Japanese Canadian internment

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During World War II, more than 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly interned in Canada.

Contents

[edit] Background

A R.C.N. officer questions Japanese-Canadian fishermen while confiscating their boat.
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A R.C.N. officer questions Japanese-Canadian fishermen while confiscating their boat.

When Canada declared war on Japan in December 1941, members of the non-Japanese population of British Columbia, including municipal government offices, local newspapers and businesses called for the internment of the Japanese. In British Columbia, there were fears that some Japanese who worked in the fishing industry were charting the coastline for the Japanese navy, and many of their boats were confiscated. The pressure from the public was so great that early in 1942 the government gave in to the pressure and began the internment of both Japanese nationals and Japanese Canadian citizens. About 95% of the nearly 23,000 people of Japanese descent who lived in Canada, were naturalized or native-born citizens.[citation needed] Those unwilling to live in internment camps or relocaction centres faced the possibility of deportation to Japan.

Internment camp, June 1945
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Internment camp, June 1945

Unlike Japanese American internment, where families were generally kept together, Canada initially sent some of its male evacuees to road camps in the British Columbian interior, to sugar beet projects on the Prairies, or to internment in a POW camp in Ontario, while women and children were moved to inland British Columbia towns [citation needed]. There, the living conditions were so poor that the citizens of wartime Japan even sent supplemental food shipments through the Red Cross.[citation needed] During the period of detention, the Canadian government spent one-third the per capita amount expended by the U.S. on Japanese American evacuees.[citation needed]

[edit] Camp Conditions

The BC Government refused to fund education for young Japanese Canadians.[citation needed] Then the Federal Government stepped in and helped out the Japanese and arranged classes from grades 1-10. With the help of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the United Church high school became a reality so grades 11-12 came into effect as well. The first place to get a school up and running was in Lemon Creek.

Leadership positions within the camps were only offered to the Nisei, or Canadian-born, Japanese, not the Issei, the older generation.

Canada sold all of the Canadian born internees' worldly possesions. In 1943 the Canadian "Custodian of Aliens" liquidated these worldly possesions without the owner's permission. The Custodian of Aliens held auctions for these items. These items would range from farms and to houses, to people's clothing. They were sold quickly at prices below market value.[citation needed] The money that was raised from these auctions went to the realtors and the auctioneers; then it went to paying for storage and the handling charges. The Japanese had to pay for their stay at these camps.[citation needed] While under the Geneva Convention prisoners of war (POW) didn't have to pay for their camps.

[edit] Post-War

After the war, the order-in-council that authorized the forced deportation was challenged on the basis that the forced deportation of the Japanese was a crime against humanity and that a citizen could not be deported from their own country. The Prime Minister referred the matter to the Supreme Court in what was to be the first case heard in the newly constructed building housing the Court.

In a five to two decision, the Court held that the law was valid. Three of the five found that the order was entirely valid. The other two found that the provision including both women and children as threats to national security was invalid. In 1947 the deportation order was repealed and consequently few citizens were ever deported.

By 1949, four years after Japan had surrendered, the majority of Nikkei were allowed to return to British Columbia. However, since their property had long before been confiscated or sold, many resettled in other parts of Canada. Many others returned to Japan.

[edit] Legacy

On September 22, 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney gave a long-awaited formal apology and the Canadian government began a significant compensation package, one month after President Ronald Reagan made similar gestures in the United States. The package for interned Japanese Canadians included $21,000 to all surviving internees, and the re-instatement of Canadian citizenship to those who were deported to Japan. [1]

The Nikkei Memorial Internment Centre in New Denver, British Columbia, is an interpretive centre that honors the history of interned Japanese Canadians, many of whom were interred in the New Denver area.

[edit] In literature

The novel Obasan (1981) by Joy Kogawa centres on one family's hardships during the Japanese internment period in Canada. In the novel, Kogawa draws upon her own experiences in describing how families were often split up, had their property taken, and suffered racism from Canadian citizens and the federal government.

Kogawa explores similar territory in Naomi's Road (1986), a novel for young adults with illustrations by Matt Gould.


[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Apology and compensation, CBC Archives

[edit] External links

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