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Postwar Community Organizations
From the early 1900s, Japanese Canadians formed organizations to fight for equality. The new awareness surrounding the injustices against Japanese Canadians during the Second World War led to various groups that called for redress during the 1980s. The National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) was originally established in 1947 as the National Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association. Other groups included the Vancouver JCCA Redress Committee, the Sodan Kai, and the Toronto Japanese Canadian Citizens Association. With Japanese Canadians scattered across the country, diverse opinions emerged as the way forward. Some urged individual compensation, some group compensation, some a combination. While others just wanted to drop the subject altogether. Achieving consensus was challenging.
Raising awareness
During the 1970s, the federal government began to release official reports on activities during the Second World War, providing concrete evidence of Japanese Canadian claims of injustice. Increasing numbers of non-Japanese Canadian allies joined calls for redress.
Japanese American Redress
Japanese Americans had also been uprooted en masse during the Second World War. In 1988, their community received an apology and compensation package from the Reagan administration. This provided a significant boost to the Japanese Canadian case. Japanese Americans, for example, had been able to return to their homes after the war ended, whereas Japanese Canadians had their property sold off.
City of Vancouver apology
In 2013, the City of Vancouver mayor Gregor Robinson made an official apology to Japanese Canadians for the City’s actions during the Second World War. In 1942, city officials called for the removal of Japanese Canadians from the Pacific Coast and later even lobbied for their deportation.
British Columbia Apology
On May 7, 2012, members of BC’s legislative assembly voted unanimously to offer an apology for the internment of Japanese Canadians that began in 1942.
Led and introduced in the legislature by Liberal MLA Naomi Yamamoto, it read “The House deeply regrets that these Canadians were discriminated against simply because they were of Japanese descent and believes that all Canadians regardless of their origins should be welcome and respected,”
Yamamoto, the first person of Japanese descent to be elected to the BC legislature, said her father, Mas, and his family were among those sent to the camps. He and other Japanese Canadians interned during the war were present in the legislature for the apology.
BC Redress
On May 21, 2022, former BC Premier John Horgan announced the BC Government would be providing $100 Million towards legacy initiatives honouring Japanese Canadians. This came as a result of BC Redress, which the National Association of Japanese Canadians had been leading and developing with community legitimacy and input.
Unlike the federal redress of 1988, the six-fold pillars of BC Redress targeted community rebuilding not personal redress. A list of concrete legacy programs in education, heritage, seniors’ health & wellness, community & culture, monument, and anti-racism form the historical wrongs framework.
In order to be accountable to the Province and to the community, an oversight board was created in BC, the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society (JCLS), to oversee the implementation of the Japanese Canadian Legacy Initiatives. jclegacies.com The society will wind down in 2028.
The key legacy project is the Japanese Canadian Monument Park, being built in Victoria that will feature a wall containing the names of 22,000 Japanese Canadians arranged according to where they were uprooted from in 1942, and an additional 3000+ names of persons born from uprooted parents between 1942 and April 1, 1949, the date Japanese Canadians were given full rights of citizenship, including the right to return to the coast.
“Investing in community healing is ultimately a hopeful act, looking to the future of our community as much as acknowledging and commemorating our past. There is much work to be done, yet we remain deeply resilient and proud of our history and culture.” — Susanne Tabata
