Japanese-Canadians with C.E.F.

[Brian M]

I'm doing some thesis research regarding some British Columbia units and am wondering if anyone might know with which B.C. battalion the majority of the Japanese Canadians served. There were a number who served with the 192nd from southern Alberta but haven't run across any from B.C. yet. There is a beautiful memorial in Stanley Park in Vancouver to the members of the Japanese-Canadian soldiers who lost their lives while serving with the C.E.F. so there must have been a significant number of men who enlisted from this province as well.

http://blue.netnation.com/pictures/chris_s...ge=p0014629.jpg

Brian

[Terry]

Brian,

Take a look at "Gallant Canadians" by Daniel Dancocks. It deals with the 10th Battalion, and Dancocks writes that about 25% of all the Japanese Canadians who served in 14-18 were with this unit. Lt.Col.Ormond apparently was not pleased with their arrival, but they turned out to be good soldiers.

Military Medal winners with the 10th Bn included Tokutaro Iwamoto and Masumi Mitsui.

[Brian M]

Terry

Both Iwamoto and Mitsui enlisted in the 192nd in Aug and Sept of 1916 so that Btn. must have been used as reinforcements for the 10th. Thanks for the tip.

Brian

[N.S.Regt.]

I find only one Japanese Canadian in any of the Nova Scotia Units. He is 895548 Toyotaro Takayanagi who served with the 7th Stationary Hospital, he enlisted in Calgary. His number block would make him a original of the 191st battalion South Alberta Regt. Pte Takayanagi was died of wounds May 20 1918, the 7th had suffered a aerial bombardment by some 60 planes (according to sources) on May 18 1918 and this was the likley date of his being wounded as there were a number of casualties.

Best regards

N.S.regt

[Broznitsky]

Brian:

Alberta affiliated, the 21st Reserve Battalion in England trained the 137th, 138th, 151st, 175th, 187th, 191st, 192nd, 194th, and 209th Overseas battalions; and reinforced the 10th, 31st, 49th, and 50th fighting battalions in France.

I'll have a look at the 29th (Vancouver) Btn sailing roll for men from Japan.

[paul guthrie]

Not Canadian, but Australian which is most unusual. Harry Freame called by Bean best scout on Anzac was 1/2 Japanese! And from Kentucky NSW!

[Broznitsky]

No Japanese embarked with the 29th. I read that due to racism prevalent in British Columbia at the time, many Japanese went to Alberta to enlist, where the situation was more tolerant.

Brian, I assume you know about this book:

Ito, Roy. -- We went to war : the story of the Japanese Canadians who served during the First and Second World Wars. -- Stittsville, Ont. : Canada's Wings, 1984. -- 330 p.

Have you got a rough idea of how many hundreds of men you are looking at?

[Brian M]

No, I haven't heard of Ito's book but thanks for the tip. Judging from the number of names on the Cenotaph in Stanley Park, it must have been quite a few hundred. My current research concerns the volunteers from the Cariboo District but a search of the 1901 Census indicates that there was a signifigantly large population of single Japanese men working largely as labourers in this region. I am wondering if many of these men might have tried to enlist in the Cariboo but were forced to go either to Vancouver or Calgary. Despite their large numbers, there was never any mention of them in the local newspaper. The same holds true for the Chinese of whom made up nearly half of Quesnel's population at the time. I'm alos wondereing if any work has been done regarding the large numbers of Chinese labourers employed on the Western Front.

Brian

[Brian M]

Apparently racist attitudes changed as the war progressed as Japanese born Canadians were being drafted under the Military Service Act of 1917. See for example the case of Hatsujiro Kitagawa being drafted into the 1st Depot Battalion of the B.C. Regiment in February, 1918.

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/cef/gpc008/438442a.gif

[Broznitsky]

Despite their large numbers, there was never any mention of them in the local newspaper. The same holds true for the Chinese of whom made up nearly half of Quesnel's population at the time. I'm alos wondereing if any work has been done regarding the large numbers of Chinese labourers employed on the Western Front.

Pals Ivor Lee and Ian Bowbrick are Labour Corps experts on this forum. I think most of the Chinese labourers came from jolly old China; I have a feeling that very few, if any, Chinese living in British Columbia or Alberta would have made it to the Western Front. I think the Chinese were even lower on the totem pole than the Japanese . . .

[Canadawwi]

Re: Chinese Labourers - Here's something I found in a circa 1919 book entitled "Canada's National Railways - Their Part in the War" (published in Toronto by Canadian National Railways). I've copied the relevant passages below:

MYSTERY TRAINS

All through the war there were passing over the Canadian railroads at some time or another, certain trains to which a great air of mystery was attached. Sometimes, it was a single car, carrying unknown passengers who were apparently of very great importance in the eyes of the Government; at other times, a "fish" or a "silk" special would be going through.

The air of mystery by which such trains were surrounded was, of course, necessary. German spies were everywhere, and would hold their own lives cheap if they could wreak damage on some person or some material, of great value to the Allied cause. Therefore, camouflage was resorted to...

ORIENTALS IN THE SILK "SPECIALS"

The "Silk" specials were nothing more or less than large bodies of Coolie laborers, brought across the Pacific Ocean, and thence across Canada, on their way to perform useful manual labor behind the fighting lines in Europe. It was necessary to bring these Asiatics into the war - not for fighting purposes, because none of them ever bore arms - but to do the manual labor, which it would have been a great waste to have called upon trained soldiers to do. They had to be carried secretly, in conformity with the general policy with which all war operations were conducted; and they had also to be carefully watched, les they should escape en route. The head tax of five hundred dollars would have had to be paid for any Coolie escaping; and as one Chinaman, to the eye of the average white man, is as much like another as are two peas, identification and recovery would have been difficult, if not impossible. Indeed there is a story that a slippery Coolie did escape from a train passing over the prairies. The guard who was responsible, was worried, but not dismayed. He dashed uptown and "commandeered" the first Chinaman he met, and carried him off as a substitute for the one he had lost.

A peculiar incident happened when a troopship of Coolies, ready to leave Halifax under convoy, was held up for two days, owing to the absence of rice in sufficient quantities to satisfy the Chinese appetite. Two car loads of rice which should have gone on the steamer were delayed in the yards at Moncton, and were forwarded by special freight after the wires had been kept hot for a few hours. The Coolies carried their own cooking utensils and dishes, and fed entirely on rice and fish. When disembarking from the steamer, preparatory to entraining, they were taken off in lots of about seventy-two at a time - "Six dozen assorted Coolies", one disembarkation officer used to say - and packed in at the rate of about 750 to a train. As they went through the clearing house at Halifax, the Red Cross used to give each man an apple.

There were, in all, 48,708 of these Coolie passengers, carried in 67 "Silk" trains between July, 1917, and April, 1918. Three guards were employed to each car.

(from pages 55 - 61, Canada's National Railways / Their Part in the War, published c1919)

[Bill Alexander]

Does anyone have the roll of the 16th Canadian Scottish? I remember that a widely reproduced photo shows a Japanese Canadian in the 16th Canadian Scottish Bn.

[Terry]

I have a copy of Roy Ito's book, as mentioned above, and one of the appendices is titled "Japanese Canadian Volunteers of the First World War Canadian Expeditionary Force".

It lists the men by unit:

5th Bn. - 1

52nd Bn. - 42

138th Bn. - 1

50th Bn. - 56

10th Bn. - 56

195th Bn. - 1

142nd Forerstry Coy. - 1

Railway Battalion - 4

14th Coy,CASC - 3

191st Bn - 20 (served with 10th & 50th Bns at the front)

All are listed by name and regimental number; 53 were KIA, many others wounded.There is a chapter on the graves of the war dead,etc. All in all, quite a well done book. If I can provide any further information let me know.

[Jacky Platteeuw]

If any help following Japanese are comemmorated on the Menin Gate:

KOYANAGI, Private, HIKOTARO, 697078. 50th Bn. Canadian Infantry (Alberta Regt.). 26th October 1917. Son of Haya Koyanagi, of 1144, Misato, Mikawa-Machi Muke, Japan.

NISHIOKA, Private, TEIZO, 114856. 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles (Quebec Regt.). Killed in action 2nd June 1916. Age 25. Son of Mrs. Matsui Nishioka, of Osaka, Japan.

Jacky

[Broznitsky]

Thanks for that lookup Terry.

The 52nd were out of Port Arthur, ON; 138th Edmonton; 50th Calgary; 195th Regina; 191st Fort MacLeod, AB.

53 KIA out of 185 enlisted? That seems very high, although I read that the Japanese were very fierce combatants, especially at Vimy Ridge.

I wonder if Ito's figures are completely accurate, he doesn't mention the 192nd Crow's Nest Btn described above, and the KIA ratio is troublesome.

[Brian M]

I find it interesting to note that none of the mentioned battalions are from British Columbia considering that there were nearly 12.000 Japanese men living in B. C. by 1914, the majority being between the ages of 15 and 30 yrs.

Brian

[Terry]

I have been looking through the Ito book again. From my earlier list, I should add the following comments:

5th Bn lone man enlisted in 9th Bn KIA

52nd Bn men had enlisted in 13th CMR

50th Bn men had enlisted in 175th Bn

Five 10th Bn men had enlisted in 209th Bn

Fifty-one 10th Bn men had enlisted in 192nd Bn

The 191st Bn men were split between the 10th & 50th Bns

Thirteen Japanese volunteers won the MM; from checking the book I think these are their units:

898527 Pte.T.Iwamoto,10th Bn

228118 Pte.Y.Kamakura,52nd Bn

697045 Pte.T.Shirasao,50th Bn

895230 Pte.B.Furukawa,10th or 50th Bn

697032 Pte.K.Iizuka, 50th Bn

697023 Pte.O.Yamamoto (MM& Bar),50th Bn

T.Inouye

252111 Pte.Y.Kubodera,10th Bn

898559 Sgt.M.Mitsui,10th Bn

697050 Pte.M.Nakamura,50th Bn

696952 Pte.S.Miehara,50th Bn

895182 Pte.T.Tanji,10th or 50th Bn

895539 Pte.Y.Takashima,50th Bn

[marc leroux]

I haven't cross checked this list against whet the other Pals have listed, but this is what I've come up with. The 13 CMR that is listed for a bunch of the names is the unit that they enlisted into and sailed against. As Terry mentions, this was broken up to provide reinforcements to the 52nd.

(I certify that the attached spreadsheet contains no known virus, malicious microbes, trojan horses, or equines of any other type)

marc

cefJapanese.xls

[Brian M]

That's a great listing, thanks Marc.

Brian