1. Define New Terms with Historic Details
- Write about what happened as if the reader is new to this information. Provide definitions and descriptions for terms that a reader might not be familiar with. If you use words like “dispossession” make sure to explain them well. Dispossession means having property and possessions taken from you against your will (e.g.) The Canadian government dispossessed about 22,000 Japanese Canadians.
2. What does this mean for Japanese Canadians?
- The federal government, after forcing Japanese Canadians from their homes, promised Japanese Canadians that their houses, businesses, farms, fishing boats, vehicles, and personal possessions would be safe and held in trust. The Canadian government lied and sold everything without the consent of Japanese Canadians. When the Canadian government forced Japanese Canadians from their homes, Japanese Canadians were not allowed to have or use vehicles, so they could only take what they could carry. This meant that most of their belongings were left at their homes and businesses. Not only were their houses and businesses sold, but everything inside them was sold or thrown away. The Canadian government said this was to “pay” for their incarceration. Prisoners in our corrections system do not have to pay for their incarceration. Japanese Canadian property was also sold at a huge discount, far below market value.
- Just using the term “dispossession” without a definition and deeper discussion does not clearly show the injustices that Japanese Canadians experienced.
3. Provide Context
- Unjust actions do not happen in a vacuum. What was the political and cultural landscape? How did the federal, provincial, and local governments see and treat Japanese Canadians before they incarcerated Japanese Canadians and sold all their homes and belongings? How were Japanese Canadians seen and treated by society before this happened? How did the dominant society see and treat other communities of colour? What was the history of who was allowed to vote, and how did immigration laws change over the years?
4. Use an Active Voice
- Use an active voice instead of a passive voice in your writing. A passive voice is often used when a government, group, organization, person, etc. does not want to take responsibility for their actions.
- ACTIVE = SUBJECT (person/group who did action) + VERB (action) + OBJECT (person/group impacted by action).
- PASSIVE = OBJECT (person/group impacted by action) + VERB (Action) (person/group may be mentioned after or not at all)
- This sentence uses a passive voice: “Japanese Canadians were accused of being spies in the 1940s.”
- The SUBJECT is missing. Who accused Japanese Canadians of being spies?
- This sentence uses an active voice: “Many White Canadian businesspeople and politicians accused Japanese Canadians of being spies during the 1940s.”
- Check out this link to help you fix sentences written in passive voice. https://library.douglascollege.ca/sites/default/files/2023-12/GR_3.40_Identifying_Passive_Voice.pdf
- The English grammar terms for discussing sentence structure involve the terms “subject” and “object.” Make sure when you write about Japanese Canadians, that you avoid objectifying them; remember to highlight their humanity.
- For example, do not have a city or country “own” Japanese Canadians. Instead of writing “Abbotsford’s Japanese Canadians,” use “Japanese Canadians from Abbotsford.”
5. Be Respectful in Your Presentation
- Be respectful of Japanese Canadians who lived through this experience. Present your information as if a survivor and their children will be looking at what you created. How would they feel looking at your presentation? Thoughtfully choose text, images, audio, video, etc. that represent Japanese Canadians and what happened to them. Do not make jokes or make light of what happened. Take care in your choice of font, borders, and backgrounds. For example, do not use a cartoony-looking font; use a traditional one like Times New Roman or Calibri.
6. Use Clear and Precise Language
- Avoid government propaganda and/or language that covers up the truth. For example, the Canadian government used the term “evacuation” when it forced Japanese Canadians from the West Coast. The definition of “evacuation” relates to moving a group for their own safety, like when police evacuate a community because of a dangerous forest fire. The government was not moving Japanese Canadians to protect them or keep them safe, so this term should not be used. Instead, you could use the term “forced removal.” Even better, use an active voice and change this noun into a verb. To learn more about the euphemisms used by the federal government to minimize the truth see out list of Key Terms
- For example:
- There was an evacuation of Japanese Canadians from their homes. (do not use, this needs to be changed)
- There was a forced removal of Japanese Canadians from their homes. (still needs work)
- The Canadian government forced Japanese Canadians from their homes. (best choice)
7. Be Careful of Adjective Usage
- Do not use terms like “Japanese Canadian camps.” Japanese Canadians did not create these “camps” or choose to leave their homes to live in shacks and work to pay for their incarceration. These incarceration sites were not the choice or invention of Japanese Canadians. Also, do not just use the word “camps” alone, as this can be misleading to people, particularly children, about what incarceration was like for Japanese Canadians. It was not a fun camping trip; this was seven years of living under extremely poor conditions against their will. “Incarceration” or “incarceration sites” may be the better term to use. In most cases, it is best to cut out the word “camp.” “Japanese Canadian” should not be used before the word “camp” or “incarceration”—instead, it should be added after.
- Here is an example of a title that needs changing:
- Japanese Canadian Camps (do not use)
- Japanese Canadian Incarceration Camps (still needs work)
- Incarceration of Japanese Canadians (better)
- Canada’s Incarceration of Japanese Canadians (this shows who is responsible)
- Here is an example of a sentence that needs changing:
- Japanese Canadian camps were supported by the government. (do not use as this downplays what happened)
- The Canadian government incarcerated Japanese Canadians. (this shows who is responsible, has a more accurate verb, and uses an active voice)
8. Break Myths
- There are myths that still exist about Japanese Canadians and why the government incarcerated them. For example, there is the myth that Japanese Canadians could have been spies and terrorists who planned to attack Canada. The majority of Japanese Canadians had lived most of their lives in Canada and/or were born in Canada. Many had never even been to Japan. This is why it is important to always use “Japanese Canadian” and not “Japanese” when referring to “Japanese Canadians.”
- In the 1940s, the Canadian military and police investigated and found no evidence of Japanese Canadians planning to attack or overthrow Canada; they told the Canadian government that they did not see Japanese Canadians as a threat to national security. In fact, no Japanese Canadian was ever found to have been a spy or planned terrorist against Canada during this time period.
- People who are looking at your work might have limited knowledge of this history and might be more familiar with the myths because they were perpetuated in media and government documents for decades. The language that you use is important to debunk myths and to avoid keeping up stereotypes and untruths.
- For example:
- “Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, and Canada had to protect its citizens by interning all Japanese Canadians.” (do not use)
- This statement is false. Canada did not have to take this action. Italy and Germany were also attacking Canadian allies, yet Canada did not do a mass incarceration and sell off the land and property of all Italian Canadians or German Canadians.
- There was strong anti-Asian racism that existed in Canada prior to the war; Pearl Harbour was a convenient event for the government to take racist actions against Japanese Canadians.
9. Call Out Racist Language and Imagery
- The stories of people in power are historically the ones that are valued, recorded, and repeated over generations. Government reports, news stories, and public opinion pieces written at the time were often racist and used racial slurs and rhetoric to justify unjust actions. Carefully use racist content to illustrate what it was like at the time, but make sure to call out racist thinking and myths. Make sure to critically look at and discuss any such text or images.
- For example, in public discourse Japanese Canadians were called “enemy aliens.” Notice how this term is in quotations; this word should not be used to refer to Japanese Canadians. This term was used to dehumanize Japanese Canadians, declare them enemies and make it easier to strip them of their rights.
10. Provide the Perspective of Japanese Canadians
- Include as much content as you can that is created by Japanese Canadians. This can be harder to find because their stories and images were not traditionally valued by the dominant society. As well, Japanese Canadians thought their belongings they left behind would be safe, but they lost many personal items such as family photos and personal journals because the government sold their homes without their consent. Also, many Japanese Canadians lost possessions left behind due to vandalism and theft. The Canadian government banned Japanese Canadians from having radios, recording devices, or cameras—so this limited their ability to record and share their experiences during this time period. The government shut down all Japanese Canadian publications except for one newspaper, which was highly monitored and controlled by the government.
- When you write about Japanese Canadians, do not show them only as victims who accepted what happened to them. Acknowledge the systemic racism they faced and show how they resisted as much as they could under such difficult circumstances. Japanese Canadians were sent to POW camps in Ontario if they refused to comply with government orders; hundreds of Japanese Canadians were sent there. Japanese Canadians spoke out against what was happening; they wrote letters to the government, and they hired lawyers to fight the injustices they faced. In their everyday lives, they did what they could to improve their situation. For example, Japanese Canadians did their best to create a home and communal atmosphere under prison conditions; this is an act of resistance. Japanese Canadians didn’t want their children to feel like prisoners, so they tried to make their shacks more livable, made toys out of wood for their children, and organized and built their own schools for children to go to.
11. Avoid Oversimplifying
- You want to use clear and straightforward language, but make sure not oversimplify what happened. History is complicated and layered. We are all capable of kind actions and terrible actions.
- For example, do not write, “The Canadian government did this because it was evil.”
- All levels of government—federal, provincial, and local—took part in the actions that led to the incarceration and selling off of Japanese Canadian land and belongings. How did the government impact the public? How did public opinion impact the government? Much of the public held anti-Asian beliefs or were indifferent towards what was happening to Japanese Canadians.
12. Injustices Are Preventable
- Awful events have happened in history, but they did not have to. That is why we study history, to learn from past mistakes so we can make better choices now. Governments, organizations, groups, families, and individuals decided to take certain actions—or not. Present information so that readers see where and how decisions were made, and the consequences of them.
- For example, do not write, “Times were just racist, and people did not know any better.”
- The Canadian military and RCMP informed the government that Japanese Canadians were not a threat. They were a minority, but there were non-Japanese people and organizations who spoke out against the racism and injustices happening to Japanese Canadians. Japanese Canadians knew firsthand how terrible they were being treated by the Canadian government, RCMP, the news media, and society in general.
- Japanese Canadians who lived through this were very upset and traumatized from being incarcerated and losing everything they owned. They clearly knew what happened to them was wrong.
- After the incarceration, many Japanese Canadians continued to speak out and worked hard to get their story heard and for the government to finally listen to them. Because of this, many decades later, the Canadian government offered an apology and symbolic reparations to the remaining survivors.
13. Terms Change Over Time
- Be aware that terms can change over time. Older publications and websites may use terms that are no longer considered appropriate. For example, “internment” was commonly used, but now there is a movement within the Japanese Canadian and Japanese American communities to use the term “incarceration.”
- The Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War in 1929, which Canada signed, said that you cannot intern your own citizens—and the majority of Japanese Canadians the government forced from their homes were Canadian citizens. Some Japanese Canadians, particularly people from older generations, may still choose to use older terms.
- It is also important to remember that there is great diversity within the Japanese Canadian community and that each individual will have different terms that they feel comfortable with using. For non-Japanese Canadians and for formal written assignments, it is best to use the most recent terms as a sign of respect.
- *Note that “Japanese Canadian” is not hyphenated when it is a noun or an adjective. Example:
- Today, Japanese Canadians make up about 1% of the BC population. (noun)
- The Powell Street Festival is an important part of preserving and promoting Japanese Canadian culture in BC. (adjective)
