WWII- The Internment of Japanese Canadians When the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, shock and anger gripped many Canadians. This is the event that prompted the discrimination of the Japanese in Canada. All Japanese nationals, who were people born in Japan but living in Canada, and Canadian citizens of Japanese descent were imprisoned under the War Measures Act. Japanese Canadians were taken from their homes, packed into trains, and sent to internment camps in the interior of British Columbia. Some Japanese Canadian men were assigned to work on road construction in northern British Columbia and Ontario. Others were used as farm labourers in the sugar beet fields of Alberta and Manitoba. Men who said no, were separated from their families
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.
Additionally, during World War 2, Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in internment camps (Yarhi and Pellerin 23). This mass displacement had a profound and lasting impact on Japanese Canadians, their sense of identity, and their heritage. For many Japanese Canadians, the internment experience was a traumatic and disruptive event that forced them to leave everything they knew and loved. They were stripped of their dignity and right to move freely. As a result of internment camps, many were forced to abandon their cultural traditions, also the camps made it difficult for Japanese Canadians to maintain connections with their communities and cultural institutions.
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.
Enemy aliens are people from foreign nations that live in a country that is at war with their birth country. In World War One the enemy aliens of Canada were the Germans, Italians, and people from Austria-Hungary, which included people from Ukrainian. During the war many enemy aliens were placed into internment camps. There were many internment camps all over the country. Four of the internment camps were located at Banff, Jasper, Mount Revelstoke and Yoho.
The internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States during World War II is a historical event that is not only well documented, but is also ridden with the personal experiences of 1st (issei) and 2nd (nissei) generation Japanese-Americans. Family Gathering follows Lise Yasui’s discovery of her own family history, experiencing setbacks as well as cathartic moments of knowledge through her research as part of the 3rd generation—sansei. In this, she is able to reconstruct an image of a grandfather she had never met. Over the approximately one hour runtime of the film, viewers are asked to listen to her family’s experiences as an American immigrant family in the early 20th century. Yasui reconstructs an image of her grandfather, Masuo Yasui,
The Canadian Government forced them to move out of their homes and were separated from their families. Sent to ghost towns around British Columbia as a “Safety Zone” for the Japanese Canadians. This Human Rights violation was also followed by the Japanese forced to get fingerprints for identification. The only time to get fingerprints is when you have made a crime. Japanese Canadians did not make any crime.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a decision that would change the lives of Japanese-Americans on February 19, 1942, two months following the Japanese bombings on Pearl Harbor. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the internment of over 110,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident immigrants from Japan1. Meaning that Japanese-Americans, regardless of their U.S. citizenship, were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses and then proceed to move to remote war relocation and internment camps run by the U.S. Government. The attack on Pearl Harbor had, unfortunately, released a wave of negativity, aggression and blatant racism that some of the Non-Japanese American citizens had been holding in up until the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
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.
Mary Matsuda Gruenewald tells her tale of what life was like for her family when they were sent to internment camps in her memoir “Looking like the Enemy.” The book starts when Gruenewald is sixteen years old and her family just got news that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japan. After the bombing Gruenewald and her family life changed, they were forced to leave their home and go to internment camps meant for Japanese Americans. During the time Gruenewald was in imprisonment she dealt with the struggle for survival both physical and mental. This affected Gruenewald great that she would say to herself “Am I Japanese?
The following events caused the tensions to raise between Japan and The United States of America which led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Internment of Japanese Americans. They are the Rape of Nanking and the sudden stop of U.S exports to Japan. In the 1930s Japan, had become very nationalistic, militaristic, and desired for more land to expand the population. So, Japan went to China and conquered Manchuria, Northern China, then most of China, and eventually Southeast Asia. This help Japan get out of its economic crisis but soon a very tragic and horrendous even took place.
These guys felt the blunt force of discrimination during this time. Japanese-Americans were forced into one of ten permanent camps. This was the result of Executive Order 9066 and Pearl Harbor. These camps were given the name internment camps. The point of internment was to test the loyalty of the Japanese-Americans.
Jayna Marie Lorenzo May 23, 2023 Historiography Paper Professor Kevin Murphy Historiography Final: Japanese Internment “A date which will live in infamy,” announced President Roosevelt during a press conference after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Due to the military threat by the Japanese on the West Coast, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering for the incarceration of all people of Japanese descent. The Order forced about 120,000 Japanese Americans into relocation centers across the United States where they remained in captivity until the war ended.
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.
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. Prior to World War II, the 127,000 Japanese-Americans along America’s west coast (Japanese American Relocation and Internment Camps) were considered just another immigrant group coming to America searching for a better life. However, with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, this perception soon saw a drastic change. The attack on the US Naval base on December 7th, 1941 left many casualties in its wake.
To be stripped of freedom for the sake of accommodating those who are prejudiced against one’s heritage remains an unjustifiable action. Although oppression remains a sensitive issue in society, one must not silence the history of its existence as humanity must learn from its mistakes. Such silencing was experienced by the Japanese citizens of Canada as their freedoms were replaced with discrimination. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941 ¹, the Canadian government systematically removed over 21 000 Japanese Canadians from their businesses and homes and forced them into internment camps from 1941-1949 ². Thus, the methodical location of Japanese Canadians into internment camps during World War II was unjustified.