Japanese Canadians: A Legacy of Historical Injustices

Though-out the decades of Canada's existence, Japanese-Canadians have faced racism and bigotry at the hands of their fellow Canadians. While it has become a popular belief that the internment of a majority of the Japanese community after the Pearl Harbor attack was an isolated instance, a study of the surrounding events shows that Canada has a history of racial prejudice. Predicated on the belief of white superiority, English-speaking Canadians treated the Asian immigrant population with open disdain and contempt. Now, decades later, the Canadian government is forced to deal with the issue of reparations. The Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement is claimed, by the government, to end the debate on the matter and to have made right the injustices of the past.

In 1941, the same year as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese community was primarily born on Canadian soil. While Japanese by race, this majority was Canadian by nationality:

They spoke English, played Canadian games, enjoyed popular pastimes, and shared much of the outlook of their white contemporaries. Consciously and unconsciously, through the lessons of school and playground, they absorbed the culture of the only society they knew. (Ward 10)

Yet regardless of these similarities they were not socially accepted as members of Canada. Not only was there a lack of respect from the community, but even on government tried to distance themselves from the Japanese Canadians. The provincial government of British Columbia fought for decades before they finally allowed Japanese Canadians the ability to vote, even those who were promised it for volunteering during World War I.

This policy of racism by the government solidified the public opinion that there was a basis behind the fear and disdain towards the Japanese. When the federal government made the decision to move 21,000 Japanese to various detention camps and labour farms with the