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In 1942, internment of Japanese Canadians occurred when over 23,000 Japanese Canadians, comprising over 90 percent of the total Japanese Canadian population, from British Columbia were forcibly relocated and interned in the name of national security. The majority were Canadian citizens by birth.[1] This decision followed the events of the Japanese invasions of British Hong Kong and Malaya, the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the subsequent Canadian declaration of war on Japan during World War II. This forced relocation subjected many Japanese Canadians to government-enforced curfews and interrogations, job and property losses, and forced repatriation to Japan.[2]
From shortly after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor until 1949, Japanese Canadians were stripped of their homes and businesses and sent to internment camps and farms in British Columbia and some other parts of Canada.[3] The internment and relocation program was funded in part by the sale of property belonging to this forcefully displaced population, which included fishing boats, motor vehicles, houses, and personal belongings.[2]
In August 1944, Prime Minister Mackenzie King announced that Japanese Canadians were to be moved east out of the British Columbia interior. The official policy stated that Japanese Canadians must move east of the Rocky Mountains or be repatriated to Japan following the end of the war.[4] By 1947, many Japanese Canadians had been granted exemption to this enforced no-entry zone. Yet it was not until April 1, 1949, that Japanese Canadians were granted freedom of movement and could re-enter the "protected zone" along B.C.'s coast.[5][6] On September 22, 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney delivered an apology, and the Canadian government announced a compensation package, one month after President Ronald Reagan made similar gestures in the United States. The package for interned Japanese Canadians included $21,000 to each surviving internee, and the reinstatement of Canadian citizenship to those who were deported to Japan.[7] Following Mulroney's apology, the Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement was established in 1988, along with the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation (JCRF) (1988–2002), in order to issue redress payments for internment victims, with the intent of funding education.[8]
Prewar history
- ^ Marsh, James. "Japanese Canadian Internment: Prisoners in their own Country". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ a b Sugiman (2004), p. 360
- ^ Sunahara, Ann (1981). The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Toronto: J. Lorimer. pp. 66, 76.
- ^ Roy (2002), p. 70
- ^ Roy (2002), p. 76
- ^ Adachi, Ken (1976). The Enemy That Never Was: A History of the Japanese Canadians. Toronto: McClelland and Steward. pp. 343–344.
- ^ Apology and compensation, CBC Archives
- ^ Wood, Alexandra L. (2014). "Rebuild Or Reconcile: American and Canadian Approaches to Redress for World War II Confinementl". American Review of Canadian Studies. 44 (3): 352 – via Scholars Portal Journals.