Legion branch founded by Japanese Canadian veterans reinstated after 84 years

Masumi Mitsui was a decorated veteran of Vimy Ridge, but he never took part in a public Remembrance Day ceremony, his grandson David Mitsui said.

The British Columbia Legion Branch that fellow Japanese Canadian veterans founded in 1926 had been disbanded during the Second World War, Masumi Mitsui and other members by then regarded not as heroes but as "enemy aliens."

They could not stand alongside fellow Legion members as representatives of Branch No. 9.

"But on Remembrance Day, when I was growing up and we would visit him, he had on his uniform, he had on his Legion beret, and he had shined up his First World War medals, and he honoured his fallen comrades … in the privacy of his own home," said David Mitsui.

This year's Remembrance Day will be different -- Legion Branch No. 9 is being represented for the first time in at least 84 years, and almost exactly a century after it was founded.

Like his late grandfather, David Mitsui serves as president of the branch following its recent restoration, which will be marked by a public ceremony in February.

Mitsui said the restoration corrects an injustice and will allow descendants of Japanese Canadian veterans to fully honour the sacrifices of their ancestors, standing with members of other Legion branches.

"It gives us great pride to be able to represent Legion No. 9 and all of the veterans in an official capacity," he said. 

Mitsui's grandfather was among about 200 soldiers of Japanese descent who fought for Canada during the First World War. Fifty-four did not return, while 92 were wounded. 

When these sacrifices were not immediately recognized after the war, the surviving veterans organized themselves by forming Branch No. 9, which was officially chartered in December 1926, Mitsui said. 

Masumi Mitsui was part of a delegation that successfully lobbied provincial legislators to grant Japanese Canadian war veterans the right to vote in 1931.

But just over a decade later, Branch No. 9 surrendered its charter under duress after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, while the Canadian government declared Japanese Canadians "enemy aliens" and placed them in internment camps.

David Mitsui said his grandfather did not resist the surrender of the charter because he did not want to embarrass the Legion.

When Manami Mitsui was taken to Vancouver's Hastings Park as part of his family's internment as Japanese Canadians, "he slammed his First World War medals on the table," David Mitsui said.

"They flew off (the table) onto the floor, and he said 'What good are these?'"

Mitsui said the Legion had promised to restore the charter after the end of the Second World War, but historian Debbie Jiang found newspaper clippings last year showing the promised reinstatement was denied in 1948.

Jiang said this was because the federal government had not yet lifted mobility restrictions on Japanese Canadians. 

"The measures taken against these Canadian heroes of Vimy Ridge were undemocratic to say the least, treating them like criminals, taking away not only their life's work, but their dignity and demeaning the service they gave to a country that did not even allow full citizenship rights," she said.

"They went to fight anyway, and then only 24 years later, they are the 'enemy?'" 

Jiang got in touch with Legion leadership after making her discovery about the fate of Branch No. 9 last year. Mitsui said she championed the revival of the branch by researching its history, then getting descendants of the founders to submit an application for a charter. 

Jiang says the restoration of the branch's charter in July showed that it was never too late to right a wrong.

The branch has about 60 members, most of them descendants of veterans, and while it lacks physical premises due to a lack of funds, the first official meeting is scheduled for Dec. 2.

It will take place over Zoom, because members are spread across Canada, Jiang said. 

While the branch is still sorting out its future, one of its goals is education, she said.

"Legion No. 9 exists now not only to tell history, but to motivate Canadians to learn its own untaught history by living it in the present, by joining as a member, and being part of the projects we have in plan," she said.

David Mitsui will take part in Remembrance Day ceremonies on Wednesday with his daughter.

His grandfather may never have done so, but there was a moment of recognition for his service on Aug. 2, 1985. 

Masumi Mitsui was invited to re-light the lantern on top of the cenotaph when the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Vancouver was rededicated. It had been extinguished in 1942. 

"He was in a wheelchair, but he stood proudly below the cenotaph," David Mitsui recalled.

"He saluted and he said, 'I have done my last duty for my comrades. They are gone, but not forgotten.'" 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2026.

By Wolfgang Depner | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.