Japanese+Canadians+During+WW+II+-+2011

=**Brief Overview:** = The internment of Japanse Canadians during WW II began in December of 1941 when the Japanese air force launched an attack on Pearl Harbour. British Columbia was home to approximately 22 096 Japanese-Canadian citizens, 75% of whom had citizen status. Canadian military authorities and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police felt that there was little chance of a Japanese invasion and that Japanese Canadians were not a threat to national security. However, after much pressure from western politicians such as Ian Mackenzie, l aws were passed barring Japanese Canadians from various professions, they were denied the right to vote,  they were eligible for just a fraction of social assistance, and their forestry and fishing permits were denied. The aim was to force them to go back to Japan. They were sent to a 160-km "safety zone" along the Pacific coast. The move was claimed to be for "their own safety." They were sent to ghost towns in the Rockies, to detention camps, and some to other provinces. Japanese Canadians lost everything they owned: houses farms, fishing boats, companies, and personal goods). The government sold all the confiscated property off in an effort to keep them from returning to British Columbia. They didn't regain their rights and the restrictions were not lifted until 1949. There were some Japanese-Canadians that chose to return to British Columbia, where they had to start over completely and rebuild their lives from scratch. The Canadian government, under Brian Mulroney, extended an official apology to Japanese-Candians for the policies enacted against them.

=**Proof of Persecution:** = Japanese Canadians were deprived of even their most basic rights. They were removed from their homes and with that came the removal of everything they owned and had worked for. They were held in camps or forced to move to other provinces. In the United States, the families that were being evacuated and relocated were generally kept together. In Canada, it was a different story. Men were sent to road camps in the interior of British Columbia, to sugar beet plantations on the prairies, or to a prisoners of war camp in Ontario. Six inland towns in B.C. became home to the women and children. In these retainment centres, the living conditions were so poor that supplemental food shipments were sent through the Red Cross. The evacuees were housed in "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind." Due to the unavailibility of coal, internees slept under as many blankets as were alotted to them.Food was rationed out at an expense of 48 cents per internee, and served by fellow internees in a mess hall of 250-300 people. Ian Mackenzie, who was a Canadian parlimentarian declared to his constituents at his 1944 nomination meeting, "It is the government’s plan to get these people out of B.C. as fast as possible. It is my personal intention, as long as I remain in public life, to see they never come back here. Let our slogan be for British Columbia: ‘No Japs from the Rockies to the seas."

=**Case Study:** =  Ken Adachi was a Canadian writer who was born to Japanese immigrants in Vancouver. He spent his mid-teens being interned with his family at Slocan during World War II. After the war was over, he became editor of the //New Canadian,// which was a Japanese Canadian newspaper. Sadly, Adachi committed suicide after his second plagiarism accusation, but before he left, he spoke this, which gives us an idea of what the war was like.

//**“Born in Canada, brought up on big-band jazz, Fred Astaire and the novels of Henry Rider Haggard, I had perceived myself to be as Canadian as the beaver. I hated rice. I had committed no crime. I was never charged, tried or convicted of anything. Yet I was fingerprinted and interned."**// //**- Ken Adachi**// = = =**Historical Relevance:** = Because of this tragedy, the elders had lost everything they worked for and accomplished in their lives and were now too old to start over; Many Nisei had had their education interrupted and now, couldn’t afford to further their education and go to college or university. Many had no other choice than to become the sole provider for their family. Property losses weren’t the only hurt they suffered from, they lost pride in their heritage and had little self-esteem. The third generation grew up speaking mostly English and little to no Japanese, which is one of the main reasons why today, most of these people know little to nothing about their heritage and they have limited contact with Japanese people other than their immediate family. In the 1980s, The Redress Movement was one of the final steps within the Japanese Canadians struggle for justice and for recognition of being full citizens of Canada. The National Association of Japanese Canadians in January 1984 officially concluded to find an acknowledgement of the injustices suffered during and after the Second World War, financial compensation for the injustices, and a review of the War Measures Act and relevant sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms so that no Canadian would ever have to go through something like that again.

=**Influences on Culture:** = Snow Falling on Cedars- David Guterson DEAR MISS Breed- Clara Breed: [] Children of the camps- a documentary: [] Enomoto Randy-Prisoners of Prudice: [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The Fog of War: Censorship of Canada's Media in World War Two: [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Soldier Art of World War II- Peter Harrington: [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Artifact #1

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Japanese Canadian home on Powell Street in Vancouver (pre - 1941) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Powell Street was the largest Japanese Canadian community in Canada before the mass uprooting in 1942. Institutions such as the Japanese newspaper, Japanese language school, and churches were well established. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Enemy Alien- [] : This documentary tells the story of the frustration and injustice experienced by Japanese Canadians, who fought long and hard to be accepted as Canadians. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The War Between Us- [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Shepherd's Pie and Sushi- [] : This short documentary presents Mieko Ouchi, half Celtic, half Japanese... and all Canadian. In 1993, Mieko, an actor, began researching a documentary about her grandfather, Edward Ouchi, a Japanese immigrant to Canada. Then she was cast to star in The War Between Us, a film on the WWII internment of 22,000 Japanese Canadians--re-enacting a key episode in her own community's past. Part Canadian history, part autobiography and family chronicle, Shepherd's Pie and Sushi looks at complex questions of personal and cultural identity with a light touch.

=
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Roy Miki is appointed a member of the Order of Canada. He is a poet, editor, bibliographer, teacher, musician, critic and sociologist. Highly active in Japanese-Canadian activities, he was instrumental in achieving redress for people uprooted during World War II. Born and raised in Winnipeg, he went to university in Toronto, and now teaches contemporary Canadian Studies at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. - [] ====== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [] With a body of work that possesses a strong sense of both the past and the present, British Columbian Roy Miki has been hailed as one of today’s most original and powerful contemporary English-language poets.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Work Cited:**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Brief overview: [] [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Proof of Persecution: [] [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Case Study : <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Historical Relevance : <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]

Brief overview, Proof of Persecution: Morgan Case Study, Historical Relevance: Cassidy Influences on Culture: Sadie