Victor Joy Ying (Loy) Louie, born September 6, 1916 in Victoria, B.C, was one of the rare Chinese Canadians who fought the Japanese long before the Second World War broke out.

On September 18, 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and set up a puppet state which they called Manchukuo. It would be the first of several aggressive moves by the Japanese Imperial Army to consolidate their power over their larger but poorer neighbour.

Louie joined a band of guerrillas trying to sabotage the occupiers. We don’t know if he was already living in China at the time (it was not uncommon for Chinese in Canada to send their children back to the “mother country” for a few years), or if he had left Canada to join the guerrilla movement.

He was still in China when the Second Sino-Japanese conflict broke out in July of 1937. This escalation in the conflict led Louie to return to Canada in 1938. But the scenes of occupation and devastation were forever etched into his memory.

As soon as he could, Louie enlisted in the Canadian Army and was finally accepted in 1944 when British Intelligence came looking for Chinese Canadian men who could form their Force 136.

Force 136 was a clandestine group trained in guerrilla warfare tactics. These men would be assigned to operations behind enemy lines. Their aim was to assist resistance groups with training, sabotage and espionage. They would learn more than basic soldiering skills: they would learn how to survive in small teams in the jungle with no outside contact or support.

With Louie’s experience from China under his belt, combined with his ability to speak fluent Cantonese, he was quickly assigned to a mission. Operation “Humour Orange” involved dropping Force 136 men into Japanese-occupied area near Kuala Pila and having them contact and support the key resistance group, The Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army (M.P.A.J.A.).

Victory Louie passed away March 16, 2006.

Victor Louie (standing) and Harry Ho pose for the camera. Circa 1945.