Transcript Internment of Japanese Canadians

War on the Homefront
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QUESTION 1:
What is more important to you:
Civil liberties (democracy,
individual freedoms, rights etc.)
OR National Security
QUESTION 2:
Would this change during war?
Why or why not?
During WWII, the Canadian
Government Interned Japanese
Canadians
Japanese Aggression…
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Japanese expansion in East Asia began in 1931
with the invasion of Manchuria and continued in
1937 with a brutal attack on China.
On February 24th, 1933, Japan stuns the world
and withdraws from the League of Nations.
The Tripartite Pact
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On September 27,
1940, Japan signed
the Tripartite Pact
with Germany and
Italy, thus entering
the military alliance
known as the "Axis."
Embargo Against Japan
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the United States, Britain
and the Netherlands froze
all Japanese financial
assets. The effect was to
prevent Japan from
purchasing oil, which
would, in time, cripple its
army and make its navy
and air force completely
useless.
Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbour!
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December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt declares
it “The Day of Infamy”.
The Battle of Hong Kong
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Hong Kong surrendered
on Christmas Day 1941.
Of the 1,975 Canadians,
290 were killed and 493
wounded. A further 260
died in the awful
conditions of prison
camps in Hong Kong and
Japan.
Japanese Canadians in
British Columbia
First Generation (Issei)
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First immigrants landed in 1877
Faced xenophobia from ‘white’
Canadians and viewed as unable to
assimilate compared to Europeans
Japanese culture important to you and
you are viewed still hold a strong
allegiance to Japan
In Canada during the 1940s- Issei
denied the right to vote and denied
jobs in civil service and teaching and
paid lower wages that whites
Primarily fisherman or fishing
businesses
Second Generation (Nisei)
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Canadian born; fluent in English,
well educated
Face anti-Japanese prejudices
No voting rights due to opposition
from Anglo Canadians and British
Columbia residents
Prime Minister Mackenzie King
stated that both the Issei and Nisei
face “extreme difficulty in
assimilated into Canadian culture”.
Primarily fisherman or fishing
businesses
Anglo-Canadian Reactions
to Japanese Canadians
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Perceived as a threat to British
Columbia’s ethnic ‘purity’
Did not want them living in
communities as J-C could not
assimilate and remained
immersed in own culture
Anti-Japanese demonstrations
were increasing and the Japanese
Canadians were not well
integrated or accepted by the
local population.
Resentment against Japanese
Canadians exploded into panic
and anger in British Columbia in
1930s
The Canadian War Measures Act
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“gave the government sweeping
powers to ensure the security,
defence, peace, order, and
welfare of Canada.”
Used to imprison CANADIANS of
German, Ukrainian, and Slavic
descent in WWI.
In 1941, following bombing of
Pearl Harbour, 1,200 fishing boats
were seized by the Canadian navy
By Canadian Government order,
23 000 Japanese Canadians were
interned and moved into camps
Japanese Internment in Canada
■ The movement of 23,000 Japanese Canadians during the war
was the largest mass exodus in Canadian history.
Internment Timeline
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1941 (December 8): 1,200 Japanese Canadian fishing boats are
impounded. Japanese language newspapers and schools close.
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1942 (January 16): Removal begins of Japanese immigrant males
from coastal areas.
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1942 (February 24): All male Japanese Canadian citizens between
the ages of 18 and 45 ordered to be removed from 100-mile-wide
zone along the coast of British Columbia.
1942 (February 26): Mass evacuation of Japanese Canadians
begins. Some given only 24 hours notice. Cars, cameras and radios
confiscated for “protective measures”. Curfew imposed.
1942 (March 4): Japanese Canadians ordered to turn over property
and belongings to Custodian of Enemy Alien Property as a
“protective measure only”.
1942 (March 25): British Columbia Security Commission initiates
scheme of forcing men to road camps and women and children to
“ghost town” detention camps.
Justified?
YES
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Prime Minister Mackenzie King took
necessary precautions to ensure national
security of Canada and North America, as
the US had also interned JapaneseAmericans
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Despite no evidence of threat, there was no
guarantee of loyalty or passivity of the
Japanese Canadians to homeland Japan
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Canadians felt that Japanese-born
Canadians showed too much sympathy for
Japan and that there was a chance that
some of them might form a fifth column
(espionage).
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“Japan was aggressively expanding in the
Pacific (islands of Attu and Kiska).
Moreover, American and Canadian
governments were more alarmed as a
Japanese submarine had fired on telegraph
station and lighthouse in British Columbia”.
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The interment, deportation and relocation
of the Japanese Canadians was for their
own safety and was legal through War
Measure Act
NO
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Japanese Canadians were judged solely
on the basis of their racial ancestry, and
not their citizenship.
Internment based on racist and
xenophobic public sentiment
RCMP and Canadian military evaluations
suggest no imminent threat to national
security and the J-C are law abiding
citizens
The Japanese Canadians were harshly
mistreated, property was seized and sold
and used to pay for camps
Camps had terrible conditions
Food packages were sent from Japan
through the Canadian Red Cross to those
suffering in the camps
Canadian government spend 1/3 the per
capita amount expended by the US on
Japanese American internees
Outcomes of Internment
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After the war, the federal government decided
to remove all Japanese Canadians from British
Colombia.
The Japanese were forced to choose between
deportation to war ravaged Japan or dispersal
East of the Rocky mountains.
Public protest would eventually stop the
deportations, but not before 4000 Japanese left
the country.
Acknowledging Wartime Wrongs
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Forty-three years after the
end of the war, Prime
minister Brian Mulroney
acknowledged the wrong
doings of the Canadian
government and announced
the awarding of $21,000 for
each individual directly
wronged.
Is this an acceptable redress
to the issue?
Link
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http://www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/o
ther_resources.htm#tr