Keywords

The BC Redress movement sought an apology and compensation from the provincial government for the treatment of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia in the 1940s: BC Redress is about “justice for nearly 22,000 Japanese Canadians who were forcibly uprooted, interned, and dispossessed, approximately 6,600 of whom are still with us today” (Japanese Canadian Legacies). In 2012 the Government of British Columbia delivered an apology to Japanese Canadians. Conversations between the government and the community that began in 2019 led to the achievement of BC Redress in 2022. The Six Legacy Pillars of BC Redress are Community and Culture, Seniors Health and Wellness, Heritage Preservation, Monument, Education, and Anti-Racism. For more information on the BC Redress process, click on this link BC Redress.

The British Columbia Security Commission (BCSC) is a Crown corporation that administered the Securities Act and was responsible for organizing the uprooting of 22,000 Japanese Canadians in BC. “On 24 February 1942, the federal Cabinet of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King issued Order-in-Council P.C. 1486 to remove and detain any and all persons from any protective area in the country. Those powers were broad enough to apply to anyone. But they were specifically used to target Japanese Canadians along the West Coast. The following week, the British Columbia Security Commission was established. It implemented and carried out Japanese internment.” The BCSC still exists.

All of these terms mean taking a person’s property or possessions from them against their will – in other words, theft of property and possessions. Japanese Canadians’ property was confiscated and held “in trust” before being auctioned off by the Custodian of Enemy Property. Liquidation is the forced sale of property at auction without the owner’s consent.

A February 24, 1942, Order in Council imposed a curfew restricting all Japanese Canadians to their homes from sunset to sunrise. The order read, in part, “Every person of Japanese race while within the protected area…shall hereafter be at his usual place of residence each day before sunset and shall remain there until sunrise on the following day.”

The Office of the Custodian of Enemy Property was established in 1916 under the authority of the War Measures Act (1914). Its function was to act under the “Trading with The Enemy” regulations, including the seizure and liquidation of enemy property. In World War II, the Canadian government used these powers to seize fishing vessels, automobiles, truck, radios, farms, businesses, and other property owned by Japanese Canadians.

Ethnic cleansing is the systematic, forced removal of a group of people from a region – in this case, of people of the Japanese race from British Columbia’s west coast.

The Canadian government used the term “evacuation” (also “relocation”) to describe the forced uprooting, removal, and internment of Japanese Canadians. “Evacuation” usually implies that the removal is for the safety of the people involved. But in this case, Japanese Canadians were not allowed to stay, nor were they in danger.

Japanese people in Canada were denied the franchise – the right to vote – in provincial elections until 1948 and in federal elections until 1949. Tomekichi Homma attempted to fight the restriction in 1900 but was eventually denied by the Privy Council of Great Britain in 1902. In 1936, a delegation of four Japanese Canadians appealed unsuccessfully to the Special Committee on Elections and Franchise Acts in the House of Commons.

The Canadian government used the term “internment camps” only for prisoner-of-war camps. It therefore referred to the newly constructed camps, work camps, beet farms, and abandoned mining towns used house Japanese Canadians forcibly relocated from the coast as “interior settlements.” (Other terms used for these locations are “concentration camps” and “purpose-built camps.”)

While the Canadian government used the term “internment camps” only for prisoner-of-war camps, it used the term “internment,” inaccurately, to cover its complicity in the forced uprooting, removal, and incarceration (imprisonment) of Canadian citizens. “Internment” is still commonly used by members of the Japanese Canadian community.

The term “Japanese Canadian” can refer to people born in Canada with Japanese ancestry, people who have immigrated from Japan to Canada, and long-term residents of Canada with Japanese ancestry. “Nikkei” is used to describe a person with Japanese ancestry living outside of Japan.

Issei, nissei, sansei, yonsei and gosei are Japanese-language terms used to describe first-, second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation settlement in Canada.

The term “Japantown” was never used widely among Japanese Canadians living on Vancouver’s Powell Street during the years before World War II. In the years after the forced removal of Japanese Canadians by the state, the neighbourhood was no longer home to the Japanese Canadian community. The forced removal, together with the racist origins of the name, means that it is inaccurate to call the Powell Street neighbourhood “Japantown.” (Other terms for the neighbourhood include Powell Street, Powell Grounds, Paueru-gai, and Paueru.)

Order in Council PC 365, dated January 16, 1942, authorized the removal of all Japanese Canadians from the “protection zone,” which included all inland areas within 100 miles (160 kilometres) of the coast of British Columbia. The federal government deemed this critical to protect “national security,” even though military leaders from both Canada and the United States acknowledged that the likelihood of an attack from within or without was minimal. In early 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill noted that the west coast might be “insulted” from time to time, but no real threat of invasion or attack was likely. For the duration of the war, not one act of sabotage was recorded, and prior to the forced removal there was no direct evidence of espionage. Japanese Canadians were treated very differently from Canadians of German and Italian ancestry – reflecting both institutional and systemic racism.

An Order in Council is a legal instrument used under statutory authority to create legally binding legislation. Orders in Council have the same effect as laws or acts imposed by parliament. During World War II, the Government of Canada issued hundreds of Orders in Council, many of which applied specifically to Japanese Canadians.

Order in Council PC 365, dated January 16, 1942, empowered the federal Minister of National Defence to deem an area extending 100 miles (160 kilometres) inland from the coast of British Columbia a “secure area.” This provided justification and support for the public and political forces that wanted Japanese Canadians removed from BC coastal settlements. Japanese Canadians were forced out of this area and were not allowed to return until 1949. (See protected area.)

Order in Council 469, passed by cabinet on January 19, 1943, authorized the federal government to sell Japanese Canadian properties without the owners’ consent. This order was enacted, contrary to the promise made by the federal government that it would hold “in trust” all Japanese Canadian–owned property.

Japanese Canadians were forced out of a “protected area” that extended 100 miles (160 kilometres) inland from the coast of British Columbia. They were not allowed to return until 1949, four years after the war ended.

A grassroots movement within the Japanese Canadian community that sought an official acknowledgement of wrongdoing, an apology, and symbolic compensation for the injustices perpetrated by the Government of Canada. With the support of Canadians from all walks of life, federal redress for Japanese Canadians was achieved in 1988. Then, in 2022, the Government of British Columbia offered an apology and a compensation package of $100 million in acknowledgement of the role that it played in the injustices wrought upon Japanese Canadians in the 1940s (see BC Redress Acknowledgement).

Everyone of Japanese ancestry over 16 years of age was fingerprinted and photographed and compelled to carry a registration card to be shown on demand. The cards were issued in three tiers, to identify Canadian-born, Naturalized, and Japanese Nationals.

The Canadian government used the term “repatriation” in reference to Japanese Canadians, including Canadian citizens, being forced to return to Japan. But “repatriation” actually means sending someone back to their own country. More correct terms for forcing a person to leave their country, province, or community as a form of punishment would be “exile,” “banishment,” or “deportation.”

After the war, persons of Japanese ancestry were strongly pressured to resettle outside of British Columbia. The policy of the second uprooting was designed to disperse those of the Japanese race east of the Rocky Mountains or “home” to Japan (though 75 percent were Canadian citizens).

Japanese Canadians showed resistance by ignoring curfews, not following rules at the internment camps, and failing to show up at job sites. Throughout the internment era (1942–1949), Japanese Canadians actively resisted the actions of federal, provincial, and municipal governments. They wrote hundreds of letters of protest to the British Columbia Security Commission, the Custodian of Enemy Property, and various other government officials. In May 1944, three Japanese Canadian men, Eikichi Nakashima, Jitaro Tanaka, and Tadao Wakbayashi, travelled to Ottawa to resist the forced sale of property (dispossession). These examples, among many, demonstrate compelling acts of active resistance carried out against the injustices of uprooting, incarceration, dispossession, and exile.

The “Notice to all persons of Japanese racial origin,” dated February 2, 1942, informed Japanese Canadians that they were subject to a curfew from sunset to sunrise, and confiscation of motor vehicles, cameras, radios, firearms, ammunition, or explosives; that the RCMP was authorized to search without warrant; and that “every person of the Japanese race shall leave the protected area, regardless of place of birth.” Restrictions also applied outside of the “protected area” and in jurisdictions where Japanese Canadians were interned.

The War Measures Act (1914) gave the Canadian government sweeping powers, which included suspending the civil liberties of Japanese Canadians, who were labelled “enemy aliens.” Orders in Council were issued to forcibly uproot and incarcerate them, and to confiscate their property. Approximately 22,000 Japanese Canadians were incarcerated in remote areas of the BC interior and east of the Rockies. Another 4,000 were exiled to Japan.