‘Green’ edifice to honour Douglas Jung
Lena Sin
Province
401 Burrard in Vancouver, to be named after Douglas Jung today. Photograph by : Gerry Kahrmann, The Province
After months of controversy and consultation, Ottawa has finally picked a new name for an eco-friendly office building in downtown Vancouver.
It will be officially announced today that the 401 Burrard building will be named after Douglas Jung, the first Chinese-Canadian member of Parliament.
But while some are applauding the new name — and Ottawa‘s second attempt at naming the building — others have been left fuming over the decision.
“I’m disgusted,” said John Green about the naming process. “They took [my father’s] name off without any research.”
Last September, Public Works Minister Michael Fortier originally named the building after Green’s father, Conservative MP Howard Green.
But public outcry soon followed from Japanese-Canadian groups who remembered Howard Green as one of the most feared politicians in B.C. for his racist remarks in the 1930s and ’40s.
Ottawa soon rescinded its decision and asked for a new naming committee to come up with fresh suggestions for Fortier to consider.
“The irony there is supreme. Dad played a key role in getting him [Jung] into the House of Commons and also took him to the UN as part of the Canadian delegation,” said Green. “My dad was a mentor of Douglas Jung.”
Green had resubmitted his father’s name for consideration in May.
He said he has no objection to Jung but rather to Ottawa‘s decision to backtrack on the original name.
“My objection is to them removing my father’s name on an incorrect and unjustified slur,” said Green.
He said his father was not a racist and maintains that his father’s public campaign to oust Japanese-Canadians from B.C. in the 1930s and ’40s was based on concerns for Canada‘s security at a time of war.
But Mary Kitagawa, who played a key role in lobbying for a name change, said she’s relieved about the new name.
“I was quite relieved the process has come to an end,” said Kitagawa, of the Japanese-Canadian Citizens Association Human Rights Committee. She said she’s happy with the new name.
Jung was born in Victoria in 1924 with no legal status as a Canadian.
He and a dozen other Chinese-Canadians joined the army at the start of the Second World War.
Jung said this was in order to help them gain citizenship — which they were granted after the war, in 1947.
In 1944 Jung and the others were sent on a secret mission to Malaysia to train locals to fight the Japanese.
Veterans’ Affairs paid for Jung to go to the University of B.C. to study law after the war.
Jung joined the Progressive Conservative Party and in 1957 was elected MP for Vancouver East.
He was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 1990 and died in January 2002.
The unveiling of the name coincides with 100th anniversary of Vancouver‘s anti-Asian race riots.
On Sept. 7, 1907, a white mob swept through the Chinese and Japanese sections of Vancouver, smashing windows and attacking Asian immigrants.
A march through Vancouver commemorating the riot will take place today.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
