Jack Wang explores complexities of love and war in new novel set in Vancouver

It's 1942. Josiah Chang leaves his work as a tree faller in B.C.'s Cariboo for the big city — Vancouver — with plans to serve his country in the Second World War. 

But when that doesn't work out, he finds a job as a riveter, building ships, to support wartime efforts, instead. There, he meets a woman named Poppy, and their love is tested during a time when interracial relationships are, to put it politely, frowned upon. 

The Riveter author Jack Wang said he is fascinated with the involvement of Chinese-Canadians during the war, as it's something he never learned much about while growing up in Vancouver. 

"It just seemed like, especially since a lot of these veterans are no longer alive, that this was a story worth telling," he told CBC's North by Northwest host Margaret Gallagher.

Wang said his character Josiah is based, at least in part, on Richard Mar, the only Chinese-Canadian who served in the First Canadian Parachute Battalion during the Second World War.

"[Mar] was part of the Battle of the Bulge, and he jumped into Germany." Wang said. "That sort of forms the contours of the storyline for The Riveter."

Josiah's initials, J.C., were chosen to honour Johnny Canuck, the Canadian version of Uncle Sam or John Bull, used to inspire during the war. 

And while Wang's latest work is a story of war, it's also a story of love. 

One of the first times Josiah sees Poppy, she's stepping out of a storage shed — and a man steps out behind her, hinting that something has happened between them. 

"She's a woman who's ahead of her time," Wang said. 

His inspiration for Poppy: Penelope in Homer's The Odyssey.

"Penelope is this figure of faithfulness. She is this paragon of virtue, and that's her defining characteristic," Wang said. I was interested in a woman who was perhaps not so interested in waiting around for a man to come home from war, and a woman who valued her own needs and desires and how might that complicate a relationship."

Heavily researched

A great deal of research was done to paint an accurate picture of the time and places Josiah finds himself, Wang said; he poured through encyclopedias and historical documents, but he also physically visited places like Fort Benning, Ga., where some Canadian military members trained. 

"When I was describing, for example, the barracks at Fort Benning or the mess hall, I'm describing them from actually having seen them," he said.

Wang, a professor in Ithaca College's writing department, currently lives in the U.S., but grew up in Vancouver. He particularly enjoyed creating an image of Vancouver in the 40s. 

"Fortunately, Vancouver's a fairly well-documented city," Wang said. 

"Part of the reason I write about Vancouver is because I did grow up there and I love the city and it's just a way for me to spend time in Vancouver in my imagination."

The Riveter is available now.