By Debbie Jiang

I am honoured to receive a Centennial Legacy Fund grant from the British Columbia Historical Federation, for my work on a photographic mass biography of First World War soldiers of Japanese descent.

Since the day I led “Lest We Forget Cenotaph Research Project” workshops at Library and Archives Canada, I wanted to show students the ethnic diversity in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. What I discovered in aging yellowed envelopes was a paper trail of the history of a visible minority group’s political stance.

The Japanese Canadian community was eager to enlist in the Canadian army. The right to vote and equal rights were at stake. Is there among your ancestors a pioneering spirit who hoped for a better future for all Japanese Canadians by answering the call to arms?

Patriotic, they were keen to serve under the Anglo-Alliance of 1902 between Great Britain and the Empire of Japan – many of the soldiers upon immigrating to Canada were naturalized British subjects.

While there is a photographic honour roll of the fifty-five war dead, there does not yet exist a collection of photos of the remaining original Japanese Canadian volunteer soldiers. The battalion was organized and sponsored by Mr Charles Yasushi Yamazaki whose presentation trophy I helped save from the auction block last December. Writing these soldiers’ biographies is the simple part, unearthing the photos is the ultimate challenge. In order to do this, I am appealing to the public for help.

These warriors were very popular among their white comrades, and more than a few served as personal batmen to officers. King George V and Queen Mary took special interest in them on their hospital visits. Several had served in their youth as soldiers in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and were revered by the enemy. Many were married men with children – a complete anomaly compared to white soldiers, who were mostly between the ages of 18 and 25, single men.

The loss of life was heavy, with 25 per cent of the original battalion laying down their lives on foreign battlefields. They proved their loyalty to a country that would betray them twenty years after they returned home as heroes. Despite their service and sacrifice to Canada during the First World War, veterans whose battle honours include Vimy, Passchendaele, Arras and Hill 70, they were interned during the Second World War and several injuriously exiled to Japan in 1946.

Now, with the digitized archival government records made easily accessible by the Landscapes of Injustice initiative, the full story of internment and dispossession can be told. It is possible to piece together these soldiers’ stories post-Armistice.

Several went on to start farms on land that was granted to them via the Soldier Settlement Board, only to be stripped of them by the same board during the Second World War (to give to a white returning soldier). Others resumed their careers in the fishing industry only to have their boats confiscated and sold without consent in 1942.

How could a hero in one war be treated as an enemy alien in another? The irony is not lost on me and I endeavour to collect, preserve and tell the history of British Columbia, Canada and Japanese Canadian soldiers of the Great War.

The timing of compiling this mass biography project comes on the heels of advocacy work I have been doing. Last spring, I was successful in my bid to have the names of two fallen Japanese Canadian soldiers included on the City of Richmond’s cenotaph.Private Hikotaro Koyanagi and Private Kazuo Harada were finally recognized after over one hundred years of being forgotten.

Here are the names of soldiers whose photos I am searching for: Manza Araki, Kaiza Chiba, Seijiro Chiba, Chutaro Chujo, Taichi Fujii, Sataro Fuji, Yoshimatsu Fukaye, Yichimatsu Fukushima, Bunshiro Furukawa, Shinjiro Goto, Bunkichi Hamade, Teizo Hamamatsu, Saburo Harada, Mosaburo Hayashi, Tsunenejio Hirai, Takaji Hirota, Robert Rikuzo Hoita, Takezi Hoshizaki, Masakichi Ehara, Niichi Ikeda, Tomasaburo Inohara, Kandayu Inouye, Kosho Matano, Mosaki Iwasaki, Kinnosuke Iwasaki, Hirokichi Isomura, Shigeshi Iwashita, Sakuziro Izukawa, Takakichi Kaji, Otoji Kamachi, Tsurumatsu Kamei, Soichi Kanda, Kameji Katena, Katamasa Kato, Yoshio Kawai, Kinjiro Kawase, Kiichi Kimoto, Shigeru Kondo, Yeisaku Kubodera, Jennojo Kubota, Kuwajiro Matsuda, Nobio Matsuda, Zenkichi Matsumoto, Tamotsu Mikuriya, Tomejiro Miyagawa, Suketaro Miyahara, Eigoro Miyata, Noboru Murakami, Sakutaro Murata, Saburo Muto, Eijiro Nagai, Sasuke Nakagawa, Manichi Nakamura, Tomoyoshi Nakamura, Shigeji Nakata, Masaji Nakauchi, Takashi Namba, Tanizo Naruse, Masaru Nishijima, Yasunobu Nishimura, Tsunezo Nonaka, Ryotaro Obayashi, Tosabura Okutsu, Sentaro Omoto, Toshimitsu Omoto, Tomoichi Otsubo, Kantaro Saito, Yashichi Saito, Yasukichi (Yashichi) Sakamoto, James Den Sato, Saburo Sato, Yoshikatsu Sawada, Jinsiro Shiga, Kichiji Shimizu, Jihei Shimizu, Ichimatsu Shintani, Genseki Sobuye, Kiyoshi Sugimoto, Yasaku Tajino, Kanae Takahashi, Yasuo Takashima, Kanichi Tohana, Thomas Tomoda, Kiyozo Tomoguchi, James Jitsui Tsubota, Masataro Uyeda, Nobuichi Uyeda, Raymond Kenji Uyehara, Nobuhei (Nobuhu) Watanabe, Otojuro Yamamoto, Otamatsu Yamamoto, Zenkichi Yamasaki, Hiroma Yano, Torakichi Yasuda, Kaura Yoshihara, Matakichi Yoshikawa, Kazuo Yoshizawa.

As we mark the 80th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 2025, let Canadians know and remember that it would take four more years after 1945 for freedom to come to all interned and dispossessed people including veterans of the First World War.

On April 1, 1949, Japanese Canadians were finally able to freely move back to the coast of British Columbia. Today, we stand on the shoulders of these men; let us remember them by putting faces to their honoured names.

Please scan high resolution photos and email them to me at jcanadianscef@gmail.com by December 31, 2025. You will be acknowledged and given photo credit. Thank you for your kind assistance.