A Dark History in Canada: Japanese Internments

Imagine being dropped off in an unfamiliar place, far from home and everything you know. Some of your family members are sent elsewhere, miles away, and you are told you can’t leave to find them. Instead of being in the comfort of your own home, your days are now spent in animal stalls, sleeping on a bed of straw, with the unbearable stench of animal waste in the air. There are no walls to your new home. No door to shut out the rest of the world. Instead, hundreds of other people share your same floor, with only hanging sheets separating you. You don’t think things can get any worse, but they do. You discover your home, your business and most of your possessions have been either sold off without your consent or looted. You have nothing to go back to. And the country you love and the government that was supposed to protect you is responsible.

n recent decades, Canada has been celebrated for its quality of life, multicultural society and friendly citizenry. It is known for catering to its diverse population, being the first country to pass a national multiculturalism law in 1988 to preserve and enhance multiculturalism, being the third country to legalize gay marriage in 1995, and even designing currency (with tactile features and large high-contrast numerals) that takes into account the needs of its blind and visually impaired citizens. All this coupled with declining crime rates, a reasonable cost of living and government-funded national healthcare system, it’s no wonder that thousands immigrate to Canada each year, the largest percentage arriving from Asia.

But Canada was not always so accommodating to those of different ethnicities. Most people in the world — and even some Canadians — have no knowledge of the 22,000 Japanese Canadians who had their human rights violated by the Canadian government during World War II, just like their Japanese American counterparts here in the States. They were evacuated from their homes, separated from their loved ones, forced to live in dingy conditions and lost their property just because of their Japanese heritage. It is a somber chapter in Canadian history that survivors still struggle with today.

A Culture of Fear

Even prior to World War II, discrimination toward the Japanese had been growing in British Columbia, the province where the majority of Japanese had settled since they first immigrated to Canada in 1877. Many unfair policies over the decades demonstrated the provincial and national governments’ distrust of them: denying voting rights to citizens of “Asiatic” origin, restricting the number of Japanese immigrants and revoking their fishing licenses. By the 1940s, the Japanese population had grown to more than 20,000 in the province. They started businesses, bought homes, sent their kids to school, just as their predominantly white neighbors did.

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