Japanese Canadians

Japanese Internment of WW2

“They spoke of the Japanese Canadians,'; Escott Reid, a special assistant at External Affairs, would recall, “in the way that the Nazi’s would have spoken about Jewish Germans.'; Just like in that statement, I intend to expose you to the ways that the Japanese were wronged by Canadians throughout the Second World War. As well, I intend to prove what I have stated in my thesis statement: After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the Japanese in Canada were wronged by being torn from their homes to be put into internment camps to serve Canadians through hard labour.

The Decision to Uproot Japanese Canadians

Within hours of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour, the federal Cabinet declared war on Japan. The federal cabinet supported their decision by calling Japan’s attack “a threat to the defence and freedom of Canada.

The Japanese Canadians in Canada were devastated by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour and fearful of what it would mean for themselves. Some 3,600 Japanese had become naturalised Canadians before 1923 when nationality made it very difficult for Japanese to obtain it. One of the first decisions made by the government gave the Royal Canadian Navy the power to impound any vessels that belonged to Japanese Canadians and assemble them at special ports along the coast where they were moored to the shore. The government explained the impounding of the Japanese boats as a defensive measure.

Within five days of the Pearl Harbour attacks, the Canadian Pacific Railway began discharging its Japaese section hands and other Japanese porters. At the example of the CPR, hotels and sawmills in Vancouver discharged all of their Japanese employees.

On Jan. 8, 1942, a conference was held to discuss what should be done about the Japanese Canadians. The conference ended three days later without anything having been agreed upon. A couple of weeks later, King and the cabinet agreed that all Japanese Canadians should be removed from the West Coast. The day that the Japanese people had been dreading had finally come on Feb. 27, 1942. The war measures act announced the planned evacuation and internment of all persons that come from Japanese ancestry.

Coping

The Japanese were stunned as they heard the announcement that all Japanese Canadians were to be moved from the Pacific Coast into internment camps until the war ended. Five days after the announcement that all Japanese were to be interned, the cabinet passed an order-in-council which empowered the BCSC (British Columbia Security Commission) to remove and detain “any and all Japanese Canadians.