Halford Wilson Correspondence 1940 - 2

Halford Wilson Correspondence 1940 - 2

Description

Title Proper PR0038 MS0012 BOX 1 FILE 04
Date(s) 1940
General material designation
This file contains a textual record.
Scope and content
This file contains correspondence between Halford Wilson and other official and British Columbians concerning the “Oriental question.” Documents: Wilson to M.J. Coldwell on the “alienation to the Japanese of some natural resources of B.C.”; a letter from a citizen sharing his “three pet racial hates” as “Japs Germans and Jews”; a memo from the British Canadian Allied Club urging department stores to “quit buying from Japanese firms”; a letter from the White Canada Research Committee suggesting the abrogation of metal exports from Canada to “put a crimp in the Japanese operations”; a couple letters requesting ordinances preventing Japanese-Canadians residing in stores on Cambie Street (29 August 1940); multiple letters from Halford Wilson to Vancouver Finance Committee expressing concern over proposed federal policy to admit Japanese-Canadians into the military; a letter suggesting a city-wide boycott of Japanese-Canadian owned businesses; a letter from Wilson to an American company requesting that they stop hiring Japanese-Canadian workers at their Ocean Falls plant; and a letter from F.J. Mead to Wilson explaining his attempts to prevent violence towards Japanese-Canadians in order to avoid giving “the Japanese Government the excuse to wreck a terrible vengeance on all British Subjects living in Japanese controlled areas in the Far East.” Most letters are in support of Wilson’s “fine stand” against Oriental “penetration.” File also contains newspaper clippings (local as well as the “London Free Press”) relevant to the subject. Wilson also received updates on Japan from a friend working in Taihoku, Formosa.
Name of creator
Wilson, Halford David, 1904-1988 created this archive during his time as a Vancouver politician.
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 in full.

Metadata

Title

Halford Wilson Correspondence 1940 - 2
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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.