During World War I, more than 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly interned in Canada. Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard... A Japanese Canadian is a Canadian of Japanese ancestry. ...

Background

A R.C.N. officer questions Japanese-Canadian fishermen while confiscating their boat.

When Canada declared war on Japan in December 1941, members of the non-Japanese population of British Columbia, including municipal government offices, local newspapers and businesses called for the internment of the Japanese. In British Columbia, some claimed that Japanese residents who worked in the fishing industry were charting the coastline for the Japanese navy, and many of their boats were confiscated. The pressure from the public was so great that early in 1942 the government gave in to the pressure and began the internment of both Japanese nationals and Japanese Canadian citizens. About 95% of the nearly 23,000 people of Japanese descent who lived in Canada, were naturalized or native-born citizens.^{[citation needed]} Those unwilling to live in internment camps faced the possibility of deportation to Japan. Image File history File linksMetadata JapaneseCanadian-Confiscating-Boat. ... Image File history File linksMetadata JapaneseCanadian-Confiscating-Boat. ... The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) was the navy of Canada from 1911 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Armed Forces. ... A Japanese Canadian is a Canadian of Japanese ancestry. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages English de facto (none stated in law) Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 36 6 Area... The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) (大日本帝國海軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun or 日本海軍 Nippon Kaigun) was the navy of Japan before 1945. ... A Japanese Canadian is a Canadian of Japanese ancestry. ...

Internment camp, June 1945

Unlike Japanese American internment, where families were generally kept together, Canada initially sent its male evacuees to road camps in the British Columbian interior, to sugar beet projects on the Prairies, or to internment in a POW camp in Ontario, while women and children were moved to six inland British Columbia towns ^{[citation needed]}. There, the living conditions were so poor that the citizens of wartime Japan even sent supplemental food shipments through the Red Cross.^{[citation needed]} During the period of detention, the Canadian government spent one-third the per capita amount expended by the U.S. on Japanese American evacuees.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links Japanese_internment_camp_in_British_Columbia. ... Image File history File links Japanese_internment_camp_in_British_Columbia. ... Jerome War Relocation Center in Jerome, Arkansas Japanese American Internment refers to the forcible relocation of approximately 120,000[1] Japanese and Japanese Americans (62 percent of whom were United States citizens)[2][3] from the west coast during World War II to hastily constructed housing facilities called War Relocation... Two sugar beets - the one on the left has been cultivated to be smoother than the traditional beet, so that it traps less soil. ... Prairie refers to an area of land of low topographic relief that historically supported grasses and herbs, with few trees, and having generally a mesic (moderate or temperate) climate. ... Prisoner of War camps Contents // Categories: Substubs | Prisons and detention centres ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages English (French has some legal status but is not fully co-official) Flower White Trillium Tree Eastern White Pine Bird Common Loon Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty... The Anarchist Black Cross was originally called the Anarchist Red Cross. The band Redd Kross was originally called Red Cross. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Post-War

After the war, the order-in-council that authorized the forced deportation was challenged on the basis that the forced deportation of the Japanese was a crime against humanity and that a citizen could not be deported from their own country. The Prime Minister referred the matter to the Supreme Court in what was to be the first case heard in the newly constructed building housing the Court. A Reference Question in Canada is a submission by the federal or a provincial government to the Supreme Court of Canada or the provinces respective Court of Appeal in which the submitting government would like the court to answer a legal question regarding the Constitution Acts, the constitutionality of...

In a five to two decision, the Court held that the law was valid. Three of the five found that the order was entirely valid. The other two found that the provision including both women and children as threats to national security was invalid. In 1947 the deportation order was repealed and consequently few citizens were ever deported. Reference re Persons of Japanese Race [1946] S.C.R. 248 is a famous decision of the Supreme Court of Canada where the Court upheld a government order to deport Canadian citizens of Japanese descent. ...

By 1949, four years after Japan had surrendered, the majority of Nikkei were allowed to return to British Columbia. However, since their property had long before been confiscated or sold, many resettled in other parts of Canada. Many others returned to Japan

Legacy

On September 22, 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney gave a long-awaited formal apology and the Canadian government began a significant 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 all surviving internees, and the re-instatement of Canadian citizenship to those who were deported to Japan. ^[1] September 22 is the 265th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (266th in leap years). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Martin Brian Mulroney, PC, CC, GOQ, LLD (born March 20, 1939), was the eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989), and the 33rd Governor of the state of California (1967–1975). ...

The Nikkei Memorial Internment Centre in New Denver, British Columbia, is an interpretive centre that honors the history of the these Japanese Canadians, many of which were interred in the New Denver area. The Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre is a museum and interpretive centre in New Denver, British Columbia, Canada, dedicated to the history of the Japanese Canadians that were relocated to internment camps during World War II by the Canadian government (see Japanese Canadian internment). ... , New Denver is a small town in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, along the shore of Slocan Lake. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages English de facto (none stated in law) Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 36 6 Area...

In literature

The novel Obasan (1981) by Joy Kogawa centres on one family's hardships during the Japanese internment period in Canada. In the novel, Kogawa draws upon her own experiences in describing how families were often split up, had their property taken, and suffered racism from Canadian citizens and the federal government. Obasan is a 1981 novel by the Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa. ... Joy Nozomi Kogawa (born 1935) in Vancouver, BC. She was sent to an internment camp during World War Two. ...

Kogawa explores similar territory in Naomi's Road (1986), a novel for young adults with illustrations by Matt Gould.

See also

• Ukrainian Canadian internment

The Ukrainian Canadian internment was part of the confinement of enemy aliens in Canada during World War I, lasting from 1914 to 1920. ...

References

1. ^ Apology and compensation, CBC Archives

• The Politics of Racism by Ann Sunahara. Originally published by James Lorimer & Company, 1981; ISBN 0-88862-414-X hardback, ISBN 0-88862-413-1 paper. Updated 2000, re-released under a Creative Commons license, 2004.
• My Sixty Years in Canada, Dr. Masajiro Miyazaki, self-publ.

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External links

• The Politics of Racism by Ann Sunahara
• Explanation of different categories of internment, Nat'l Assn. of Japanese Canadians website
• Map of Internment Centres in BC, Nat'l Assn. of Japanese Canadians website
• Seized Japanese fishboats near Robson Island, Fraser River (New Westminster in background)
• Photographs by Masumi Hayashi
• CBC Archives - Relocation to Redress: The Internment of the Japanese Canadians