then be impossible to deny them the vote. Thus the 1940 National Resources Mobilization Act, while publicly counting every man over sixteen, secretly ensured no Chinese would be called.
…Canadian citizens of Chinese origin may be enlisted whenever found suitable. They will not presently be called under N.R.M.A.
In June 1944, Canada, facing internal pressure with conscription and external pressure from SOE, finally began calling up its Chinese recruits – approximately 500-600 men and women in total. These men and women laid the foundation for the post-war fight for civil rights. Today this is called, “One War, Three Victories” – victory for the Allies, repealing the Exclusion Act, and regaining the vote.
From that small pool of Canadian Chinese who successfully enlisted were drawn the recruits for an altogether more dangerous mission: SOE. A total of 145 Chinese Canadians were recruited. These are the stories of a few of them.