1939-1952

Video
Interviews

We asked Tillie and Eva to be our student interviewers, asking questions selected from a list that one of our test classrooms brainstormed

Picture of Tillie and Eva Scroll down

Tillie and Eva Ask

Mary Kitagawa about her personal memories of internment as a child

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Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross for a historical overview about internment and dispossession

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Art Miki to explain the Japanese Canadian redress movement that asked the government for an apology after internment and dispossession

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Video Interviews

  • Living on a farm
  • Lunch time at school
  • Home life
  • Visiting grandparents
  • Carrying ID cards
  • Reactions to Pearl Harbor
  • Government promises protection
  • Mary’s father is arrested
  • Packingsuitcases
  • Leaving home
  • Hastings Park processing centre
  • Greenwood internment camp
  • Letter from father
  • Transfer to Alberta farm
  • Back to internment camps
  • Living in a shack
  • Government seizes accounts
Before the war
1. Living on a farm0:00
2. Lunch time at school0:00
3. Home life0:00
4. Visiting grandparents0:00
Japanese Canadians and the Declaration of War
5. Carrying ID cards0:00
6. Reactions to Pearl Harbor0:00
7. Government promises protection0:00
Hastings Park
8. Mary’s father is arrested0:00
9. Packingsuitcases0:00
10. Leaving home0:00
11. Hastings Park processing centre0:00
Life during internment
12. Greenwood internment camp0:00
13. Letter from father0:00
14. Transfer to Alberta farm0:00
15. Back to internment camps0:00
16. Living in a shack0:00
17. Government seizes accounts0:00

Mary Kitagawa: Living through internment

Mary Kitagawa was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 2018. In this interview, Mary gives her personal experiences with internment and dispossession as a child. Mary talks about her childhood on Saltspring Island before internment. Later, she tells how after Pearl Harbor her father was taken away before her eyes and how she moved from Hastings Park to Greenwood and then through several internment camps.

Video Interviews

  • What is a dispossession?
  • Why study this history?
  • Why did it happen?
  • Government decision to sell
  • Japanese Canadian protests
  • Support for Japanese Canadians
  • Consequences for objecting
  • Lessons of this history
Jordan Stanger-Ross: A historian’s overview of internment and dispossession
1. What is a dispossession?0:00
2. Why study this history?0:00
3. Why did it happen?0:00
4. Government decision to sell0:00
5. Japanese Canadian protests0:00
6. Support for Japanese Canadians0:00
7. Consequences for objecting0:00
8. Lessons of this history0:00

Jordan Stanger-Ross: A historian’s overview of internment and dispossession

Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross, associate professor at the University of Victoria and director of the Landscapes of Injustice project, gives a historical overview of the Japanese Canadian internment and dispossession. Jordan explains, in terms students can understand, how what happened to Japanese Canadians fits into Canadian history, based on what his research teams uncovered.

Video Interviews

  • Childhood in British Columbia
  • Uprooted to Manitoba farm
  • Starting school
  • What is redress?
  • Importance of redress
  • Challenges in redress campaign
  • Final agreement
  • Community response to redress
  • Forgiveness and healing
Art Miki: Campaign for Redress
1. Childhood in British Columbia0:00
2. Uprooted to Manitoba farm0:00
3. Starting school0:00
4. What is redress?0:00
5. Importance of redress0:00
6. Challenges in redress campaign0:00
7. Final agreement0:00
8. Community response to redress0:00
9. Forgiveness and healing0:00

Art Miki: Campaign for Redress

Art Miki was awarded the Order of Canada for his contribution to the redress settlement for Japanese Canadians with the Canadian Government. Art talks to our student interviewers about redress and how he was able to get the government to apologise to Japanese Canadians 40 years after internment.

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