{"id":491,"date":"2011-10-16T01:15:13","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T08:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ccmm.sodadesign.com\/?p=491"},"modified":"2026-01-30T10:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:36:21","slug":"douglas-jung","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ccmms.ca\/staging\/9619\/veteran-stories\/army\/douglas-jung\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Jung"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Born in Victoria, B.C. in 1924, he was the youngest of three boys and was fascinated by the allure of military life.\u00a0 Here is his story as told by the Vancouver Sun (May 25, 2017) in its series profiling 150 noteworthy British Columbians.<\/p>

In February, 1946, war veteran\u00a0Douglas Jung<\/a>\u00a0returned home to Vancouver from Australia. Reporters wanted to ask him\u00a0about his military activities\u00a0during the Second World War, but Jung couldn\u2019t say a word about serving in a secret guerrilla unit.<\/em><\/p>

When Japan entered the war, the\u00a0British recognized the potential\u00a0of using Chinese-Canadians as spies in\u00a0Japanese-held territories. Jung was one of about\u00a0600 Chinese-Canadians<\/a>\u00a0who volunteered to fight \u2014 even though they still weren\u2019t recognized as full Canadian citizens.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cWe were people who, even denied the most fundamental rights of citizenship, acted as honourable citizens to serve our country in its hour of need,\u201d he said at a military reunion of veterans in 1987.\u00a0\u201cAnd no one can take that honour away from us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

It wasn\u2019t until 1947 that Chinese-Canadians were given the right to vote.<\/em><\/p>

Jung<\/a>\u00a0was the son of Jung Yik Ching, who came from the village of Ngow Pei Hong in Guangdong. Douglas Jung\u2019s\u00a0name comes from the\u00a0place of his birth on\u00a0Douglas Street in Victoria.<\/em><\/p>

At the time,\u00a0anyone of Chinese heritage<\/a>\u00a0couldn\u2019t enter professions\u00a0such as medicine or law. They couldn\u2019t buy property in certain neighbourhoods such as Shaughnessy and the British Properties. And until 1947, Canada had a national policy barring immigrants from China.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cYou have to understand the kind of country Canada was then,\u201d he told\u00a0The Vancouver Sun.\u00a0\u201cThere was no such thing as a Chinese-Canadian. The Chinese \u2014 even if they were born in Canada \u2014 didn\u2019t have the right to vote, weren\u2019t recognized as citizens, couldn\u2019t practice certain professions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Jung\u00a0graduated from the University of B.C. in law. In 1957, he ran in the federal riding of Vancouver-Centre as a Progressive Conservative. He surprised everyone by defeating a Liberal cabinet minister and joining the government of\u00a0John Diefenbaker. Jung\u00a0became the country\u2019s\u00a0first Chinese-Canadian Member of Parliament<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

Diefenbaker appointed Jung as the\u00a0country\u2019s\u00a0representative to\u00a0the United Nations. At UN Headquarters in New York on his first day, he went to take his seat. The moment was bittersweet, however. Jung was told to leave \u2014 a security guard said\u00a0the spot was reserved for the official representative of Canada.<\/em><\/p>

In 1988, he travelled to the village of father\u2019s birthplace in China. The visit was big news because of Jung\u2019s\u00a0fluency in Cantonese\u00a0and his height of\u00a0182 cm (six feet). It was also a rarity for Chinese villagers to see\u00a0an elected politician.<\/em><\/p>

The emotional highlight came when he stood\u00a0by the cornerstone of the house his father left when he came to Canada.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cMy father never returned to China, and I had never been there,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cBut when they took me to where my father had lived, I felt that I was on a pilgrimage for him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

kevingriffin@postmedia.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>

A DVD on the life of Douglas Jung, “I Am The Canadian Delegate”, produced by Wesley Lowe, is now available at Filmwest. \u00a0Here is a shortened version of that film.<\/p>