What Is The Mistreatment Of Japanese Canadian

On December 7, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Peral Harbor during WWII, Canada was afraid. That fear became mistrust which, in turn became mistreatment of Japanese Canadians. The government was cruel, stripped them of all their rights as citizens, did not let them speak up for themselves and unfairly punished them in different ways. In an effort to protect Canada, the government wrongfully confiscated and sold the possessions of Japanese Canadians effectively taking away their ability to work, placed approximately 21,000 in internment camps and then deported over 10,000.

Japanese Canadian were faced with unfair treatment by the federal government with the confiscation and selling of their possessions without valid reason. The day after
the attack on Pearl Harbor fishing boats operated by Japanese Canadians were escorted to shore and seized.1 The US was a major factor that pressured the Canadian government to treat Japanese Canadians unfairly. For this reason, authorities thought that "Enemy Aliens" could not be trusted to work alongside "real" Canadians. Hideo Kokubo, one of the affected fishermen is quoted as saying "all those years of work, just gone". (Horizon Canada, p.1263) Properties, houses and belongings were taken and whoever was put in charge of them had the power to liquidate, sell or dispose of them.2 Over 450 properties that were supposed to be held in trust were passed on January 19th , 1943.3

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Furthermore, the poor treatment of Japanese Canadians was also displayed by their placement in internment camps against their will.
At a conference in January of 1942, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the departments of defense and labour all disagreed that Japanese Canadians needed to be interned, and that they "should be protected against racist persecution" (Horizon Canada 1266).4 Sadly, Ian Alistair Mackenzie, who was part of the British Columbia group that did not want Japanese Canadians in their province, was the one who reported to the Prime Minister5. However, Howard Green of the R.C.M.P. said "The only complete Protection we can have from this danger is to remove the Japanese population from the Province" (Horizon Canada1267). Although Approximately 75% of those 21,000 Japanese were Canadian born citizens, who knew nothing about Japan, the government showed no mercy and proceeded with the camps. Many families were separated when some men were sent to working camps, they were paid half of what a British Columbia labourer would be.6 Most notably, the men of Japanese internment camps helped create the Trans-Canada highway, but many men did hard labour with meaningless
outcomes.

In addition, Japanese Canadians faced racial discrimination by the government because they thought that the only way to get rid of Japanese Canadians permanently, was to send them back to Japan.
Before the government started to do this, many Japanese Canadians, approximately 2'300, left voluntarily before being forced out.

7 After being sent to internment camps Mackenzie King announced that all Japanese Canadians would be forcefully removed.8 Japanese Canadians would not get a say in this decision, and were then moved to be shipped overseas. Before the end of World

War II and the ending of this cruel era over 10,000 Canadians of Japanese ethnic origin were sent back to Japan.9 The government was wrong about sending Japanese Canadians to Japan without a
say.

While placing approximately 21,000 Japanese Canadians in internment camps, the government confiscated and sold their possessions, and then deported around 10,000 to Japan, in an attempt to protect Canada. Without justification, the Canadian government confiscated and sold possessions, for a fraction of their cost, that belonged to Japanese Canadians as a part of the Custodian of Enemy Property. Many Japanese Canadians were asked to live in Japan even though many had never spoken its native language or lived there. Japanese Canadians were placed into internment camps because the government believed that if there was ever to be a war between Canada and Japan, many would turn on Canada and fight with Japan and most of the jobs occupied by them was directly on the West Coast. It isn't until 1988 when prime minister Brian Mulroney issues a formal apology to Japanese Canadians and issued $21 000 each to the remaining living internees.