Attorney-General Documents Regarding Japanese Immigration
Description
Title Proper | F0 GR0429 BOX 06 FILE 2 |
Date(s) of material from this resource digitized | 1900 |
General material designation |
From this file, LOI has digitized one textual record or image.
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Scope and content |
This file contains records concerning the immigration of Japanese people to British Columbia and fraudulent naturalization at the turn of the century. Three men were arrested
in 1900 in connection to the case, but more instances of fraud were identified. The
case went to a preliminary hearing before a police magistrate; Regina v. Hanichi Shibato et al. Solicitors, Bowser, Godfrey & Co. informed Attorney-General D.M. Eberts that
one of the immigrants in question received his naturalization paper from “another
Jap” who “told him to keep it.” Shibato worked in a cannery in Rivers Inlet, but the majority of these fraudulent naturalization cases concerned men who were
ostensibly destined for the United States. The solicitors identified a couple notaries in connection to the naturalization
papers who were “at least most careless” or more likely “drumming up a business” in
illegal documentation. Ultimately, the solicitors decided that due to the extent the
fraud, their best option was to “with-draw these cases without going to any further
expense.” They confiscated the “bad” naturalization certificates and presented them
to the Provincial Constable.
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Name of creator |
The Provincial Government of British Columbia created this archive.
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Immediate source of acquisition |
The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research
Collective between 2014 and 2018.
This record was digitized selectively.
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Structure
Repository | British Columbia Archives |
Fonds | Government Records Collection |
Series | Dept. of the Attorney-General, 1871-1976 |
Sub-series | F0 GR0429 BOX 06 |
Metadata
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Title
Attorney-General Documents Regarding Japanese Immigration
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Source: British Columbia Archives
Terminology
Readers of these historical materials will encounter derogatory references to Japanese
Canadians and euphemisms used to obscure the intent and impacts of the internment
and dispossession. While these are important realities of the history, the Landscapes
of Injustice Research Collective urges users to carefully consider their own terminological
choices in writing and speaking about this topic today as we confront past injustice.
See our statement on terminology, and related sources here.