[raydan]

Japanese-Canadian soldiers fought prejudice at home so they could fight overseas

$1:

In late summer 1916, Ryoichi Kobayashi gave up his job as an “automobile driver” in Vancouver and followed the Alberta-bound flow of Japanese-Canadian men wanting to enlist in the Canadian Army.

He’d just turned 25 and had been in Canada for eight years.

But like others before him, Kobayashi was rejected as a volunteer when he applied in British Columbia. Here, only Caucasians were being accepted even though earlier that year, more than 150 Japanese-Canadians had paid for their own initial training in Steveston and Vancouver only to be told that B.C. recruiters weren’t interested in admitting Asians.

Alberta recruiters had no such qualms. And that suited men like Kobayashi just fine because they believed fighting for Canada would be a step toward earning full rights of citizenship including the right to vote.

Like most who volunteered, these men had no idea what lay ahead.

http://ww1.canada.com/faces-of-war/japa ... t-overseas