Japanese-Canadian Discrimination During World War II

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Japanese-Canadian Discrimination during World War II
In history, numerous acts of atrocities have shocked the world and caused people to wonder how governments and citizens can be so ignorant towards minority races. For instance, the use of concentration camps in the killing of millions of Jewish people during the Holocaust has thoroughly disgusted generations of people to this day, and caused citizens of Canada to rejoice in the safety and multiculturalism of this peaceful and prosperous nation. However, one may not be aware that similar events occurred within the “peaceful” and “accepting” borders of
Canada during World War II.
Compared to the European concentration camps, the internment camps which imprisoned hundreds of Japanese-Canadians
Paolini, David. “Japanese Canadian Internment and Racism During World War II.”
Imaginations: The Canadian Studies Undergraduate Journal at the University of
Toronto (March 2010), accessed February 21, 2012. http://imagi-nations.ca/
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Imaginations: The Canadian Studies Undergraduate Journal at the University of
Toronto (March 2010).
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7 camps to daytime-only curfew hours, which controlled the amount of communication between
Japanese-Canadian citizens within the internment camps. The internment camps censored all letters, and freedom of movement was restricted. Often times, men were separated from their families, nuclear families were separated from their extended families, and the social mobility once slightly enjoyed by Japanese-Canadians was reduced due to the lack of education and work they were offered. The government believed that with less communication, even between family members, the chances of a Japanese spy gaining any useful information for the Japanese Imperial
Army was strongly reduced.
The liquidation of Japanese-Canadian property occurred illegally after the interned citizens were promised the return of their items. Their possessions were sold in auction,
Those imprisoned within the internment camps were forced to fly the Union Jack in support of the allies in the war. Kogawa remembers the way her family was “herded” together and made to move from their home within two hours while at gun point.
The Japanese language and writing style was taken from the imprisoned, and they were forced to speak and write in English. Kogawa expresses her deepest confession: that at the time, she wished she had been a white girl instead of a Japanese-Canadian as they were treated better. 25
Near the end of World War II, Japanese-Canadians were strongly encouraged to prove their loyalty to Canada by moving away from British Columbia, or by signing papers agreeing to be
“repatriated” to Japan when the war was over. 26 Japanese-Canadians were left with two options:
(1) conform to the Canadian/British way of life, or (2) move back to Japan. The mistrust, fear, and paranoia surrounding Japanese-Canadians since the first rumblings of war had finally brought them to an ultimatum.
The irony of the treatment towards Japanese-Canadians is that the racism against those of
Japanese descent in British Columbia might have actually had a negative effect on the province’s