Person

Jung, Douglas Hin Wah

• 鄭天華

• Jung, Hin Wah

1924-2002

Douglas Jung was born JUNG Hin Wah in 1924, the youngest of three boys to JUNG Yik Ching. Apparently, he was named after a prominent street in Victoria near where the family lived. According to family legend, when Douglas’ mother was asked for the baby’s Western name, it was the name that came to her mind.

During WWII, Douglas was one of 13 hand-picked Chinese Canadians trained for a secret mission under British Special Operations. The men were the first to be recruited to Force 136. They were more or less an experiment to see if Chinese Canadian men could be trained in commando warfare techniques: sabotage, espionage and jungle survival. Today, this first group of Force 136 recruits is often referred to by the name “Operation Oblivion” after the code name given to their planned mission to be dropped behind enemy lines in the jungle and undertake sabotage and reconnaissance against the Japanese.

Jung did his training in Commando Bay in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. He was then shipped to Australia for further training and possible deployment into Japanese-occupied China or other areas of Southeast Asia held by the Japanese. Jung was recovering from a foot injury suffered during low-altitude parachute training when the war in the Pacific ended.

After the war, Douglas became a lawyer and practiced in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Tall and good-looking, in 1957 he broke into politics (running for the Progressive Conservative party) and was elected as the first Member of Parliament of Asian descent. He was later appointed by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to be Canada’s representative at the United Nations.

In 1958, Douglas married Joy Calderwood, a teacher from England. They had met four years earlier when Joy was teaching in Vancouver. Together the couple would have 2 children, twins: Arthur and Elizabeth.

In his lifetime, Douglas received the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada among other awards.

Douglas would die in 2002, after several years of ill health. He had suffered a heart attack in 1995 while marching with fellow veterans and never fully recovered.

Force 136 (1944-1946)

Jung, Yat Ching ([1879]-1962)

Description supplied by collector/curator