JAPANESE CANADIAN HISTORY 1942 – 1949

Canada declared war on Japan on December 7, 1941 after attacks in the Pacific. The government then imposed regulations on Japanese Canadians:

• fishing boats owned by Japanese Canadian fishermen were taken away, leaving fishers with no means of making a living
• Japanese language newspapers and schools were closed

In February 1942, under the War Measures Act, the Canadian government ordered all persons of the Japanese race to leave the west coast of British Columbia and gave the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the power to:

• search homes without a warrant
• detain people without trial
• enforce a curfew – Japanese Canadians had to stay in their homes from dusk to dawn
• confiscate or take away their cameras, radios, cars, and firearms

It did not matter how long people had been living in Canada. Of the 22,000 men, women, and children 75% were naturalized or Canadian-born citizens but still had to leave behind their homes, farms, businesses, possessions, and personal belongings. They could take limited luggage and were forced to move l00 miles (162km) inland from the coast.

Families were separated. Men were sent to road camps in Ontario and on the BC/Alberta border. Many were given as little as twenty-four hours to vacate their homes.

Those from the coastal towns and Vancouver Island were herded into Hastings Park on the Pacific National Exhibition grounds in Vancouver before being shipped away to internment camps. Women and children were separated from men and forced to live in the Livestock Buildings in stalls where horses and other animals had been housed just days before. There was no privacy. Food was poor.

People did not know how long they would be confined nor where they were being sent. Many did not know what had become of their husbands, families, and relatives.

Meanwhile, internment camps were being readied in ghost towns such as Greenwood, Sandon, New Denver, and Slocan City where internees were crowded into abandoned buildings. Those sent to centres such as Tashme, Rosebery, Lemon Creek, Popoff, and Bay Farm were housed in hastily built wooden shacks. Many Japanese Canadians spent their first winter in tents as they waited for the building of internment shacks to be completed. To stay together, some families agreed to work on sugar beet farms in Alberta and Manitoba where there were labour shortages. Anyone who did not obey the relocation orders were rounded up by the RCMP and sent to prisoner-of-war camps in Angler or Petawawa, Ontario.

“National security” was the reason given for the internment, but both the RCMP and army intelligence found no evidence to support these drastic measures.

“No fear of sabotage need to be expected from the Japanese in Canada.”

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Frederich J. Mead’s report to Commissioner S.T. Wood, 1940.

“From the army point of view, I cannot see that Japanese Canadians constitute the slightest menace to national security.”

Major General Ken Stuart’s report to Lieutenant General Maurice A. Pope. Politics of Racism, pp. 23–24.

Furthermore, Canada was also at war with Italy and Germany. Italian and German Canadians did not have their property taken nor were they interned in such large numbers.

While Japanese Canadians were away in internment camps, the Government of Canada sold their property and possessions without asking their permission. The government had promised they would keep everything safe for them, but everything was sold. Japanese Canadians received very little money for their businesses, houses, properties, and personal effects including furniture, sewing machines, pianos, valuable heirlooms, dishes, silver, and clothes. Now they had no homes, money, or property and faced an unknown future.

World War II was almost over in the spring of 1945 when the Government of Canada once again issued an order. All Japanese must “repatriate” to Japan or move east of the Rockies. This was in fact an exile since 75% were Canadian-born and many had never even seen Japan. Almost 4,000 Japanese Canadians were expelled before public outcry and political opposition eventually put an end to the policy. The exiles arrived in a war-torn Japan where they were again treated as aliens.

The injustices carried out on Japanese Canadians were based on racism. Those injustices by the Government of Canada lasted for four years after the end of the war, until April 1, 1949 when all official restrictions were lifted. However, the racism against those of Japanese ancestry continued for many years.