In 1877, Manzo Nagano was the first Japanese immigrant to arrive in Canada, landing in British Columbia. From the 1890s onwards, Japanese immigration began to increase, admitting 30 000 immigrants up until the First World War. British Columbia’s white majority produced negative sentiment towards this sudden influx of immigrants and in 1908, a deal was made with Japan in which its government agreed to discourage its people from immigrating to Canadian shores. Consequently, Japanese immigration significantly decreased during the 1920s and 1930s and plummeted even further during the Second World War. In this way, the Japanese have never even accounted for as much as 1% of Canada’s immigrants from 1900 onwards.These early Japanese immigrants settled in Vancouver around a fishing village on the Fraser River. As their community grew, they began to disperse somewhat in British Columbia, but mostly remained around the first Japanese settlements. In fact, 95% of all Japanese Canadians could be found in British Columbia, until relocation occurred following the event of Pearl Harbor.
Issei= first generation Japanese immigrantsNisei= second generation Japanese Canadians
· “By 1941, 60% of the Japanese community were Canadian-born”
· “they spoke English, played Canadian games, enjoyed popular pastimes, and shared much of the outlook of their white contemporaries…they absorbed the culture of the only society they knew.”
Despite this, a quarter of the Japanese community of B.C. at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack were citizens of Japan and so all people of Japanese origin were seen as a threat to the safety of Canada. A massive protest occurred in which white British Columbia demanded that all Japanese in their province be interned or removed from their coastal communities.
Ward, Peter. The Japanese in Canada. Saint John: Keystone Printing and Lithographing Ltd., 1982.
Life as an Interned Japanese Canadian
Seized fishing boats on account of Japanese fisherman being rumored as spies and sent to work camps.Picture: http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/%20canada/internment/internment_redress.html
You Tube Video of Japanese Canadian Internment Camps
This is an artistic video of still images, mixed with movie clips and captions about Canadian Reactions towards Japanese Canadians
Shortly following the aftermath of the Second World War, thousands of Japanese Canadians began to voice their outrage towards the Canadian government concerning their treatment in the internment camps they were subject to. However, many of these complaints fell upon deaf ears, as the Canadian government began to look towards aiding the reconstruction of war-torn Europe. Not to mention the fact that there was a growing anti-Japanese sentiment still looming throughout the whole of North America. Soon following, many Japanese-Canadian compensation groups would be established in attempt to rally Any and all grievances concerning the mistreatment of Japanese-Canadians during World War II would not see any kind of light until Canada’s innovative approach towards multiculturalism in the 1960’s.Redress for Japanese Canadians however would not be reached until the 1980’s under the Mulroney government. In 1986, the Mulroney government stated a formal apology to the Japanese-Canadians for the mistreatment faced during the second World War. Though the apology was hard fought and much appreciated, many Japanese-Canadians felt that compensation was in order due to the amount of business income lost during the war years. (Later research would show that during internment, the Japanese Canadians lost nearly $443 million) In 1988, the Mulroney government took the apology even further by awarding compensation in the amount of $21,000 to those who were “directly affected”; roughly leading to the compensation of roughly 18,000 well-deserved individuals. The end result lead to a more unified sense of belonging for all Japanese descendents living in Canada.
“Soon after coming to Canada I got involved with the Japanese Canadian community. In the early 1980's redress was on the community's agenda. I was very much interested in the movement because I wanted to know why a democratic country like Canada could oppress her own people by violating their rights while at the same time fighting in Europe against countries pursuing these same authoritarian and racist practices…The community achieved an important victory with the redress settlement in 1988. We gained support from the public, particularly from minority communities, because we insisted that we were campaigning for the general principles of democracy and equal rights for all Canadians.”
- Tatsuo Kage, Human Rights Committee, Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association (JCCA)
http://www.jccc.on.ca/heritage/five_gen/%20exhibit/05.html
CBC News Report on Japanese-Canadian Redress (Video File; 4:30):
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-568-2924/conflict_war/internment/clip9
· “Our mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and exhibit artifacts and archives relating to the history of Japanese Canadians from the 1870s through the present, and to communicate to all the Japanese Canadian experience and contribution as an integral part of Canada's heritage and multicultural society.” http://www.jcnm.ca/home.htm#mission
Exhibiton
Re-Shaping Memory, Owning History; Through the Lens of Japanese Canadian Redress
The Japanese Canadian National Museum's inaugural exhibition opened to the large crowds on September 22, 2000. After a successful tour to venues across Canada, the exhibition now returns to the Japanese Canadian National Museum gallery until 2005.The exhibition examines Japanese Canadian history through the experience of the redress achievement. The acknowledgement of injustice by the government of Canada produced a reawakening of confidence for all Japanese Canadians – a feeling of lives well spent. The exhibition uses layers of voices (including photographs and texts, oral history interviews, books, personal letters and diaries, newspapers and government documents) and also artifacts to re-examine the Japanese Canadian community's past, which remained trapped in memory and silence of many years after the Second World War.
Please contact the Museum for more information about hosting this exhibition at your venue. Tel: 604.777.7000 Email: jcnm@nikkeiplace.org
http://www.jcnm.ca/exhibits.htm
Japanese Canadian Timeline
For a brief overview of Japanese Canadian history, please see the timeline below.
1877: Arrival of Manzo Nagano, first Japanese person known to land and settle in Canada.1895 British Columbia Government denies franchise (voting rights) to citizens of Asiatic origin
1907: Anti-Asiatic Riot in Vancouver led by the Asiatic Exclusion League.
1908: Hayashi-Lemieux Gentlemen's Agreement: Japan voluntarily agreed to restrict the number of passports issued to male labourers and domestic servants to an annual maximum of 400.
1916-1917: 200 Japanese Canadians volunteer for service with Canadian army in France (WWI). 54 are killed and 92 are wounded.
1919: Japanese fishermen control nearly half of the fishing licenses (3,267). Department of Fisheries reduces number of licenses issued to "other than white residents, British subjects and Canadian Indians". By 1925 close to 1,000 licenses stripped from Japanese Canadians. 1920 Japanese Labour Union (eventually the Camp and Mill Workers' Union) formed under Etsu Suzuki
1923: Gentlemen's agreement: Number of Japanese male immigrants (same categories as in 1908) not to exceed 150 annually.
1924: The labour union newspaper The Daily People [Minshu] begins publication.
1928: Gentlemen's Agreement amendment. Wives and children now included in the annual quota of 150.
1931: Surviving veterans are given the right to vote. 1936 Delegation from Japanese Canadian Citizens League goes to Ottawa to plead for franchise (the right to vote). They are unsuccessful.
1941 (January 8): Despite citizenship, Japanese Canadians are excluded from military service (WWII).
1941 (March 4): Registration of all Japanese Canadians.
1941 (August 12): Japanese Canadians are required to carry registration cards that have their thumbprint and photo.
1941 (December 7): Japan attacks Pearl Harbour.
1941 (December 8): 1,200 Japanese Canadian fishing boats are impounded. Japanese language newspapers and schools close.
1942 (January 16): Removal begins of Japanese immigrant males from coastal areas.
1942 (February 24): All male Japanese Canadian citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 ordered to be removed from 100-mile-wide zone along the coast of British Columbia.
1942 (February 26): Mass evacuation of Japanese Canadians begins. Some given only 24 hours notice. Cars, cameras and radios confiscated for "protective measures". Curfew imposed.
1942 (March 4): Japanese Canadians ordered to turn over property and belongings to Custodian of Enemy Alien Property as a "protective measure only".
1942 (March 16): First arrivals at Vancouver's Hastings Park pooling centre. All Japanese Canadian mail censored from this date.
1942 (March 25): British Columbia Security Commission initiates scheme of forcing men to road camps and women and children to "ghost town" detention camps.
1942 (April 21): First arrivals at detention camp in Greenwood, British Columbia.
1942 (May 21): First arrivals at camps at Kaslo, New Denver, Slocan, Sandon and Tashme, British Columbia.
1942 (June 29): Director of Soldier Settlement given authority to buy or lease confiscated Japanese Canadian farms. 572 farms turned over without consulting owners.
1943 (January 19): Federal cabinet order-in-council grants Custodian of Enemy Alien Property the right to dispose of Japanese Canadians' property without owners' consent.
1945 (January-May): 150 Japanese Canadians volunteer for service with Canadian army in Far East.
1945 (April 13): Beginning of intimidation campaign towards Japanese Canadians living in British Columbia to move to Eastern Canada or be deported to Japan.
1945 (September 2): Japan surrenders after atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (WWII).
1946 (May 31): "Repatriation" begins; 3,964 go to Japan, many of whom are Canadian citizens.
1947 (January 24): Federal cabinet order-in-council on deportation of Japanese Canadians repealed after protests by churches, academics, journalists and politicians.
1948 (June 15): Federal franchise (the right to vote) extended to all Japanese Canadians.
1949 (April 1): Removal of last restrictions; Japanese Canadians are free to move anywhere in Canada.
1967: Canadian government announced new immigration regulations - a point system for selection. It no longer used race as a category.
1988 (September 22): Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces the Canadian Government's formal apology for the wrongful incarceration, seizure of property and the disenfranchisement of thousands of Canadians of Japanese ancestry. A redress settlement was also announced which included individual compensation for all survivors.
1992: National Nikkei Heritage Centre Society is incorporated. Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation grants $3.0 million for heritage centre project.
1995: Japanese Canadian National Museum & Archives Society is incorporated and begins planning for museum and archives facility in National Nikkei Heritage Centre (NNHC).
2000: Proposed date for the opening of NNHC in Burnaby, B.C. The official home of the Japanese Canadian National Museum, JCCA Nikkei Resource Centre, a special events complex, a restaurant and shops.
http://www.jcnm.ca/resources.htm
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