At the outbreak of the World War II, the population of British Columbia included around 21,000 Canadians of Japanese origin, of whom 75% had residence rights. They had come from Japan in a wave of immigration over a period of fifty years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The original settlers in British Columbia were proud of their British origins and did not take kindly to these newcomers. The Japanese therefore had to confront xenophobia, racism and discrimination. Laws excluded them from certain professions, they had no voting rights, and they could not get fishing permits. The intent was to force them to return to Japan.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 raised the fear of a Japanese invasion on the Pacific coast, a risk considered slight by the Canadian military authorities. However as a result of pressure by politicians from British Columbia who wanted to rid the province and Canada of the Japanese minority, the government finally determined that Canadians of Japanese origin represented a threat to national security ; they could become a « fifth column », and some of them were even suspected of being spies. Twelve hundred fishing boats were confiscated, and Japanese schools and newspapers were closed down.
In February 1942, the prime minister Mackenzie King issued a series of decrees with the object of removing all those of Japanese origin to « protection zones » in the interior of the country. All Canadians of Japanese origin were therefore sent to ghost towns in the Rockies, to camps, or to sugar beet plantations in other provinces such as Alberta or Manitoba. They lost all their civil rights, as well as their property, which in 1943 was confiscated and disposed of by decree. Money arising from sales was used to cover the expenses of the internment of the former owners. It was a huge displacement : more than 20,000 men, women and children of Japanese origin, despite the fact that 13,000 of them had been born on Canada, were uprooted and taken from their homes.
« We got ready to tighten our belts in preparation for the famine which would result… there were ten showers for 1,500 women… the men neglected themselves terribly ».
Camp conditions were primitive. There was no spiked fencing or barbed wire, but families were packed in with one another in rough shelters without running water, electricity or adequate heating. Illness was rife during very cold periods. Deportees had left home with a single suitcase with just a few personal belongings. A file with a reference number and a photograph was opened for all internees. Poverty and overcrowding characterised camp life. Those who were sent to work camps, mines or sugar beet plantations, were subjected to the most extreme conditions. They were confined to the work camps, and were given no pay.
The conclusion of the war did not put an end to the sufferings of the Nippo-Canadian minority. On 2 December 1945 a Canadian Supreme Court ruling, that the federal government had the power to deport Japanese Canadians and to withdraw their citizenship, was confirmed. They were given the choice between expulsion to a Japan devastated by war, or dispersion in the east of the country. Most decided to stay in Canada, but several groups did in fact leave for a country where they were considered foreigners. In 1947, under pressure from the church, from labour groups and from Asian countries, this expulsion programme was abandoned, but only after an attempt in 1946 to arrange a huge deportation of 10,000 people to Japan. It was not until 1 April 1949 that Japanese Canadians got back their liberty, and obtained the right to vote.
The 1980s saw a campaign to set right the wrongs suffered by Japanese Canadians. New documents gave a greater understanding of the problem and the opportunity to press their case. The National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) campaigned to persuade the government to recognise the wrongs that had been committed and to offer compensation. It conducted a programme of awareness raising which resulted, in July 1988, in the repeal of the wartime measures act, and its replacement by the emergency measures act, which prohibited discriminatory legislation and allowed for reparations for those who had been victims of government action. On 22 September 1988, the wrongs which had been inflicted on Japanese Canadians were finally recognised by the federal government, and those expelled to Japan were given back their citizenship and were personally indemnified.
The documents presented are held in Library and Archives Canada (LAC). LAC is a new organisation which since 2004 has brought together the collections, the services and the personnel of the National Library and the National Archives of Canada. LAC recognises the human rights issues which have resulted from the sometimes painful acceptance of past errors, and of the grave injustices which have been inflicted on certain ethnic groups or populations. LAC cannot rewrite history, but in its capacity as an agent of government responsible for the preservation of the collective memory of the nation, it has a duty to collect, to preserve, and to bring to public attention documents essential for the protection of human rights.
Internet site Bibliothèque et archives Canada (BAC).
Adachi, Ken, The Enemy that Never Was, Toronto, Ontario : McClelland & Stewart, 1991. See chapters 9-14.
Broadfoot, B, Years of sorrow, years of shame : the story of Japansese Canadians in World War II, 1977.
Nishiguchi, Gabrielle, « Innocence Lost : The Wartime Experience of Japanese-Canadian Children », The Archivist, Number 112 (2003) : pages 9-13. The Archivist is free. To be put on our mailing list, write to The Archivist, Library and Archives of Canada, Publications, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N3 Canada.
Sunahara, Ann, The politics of racism : the uprooting of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, 1981.
« Throwaway Citizens », Canadian Broadcasting Company, The fifth estate, 24 October 1995. Host : Linden McIntyre. Producer : Margaret Slaght.
Re-shaping Memory Owning History : Through the Lens of Japanese Canadian Redress. Vancouver, British Columbia : Japanese Canadian National Museum, 2002. Tri-lingual edition : english, french and japanese. For a copy, contact The National Nikkei Heritage Centre, Burnaby British Columbia, at info@NikkeiPlace.org.
Quotations from the correspondence of Muriel Kitagawa with her father and her brother, 1942. Librairy and Archives Canada, Kitagawa papers, MG31-E26.
