World War II

On 3 September 1939, New Zealand declared war on Germany, supporting major powers like Great Britain and France. Just four months later the first expeditionary force left New Zealand shores.

Like other young New Zealanders, Chinese were keen to join up. In fact, the community had already been primed for war with the start of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937, [link?] a conflict that would later become part of WWII.

Compared with WWI, there were more young Chinese who had been born in New Zealand and had grown up here. They were proud to serve and between 1939 and 1945 around 38 joined the New Zealand armed forces, mostly the air force. Others joined the Home Guard, while women also served, working mainly in administrative areas.

However, not all were blindly patriotic. Although Chinese born in New Zealand enjoyed similar rights as others while they were in New Zealand, this changed when they went overseas. Conscription and overseas service provided an opportunity for a new generation of activists to protest. They set up the NZ-born Chinese Association [link]. Their main point was that Chinese New Zealanders were being asked to serve in defence of the British Empire, yet did not have the rights of Imperial citizens – unlike European New Zealanders. Their efforts confused the Prime Minister's office which noted that their letters seemed "somewhat impertinent".

Joining the military was not the only form of service. There was also food production, and this was extremely important as New Zealand was obliged to help feed thousands of American troops across the Pacific. The New Zealand government enlisted the help of Chinese market gardeners, asking them to form a national body to co-ordinate vegetable production on the government’s behalf. At this point, Chinese growers produced 80% of the country’s green leaf vegetables. During the war, they vastly increased production – in some cases tripling their acreage. Their produce ended up feeding hundreds and thousands of American and New Zealand soldiers. The organisation formed during the war, the Dominion Federation of Chinese Commercial Growers, continues to be an active industry organisation.

Read more
The NZ-born Chinese Association - a new generation of protest
Chinese Growers' story

Active service

Of the 38 Chinese New Zealanders who served in World War II, xx were killed in action. These included William Lip Guey and Willie Lee - Chan Kewl Ying 陳 橋 英, both Royal New Zealand Airforce (RNZAF) pilots.

William Lip Guey was 19 when he joined the RNZAF. The son of well-known community leader and court interpreter, William James Lip Guey and his wife Mary, Lip Guey was born in Wellington in 1922. He grew up Adam’s Terrace in the Aro Valley and was a keen soccer player, as well as being a member of Poneke road cycling club.

When he enrolled, he was assigned as an observer/navigator in bombing command. All Air Force personnel assigned for flying duties did their training in Canada and Lip Guey completed his observer course in late October 1941. He then went on to the Bombing and Gunnery School in Saskatchewan, and then finally to the Air Navigation School in Manitoba.

In mid-June 1942 he was given the rank of Flight Sergeant and posted to the Mediterranean.  Just five months later in November 1942, he was on a mission in a Hudson bomber over the Mediterranean when his plane was attacked by a German fighter. Lip Guey’s plane crashed into the sea with no survivors. He was 20 years old.

Willie Lee - Chan Kewl Ying 陳 橋 英, was a pilot in the New Zealand Air Force. Born in 1914 in Dannevirke he was the fifth son of Chan Ming Fun, aka Ching Shing Lee, of Hargee Village. As a child, Willie Lee was educated both in New Zealand (Rotorua) and Canton – his parents having sent him back to China for a Chinese education. As a young man he returned to China with the aim of becoming a fighter pilot. He went to night school and managed to get into the prestigious Central Military Airforce School at Hangchow. After completing 100 hours of flying and he fought in the famous second battle of Shanghai, between August and October 1937.  The fighting was so fierce that it has been called “Stalingrad on the Yangtse”.

Lee returned to New Zealand in 1938, and worked in his brother Stanley’s fruitshop. But he couldn’t stay away from the skies and re-enlisted in the New Zealand Air Force in 1940. He trained on Harvard aircraft at the Initial Training Wing in Levin, before posted to the United Kingdom. He was flying a Spitfire when he was killed on active service on 14 November 1942, aged 28. During this period of the war, the Spitfire was notorious for flipping. This technical fault that was fixed later in the war.

Others like Bill Wong of Dunedin and Bill Chun of Wellington got through the war safe and sound. Like many young recruits, they were keen to see the world, and escape "boring jobs".

Read more
Bill Chun - escaped the fruitshop to become a war photographer
‍Bill Wong - RNZAF's first Chinese pilot officer.

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Read the service records of all Chinese NZ military personnel at Auckland Museum's Online Cenotaph

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