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Chapter Twelve
They Fought for Canada, But They Couldn’t Vote
In 1914, British Columbia went to war with its anti-Asian prejudices intact. That meant excluding those who were trying to settle in Canada and marginalizing those who were already here. The policy was systematic, denying Asian immigrants the vote and blocking their enlistment in West Coast regiments. The government used HMCS Rainbow to turn back South Asian immigrants aboard the Komagata Maru. And it quarantined Chinese labourers crossing Canada for the front and returning to China. Incarcerating may be a better word, and if quarantining for health reasons was the motivation, some experts now believe that policy was a miserable failure.
[Click here for the Chinese Labour Corps]
[Click here for More About Wee Tan Louie]
Contents
Article: The Chinese Labour Corps
Article: More About Wee Tan Louie
Japanese Canadians
Article: Saving Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian War Memorial
Greenwood's Japanese World War I Veterans
Toichi Nitsui and Yonesaburo Kuroda
Kiyoji Iizuka
Yasuo Takashima
Tsunekichi Kitagawa
Masumi Mitsui
Article: Sergeant Major Masumi Mitsui, MM—Hero of the 10th Battalion
Hirokichi Isomura
Others Interned at Greenwood
Sikhs Also Served
Sidebar: From Our Listeners
Japanese Canadians
Japanese Canadians had been coming to BC since the 1870s and were active in the fishing industry on both the south coast and the north coast. Going into the war, Japan was allied with Great Britain, and the Japanese Navy helped defend our coast. But that alliance seemed to be lost on many British Columbians. The Japanese could not vote, and there was little public support for their efforts to win the franchise.
One man, a Vancouver newspaper editor, made it his mission to help Japanese who wanted to be part of the war effort and build support for the franchise. Yasushi Yamazaki was publisher of the TairikuNippo. He avidly followed the progress of the war in the English-language media, and he could see that the war was not going well. By 1915, troops were bogged down in trench warfare, and the casualties were alarming. Soon, every able-bodied man would be welcome, regardless of height, weight or skin colour. So Yamazaki set about organizing the Japanese Volunteer Corps in the city. Japanese Canadians would prove their loyalty and win the vote.
There were problems from the start. A cynical rival newspaper editor ridiculed Yamazaki’s efforts and sowed doubt in the minds of recruits. Military authorities dismissed the unit as too small even when enlistments topped two hundred. After months of training, it looked like the Japanese Volunteer Corps would be forced to disband. Yamazaki was stymied, his dream of a Japanese corps from British Columbia dashed. To make matters worse, British Columbia regiments would not allow the Japanese to enlist with them. Yamazaki wired the minister of the militia:
We hereby offer you one full battalion of naturalized Japanese, all British subjects. Please wire if our offer is likely to be accepted and if not please explain reasons as much high feeling of disappointment will come to our colony. One company has drilled at our expense three thousand dollars per month for nearly three months. We are all British subjects and ask no conditions except to be treated as citizens.
Yamazaki travelled personally to Ottawa and tried to see the prime minister. Then he asked to see Minister of Militia Sam Hughes, but was not able to speak with him. A Vancouver member of parliament did meet with Yamakazi, but he was openly hostile to Japanese serving in the army.
In Britain, a wire from the Cabinet War Policy Committee was much more supportive:
It is considered desirable to utilize the services of Canada’s Japanese British subjects if willing and Canadian authorities have no objection. [British] Army Council…inquire whether Canadian government could include proposed battalion in those selected for fourth division...and will be very glad to accept the offer if this can be done.
But Major General Willoughby Gwatkin of the Canadian War Office said the Japanese were not ready and declined the offer. Then something unusual happened. Word started to spread that units in Alberta did not share the racism of the officials in BC. They were prepared to welcome the Japanese. Alberta was having a hard time filling the ranks and the provincial regiments started to reach out to the Japanese in British Columbia. The 191st and 192nd Battalions sent recruiters directly to Vancouver. Suddenly, competition for the trained Japanese recruits was brisk. Some men from as far away as the Skeena and Nass Rivers were soon enlisted. They trained and received their Canadian uniforms in Alberta and were on their way to England and France. There, they served with distinction and many were decorated for bravery. Yamazaki’s work was done, but winning the franchise would be much harder.
[Click here for Saving Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian War Memorial]
Greenwood’s Japanese World War I Veterans
By Chuck Tasaka, who grew up in Greenwood
I was born in 1945 and by the time I was seven or eight, I looked forward to the Japanese war veterans coming to our house to visit my parents regularly. The one person who really stood out in my memory was Iidon, as he was called by my parents. Years later, I asked what his last name was, and my mother said something like “Yuyama.”
Iidon was a Russo-Japanese war veteran, but by the time he was in Greenwood he was an elderly man. Mind you, for a young child every adult was old! Being a single man and living alone in a small one-room suite, he must have enjoyed coming to our place because the Tasaka family had so many children and it was lively. Whenever it was bedtime, I always asked Iidon to tell me war stories. Even in my youth, I thought of him as quite small in stature, but he was enthusiastic and youthful in his speech. I remember Iidon sitting on a wooden chair against the wall nearest to my bed. I would see him standing at attention and reminiscing about what he did during the war. He talked (in Japanese) so proudly of his duty and accomplishments. Oh, how I became so interested in war history from a child’s point of view. (I never missed a John Wayne or Audie Murphy war movie.) Iidon was a cherished guest at our house.
Toichi Nitsui and Yonesaburo Kuroda
The World War I veterans who came to our house regularly were Mr. Nitsui and Mr. Kuroda. Toichi Nitsui was Mom’s cousin so he was a frequent visitor. The first thing I asked, along with my brothers and sisters, was to see his machine-gun wound. Mr. Nitsui was proud to lift up his pant leg and show us the brown scar on the calf. He was actually too young to enlist, so he lied about his age and got in anyway. After the war, Toichi drove a taxi in Vancouver, but in the thirties he worked in Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. Several of his daughters were born in places like Port Alberni and Deep Bay. It was fun listening to him because he embellished his stories to make them extremely exciting. Mr. Nitsui was a type of person who took no guff from anyone. If there was a fight, he’d be the first one to help out.
Toichi and his wife, Katsuko, remained in Greenwood and he died in the Grand Forks Hospital in 1976. He was buried in Oceanview Cemetery in Vancouver. The Nitsui family had five children: Miyoko, Chiyo and Judy. Joyce and Ken passed away.
Mr. Yonesaburo Kuroda, on the other hand, was a distinguished city slicker. He was always dressed to the hilt with a fedora hat, woollen long coat, slacks and leather gloves. His posture was so upright that it gave Mr. Kuroda the appearance of a very proud soldier. He too was wounded in battle. Again, the children looked forward to seeing his machine-gun wound. His brown scar went from one end of the calf to the other side. Mr. Kuroda wouldn’t hesitate to show the children his battle scars. He never brought up the gory side of war himself, but whenever I asked him how his fellow soldiers died, he would tell me. Mr. Kuroda told me that he saw his comrades fall on the ground decapitated or blown to pieces by shell bursts.
Mr. Kuroda lived in No. 3 Building (Gulley Block/McArthur Centre) and he was a watchmaker. He died May 16, 1962, at the Trail Hospital and was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery.
Kiyoji Iizuka
Mr. Kiyoji Iizuka was born January 27, 1887, and he was a stowaway to Honolulu, Hawaii. His first trip to Canada was November 2, 1910. He enlisted in the Canadian Army and was wounded in action May 7, 1917. He rejoined his unit after recovering but was injured in a transport accident on March 28, 1918. Again, he rejoined his unit only to get wounded once more on September 4, 1918. Kiyoji was repatriated to Canada, December 24, 1918, earning a Military Medal, British War and Victory Medals. He went back to Japan in 1923 to bring his wife and daughter to Canada.
Mr. Iizuka worked as a fisherman and painter while living on Powell Street. He was sent to Greenwood in October of 1942. Mr. Iizuka was a tough hombre and I’m sure no one messed around with him. He lived in Greenwood for a long time tending to his beautiful vegetable garden across the creek until he finally returned to his roots and lived on Powell Street in East Vancouver in 1969. He died December 23, 1979, and is survived by his daughter, Hidi Nishi, in Vancouver and his son, Fumio, with his wife, Hiromi, in Greenwood.
Yasuo Takashima
Mr. Yasuo Takashima was another war hero who was awarded the Military Medal. He was a private person who kept to himself. Katsuyoshi Morita wrote a chapter about Yasuo in his book, Powell Street Monogatari. Mr. Morita got acquainted with Mr. Takashima in 1942 when they arrived in Greenwood. As time passed, Yasuo started to open up and gave more information about himself. Mr. Takashima came from Kumamoto, Kyushu, and at eighteen fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5. Being single and adventurous, his journey took him to Hawaii and finally to British Columbia. In 1907, Yasuo lived and worked in the Nass Valley, near the Alaska Panhandle. When Yasuo returned to Vancouver, he bought a samurai sword with a white scabbard to patrol the streets around Powell and Cordova for any anti-Asian riots.
In 1914, Yasuo enlisted in the Canadian Army. It wasn’t in his plan to be a war hero as he was given a “coolie” job in the trenches. When there were so many casualties, Yasuo was given a gun and asked to attack. He ran and darted until he got behind the enemy line and captured a German machine-gun nest. Yasuo didn’t think he did anything extraordinary, but he was awarded a medal personally by the Duke of Connaught.
After the war, Yasuo wandered and tried to settle down, but circumstances in the Okanagan killed his ambition to farm. An angry mob destroyed all his plants. Yasuo planned to go back to Japan, but again misfortune befell him. His “friends” borrowed and took the money that he had saved to go to Japan. The so-called friends apparently lost his money in a gambling game. By this time, the Pacific war had begun and he was asked to go to Greenwood. All he packed was his war medal, sword and a rosary given to him in France by a daughter of a woman he helped and befriended. Yasuo stayed in Greenwood until after the war, but he became ill and was taken to the veterans’ hospital in Vancouver where he died. No one seems to know to where his cherished possessions disappeared.
Tsunekichi Kitagawa
Tsunekichi Kitagawa was born March 28, 1887. He was a fisherman in the Queensborough area of New Westminster in the early 1900s. Mr. Kitagawa enlisted in the Canadian Army and was wounded in battle. In 1942, Tsunekichi was asked to be a gate guard at Hastings Park because he was an army veteran. Ironically, his family was confined inside the park. He decided with four other Japanese veterans, one being Mr. Kuroda, to go to Greenwood to look for housing. Initially, his family had to share a place with two other families. Later, the Kitagawa family lived in a house on their own in Anaconda and finally across from Greenwood Park. Mr. Kitagawa worked for the CPR and later he was a night watchman at Boundary Sawmill in Midway. Tsunekichi returned to Steveston and died in 1969 at the age of eighty-two. Mr. Kitagawa had seven children.
With information given by Midori Kitagawa.
Masumi Mitsui
Masumi Mitsui’s story has been well documented by his grandson (see Sergeant Major Masumi Mitsui, MM—Hero of the 10th Battalion). Masumi was of samurai stock and began his life in Victoria as a dishwasher, waiter and chauffeur. After he enlisted in the Canadian Army, he fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. He and Tokutaro Iwamoto were awarded the Military Medal for bravery. By war’s end they were awarded the British War and Victory Medals.
Hirokichi Isomura
Hirokichi Isomura from Nagoya fished during the summer and ran a shoe repair shop on Hastings in Vancouver in the off-season. He never set foot in Greenwood because he protested that army veterans should not be treated as “enemy aliens” and be exiled. As a result, he and his eldest son were sent to a POW camp in Angler, Ontario. Sadly, Mr. Isomura never had a chance to see his family in Greenwood. His wife and children were sent to Greenwood and they lived in No. 10 Building (Frazee Block) and several other buildings, but the separation took its toll. Mrs. Isomura died, leaving her children in the hands of the communal neighbours. The children were moved frequently around Greenwood by the BC Security Commission. Eventually, the children were reunited with their older brother and father in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Mr. Isomura was quite badly wounded at Vimy Ridge so he moved his family to Vancouver to receive frequent care at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Shaughnessy Hospital and George Derby. He took his family each year to the Remembrance Day ceremony in Stanley Park. Mr. Isomura was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in the veterans’ section in 1957.
With research by Linda Kawamoto-Reid.
Others Interned at Greenwood
According to Mr. Morita’s book, there were other war veterans in Greenwood but they did not stay too long as they moved along elsewhere during the war years.
Nuinosuke Okawa was born July 24, 1884. He was a carpenter and served in the Russo-Japanese War for three years. Mr. Okawa enlisted in Calgary in 1916 and was wounded in battle. He was sent to Greenwood but later moved to Hamilton and York, Ontario.
Tsunejiro or “Thomas” Kuroda sailed from Yokohama to Honolulu on November 29, 1905, at age nineteen. He was a farm labourer in Hawaii. Thomas was a bachelor and good friend of Mr. Kitagawa. From Greenwood, he moved to Slocan and finally to New Denver to be placed in an old age home.
Kichiji Shimizu was born December 10, 1887. He came from Hawaii to BC in August 1907 as a labourer. Mr. Shimizu enlisted June 2, 1916, in Calgary. He died June 29, 1953. In an interview with Kiyoshi (Harry) Imai, he told me that Mr. Shimizu gave him his cherished German Luger pistol and war rifle that he brought back from the front. They were both living in Steveston in the late thirties. Harry didn’t know his first name at the time. It was always “Mr. Shimizu” to a young teen. Harry had to leave most of his possessions behind when the internment of the Japanese began in 1942. Mr. Shimizu moved up to Prince Rupert and he passed away June 29, 1953.
Yoshimatsu Fukaye was born in Yamaguchi-ken in 1883. Mr. Fukaye came to Canada as a labourer and watchman, and he enlisted in the army August 8, 1916. Yoshimatsu was interned in Greenwood and was on the voters list in 1945. Between 1949 and 1962, he was on the voters list in New Denver. Very little is known about him in Greenwood.
The Japanese who volunteered in World War I included men who came from samurai stock and veterans of the Russo-Japanese War, but mostly they were just tough, able-bodied, blue-collar workers. They fought with the samurai fighting spirit, but more importantly they fought to bring honour to their families and community. Most fathers would give their sons the advice that they were not fighting for their own glory. The advice might go something like this: “No bring shame to the family. Mo’ betta come home in a coffin.”
These men had to enlist in Alberta because British Columbia wouldn’t take them. By enlisting, these soldiers were led to believe they would automatically be granted the franchise and the right to vote. Unfortunately it took until 1931, but even then only these soldiers were allowed vote. In 1949, the Canadian government officially granted all Japanese the franchise and the freedom to move back to the West Coast.
These proud soldiers not only fought the enemy, but they had to fight for the right to vote, receive equal job opportunities and eliminate discriminatory practice against all Japanese living in BC:
50th Battalion (175th Overseas Battalion)
Kiyoji Iizuka 697032 Tokyo / wounded / Military Medal
Hirokichi Isomura 697033 Aichi-ken / wounded
Yonesaburo Kuroda 697079 Shiga-ken / wounded
10th Battalion (192nd Overseas Battalion)
Tsunekichi Kitagawa 898557 Kumamoto-ken / wounded
Masumi Mitsui 898559 Fukuoka-ken / wounded / Military Medal
Tsunejiro Kuroda 898533 Kumamoto-ken
Nuinosuke Okawa 898336 Shizuoka-ken / wounded
Yoshimatsu Fukaye 898545 Yamguchi-ken
191st Overseas Battalion (Served with 10th and 50th)
Toichi Nitsui 895424 Wakayama-ken / wounded
Yasuo Takashima 895539 Kumamoto-ken / Military Medal
52nd Battalion (13th Canadian Mounted Rifles)
Kichiji Shimizu 228439 Aichi-ken
Chuck Tasaka is a retired teacher living in Nanaimo. He’s working on a book titled Family History of Greenwood–Midway—My Hometown, My Furusato.
Sikhs Also Served
The memories of the Komagata Maru incident and its blunt rejection of Sikh immigrants were fresh in the memories of the Sikh community when war was declared. But there were still some Canadian Sikhs who decided to serve. At least a thousand Sikhs from India enlisted, and ten Sikhs in Canada also signed up. Five had served previously in the Indian Army. Not much is known about these men, though the Sikh community has attempted to commemorate their service in recent years. Canadian filmmaker and historian David R. Gray discovered the Sikh story while working on another project. His film Canadian Soldier Sikhs: A Little Story in a Big War was the result.
“The story was an unknown aspect of early Canadian Sikh history,” says Gray. “It was also something of a puzzle. Why had these men enlisted for Canada when clearly they were not welcomed in this country? The telling of this story also became a challenge. Could I find enough information on ten men in an army of thousands? Would there be photographs of them? Would there be personal stories to cover the sparse military records?”
Gray turned up some precious letters and while finding photos that could be properly identified proved challenging, the story he was able to tell was a compelling one. These are the men who served. At least six had BC connections:
- John Baboo: signed up in Winnipeg, came to BC after the war and died in Saanich in 1948
- Sunta Gougersingh: signed up in Montreal, killed in action in Belgium in October 1915
- Buckam Singh: signed up in Ontario, wounded twice in 1916, died August 1919 of war-related injuries
- Hari Singh: signed up in Toronto, survived the war and died in 1953 in Toronto
- Harnom Singh, a.k.a. Harry Robson: signed up in Vancouver in October 1916, wounded in 1918, returned to farming in Chilliwack, date of death unknown
- John Singh: signed up in Winnipeg, survived the war, next of kin in Fraser Mills, BC, died in 1971
- Lashman Singh: signed up in Ontario in 1915, court-martialled for striking a superior officer, returned to duty in August 1918, killed in action in France, October 1918
- Ram Singh: signed up in Vancouver, December 1917, served with the BC Regiment, last known address after the war, Grand Forks, details of death unknown
- Sewa Singh: signed up in Vancouver, June 1918, died in 1957
- Waryam Singh: signed up in May 1915 and served in Bermuda and France, wounded in April 1917, discharged in March 1918, ended up in Vancouver, details of death unknown
The letters of Waryam Singh, sent back to India, are particularly precious. On November 18, 1916, he wrote:
I believe this war will soon be decided. You know that there is frost in this part of Europe. What can I say? The frost or rain falls every day and the mud is beyond description and the war is terrible. The Germans are war weary and I could write a lot about their bad condition but time will not allow. On the 13th and 14th of November, 3,000 to 4,000 prisoners were brought into the trenches…The treacherous German is however very hard to convince that he is beaten. I am hopeful that he will soon be crushed.
On November 23, he wrote his father:
On the 4th of November there was a big fight and much hand to hand fighting took place and many prisoners were taken. Shells and bullets were falling like rain and one’s body trembled to see what was going on. But when the order came to advance and take the enemy’s trench, it was wonderful how we all forgot the danger and were filled with extraordinary resolution. We went over like men walking in a procession at a fair and shouting. We seized the trench and took the enemy prisoners. When we took the trenches, some of the enemy escaped and some were taken. The dead were countless. The bravery we showed that day was the admiration of the British soldiers. After the fight they asked how it was that I was so utterly regardless of danger.
A few months later he was wounded and then got trench fever and pneumonia. His illness probably explains his discharge before the end of the war. He disembarked in Victoria in March 1918. Not much more is known about what happened to him after that.
Nothing much changed for the men who came back to Canada. Their families could still not join them and they could not vote. The search continues for more about the lives of these men, but Gray’s film goes a long way toward opening up a dialogue and recognizing their service.
“With the help of Sikh temples and communities across Canada,” says David Gray, “we have made some progress in solving some of the mysteries of this little story in a big war.”
From Our Listeners
Two Chinese Brothers Determined to Serve: When World War I broke out, two brothers Wee Hong Louie (born 1894) and Wee Tan Louie (born 1897) from Shuswap wanted to enlist but most BC regiments refused all recruits of Chinese descent. [Read more]
My Grandfather Herbert Arthur Armishaw: According to his attestation papers, he enlisted in the Canadian Infantry in April 1916 and saw action overseas as a member of the 102nd Battalion, Regiment 506704. I am told his unit was responsible for digging tunnels toward German lines to blow up enemy fortifications. [Read more]