Internment In Canada

Robert’s story did not occur in isolation and is, instead, is situated in the specific social, political and economic context of the late 1940s to 1950s. By this time, World War Two (WWII) had subsided, the economy was recovering, and Canada found itself fairly well situated to accept new immigrants (Hawkins, 1988, p.99). Fuelled by the expansion of certain industries (e.g. construction), this period “saw the beginning of a significant economic boom in Canada” (Kelly & Trebilcock, 2010, p.316; Troper, 1993, p.250). Therefore, what had previously been characterized by a relatively restrictive climate for immigration, due to the fear during WWII, was gradually replaced with more “libera[l]” (Kelly & Trebilcock, 2010, p.318) immigration policies

This article seeks to depict the hardship that Japanese Canadian women had to endure, during the World War II in Canadian interment camps and after the World War, by analyzing her personal memory, personal mails that some Japanese Canadian women sent to their loved ones and relatives, and oral testimonies of interned Japanese Canadian women during the World War II. After the Pearl Harbor incident, according to the War Measure Act, all Japanese people were removed from they homes to interment camps in interior B.C.; This resulted in many family breaks ups and hardships on women to raise their family. This Act resulted in loss of national identity and culture of naturalized Japanese Canadians. Many Japanese Canadian women became subjected labor hardship and sexual harassments. After the War Canadian Japanese people had to choose between repatriation and relocation to east of

How would you feel if one day you were told to leave your whole life behind to live in captivity just because people halfway across the world did something wrong? This horror story was all too true for the thousands of Japanese Americans alive during World War II. Almost overnight, thousands of proud Japanese Americans living on the west coast were forced to leave their homes and give up the life they knew. The United States government was not justified in the creation of Japanese internment camps because it stripped law-abiding American citizens of their rights out of unjustified fear. Furthermore, the United States should do more to compensate the families of those impacted by internment because the recompense provided initially was minimal and should be considered an affront to the memory of the victims.

One reason why the U.S government’s decision was not justifiable is because many of the Japanese-Americans were innocent people who legally received their American citizenship. For example, in Monica Sone’s “Camp Harmony”,

The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was not justified. After Pearl Harbor, many Americans were scared of the Japanese Americans because they could sabotage the U.S. military. To try and solve the fear President Franklin D Roosevelt told the army in Executive order 9066 to relocate all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They were relocated to detention centers in the desert. Many of them were in the detention centers for three years.

Canada has a very rich history, despite being a younger country than most. This history constitutes many different methods, good or bad, that Canadians have tried in order to develop a significant national identity. For instance, Canada played an important role in both of the World Wars in attempts to establish a distinct national identity on the global stage. After World War Two, Canada joined the United Nations and began performing peacekeeping missions to provide aid to countries, thus creating a new facet to the Canadian national identity. However, Canada has also used unjust methods, such as establishing residential schools as a way to assimilate the First Nations into the government’s idea of what Canadian national identity should be.

The internment of Japanese-Americans was justified because there were Japanese suspects. Between ten internment camps in Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas, about 250-300 people in each camp were suspects under surveillance. Only around 50-60 people were actually considered dangerous. “It is easy to get on the suspect list, merely a speech in favor of Japan being sufficient to land one there” (Munson 2). Clearly, America was taking extreme precautions. If they would have let one of them leave, they could have rebelled. This is a main reason why Japanese suspects had to be taken away to keep the United States population safe. “It will be hard for them to get near anything to blow up if it is guarded” (Munson 2).

No innocent people like the Japanese Americans should have been punished or looked as bad people because of their ancestry. The bombing of Pearl Harbor caused the U.S. to fear the Japanese Americans, so they placed them in internment camps. Japanese Americans shouldn’t of been punished because most of them were born and raised on the West Coast. The condition of the camps were often not pleasant. Japanese Americans were viewed as alien and untrustworthy, and isolated from others. Life of a Japanese American was harsh and scary because you never knew what the mad people would do.

As opposed to righteous view that America was safeguarding its position in the war, the Japanese American internments were created out of resentment and racial prejudice fostered by other Americans. As the article “Personal Justice Denied” stated, the internments were led by “widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan” (Doc E, 1983). It may seem like a precautionary cause to make internments but there aren’t any other extreme measures for other fronts. Caused by a hatred stirred by media and society’s view, many people disdain the Japanese. Even at the high levels of government, officials share similar prejudices. In this sense, there was very

It is pretty undisputable that the Canadians did hold prejudice and was racist towards the Japanese people. Many believe this to be the driving reason to the Japanese’ internment.

Following the Pearl Harbor attacks, Japanese Americans faced racism and were suspected of treason. The entire community avoided them in spite of their homeland’s actions and developed a general distrust towards anyone of Japanese descent. Anti-Japanese sentiment was on the rise. For instance, hateful messages against them, such as “No Japs Wanted,” were often scrawled on property owned by Japanese Americans (Doc. 4). This conveyed the prejudice this minority group faced and how they were blamed for an attack that wasn’t their fault. In addition, it was not only their neighbors that Japanese-Americans received unjust treatment from. The government discriminated against them, too. With a war going on overseas and potentially spreading to the home front, the government used this “clear and present danger” as an excuse to pass some policies that would otherwise be viewed as blatantly racist. Chifley, Executive Order #9066 left the most impact. With this order, Roosevelt mandated to federal troops that between 110,00 and 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast be relocated into internment camps that were almost always in the middle of nowhere (Doc. 3). Japanese-Americans lost everything as a result of this; they had to quickly sell their homes and businesses within a matter of a few days and could only take what they could carry to the camps. This is solid proof that Japanese lost rights due to the war rather than being given an opportunity to advance economically or

Japanese internment camps made us question who was really an American and it relates to today’s issues. Internment camps were similar to concentration camps or prison and Japanese-Americans were put into them. Even though they were considered Americans, they were still treated unfairly by other Americans. So who is American? In my opinion, the Japanese were still trying to show that they were Americans. They were complying with people putting them into the internment camps and they burned all of their heritage. Honestly, they were not doing anything un-American, but, because of their race, they were targeted. Arresting someone based on race is not constitutional, but we still see it today. Latinos are being discriminated because people

The first reason the Japanese were not placed in interment due to their race/ancestry was that they were the ones responsible for their removal. If the Japanese did not attack Pearl Harbor the United States would not have joined World War II in the first place. Roosevelt would not have created the War Relocation Authority to relocate them either. The Japanese-Americans also failed to voluntarily remove themselves from the West

On February 24 1942 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. This order was specifically targeted towards the Japanese- Canadians living on the West Coast of British Columbia. In a matter of weeks the the first Japanese-Canadians were forced to move to an area called Hastings park, which was considered a “protected area”. More than 8,000 detainees were moved to Hastings Park, where women and children were housed in livestock homes. They were later transported to ghost towns in BC or move to Alberta or Manitoba in order to work on sugar beet farms, where they would have been able to keep their families together. The others who resisted were sent to internment camps, which were overcrowded and had very poor conditions. This social injustice comes from actions stemming from Order-in-Council P.C.1486, which broke the Charter of Rights section 6, subsection (2), which states that “ Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right to move to and take up residence in any province; and to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province”. The exclusion of the Japanese along the West Coast was an obvious breach of their rights as Canadians who have lived there for decades. They forced them to move out of British Columbia and were dispatched into other parts of Canada in which living conditions were not suitable. Neither were they allowed to move out of those rural conditions because all their belongings were gone and they were just left with what the government forced them into. Subsections (3) and (4) focus on discrimination really show how the Japanese were targeted because of their race. Not only did the government control where the Japanese were going to reside, but also the discrimination that they had to

On December 7th, 1941,when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor there was a intense pressure of anti-Japanese feeling in Canada. They feared that the Japanese Canadians would help Japan to invade Canada 's West Coast. Anyone of Japanese origin in Canada were treated with suspicion, hatred and discrimination. Many spoke no Japanese and had little or no connection to Japan. But within a week the Japanese Canadian homes, businesses and boats were taken under the War Measures Act without any form of restitution. The Japanese Canadians had not rights therefore they couldn 't refuse to obey. The Canadian government forcefully relocated the people and separated them from their families. Some were taken to abandon mining towns in the interior British