GRSJ224/Japanese Canadian Internment

Japanese-Canadian Internment and the Loss of Canadian Identity

In 1941 during World War II, Japanese forces launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbour and put a number of Canadian troops stationed in that area at risk. Outside of the United States, Canadians began to experience similar fears of Japanese aggression during the war and sentiments against the Japanese-Canadians escalated. Japanese-Canadian internment began when the Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King, announced a new war time measure against those of Japanese heritage in Canada in 1942. The war measure ordered all people of Japanese ancestry to leave the coast of British Columbia. 60% of these Japanese-Canadians were born in Canada and felt as much Canadian as the rest of society.

All those identified as Japanese by ancestry and were over the age of sixteen, were forced to choose between relocation somewhere across Eastern Canada, including being displaced in internment camps and farmlands, or deportation to Japan . They lost their citizenship, identity, and livelihoods in this process. These individuals, who once considered themselves Canadians or Japanese-Canadians, were now only Japanese. In wartime, this often meant “alien” or “the enemy”, insinuating that they were foreign and no longer belonged . The government did not differentiate between citizens who were first generation Japanese immigrants or Canadian-born. This entire community posed a risk to national security to Canada. Canadians were sure that those in the community would side with Japanese nationals and aid them in war, if need be. The Prime Minister expressed his opinion that “no matter how honourable they might appear to be, or how long they may have been away from Japan, naturalized, or even those who were born in Canada. Everyone of them...would be saboteurs and would help Japan when the moment came”. This war measure policy led to the deportation of nearly 20% of Japanese-Canadians and those who desired to stay in Canada were relocated across Eastern Canada. This resulted in the displacement of over 21,000 Japanese-Canadians during the war.

Canadians to Sources of Labourer

Many Japanese-Canadians who were sent to work on farms were forced to work under poor, tedious conditions. From this point on, Japanese-Canadians lost their identity as individual citizens, and became tools to support the missing labour resources in these farmlands. These Japanese-Canadians became huge assets to the crop-farming and a survey found that they were producing 65% of the total harvest in sugar beet farms in Alberta. It was estimated that if Japanese labour were to diminish production would decrease by 50%. After the war had ended, Japanese-Canadians in Alberta attempted to regain postwar citizenship by establishing a new deal with the government. They requested to bring back the individuals who had been deported to Japan and the removal of racial discrimination against certain immigrants, using their economic value as labourers to appeal to the government in the negotiation. However, their request was denied as they had found a new way of reducing the labour supply gap by using European immigrants that they believed would fair better with the farming methods of the country. These Canadians had not only lost their citizenship but their individual value as people, and became valued solely by the economic resources they could supply to Canadian society.

The Loss of Livelihood

Japanese-Canadian community were forced to leave their homes once the war measure took place. They were only allowed to take the bare minimum of things they needed. This meant that they had to leave behind heirlooms, house properties, and businesses . Initially the government had taken custody of the dormant properties left behind by the Japanese-Canadians and had planned to return ownership once the war was over. However, in 1943, the government began to sell off these properties in order to fund the governmental operations of the Japanese internment camps. The entire process was undergone without any consent of the Japanese-Canadians, and many only found out after their properties were sold off. To the Japanese-Canadians, this loss was not just the loss of land, but the loss of community and livelihoods they had built up on their own over the years . The permanent loss of their homes and businesses was the loss of their identities as Canadian citizens as it meant they no longer had a home to return to after the war measure. This suggests that Canada had no intentions to accept the Japanese-Canadians back into society.

The Loss of Canadian Identity

Once the war had ended, Japanese-Canadians no longer posed as an enemy threat. However, their internment continued until 1949, four more years after the war. It was clear that anti-Japanese sentiments were not simply about war measures to protect ‘national security’ as Japanese-Canadian detainment did not end immediately after the war had ended. This appeared to be an outright rejection of these Canadians citizens. Japanese-Canadian survivors were left with sentiments of the prejudicial racism long after the policy had ended in 1949. Interviews in Makabe’s article were conducted and found that many survivors, even after regaining citizenship, no longer consider themselves as truly ‘Canadian’ despite being born and raised in the country.