Hugh Keenleyside

Also known as H.L. Keenleyside. Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside (born July 7, 1898 in Toronto, Ontario; died September 27, 1992 in Victoria, BC) was an academic, diplomat, and civil servant. Having joined the Department of External Affairs in 1928, Keenleyside helped to open Canada’s first legation in Japan from 1929-1936; serving as a special assistant to the Prime Minister during World War II, he was one of the few people within the Canadian government who strongly protested the treatment of Japanese Canadians and their property. In his later career in public service, he was ambassador to Mexico from 1944-48, commissioner of the Northwest Territories from 1947-50, and director-general of the UN Technical Assistance Administration from 1950-1958. (Source: Kimura Appendix)

On the Special Committee on Orientals in British Columbia as of December 1940.

Metadata

Surname	Keenleyside
Forename	Hugh
AddName	Llewellyn
Regularized Name	Hugh Keenleyside

Data

Names (1)

Henry Angus

Organizations (1)

Canadian Immigration Office Vancouver

Collections

Oral Histories (2)

Hugh Keenleyside, interviewed by Ann Sunhara, 23 November 1977

Tom Shoyama, interviewed by Ann Sunahara, 27 August 1990

Other Archival Files (18)

File 12-6: Kunio Shimizu Collection: Printed Material - Halford Wilson Brief on the Oriental Situation, 1938

Thomas Norris Fonds

Correspondence: H.L. Keenleyside to C.F. Edwards

Hugh L. Keenleyside Fonds

File C-10-3-B: Cabinet War Committee - 1941 (Jan-Apr.)

Correspondence: H.L. Keenleyside to George Patterson

File 39-12: Keenleyside, Hugh, 1969-75

ARC-1407 BOX 39

Document: Special Committee on Orientals in British Columbia: Report and Recommendations

File 49-6: Japanese in B.C.

MG31-E102 VOLUME 20

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

File J-25-1: Japanese Canadians (1940)

Correspondence: H.L. Keenleyside to McKinley

Correspondence: H.L. Keenleyside to Ian Mackenzie

File 20-20: Japanese in Canada – 1940-1945

File 20-18: Japanese Canadians – 1945-1986

Halford Wilson Schools

Credits

Interviewee

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.