Patullo versus the Chinese

I was amazed to read a front page story about the untold stories of Vancouver Chinatown heroes in World War II...

(From the Front Page of the Globe and Mail Aug 11)
"They were the worst of the bad: ruthless Chinese who went over to the side of Japan during the Sino-Japanese War that devastated China from 1937 to 1945. With their pistols, black suits, black hats and dark glasses, these turncoats were known as the "Chinese Gestapo," infamous for their brutality.

Late in the war, they arrested William Gun Chong. They beat him. He didn't talk. They beat him again. Finally, in his thick village dialect, the terrified prisoner told his Chinese interrogators he could not understand them, was hungry and needed to look for work. They let him go.

If only they had known: William Gun Chong, who had spent nearly all his life in the heart of Vancouver's Chinatown, was a British spy.

For 3½ frightening years during the Second World War, Mr. Chong, Agent 50, operated behind Japanese lines, rescuing downed Allied fliers, ferreting out vital intelligence and helping to organize a pipeline of life-saving medicine to prisoners of war in Hong Kong."

Read More about Chinese Canadian war vets
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