Sixty-three years ago this week began what is looked upon as one of the most shameful events in Canadian history. On February 26th, 1942, while allied forces were fighting in Europe against the Nazis who had detained millions in concentration and forced labour camps, the Canadian government began interning thousands of Japanese Canadians in its own backyard.
In what was the greatest relocation movement in Canadian history, 22,000 Japanese Canadians were rounded up and forced to leave the B.C coast and move further inland into internment camps.

Of those relocated, three-quarters were full-fledged Canadian citizens who had built a life for themselves as foresters, fishermen, miners and merchants in B.C.’s coastal communities.

When war was declared on Japan in Dec. 1941 after the bombing of peal harbor, a cry went out across the Western coast of North America to address the “Japanese Menace.” Japanese were feared to be spies or collaborators with the enemy.

The suspicion of most British Columbians was fuelled by the municipal and provincial governments and local newspapers which published fear inciting editorials and cartoons demonizing the Japanese. Amidst the hype, then-Prime minister Mackenzie King implemented a resettlement policy, deemed at the time to be a “military necessity.”

Canada’s policy was similar to that of America. One key difference is that while American policy kept Japanese families together, the Canadian government initially sent men to camps in the interior of B.C., the prairies or to internment in POW camps as far away as Ontario, while most women and children were sent to six inland B.C towns.

In order to stay together, some families agreed to work on sugar beet farms in Alberta and Manitoba surviving the harsh winters with little provisions.

Of the 22,000 Japanese Canadians placed in internment camps, 4000 were stripped of their Canadian citizenship and deported to Japan and a further 6000 were deported after the war’s end.

Unlike prisoners of war protected by the Geneva Convention, Japanese Canadians were forced to pay for their internment and in 1943 the Canadian “Custodian of Aliens” liquidated all possessions and property belonging to those interned. These items were sold for a fraction of their worth and the rightful owners never received compensation.

Although Prime Minister King declared in the House of Commons in August, 1944 that “no person of Japanese race born in Canada has been charged with any act of sabotage or disloyalty during the war years,” it was years before Canada re-opened its doors to the Japanese.

In 1949 the Canadian government began to repeal immigration laws discriminating against those from China, Japan, and other non-European nations.

It wasn’t until 1988—46 years after the internment began—that Prime Minister Brian Mulroney offered a formal apology to Japanese Canadians and authorized a payment of 21,000 to each wartime survivor.