Japanese Canadian Internment Camps
... 1930s there were so many Nisei (Canadian born) and Issei (Japanese Nationals) that in 1938, the Nisei formed the Japanese Canadian Citizens League to secure political and economic rights and to fight discriminatory legislation (“The Canadian Nisei Experience” para. 5). The attitudes of Caucasian Canadians to these resident Japanese were heavily influenced by generalized anti-Oriental feelings that were particularly strong in British Columbia (and on the Pacific coast of the U.S.), where immigration of Japanese, had been opposed and feared for over half a century (“Japanese Canadian Internment” pg. 12). The sinister image of a ‘Yellow Peril’, which conveyed a threatening extinction of the white race by Orientals, had frequently found its way into published diatribes in the early part of this century, and this kind of racism was not absent from the agitation often stirred up by politicians as an easy crowd pleaser (Douglas and Greenhous 1995, 260). By 1942 people of Japanese decent living in British Columbia numbered 22, 000 of which the majority, over 13,000 were Canadian born and therefore citizens of Canada, 3, 223 were naturalized Canadians and 5,564 were Japanese nationals, most of whom had resided in Canada for a generation and 2,000 of whom were women (Douglas and Greenhous 1995, 265). They lived in Vancouver, in various communities along the Southern British Columbia Coast, and on farms in the lower Fraser and Okanagon valleys (Canadian & World Encyclopedia para. 8). December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong. Twelve weeks later the Canadian federal government used the War Measures Act to order the removal of all Japanese Canadians residing within 100 miles of the Pacific Coast, (“The Enemy That Never Was” para. 5). Prompted to do so by British Columbia politicians (Canadian & World Encyclopedia para. 2) making this the greatest mass movement in the history of Canada (“Japanese Canadian Internment” para. 2). The paper’s issue of December 9, 1941 -- only two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor-- carried a front page editorial which was surrounded by a wide white border and took up the length of the page. The headline virtually screamed at the reader “Cancel Japanese Fishing Licenses”. It is equally important that all Japanese be removed from the vicinity of fortified areas (The Persecution of the Japanese Canadians” para. 3). Finally getting what they always wanted. The round-ups were performed without benefit of Judicial procedure; on retrospect, it is difficult to find any justification for these actions, either in the security requirements of the time or on any reasonable grounds whatever (“National Association Of Japanese Canadians” Pg. 12). It is a little known fact that the Canadian Nisei were forced to accept evacuation and internment like their American counterparts during WWII (“The Canadian Nisei Experience” para. 1). Action began with the arrest and internment of thirty-eight Japanese who were already on RCMP dossiers as potential subversives; some 1,200 fishing boats were impounded and registration of all persons of Japanese origin, regardless of citizenship, was required (Dower 1999, 132). The federal government sold off all Japanese-Canadian owned property: homes, farms, fishing boats, businesses and personal property at bargain basement prices. The government then deducted the proceeds of these sell-offs to pay for any welfare received by the owner while unemployed in a detention camp (Canadian & World Encyclopedia para. 5). At the time, the government claimed that Japanese Canadians were being removed for reasons of “national security” (Canadian & World Encyclopedia para. 3). The removal order, however was opposed by Canada’s senior military and police officers who said that the Japanese Canadians posed no threat to Canada’s security. No Japanese Canadian was ever charged with disloyalty to Canada and the evacuation didn’t happen immediately after the war began, nor was it carried out at an urgent pace (“Japanese Canadian Internment Camps” para. 4). This slow removal hardly suggested a military emergency or that Japanese Canadians posed such an acute threat to national security (“The Enemy That Never Was” Para. 3). Prompted only by British Columbian politicians who had long been looking for an excuse to rid the province and Canada of the Japanese minority (“The Enemy That Never Was” para. 1). When the news came that the war had ended in Europe, Japanese Canadians thought this might be the end of the camps...The British Columbia politicians who had pushed for the internment of the camps were still determined to keep them out of their communities (Canadian & World Encyclopedia para. 6). As a result, in 1945, the Japanese Canadians’ choice for post-war freedom were limited. They could stay in Canada, but only if they moved east of the Rocky Mountains and settled in Ontario, Quebec or the Prairie provinces. Otherwise they would face deportation to war ravaged Japan (“Japanese Canadian Internment” para. 5). It is evident that if the Japanese Canadians were placed in internment camps for national security...