My grandfather (on my mom's side) was an army cook in the 1940's or 1950's. That was right after he arrived in the US with his brothers. This was when the Asian Exclusion Act was just repealed but immigration from China was still highly restricted, so males were allowed to come to the US, but they could not bring their families. So his wife and kids (including my mom) was left behind. The US wanted the cheap labor force, but didn't want them having families here. Still have old photos of him in his army uniform with his Irish girlfriend. After the immigration laws was loosened in the 60's, he was finally able to sponsor my family to come to the US.
My dad was in the Chinese army fighting against the Japanese during WWII and then fought against Mao and the Communists after WWII. For decades he still hated the Japanese and would not eat at a Japanese restaurant or buy Japanese products. When the Communists won and drove Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalists from China to Taiwan, he left with them and left behind his first wife and his two sons in China. The Taiwanese government then sent him to Hong Kong to spy on mainland China. That's where he met my mom.....she was a young mom with small kids, so it didn't raise any suspicions when she traveled to China to visit her sister. So my mom would visit China, meet people there who would give info to her, and she would return to Hong Kong and pass that info to my dad. This part of my family history I never knew until my adult years. My entire life I thought my dad was an accountant because that was what was written on my birth certificate. Since the communist government couldn't get to my dad, they did the next best thing....they went after his family. His two sons were put into a reeducation labor camp for a number of years. The younger of the two was eventually caught trying to sneak out of China and was executed. The older was finally allowed to emigrate from China to the US in the early 80's.