At the age of 98, the Burma veteran continues to hand out poppies

When Gordon Quan was growing up in Victoria in the 1930s, he was not allowed to use the swimming pool and had to sit in a separate section of the cinema.

Chinese Canadians could not vote and were banned from certain professions.

Many even had to give up their Chinese names in favor of English ones, which were deemed easier to pronounce. In Quan’s case, the teacher suggested that “Gordon” – from the Flash Gordon comics – was better than his real name, Juy Kong.

But when Quan turned 18 and was allowed to join the Canadian Army, he never wavered.

“I said I would go and fight… I volunteered,” Quan said – just two months shy of his 99th birthday – as he handed out poppies at a Mayfair shopping center on Friday for his Royal Canadian Legion branch, Britannia No. 7.

Quan said it was his “duty” as a Canadian to leave, even though he and thousands of others with similar backgrounds faced racism and were often segregated in their daily lives. “It was just the way it was,” said Quan, who was born in Cumberland in 1926.

In 1944, Quan went all in and volunteered to join a secret British-led commando unit – Force 136 – to fight the Japanese in the jungles of Burma.

Often called the forgotten war compared to theaters in Europe and the Pacific, the Burma campaign was brutal, full of arduous marches, sabotage and reconnaissance missions in hot, humid conditions and the threat of disease.

After basic training at Maple Creek, Sask., he and about 600 other Chinese-Canadians were given a choice – fight the Germans in Europe or the Japanese in Southeast Asia.

It wasn’t a difficult decision.

As a teenager in Victoria, Quan raised money in Chinatown for the forces fighting the Japanese who invaded China in 1937. He also had a direct, personal connection to his parents’ homeland. After Quan’s father died when he was five, his mother took her son to their home village in China, but when he was nine they returned to Victoria.

After training, Quan was sent to England and transferred to the British Army’s 136th Special Operations Executive Force, which worked with resistance groups in Japanese-occupied countries such as Burma, supplying them and helping them carry out sabotage operations.

They were flown to a camp near Poona, India, where Quan was training to be a demolition expert with a 15-man commando team.

Its lineup included another Victorian, Harry Chow.

Quan endured 50-kilometer marches during which officers used heavy machine gun fire to teach soldiers to keep their heads down.

He learned how to parachute behind enemy lines, how to use a knife and a gun, what plants to eat in the jungle, and how to use detonators and plastic explosives to blow up bridges, railways and ammunition dumps.

For two months in the jungle near the Malaysia-Burma border, Quan carried a .45 or .38 caliber pistol and, if captured, a cyanide pill.

But Quan never fought back. In August 1945, as his team prepared for combat, he was told that the war had ended when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan.

“If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t be standing here today,” Quan said.

He has been awarded the Canadian Armed Forces Badge with two bars, the Canadian Volunteer Medal, the Star of Burma Medal and the Order of Military Merit – all of which Quon proudly wears.

When Quan finally had a chance to vote, it was during the 1949 federal election, and he has cast ballots in almost every election since.

After the war, he settled in Victoria, washing dishes at the Victoria Cafe and The Mandarin restaurant, and working on construction sites. He trained as a car mechanic, raised a family of five and eventually became a foreman mechanic in the city of Victoria.

Quan wanted to volunteer for the Korean conflict, but was not considered because he was raising a young family at the time.

He joined the Army Reserve, serving for 35 years before retiring as the Regimental Sergeant Major of the 11th Company in the 39th Service Battalion.

Quan said barriers for Chinese-Canadians began to decrease when he returned home from the war.

His childhood friend, Andrew Wong, who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during the war and then in its Canadian counterpart, successfully challenged the rule banning Chinese from the Crystal Pool.

Quan said when the new facility was built on Quadra Street, Wong was one of the first responders.

At the age of 98, Quan remains active. He is the proud owner of an electric tricycle and regularly rides the airport routes in North Saanich with his daughter and son-in-law. He recently managed to board a Martin Mars water bomber on display at the BC Aviation Museum.

He regularly speaks to veterans groups and visits other old servicemen at the Veterans Memorial Lodge at Broadmead Care. He takes time to get to know everyone in his own home on Ross Place, next to the North Ward School where he attended classes decades ago.

Quan has been scattering poppies before Memorial Day for decades. “We cannot forget the knowledge of World War II,” he said. “That’s why I come today and I always do. People cannot forget the sacrifices veterans make.”

Quan’s daughter, Annette Quan, stated that her father retained his enthusiasm throughout his long life.

“He never had any grudges (about discrimination),” she said. “He never seemed to wear it or think about it. He just sees it as human kindness (on his part).”

Annette said that during a recent visit to the Victoria Chinatown Museum, her father talked to younger children about the importance of the sacrifices made by veterans.

Quan says he owes his longevity to “discipline, diet and exercise.”

“I enjoyed serving in the armed forces and if I were young again, I would join the military again,” Quan said, adding that his experience in the military taught him useful lifelong lessons.

Quan said he is lucky to have retained a good memory and undeniable wit as he approaches his centenary.

“I try to help people, if possible, understand them and show them respect… if I continue to do this, then it will be good.”

— with Jack Knox files

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