After the world saw the horrific bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Canadian government saw it as a threat. And so the “Order in Council PC 1486” was passed. This meant that the Minister of Justice now had control of all persons from a designated 100-mile radius of the BC coast. This was an extension of the war Measures Act on March 4th, 1942. The BC Security Commission was established and 22,000 Japanese-Canadians were given 24 hours to pack up their lives for separation and incarceration.
These Canadians were now known as prisoners of war, and were initially sent to be housed in Vancouver at the Hasting Park Race Track. Here, men were separated from their families to work on building roads, sugar beat farms, and railroads. The women, children and the elderly were sent inland to internment camps at Greenwood, Sandon, Kaslo, New Denver, Rosebery, Slocan City, Bay Farm, Popoff, Lemon Creek, and Tashme. These camps were situated in the very interior of British Columbia.
1,161 Japanese-Canadians paid for relocation in “self-supporting” areas such as Lillooet, Bridge River, Minto City, McGillivray Falls, and Christina Lake. These desolate areas had improper farming agriculture and made it difficult for a sustainable lifestyle. Even though they paid to live this way, the Canadian government still considered them “enemy aliens” and a threat to the country’s well being.
Approx. 945 men worked on road construction camps at Blue River, Revelstroke, Hope, Schrieber, and Black Spur. Out of these men, 699 complained of family separation and other who were classified as dissident, were sent to P.O.W. camps at Angler and Petawawa, Ontario. There, they were forced to wear shirts with round red targets on their backs.
The Japanese-Canadians had property, businesses, cars, and boats confiscated and sold by the Canadian government before they were forced into labor and internment camps. Without these assets or jobs they were then charged for their internment. Harold Hirose, a veteran, had five acres of farmland in Surry. It was confiscated and sold for $36. He received a check for $15 in the mail, which included; charges for the administrative costs in a transaction that he did not approve in the first place. His numerous appeals to the Canadian government to recover the land failed.
In 1945, there was a new extension to the War Measures Act. This allowed MacKenzie King to execute his new “final solution” plan. Even though most Japanese-Canadians did not come from Japan, they were shipped overseas there or dispersed into eastern or Midwest Canada. Until 1949, despite the end of the war, it was illegal for the Japanese-Canadians to return to Vancouver or anyplace in western Canada. They had to start their lives over again with no economic resource base and living in a racially repressive environment.
Even in the United States, the Japanese-Americans were allowed to join the military during the war. Japanese-Canadians volunteered, but were denied entry into the Canadian Armed Forces until the war’s demise.
In 1988, the Prime Minister passed reparation fees and an apology for the miscarriage of justice and incarceration. The fees came out to approx. $21,000---A small price to pay for the oppression of an ethnic group of citizens in your country.
