Japanese immigrants fought for Canada during WW I while denied the right to vote

Private Otoji Kamachi served in a Canadian battalion involved in the Vimy Ridge offensive in 1917. He's one of nearly 200 Japanese Canadians who served in the First World War. (Nikkei National Museum - image credit)

For the first time the faces of Japanese Canadian veterans who fought in the First World War are on display on the streets of Vancouver after a century largely unrecognized.

A community historian spent more than 15 years digging through archives, tracking down descendants and uncovering heroic acts to bring this group of forgotten soldiers’ stories to life and push for the recognition she says they deserve.

“These were young men who gave their whole lives and no one remembers them,” Debbie Jiang told CBC News.

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