Halford Wilson Correspondence 1942

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

This file contains correspondence between Halford Wilson and other official and British Columbians concerning the “Oriental question.” Included in this file is an invitation from the United Commercial Travellers of America to their meeting in support of “the removal of all Japanese.” A report on this meeting (held at what one letter writer, 13 February 1942, calls “the White Race Ballroom”) describes some of the speeches given by members of “sixty organizations” including the Native Sons of British Columbia and Wilson himself as the “principal speaker." One letter (7 February 1942) worries that the Fanny Bay logging operation (Deep Bay Logging; Kagetsu) and its canals may assist a Japanese invasion. A Vancouver registrar (12 February 1942) suggests that Wilson may have the “largest majority ever polled in Vancouver” if he ran for mayor on an “anti-Japanese platform”; in another letter (5 May 1942) he offers the opinions of a man who worked for the BC Security Commission on a road crew. A circular from the Pacific Co-operative Union in Mission assures their “Japanese members” that the Canadian Government will “treat [them] fairly as long as they act as “a Good Canadian” Another intriguing letter (15 February 1942) discusses the relationship between Japanese-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians. A Vancouver licence inspector reports the status of Japanese Canadian businesses still in operation.

Wilson, Halford David, 1904-1988 created this archive during his time as a Vancouver politician.

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.