EXPLORE FURTHER
Public Perception
A 1944 Gallup poll found that 80% of Canadians believed Japanese nationals should be deported, and 33% even supported deporting naturalized or Canadian-born Japanese Canadians. In the same year, when the Mayor of Vancouver proposed a resolution to support complete deportation, it was voted down. Meanwhile, some organizations, such as the Consultative Council for Cooperation in Wartime Problems of Canadian Citizenship advocated dispersal rather than deportation and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the only federal political party that had been an ally to the Japanese Canadian community, advocated for their right to stay in the country.
Survey
In 1945, the federal government had Japanese Canadians respond to a “repatriation” survey. The term “repatriation” implied returning home, but since most Japanese Canadians had been born in Canada, moving to Japan would be “expatriation.”
End of the War
Japanese Canadians were still banned from returning to the west coast even after the war ended in 1945. Soon after the end of the war, two-thirds of those who had originally chosen “repatriation” changed their minds. Canadian-born Japanese Canadians could change their decision at any time before their departure was scheduled, naturalized British subjects could remain only if they had changed their answers before Japan surrendered in September 1945, but Japanese nationals would be deported regardless of their choices. All the Japanese Canadians in the POW camp at Angler would also be deported. In 1946, more than 4,000 Japanese Canadians were exiled to Japan.
In Japan
Of those exiled to Japan, about half were Canadian-born and a third, children. Many could not speak, read or write Japanese fluently and struggled with school and to communicate. Japan was in ruins and could not spare resources for these immigrants. Those able to speak both English and Japanese found work with the American Occupation Forces. During the Korean War, some nisei joined the Canadian army. They travel from Japan to Korea and then after the war, returned to Canada. About half of the exiles ended up eventually returning to Canada.