Painful Memory: The Removal and Internment of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War

Abstract

The Second World War was a significant and painful period in history of the Japanese Canadian community. The members of this community were suffering in Canada from grave discrimination before the war. They were despised and considered primitive, unable to assimilate for their different race and culture. The outbreak of the Pacific War only intensified the hostility towards people of Japanese origin. The suppressed prejudices coincided with the atmosphere of jeopardy on the West Coast, where people feared the invasion from the Japanese Empire. In the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack (December 7, 1941), over 21 thousand people of Japanese origin in Canada were deprived of their properties, evicted from the West Coast, and interned in relocation camps. Male evacuees were sent to road building projects (road camps). Women and children were placed in internment camps, officially called “relocation centers.” Moreover, approximately 750 men were detained in Prisoner of War (POW) camps in Angler and Petawawa, Ontario. Due to increasing demand for agricultural workers in the Prairie Provinces, some Japanese Canadian families were sent to sugar beet projects in Alberta and Manitoba. Following the war, Japanese Canadians were given a choice of being deported to Japan or moving themselves east of the Rockies. The objective of this paper is to present the Japanese Canadian experiences of displacement and incarceration during the Second World War, as well as to characterize the internment camps where they were placed.