Internment of Japanese Canadians

Internment of Japanese Canadians

Japanese-Canadian judoka celebrating kagami biraki in the gymnasium at the Tashme Incarceration Camp in BC, 1945. The suited man in the centre appears to be Shigetaka Sasaki.
Date	January 14, 1942 – April 1, 1949
Location	British Columbia, Canada BC Interior Hastings Park Okanagan Valley Tashme
Motive	Hysteria after attack on Pearl Harbor and fall of Singapore Anti-Japanese racism
Perpetrator	Canadian federal government
Outcome	Financial reparations given to surviving victims in 1988, reinstatement of citizenship for deported surviving victims
Deaths	At least 107; at least 6 homicides by sentries
Displaced	Over 22,000 Japanese Canadians
Enabling laws	War Measures Act Defence of Canada Regulations Reference re Persons of Japanese Race
Types of sites	Internment camps Road camps Prisoner-of-war camps Sugar beet farms Labour camps Self-supporting projects

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From 1942 to 1949, Canada forcibly relocated and incarcerated over 22,000 Japanese Canadians—comprising over 90% of the total Japanese Canadian population—from British Columbia in the name of "national security". The majority were Canadian citizens by birth and were targeted based on their ancestry.^[1] This decision followed the events of the Japanese Empire's war in the Pacific against the Western Allies, such as the invasion of Hong Kong, the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the Fall of Singapore which led to the Canadian declaration of war on Japan during World War II. Similar to the actions taken against Japanese Americans in neighbouring United States, 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 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor until 1949, Japanese Canadians were stripped of their homes and businesses, then sent to internment camps and farms in British Columbia as well as in some other parts of Canada, mostly towards the interior.^[3] The internment in Canada included the theft, seizure, and sale of property belonging to this forcefully displaced population, which included fishing boats, motor vehicles, houses, farms, businesses, and personal belongings. Japanese Canadians were forced to use the proceeds of forced sales to pay for their basic needs during the internment.^[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 deported 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 BC'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 following the internment of Japanese Americans. 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), to issue redress payments for internment victims, with the intent of funding education.^[8]