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This oral history is from an interview conducted by the Oral History cluster of the Landscapes of Injustice project.
Oh my God. The first reaction we had to, you know, since I was 19 then, was,
We're in for it now.In other words, because of the kind of, world, attitudes that we had to live with. And again, because it was in December and -- immediately, the day after the war against Japan was declared by Canada, along with the Allies and the 'States, the RCMP, the federal police, came. And they closed all three Japanese daily newspapers that existed, ok, and so forth. And all the Japanese language schools we're closed and so forth. All limitations put in, and the campaign began to confiscate motor vehicles of any kind and also radios, even long wave radios and so forth, things like that, you see. So that we're losing all this kind of stuff. So I, with the papers being closed, the three of them, there's one English language paper existing that was put together by Canadian-born guys, some of them would have finished university. And it was strictly for us, you see, at that time. But suddenly it became the paper for everybody and so they're going to have a Japanese section so that the immigrants could understand. And the reason why it was allowed to exist was because the government needed a vehicle to let them know what their announcements were, what the pronouncements were, what was going to happen to the Japanese and so on. So, being in December, even in Vancouver, there isn't enough grass to cut. So I'm sitting around -- almost a couple of days after the War began, I phoned the editor of the New Canadian, his name was Tommy Shoyama, and whom I had met before, and he knew about me being the editor of the high school paper. And I said,
Can you use some help? Because I understand you guys are going to be, instead of a weekly, you're going to be 3 times a week.Since the other papers don't exist. He said,
Yeah, I can use you. Come on down.So a week after Pearl Harbor, I'm going downtown by streetcar everyday to work on the paper. First time I got paid for writing and editing. So that was nice. That was for a few months until the time we all got kicked out and we were sent to a men-only camp. And then after I was at the camp, I road camp near Revelstoke, which was the beginning of what turned out to be the Trans Canada Highway, expanded the little bloody two lane, one and a half road that used to go through that part of BC.
Next time you speak up at a meeting you're going to be on a train going east.Because Selective Service during the war empowered them, even the bugger that was running our camps, to do exactly that and send those out of BC to the east. And you know growing up in BC going on the other side of the Rockies --
Oh my God
God, would I ever.Here I am after all of these monastic God damn months up in the mountains and so forth, all these other guys. And the only contact we had with girls was writing them letters and hoping that they would write back. And now we're going to go to a place that has families with kids, and girls and so forth. Of course I would love to go! So I did, and I spent seven months there working with him. And then my family which was in another family camp, and so forth, Dad had been sent to a men-only camp and then they pulled all the married men out, both our camps and the immigrants camps to build these family camps. They had given up on the camp after a month, after just say you're there, decided -- they were concerned about the education of our kids. So they decided the only place that they could move, to leave the camps, move them out of British Columbia. And so we could either go to the sugar beet farms in either Alberta or Manitoba or farming in Ontario, Quebec. So the big choice, with a family like theirs, which was attractive to a farmer because there was Dad and me and my two brothers, we're all workers, right? And war time that's why they needed the families because a lot of guys were there in the military or working in defense, you know, factories. So they moved to St. Thomas and I joined them several months later.
How can you go and fight for a country that treats us like this?and my mother said,
And what would our friends say?which is a very typical group think on the Japanese part. Westernized were individualistic trained but they are -- so she meant the friends still back in BC in the camps and so forth you know. Because how they think of you is very important. So I said,
Well, we are out here in Ontario now. And we're making a new start. We are not going to go back to BC. We are making a new life. And the people here are nicer then a lot, most of the people in BC, but they are still not sure of us because if we hadn't done something wrong, how come we got kicked out?So I said,
You know, if I join the Army in the uniform with Canada up here
that is not only going to help me in the new life that we've started but mom and dad and my brothers and sisters.And that's the real reason why more than the Union Jack and God Save the King and all this. Although that was a part of it in there too you know. But the main reason was practical reason.
We have marching orders for you guys. You're to get on a train and go to Toronto tomorrow.And we have been picked of the 23 guys of the second group to be rushed overseas. And the thing was already a group of 15 guys had been sent overseas. And both groups had minimal training, military training, because the British were so in need of -- things are almost hysterical out there. And
Three of you can do the work you were sent out here to do.And he mentioned, well, one Edgar was born in Canada that was actually sent to Japan and was educated in Japan. His Japanese was better than his English.
You can't read or write Japanese but, your pronunciation of Japanese is clear enough that the Japanese troops can understand you.Because it was a job where you went out in the sound truck and got on a loudspeaker on the roof and told people to surrender
You know, why don't you go and see the editor of Saturday Night magazine, Dr. B.K. Sandwell. He was really on our side you know and when they did the--