Captain Roger Cheng Aka Captain Fong parachuted down to Kapit with four other Canadian Chinese soldiers. It was into this situation that 29-year-old Roger Cheng and four other Chinese-Canadians, Jimmy Shiu, Norman Lowe, Roy Chan and Lewis King, were flown on August 6, 1945. Cheng was the first Chinese-Canadian to become an officer in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, a rare accomplishment in those days. He was an electrical engineering graduate from McGill University and spoke fluent Cantonese, making him a natural to head this team.
From Kapit he led the Allied soldiers to liberate the people from the Japanese Occupation. What is special to me is the Japanese Camp was ten minutes from my Grandpa's house. My grandpa and my dad were privileged to witness the surrender.
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/uncommon-courage
http://www.rcsigs.ca/index.php/Cheng,_Roger_K
Roger Kee Cheng served as a member of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals during the Second World War. He saw service in Ottawa prior to undertaking commando and guerrilla training for his subsequent service in the Molucca Islands and Borneo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day
The federal department of Veterans Affairs Canada states that the date is of "remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace"; specifically, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and all conflicts since then in which members of the Canadian Armed Forces have participated.[14] The department runs a program called Canada Remembers with the mission of helping young and new Canadians, most of whom have never known war, "come to understand and appreciate what those who have served Canada in times of war, armed conflict and peace stand for and what they have sacrificed for their country."[15]
Link From China to Borneo and Beyond
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Force 136
Force 136 was a branch of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War.
Link
Another group was headed by Captain Roger Cheng, an electrical engineer and the first Chinese Canadian officer in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. Roy Chan, Louey King, Norman Low and Jimmy Shiu served with Cheng. They were dropped into Borneo to make contact with Dyak indigenous peoples who lived deep in the jungle. Louey King recalled: “While in the jungles of Borneo we lived on crocodile meat, monkeys and wild pig. It was incredibly hot and steamy there: often over 45°C. I was shot in the leg in a skirmish.”
In August 1945, Captain Cheng’s group joined a British team gathering information about Japanese troops and prisoner-of-war camps, where about 25,000 British POWs were being held. The Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima the day the men arrived in Borneo. Cheng and his men helped transfer British POWs to Australia after Japan surrendered and came up against Japanese units that refused to surrender.
Several Chinese Canadians stayed in Southeast Asia well into the fall of 1945. They assisted with liberating prisoner-of-war camps, preventing revenge massacres, and maintaining order and security during the chaotic post-surrender environment.
Its covert missions were based in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia, where orders were to support and train local resistance movements to sabotage Japanese supply lines and equipment.
While Force 136 recruited mostly Southeast Asians, it also recruited about 150 Chinese Canadians . It was thought that Chinese Canadians would blend in with local populations and speak local languages. Earlier in the war, many of these men had volunteered their services to Canada but were either turned away or recruited and sidelined. Force 136 became an opportunity for Chinese Canadian men to demonstrate their courage and skills and especially their loyalty to Canada.
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Another group was headed by Captain Roger Cheng, an electrical engineer and the first Chinese Canadian officer in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. Roy Chan, Louey King, Norman Low and Jimmy Shiu served with Cheng. They were dropped into Borneo to make contact with Dyak indigenous peoples who lived deep in the jungle. Louey King recalled: “While in the jungles of Borneo we lived on crocodile meat, monkeys and wild pig. It was incredibly hot and steamy there: often over 45°C. I was shot in the leg in a skirmish.”
In August 1945, Captain Cheng’s group joined a British team gathering information about Japanese troops and prisoner-of-war camps, where about 25,000 British POWs were being held. The Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima the day the men arrived in Borneo. Cheng and his men helped transfer British POWs to Australia after Japan surrendered and came up against Japanese units that refused to surrender.
Several Chinese Canadians stayed in Southeast Asia well into the fall of 1945. They assisted with liberating prisoner-of-war camps, preventing revenge massacres, and maintaining order and security during the chaotic post-surrender environment.
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