Telling the forgotten story about the Japanese Canadians forced into interment camps during WWI.
In the second World War when Germany crumbled, the German People blamed the German Jews; When Pearl harbor was bombed the Canadian government blamed the Canadian Japanese. With no solid evidence of the German Jews treason activities against their government, also there is no conclusive evidence of Canadian Japanese engaged in treason against Canada. Japanese Canadians were viciously and hatefully targeted to eliminate the Japanese because of the bombing of ally Pearl Harbor, USA. They had their possessions, family and lives ripped away from them and they were forced into internment camps to suffer. Without any intervention, Japanese Canadians were uprooted out of their homes and thrown into internment camps occasionally with indigenous people as well. Japanese Canadians would be targeted despite not having direct Japanese descent.
When the Canadian government passed the War Measures Act in August of 1941, which gave the government permission to incarcerate all undesirable Japanese and their belongs. There was a strong fear in people that the Japanese Canadians living on the BC coast were spies and this worried officials in power. Daily life as a Japanese Canadian in internment camps was very tough and effected woman and children heavily. When the War Measures Act was passed in August of 1941; it gave the government power to relocate, and incarcerate all undesirable Japanese along with being able to take their belongings. In 1942, a year after the War Measures Act was passed, the Government of Canada imprisoned 22,000 Japanese Canadians from British Columbia as a result of accusations of them being spies/having ties with Japan. The internment of the 22,000 Japanese Canadians accounted for 90% of the total Japanese-Canadian population in all of Canada. The Japanese Canadians were deemed a “national security threat” (The Canadian Encyclopedia- Internment of Japanese Canadians) and they were evacuated and incarcerated out of British Columbia and put into internment camps.
In August of 1944, Prime minister Mackenzie King declared that Japanese Canadians were to be relocated east of the BC Interior land. The official statement from Mackenzie King states that “Japanese Canadians must move east of the Rocky Mountains or be repatriated to Japan following the end of the war.” With the War Measures Act in play it also gave the government power to take all of the Japanese Canadians belongings. The estimated sum of the value of all belongings that were taken from the Japanese were somewhere between $1–3 billion dollars (not accounting for inflation) although there is no way to be certain of the actual value. This backs up the thesis that Japanese Canadians were viciously and hatefully targeted to eliminate the Japanese because of the bombing of ally Pearl Harbor, USA. They had their possessions, family and lives ripped away from them and they were forced into internment camps to suffer, because it explains about the Japanese Canadians relocation, and how much of their belongings along with their value that was taken away from them. A key factor for the relation into internment camps was the fact that most Japanese Canadians lived along the BC coast line.
There was a strong fear in people that the Japanese Canadians living on the BC coast were spies, this worried officials in power. There were fears that the Japanese Canadians who worked in the fishing industry were graphing the outline of the BC coast and were spying on the Canadian military and informing the Japanese navy. British Columbia borders the Pacific Ocean; therefore, it was believed to be easily vulnerable of enemy attacks from Japan. Even though both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Department of National Defense did not have any proof of sabotage or espionage, Prime Minister Mackenzie King determined to incarcerate Japanese Canadians based on speculative evidence. A 160 km wide strip along the British Columbia coast was deemed “protected”, and any men of Japanese roots between the ages of 18 and 45 were relocated into internment camps. This further explain details about the Japanese Canadian men who worked in the fishing industry and the government believed they were Japanese Intelligence spies. Along with the further explanation of the 160 km wide strip that Japanese Canadians were “relocated” out of due to accusations of the Japanese to be using their boats to sail out and provide information to the Japanese Navy. One could ask themselves how does the quality of my life compare to that of a Japanese Canadian in 1942?
Daily life as a Japanese Canadian in internment camps was very tough and effected woman and children heavily. Many of the Japanese Canadians were removed from the BC coast in January 1942, they were sent to road camps in British Columbia or sugar beet farms on the Prairies, many in Alberta. The government also deported Japanese-Canadian laborers to camps near fields and orchards, such as the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. The Japanese-Canadian laborers were used as a solution to a shortage of farm workers. With all of the Japanese Canadian fishing workers gone, this obliterated any Japanese presence in the fishing sector. Japanese-Canadian women and children faced a specific challenge that greatly affected their way of life and broke down the social and cultural rules that had developed. Whole families were taken from their homes and they were separated from each other. Husbands and wives were always separated when sent to camps and, occasionally some mothers would be separated from their children as well. Japanese-Canadian families typically had a patriarchal structure (Men hold primary/leadership), meaning that the husband was the center of the family. Since husbands were often separated from their families, wives were left to redesign the structure of the family that were long-established in many Japanese-Canadian households. This further explains the experiences of the workers that relocated to farms, and logging operations, and how they had to do labor intensive work for free to be granted food and water. In addition, the internment camps had big effects on cultural, social and mental effects on women and children. The Japanese were targeted and forced to work and suffer in internment camps because the Japanese navy bombed our ally the United States naval port of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA.
The thesis expresses that the Japanese were targeted for being traitors after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese Canadians were forced to starve and to be tortured due to the actions of the Japanese Empire. The Japanese Canadians were targeted for their Japanese ethnicity and were humiliated and tortured because of their family descent. The evidence stated in the essay supports the evidence because they provide a clear and further understanding of the situation that the Japanese Canadians were forced through during the 1940’s. The Japanese Canadians were savagely and inhumanely treated and were, precisely targeted to be wiped out because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Canadian Government took their valuables and families ripped out of their lives and forced into internment camps to die. “No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Canadians, the these are very dangerous times for our democracy.” ~ Fred Konematsu
Published by Michael K
