War on the Home Front

War on the Home Front WWII

War Comes to Canadian Shores: Halifax • Halifax: a major city for incoming refugees (British Children) • Halifax: centre for Canadian naval operations and base for allied and British shipping • Sometimes convoy ships were torpedoed within hearing distance of Halifax

CONVOY • Merchant ships that travel in a group and are protected from enemy attack by naval escort ships or air force planes

War Comes to Canada: Newfoundland • Newfoundland still independent but worked closely with Canada • Canadian troops stationed on the island • Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft flew out of Newfoundland

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan • Introduced Dec 17 1939 • Brought air crews to Canada from all over the commonwealth for training as pilots, navigators, air gunners, bombardiers, wireless operators • Canada provided the fields, Britain the instructors • Program turned out 130, 000 graduates

War Comes to Canada: The Pacific • Japan invaded large parts of China, this worried the west coast • Suddenness of Japanese attack frightened British Columbia • The only Japanese attack on Canada was a submarine shelling of a Vancouver island lighthouse in 1942

Japanese Internment • Early 1940’s 22,000 people of Japanese descent lived in British Columbia • Even before the war Japanese Canadians were targeted in anti-Asian rioting • Japanese seen as spy’s and enemy aliens • No sign of treason or treachery was ever uncovered • Because of BC paranoia, Ottawa decided to round up male Japanese without Canadian citizenship and put them in internment camps

Japanese Interment Continued • Under the war measures act, the order was extended to everyone of Japanese descent, Canadian or not • Sent to camps in interior of BC, Sugar-beet farms in Alberta, sometimes Manitoba or Ont • Families broken up, bad conditions • Had to give up all their private property – became governments • Shameful treatment continued until 1947 • Mulroney’s gov offered $20,000 to every survivor of Japanese Internment

Japanese-Canadian cars confiscated by the government

The Sad reality of Japanese Internment • Agashi Tigers – Baseball team in Vancouver • After 1941, they never played together again

Japanese Internment – before moving to the interior, the PNE barnyard was used to hold the people

National Selective Service (NSS) • Unemployment was gone • In fact, government created the NSS to tell Canadian workers about the industries in which their labour was most needed • If workers took jobs without consulting the NSS they could be fined $500 and jailed for a year

Canada’s Economy and Industry • C.D. Howe – Cabinet minister in charge of industrial production • Created the Department of Munitions and Supplies • Could tell businesses what to produce, where to sell their products and even when to deliver them

Hyde Park Declaration • Canada would be in financial difficulty if they continued to help Britain • Mackenzie King convinced Roosevelt that US buying Canadian goods would help • USA bought more than $1 billion worth of Canadian goods • Marked the beginning of close economic ties with USA

Wage & Price Controls • WPTB – Wartime Prices and Trade Board – Froze all prices and wages to prevent inflation • Also decided who could buy scarce goods – needed a permit

War Brides • The war brides came from all over the United Kingdom and from nearly every country on the European continent, but the vast majority (93%) were British - and the reasons are fairly obvious. Canadians were among the first to come to the assistance of Britain after war was declared in 1939 and they spent more time there than any other member of the Allied Forces.

Conscription – Again? • King Promised no one would be conscripted in WWII • Pressure from English Canada mounted as Hitler continued to have success in Europe • King answered with the NRMA (National Resources Mobilization Act) which was conscription of soldiers but only in the defense of Canada

Conscription Continued • Many Canadians referred to NRMA’s as Zombies and many English Canadians believed they were French • King knew this wasn’t good enough – but he couldn’t go back on his word • So he called a plebiscite – a federal referendum and asked Canadians if he could be released from his earlier pledge

More Conscription • Plebiscite passed • King uttered phrase “Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary” • By 1944 Conscription was needed, King conscripted 16,000 for active duty • However fewer than 2500 conscripts reached the front

War on the Home Front