Japanese Canadian internment

The Event Compulsory resettlement based on ethnicity during World War II

Dates January 2, 1942, to January 24, 1947

Places British Columbia and other Canadian provinces

The government of Canada resettled more than 22,000 persons of Japanese ancestry into internment camps, even though none of the internees had ever been found guilty of a disloyal act.

Persons of Japanese ancestry began to settle in the coastal regions of British Columbia late in the nineteenth century, and by 1942 their numbers had grown to 22,096, including 16,532 Canadian citizens and 5,564 Japanese nationals. The majority were fishermen or market gardeners, while a few owned small service businesses. Although they were hardworking and law-abiding people, a large percentage of the white Canadians in the region harbored anti-Asian prejudices. There were numerous attempts to reduce the number of fishing licenses issued to Asians, and anyone who retained Japanese citizenship, even those born in Canada, were denied the vote.

Shortly after Canada declared war against Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, numerous politicians, journalists, and business leaders in British Columbia warned of possible espionage and called for the internment of the Japanese minority. Several companies, including the Canadian Pacific Railway, fired all employees of Japanese ancestry. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested thirty-eight Japanese suspected as potential subversives. Japanese fishermen were confined to port, and 1,200 of their fishing boats were impounded. General Kenneth Stuart, chief of the General Staff, expressed the opinion that no further measures were necessary to protect national security, but public opinion demanded otherwise.

On January 14, 1942, the Canadian government utilized its powers under the War Measures Act to order that all Japanese nationals between eighteen and forty-five years be evacuated and settled in a variety of working camps located at least one hundred miles west of the Pacific coast. Further yielding to public opinion, the federal government on February 27 announced the mass evacuation of all “persons of Japanese racial origin.” During the next seven months, a new federal agency settled more than 21,000 evacuees in a variety of “relocation camps,” located in isolated regions British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and western Ontario. Takeo Nakano remembered that most of his fellow internees were nonpolitical, but he also referred to rebellious gambariya who supported Japan’s cause and harassed those who cooperated with Canadian authorities.

Conditions in the camps were generally poor. Canada spent only about one-third of the per capita amount that the United States spent on its Japanese American evacuees. Unlike prisoners of war held in custody, Japanese internees were required to pay for their living expenses. Beginning in 1943, the “Custodian of Aliens” began to hold auctions for their possessions, including their farmlands and houses. Officially, those living in the camps were not legally interned and could leave with permission, but until late in the war they were not allowed to work or attend school outside the camps. Finally, in late 1944, some 7,000 were permitted to leave the camps in order to work in eastern Canada. A small number of Japanese Canadians of military age agreed to serve in the army as interpreters and in signal/intelligence units.

In early 1945, the federal government required the Japanese evacuees to choose between resettlement east of the Rocky Mountains and repatriation to Japan. Initially, almost 11,000 chose to go to Japan, but more than two-thirds of them later changed their minds. About 4,000 eventually left voluntarily for Japan. Some of the internees challenged the constitutionality of the evacuation order, but the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the government’s policy by a 3-2 vote in 1946. The evacuation was finally repealed on January 24, 1947. By then, some 20,000 Japanese lived in Canada, with about one-third of them residing in British Columbia.

Impact

After the war’s end, a large percentage of Canadians believed that the evacuation policy had been a mistake, and the government in 1947 appointed a Royal Commission, chaired by Justice Henry Bird, to consider compensation for confiscated property. In 1950, the commission awarded $1.3 million for actual loss of property, but without any funding for loss of earnings or disruption of education. During the 1980’s, the National Association of Japanese Canadians began a campaign for additional compensation and for recognition that the general internment had been unnecessary and unjust. In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made a long-awaited apology on behalf of the Canadian government, and he announced a compensation package that included $21,000 for each of the 13,000 surviving internees.

Bibliography

Adachi, Ken. The Enemy That Never Was: A History of the Japanese Canadians. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1991.

Broadfoot, Barry. Years of Sorrow, Years of Shame: The Story of the Japanese Canadians in World War II. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1997.

Nakano, Takeo Ujo. Within the Barbed Wire Fence: A Japanese Man’s Account of His Internment in Canada. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981.

Sunahara, Ann. The Politics of Racism: the Uprooting of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War. Toronto: Lorimer, 2004.