Nearly twenty years ago, I found a photo of my uncle Dick in Paul Yee’s Saltwater City.1 I recognized him immediately. He was staring straight at the camera, shirtless, and holding a rifle. I read the caption and learned Private Dake Wing “Dick” Yip had been recruited for secret Allied military operations in Asia during the Second World War.
He was a James Bond and I had no idea.
It’s amazing how you can follow a thread and uncover the story. In 2018, I gathered everything I knew at the time to write The James Bonds of Chinatown: Meet Force 136.2 My aunt Yvette gifted me Dick’s wartime images in 2019 and I wrote Force 136 goes to London and takes some holiday snaps – a pictorial story of WWII.3 In 2023, I presented The James Bonds of Chinatown: How I uncovered my uncle’s secret life as a member of Force 136 to the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society and the Army Navy Air Force Veterans, Unit 280.4 The story kicked into high gear in 2024, when I created the Force 136 Research Project, sponsored by the Chinese Canadian Military Museum, to send Col. (Ret’d) Christopher Weicker to London.5 His 2024 research, combined with his earlier thesis work,6 became the museum’s new digital collection of records about Chinese Canadians in Allied operations – both Special Operations Executive and Services Reconnaissance Department.
We know these today as SOE and SRD.
As genealogists, we get really good at finding records but never in my life did I think I’d be managing an archive nor what might happen when we got to see original sources. Working with the Chinese Canadian Military Museum, we won a grant to tell the story of the Chinese Canadians in Force 136. I cannot express how proud I am to share this exhibition with you now, the day before Remembrance Day.
Announcing the online exhibition: The Untold Stories of Force 136
The untold stories of Force 136 – from Canada to Borneo, India, and Malaysia explores the experiences of four Chinese Canadian servicemen from three families in British Columbia, Manitoba and New Brunswick. The bilingual exhibition was developed with the support of Digital Museums Canada, an investment program managed by the Canadian Museum of History.
Drawing on original British military records, genealogical research and family histories, the exhibition reveals new details about the men’s wartime training and service. A curated selection of archival documents is also being made freely accessible to the public. This story commemorates both our Chinese Canadian heritage and family research.
English: https://www.histoiresdecheznous.ca/v3/force-136/en/
Français : https://www.histoiresdecheznous.ca/v3/force-136/fr/
Please check it out and I would love to hear what you think.
Thank yous
My heartfelt thanks to the families and descendants who generously shared their family histories, photographs, and memories, helping us bring these remarkable stories to life.
Thank you to the Board of Directors of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum for supporting this ambitious project, and especially to Teresa Mew, our project manager, whose extraordinary dedication went far beyond coordinating the many moving parts. Teresa helped shape the exhibition’s presentation, explored the possibilities and limitations of the website, and devoted countless hours to bringing the stories, images, and historical documents together into the finished exhibition. Her resourcefulness, persistence, and commitment were essential to seeing this project through to completion. Thank you also to Dipenvir Kaur for her contributions to the website’s development, maps, and illustrations.
My thanks to Colonel (Retired) Christopher Weicker for his expertise in Special Operations Executive history and his archival research at The National Archives in Kew, London; to Professor Howard Hisdal for his invaluable military-historical knowledge and assistance interpreting photographs, equipment, and wartime operations; and to Catherine Clement for her leadership in bringing greater recognition to the Chinese Canadian veterans of Force 136.
Although we were not able to connect with the families of Sergeant Billy Kong Lee or Corporal Charles Joseph “Chuck” Fong and Private George (Georges) Fong during the development of the exhibition, we would warmly welcome hearing from them. Their stories, photographs, and perspectives could add enormously to our understanding of these men and their wartime service.
Finally, thank you to Digital Museums Canada, an investment program managed by the Canadian Museum of History, for making this digital exhibition possible. It has been a privilege to work alongside so many dedicated people to bring these stories to a wider audience.
About the cover
As part of the exhibition, we created this image to demonstrate some of the fabulous records we found at The National Archives, London. Photos from the Chinese Canadian Military Museum.
Events
Tune in to CBC Radio tomorrow, Remembrance Day, to hear my interview with On the Coast with Gloria Macarenko, about 3:00 pm British Columbia. I’ll be sharing stories about Untold Stories.7
References
- Paul Yee, Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver (Douglas & McIntyre, 1988), 111. ↩︎
- Linda Yip, “The James Bonds of Chinatown: Meet Force 136,” Past Presence, December 31, 2018, https://past-presence.com/2018/12/31/the-james-bonds-of-chinatown-meet-force-136/. ↩︎
- Linda Yip, “Force 136 Goes to London and Takes Some Holiday Snaps—a Pictorial Story of WWII,” Past Presence, June 30, 2019, https://past-presence.com/2019/06/30/force-136-goes-to-london-and-takes-some-holiday-snaps-a-pictorial-story-of-wwii/. ↩︎
- Linda Yip, “The James Bonds of Chinatown: How I Uncovered My Uncle’s Secret Life as a Member of Force 136” (online presentation, Chinese Canadian Military Museum / ANAVETS Unit 280, January 7, 2023). ↩︎
- In 2024, Linda Yip initiated and organized the Force 136 Research Project, sponsored by the Chinese Canadian Military Museum. The project supported archival research at The National Archives, Kew, London, undertaken by Col. (Ret’d) Christopher Weicker. Drawing on his expertise in Special Operations Executive records, Weicker independently selected and examined the relevant archival files. The research contributed to the museum’s growing collection of Force 136 documentation. ↩︎
- Christopher Weicker, “Secret Warriors in the Pacific War: Chinese Canadians and the Special Operations Executive, 1944–45” (unpublished revised manuscript, 2024; originally submitted as a master’s research project, University of Victoria, 2022). ↩︎
- Linda Yip, interview on On the Coast, CBC Radio One, Vancouver, November 11, 2026. ↩︎
