Reports on Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, 1935, 1938

Reports on Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, 1935, 1938

Description

Title Proper Reports on Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, 1935, 1938
Date(s) 1935–1938
General material designation
This series contains 2 textual records and other records.
Scope and content
This series consists of two pre-war reports on Japanese Canadians in British Columbia. The first is a statistical report on “Second Generation Japanese in British Columbia” that Regenda Sumida and students of Japanese descent at UBC instigated, and the Canadian Japanese Association subsequently supported in 1935. The second is a report submitted to H.L. Keenlyside, from two aldermen in British Columbia in 1938, Halford D. Wilson, and Harrry J. DeGreaves. This report identified a series of problems with the Japanese Canadian population in British Columbia and proposes solutions. This report also includes some statistical information. The political position of this report is deeply racist and clearly in favor of “white Canada”. Together, however, they provide a pre-war summary of Japanese-Canadian life in British Columbia.
Name of creator
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
Immediate source of acquisition
The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.

Metadata

Title

Reports on Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, 1935, 1938
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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.