War on the Homefront

1
War on the Homefront

• QUESTION 1 What is more important to you
  Civil liberties (democracy, individual freedoms,
  rights etc.) OR National Security
• QUESTION 2Would this change during war? Why or
  why not?

2
During WWII, the Canadian Government Interned
Japanese Canadians
3
Japanese Aggression

• Japanese expansion in East Asia began in 1931
  with the invasion of Manchuria and continued in
  1937 with a brutal attack on China.
• On February 24th, 1933, Japan stuns the world and
  withdraws from the League of Nations.

4
(No Transcript)
5
The Tripartite Pact

• On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the
  Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, thus
  entering the military alliance known as the
  "Axis."

6
Embargo Against Japan

• the United States, Britain and the Netherlands
  froze all Japanese financial assets. The effect
  was to prevent Japan from purchasing oil, which
  would, in time, cripple its army and make its
  navy and air force completely useless.

7
Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbour!

• December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt declares it
  The Day of Infamy.

8
(No Transcript)
9
The Battle of Hong Kong

• Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day 1941.
• Of the 1,975 Canadians, 290 were killed and 493
  wounded. A further 260 died in the awful
  conditions of prison camps in Hong Kong and
  Japan.

10
Japanese Canadians in British Columbia

• First Generation (Issei)
• First immigrants landed in 1877
• Faced xenophobia from white Canadians and
  viewed as unable to assimilate compared to
  Europeans
• Japanese culture important to you and you are
  viewed still hold a strong allegiance to Japan
• In Canada during the 1940s- Issei denied the
  right to vote and denied jobs in civil service
  and teaching and paid lower wages that whites
• Primarily fisherman or fishing businesses

• Second Generation (Nisei)
• Canadian born fluent in English, well educated
• Face anti-Japanese prejudices
• No voting rights due to opposition from Anglo
  Canadians and British Columbia residents
• Prime Minister Mackenzie King stated that both
  the Issei and Nisei face extreme difficulty in
  assimilated into Canadian culture.
• Primarily fisherman or fishing businesses

11
Anglo-Canadian Reactions to Japanese Canadians

• Perceived as a threat to British Columbias
  ethnic purity
• Did not want them living in communities as J-C
  could not assimilate and remained immersed in own
  culture
• Anti-Japanese demonstrations were increasing and
  the Japanese Canadians were not well integrated
  or accepted by the local population.
• Resentment against Japanese Canadians exploded
  into panic and anger in British Columbia in 1930s

12
The Canadian War Measures Act

• gave the government sweeping powers to ensure
  the security, defence, peace, order, and welfare
  of Canada.
• Used to imprison CANADIANS of German, Ukrainian,
  and Slavic descent in WWI.
• In 1941, following bombing of Pearl Harbour,
  1,200 fishing boats were seized by the Canadian
  navy
• By Canadian Government order, 23 000 Japanese
  Canadians were interned and moved into camps

13
Japanese Internment in Canada
The movement of 23,000 Japanese Canadians
during the war was the largest mass exodus in
Canadian history.
14
Internment Timeline

• 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 25) British Columbia Security
  Commission initiates scheme of forcing men to
  road camps and women and children to ghost town
  detention camps.

15
Justified?

• YES
• Prime Minister Mackenzie King took necessary
  precautions to ensure national security of Canada
  and North America, as the US had also interned
  Japanese-Americans
• Despite no evidence of threat, there was no
  guarantee of loyalty or passivity of the Japanese
  Canadians to homeland Japan
• Canadians felt that Japanese-born Canadians
  showed too much sympathy for Japan and that there
  was a chance that some of them might form a fifth
  column (espionage).
• Japan was aggressively expanding in the Pacific
  (islands of Attu and Kiska). Moreover, American
  and Canadian governments were more alarmed as a
  Japanese submarine had fired on telegraph station
  and lighthouse in British Columbia.
• The interment, deportation and relocation of the
  Japanese Canadians was for their own safety and
  was legal through War Measure Act

• NO
• Japanese Canadians were judged solely on the
  basis of their racial ancestry, and not their
  citizenship.
• Internment based on racist and xenophobic public
  sentiment
• RCMP and Canadian military evaluations suggest no
  imminent threat to national security and the J-C
  are law abiding citizens
• The Japanese Canadians were harshly mistreated,
  property was seized and sold and used to pay for
  camps
• Camps had terrible conditions
• Food packages were sent from Japan through the
  Canadian Red Cross to those suffering in the
  camps
• Canadian government spend 1/3 the per capita
  amount expended by the US on Japanese American
  internees

16
(No Transcript)
17
Outcomes of Internment

• After the war, the federal government decided to
  remove all Japanese Canadians from British
  Colombia.
• The Japanese were forced to choose between
  deportation to war ravaged Japan or dispersal
  East of the Rocky mountains.
• Public protest would eventually stop the
  deportations, but not before 4000 Japanese left
  the country.

18
Acknowledging Wartime Wrongs

• Forty-three years after the end of the war, Prime
  minister Brian Mulroney acknowledged the wrong
  doings of the Canadian government and announced
  the awarding of 21,000 for each individual
  directly wronged.
• Is this an acceptable redress to the issue?

19
Link

• http//www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/other_resou
  rces.htmtr