Cathy Dobson/The Independent

This Remembrance Day, local historian, Gord MacKenzie, wants Canadians to reflect on the sacrifices of two Canadian battalions in Hong Kong that he says are generally forgotten.

“The Canadian government wanted to forget it. They just didn’t want to admit they sent untrained, unprepared troops to go fight in Hong Kong,” said MacKenzie. “And they listened to the hubris of the Brits who believed the Japanese would not attack the British empire.”

For two weeks in December 1941, nearly 2,000 troops from the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers joined British, Indian and local forces to defend Hong Kong in what would be the Canadians first land battle in the Second World War.

The losses were shocking.

When Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day, 290 Canadians had been killed. Another 264 died because of the brutality of Japanese prisoner of war camps.

When the survivors returned to Canada in 1945, many of them weighed less than 100 pounds, said MacKenzie. They suffered from both physical injuries and mental anguish, but the Canadian government was extremely slow to recognize them, he said.

“When they applied for benefits, each was given $50,” he said, as guest speaker at a Golden K Kiwanis Sarnia-Lambton meeting in Sarnia on Tuesday.

In May 1941, Japan formally apologized for harsh treatment of the POWs, but there was no financial compensation.

And the Canadian government took 50 years before finally providing $25,000 to each survivor, according to MacKenzie.

He learned about the veterans’ hardships from two men who worked for his father in Montreal when MacKenzie was a boy.

These men were brothers who served in the Royal Rifles of Canada. MacKenzie only knew them as the Curtises.

“I knew Mr. Curtis had his problems and could not keep a regular job, but he was a great guy to work with and he always helped me,” said MacKenzie.

“When I was 19, I found out he was a Hong Kong vet. I tried to look up the stories for these men with little result.”

Not only was there little documentation, but there was also little government recognition, he said.

“There are no words to describe the Canadian government’s poor treatment of these men.”
MacKenzie, who is president of the Plympton-Wyoming Historical Society and volunteers at the museum in Camlachie, said he chose to focus on the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Hong Kong because it receives so little attention.

No one from Sarnia-Lambton served in Hong Kong, he said. “But all Canadians should know about those who did.”

The Plympton-Wyoming museum has extensive military exhibitions on Vimy Ridge, D-Day, the Korean War, and the Battle of the Atlantic where local men served.

And the museum’s military room is dedicated to Brent Poland who died in April 2007 in Afghanistan.

MacKenzie also took several moments during his presentation to recognize the four members of Canadian Armed Forces who were killed Oct. 17 in Wainwright during a training exercise.

They were Pte. Hayden Lykkemark, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Aidan Goulding and Sgt. Morgan Wong. Thirty-nine others were injured and 19 remain in critical condition.