Japanese Claims: Lists of Claims Heard at Centres

This series contains 3 textual records and other records.

This series was originally one file and was separated into three folders in its initial accession. In total, the file comprises of correspondence, reports, legal cases, and lists relating to R.J. McMaster's activity representing Japanese Canadians who wished to rescind their "consent" to deportation and who submitted claims to the Bird Commission (Royal Commission on Japanese Claims, 1947-50).

It includes the report titled, “In the Matter of Certain Restrictive Measures Affecting the Re-entry and Immigration to Canada of Persons of Japanese Ancestry”, “To the Honourable, The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration” from “National Japanese Canadian Citizens Association 1951.”

It also contained copies of special reports made by Commission Henry Irvine Bird in his final submission for the Bird Commission in 1950. These were exceptional cases that, in Bird’s judgment, warranted special consideration. This file contains multiple copies of certain reports, but not a complete set of the reports. These include the reports for Asari Sadajiro, Ukichi Nitsui, Zennosuke Inouye, Kunimatsu Saimoto, Nokukichi Takai, Shimo Kameda, and claims for properties in Port Essington, B.C., and Hakoda Bay. The file includes some correspondence with the claimants regarding the special compensation. These claimants were represented by R.J. McMaster in the Bird Commission hearings.

The file also contains copies of legal precedents relating to compensation in American and Canadian expropriation and eminent domain cases. R.J. McMaster likely used this material to prepare legal argumentation regarding “fair market value” for the Bird Commission hearings.

This file also includes material (bulletins, updates) circulated by the Co-operative Committee on Japanese Canadians circulated to the Japanese-Canadian claimants it represented in the Bird Commission.

The file also includes one release form exonerating Campbell, Brazier, Fisher and McMaster Barristers and Solicitors from being sued by Japanese claimants represented by the firm in respect to “threatened deportation of persons of the Japanese race by the Government of the Dominion of Canada”. They are signed in summer 1947. This file includes forms of:

- Hatsusaburo Oikawa – Okanagan Centre, B.C. – (wife) Mitsu, (children) Mitsuo, Yoshio, Shiuo, Yasuo, Masao

This file also includes lists of claimants with their claim type, date and locations for their individual Bird Commission hearing. These are partial lists of the claimants McMaster and other solicitors represented (being of certain dates in Vernon, Kamloops, Grand Forks, Vancouver and Lytton) but provide insight into his organization and notes for the Bird Commission hearings. One of these schedules contains notes regarding claims made for fishing vessels. Another contains brief notes on individual hearings, noting whether the claim is concluded or will require further representation.

There are also lists of claimants who submitted claims to the Bird Commission, titled “List ‘A’” and “List ‘B’”. It is not obvious what the groupings of these claimants indicate.

There are also handwritten notes by R.J. McMaster wherein his organized his schedule for the Bird Commission.

The original physical file that the material was donated in is also included.

R.J. McMaster was a committee member of the Co-operative Committee on Japanese Canadians, while he was employed as an attorney for Campbell, Brazier, Fisher and McMaster Barristers and Solicitors law firm (now Davis & Co.) in Vancouver, BC

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.