Hanjiro Yoshijima to The Department of the Secretary of State, Office of the Custodian, Administration Department,, 21 July 1943

Hanjiro Yoshijima to The Department of the Secretary of State, Office of the Custodian, Administration Department,, 21 July 1943

File No. 7712
Kaslo, B.C.
July 21, 1943
The Department of the Secretary of State,
Administration Department,
Vancouver, B.C. Dear Sir:
Your letter of the 17th instant certainly was a shock. The nerve of your renting our land on Salter Street in New Westminster for a measley $54.00 a year is really astonishing. Last year Mr. Lee San paid us $100 in rent and that just covered the taxes. We expected you to at least ask him for a similar amount this year and we regret very much that you did not notify us long away the amount you did as Mr. Lee San to pay in rent for this year.
We would like you to understand that if Mr. Lee San was only to pay $54.00 for this year we would rather that our land had been rented to some one else or rented not at all.
The taxes for this year again are $96.25, you say. How do you expect them, to pay the taxes when we understood that the rent money for the land would go towards paying the taxes and when our house rent of $10.00 monthly comes to us as maintenance through the Security Commission office. In your letter enclosed with the last cheque you say that we only have a total of $61.76 in our account in your offices.
I again would like to repeat that the $54. which you asked Mr. Lee San to pay as rent for this year was not enough. We had an agreement with Mr. Lee. San before we left New Westminster that he would pay rent as high as the taxes prevailing for the year. I understand that Mr. Lee San is paying and was paying before we left about $200 in rent for only 5 acres which ajoins our own 5 acres of land. We would like to know who and how you settled on this $54.00.
We had believed that the custodian was to protect and administer our property which we turned over to you voluntarily when we were evacuated in a way in which the owner would have done himself and had trusted you to handle our affairs as sanely and as sensibly as possible in our interest.
Yours sincerely, Reg. No. 10202
Copy for Mr. F G Shears.
Complaint

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Hanjiro Yoshijima to The Department of the Secretary of State, Office of the Custodian, Administration Department,, 21 July 1943

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Encoder: Ariel Merriam
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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.