JAPANESE INTERNMENT

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JAPANESE INTERNMENT
INJUSTICE IN OUR TIME
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JAPANESE IMMIGRATION 1877-1940

• The first Japanese immigrant set foot in British
  Columbia in 1877. His name was Manzo Nagano.
• From 1890 until World War I, almost 30,000
  Japanese immigrants entered Canada. The great
  majority of them settled on the coast of British
  Columbia.
• From the 1920s to the 1940s Japanese
  immigration to Canada dropped considerably.
  Between 1920 and 1940 approximately 5000 Japanese
  immigrated into Canada.
• During the 1920s, 30s and 40s Canadas
  Immigration Act gave the government the right to
  limit immigration, and deny entry to those
  nationalities deemed undesirable. Asians were on
  the list of undesirable immigrants, which
  explains the drop in Japanese immigrants during
  these years.

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Why were the Japanese undesirable?

• Japanese immigrants tended to pocket themselves
  into their own communities and did not interact
  with other nationality groups. They segregated
  themselves.
• Due to their segregation, the Japanese did not
  assimilate into Canadian Society. They kept to
  their traditions and did not assume Canadian
  traditions and qualities. This was seen as
  anti-Canadian activity.
• Canada wanted immigrants who would readily
  assimilate into Canadian Society adapt Canadian
  language, culture, tradition, laws, religion,
  etc. The Japanese refused to assimilate fully
  and were thus deemed undesirable.

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RACISM IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

• Since the late 1850s the West Coast had been
  divided by deep racial problems. There was an
  especially high Anti-Asian sentiment in the West.
• Japanese were segregated the white population in
  B.C. would not interact with the Japanese, jobs
  were denied to Japanese, and they were looked
  upon with suspicion.
• The Japanese community was seen with suspicion.
  They thought the Asians were trying to take over
  B.C. This fear of Asians in B.C. was known as
  Yellow Peril. This fear prompted anti-Asian
  sentiments through discrimination, verbal abuse,
  and even mob violence.

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THE YELLOW PERIL

• The population growth in the Japanese communities
  was far higher than the white communities. This
  was seen as a threat because as the community
  kept growing, the more land they inhabited and
  the more businesses and networks they would open.
• The Japanese community took over the fishing
  industry in British Columbia. They were better
  fishermen and the other communities could not
  compete with them. This was seen as a take-over
  ploy.
• Japans conquests in Asia sparked fear that
  British Columbia would be next, due to the large
  Japanese community living on the coast. They
  believed that all Japanese living in B.C. had the
  potential to be spies and were communicating with
  Japan.
• With the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7,
  1941, fear and Anti-Asian sentiments intensified.

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AFTER PEARL HARBOUR

• In the weeks following Pearl Harbour some
  Japanese in Vancouver were victimized by
  scattered acts of violence and vandalism. These
  activities intensified as time went on.
• The white population in B.C. pressured the
  government to get rid of the Japanese living on
  the coast. Rumours of Japanese spies and
  communication with Japan mounted, violence
  against the Japanese in B.C. worsened, and
  protest by the population grew day by day.
• There was fear by the B.C. government of open
  rioting and violence due to the growing fears of
  a Japanese take-over.
• The B.C. government pleaded with the Federal
  Government to step in and stop the racial and
  violent problems in the province.