Correspondence, reports etc. relating to the evacuation of Japanese in British Columbia

From this file, LOI has digitized one textual record or image.

This file mostly contains reports from the Department of National Defence on the evacuation of Japanese nationals and Japanese Canadians from the Pacific coast of British Columbia. There is a range of documents in this file. For example, the first written document is notes from an interview with Austin C. Taylor, “formerly” Chairman of the BC Security Commission, who recommended the deportation of “Japanese Nationals” and “Naturalized Japanese-Canadians.” Another interview with Colonel A.W. Sparling reveals that a report written by the The Special Committee on Orientals in BC was not signed by Sparling himself, but by Keenleyside. This file also includes a chronological list of events starting with the outbreak of World War II and ending with short descriptions of the Fraser Valley Farm Land Transfer, 19 June 1943, and the termination of the BC Security Commission, 5 February 1943. There is also a notice issued by the RCMP, addressed “TO MALE ENEMY ALIENS,” and a report by BC Police Commissioner T.W.S. Parsons.

BC Archives collected this archive.

The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.

This record was digitized in full.