Person

Ko, John

• Ko Bong, John

1912-2008

John KO was born November 18, 1912 in Victoria, B.C. to G.B. (Go Bong) Simon and his wife, Jew Fun Shee; the family had 10 children in total. The family would relocate to Vancouver where John attended and graduated from Vancouver Technical High School at age 15.

His sister, Mary, was the first in the family to enlist for war service, joining the Canadian Women’s Army Corps and working as an instrument mechanic. John followed suit in 1942, enlisting with the 16th Canadian Scottish Reserve where he took basic training and anti-aircraft training in Vernon. For eight months, he was posted to Gander, Newfoundland for aerodrome defence in the 56th heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery. He returned to Halifax, then Toronto before being trained for infantry tank support at Camp Borden.

In 1944, he was handpicked by British SOE (Special Operations Executive) to be part of a group of 13 Chinese Canadians assigned to Operation Oblivion. At a secret training camp located ten miles north of Penticton in the Okanagan Valley, the group was trained in hand-to-hand combat, demolition, disruption of communications and equipment, wireless instructions and other guerrilla warfare tactics. During this training period, John was the group’s barber. Further training continued in Australia and India.

Their mission was to be parachuted into Japanese held areas, and find and train local Chinese resistance fighters. John was scheduled for covert ops in Hong Kong, but the mission was called off at the last minute when Hiroshima was bombed and the Japanese surrendered. The group was disbanded and individuals went on to other operations. John was posted to the Philippines where he repatriated POWs.

While waiting for transportation to return to Canada, he met a Chinese Australian woman and took her as a war bride. Due to Canada's Chinese Exclusion Act, he was unable to bring her home right away.

Following the end of the war, he and a close friend, Robert Lowe, petitioned and sought an audience with then B.C. Premier John Hart to repeal the Chinese Immigration/ Exclusion Act. The Act was repealed in 1947; Ida Ko Bong entered Canada on May 21, 1948 at White Rock, B.C. to join her husband in Vancouver.

John opened a sporting goods shop in Chinatown located next to his father’s watch repair shop on Main Street. In the following years, he was active in the Chinese United Church and became a Church Elder.

As a veteran, he enjoyed the fellowship and monthly meetings of Pacific Unit 280 and the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, and walked in the annual Remembrance Day ceremony.

John passed away June 17, 2008 at the age of 95.

Force 136 (1944-1946)

Ko Bong (Family)

Ko, Bong (1880-1957)

Jew Fun Shee ([1875]-1938)

Ko, Mathew (1909-2000)

Ko, Mark (1911-1928)

Ko, Ruby Dain Wah (1915-1935)

Ko, Mary Chan Wah (1917-2011)

Ko, Andrew (1922-2002)

Ko, Garnet (1923-1931)

Ko, Mabel Sue Wah (1913-1935)

Ko, Luke (1912-1932)

Ko, Peter

Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society