28. Bill Chong Tried to Enlist in the Canadian Military, But Was Rejected Because He Was Chinese
Bill Chong might have loved Canada, but Canada did not love him back. When he tried to enlist in the army, he was turned away by recruiters who were unenthusiastic about signing a “Chinaman”. As fate would have it, Chong would end up playing a greater role in the war than anybody could have imagined when he was spurned by the Canadian military.
It began with a family bereavement. Chong’s father died in Canton, and his sister, who lived in Hong Kong, wrote her brother to tell him that he was needed to help settle the estate. He traveled to Hong Kong in 1941, but probate was more complicated and took much longer than expected. Weeks turned into months, and Chong was still in Hong Kong in December, 1941, when Japan kicked off WWII in the Pacific and Asia by attacking American, British, and Dutch colonial possessions.