WWII Concentration Camps and Internment in Canada

1. Canadian History and Citizenship

4. Recap of Last Class • Germany before WW2 • Germany and Nazism • 3rd Reich • Adolf Hitler • Concentration Camps

5. Concentration Camps?

6. What are concentration camps? Guarded compound , with inadequate facilities, for the detention or imprisonment of aliens, ethnic minorities, or political opponents, without trial. Some have forced labour while prisoners await execution. Most commonly associated with Nazi concentration camps post-WWII. What are “Internment Camps”? A prison camp or guarded compound for enemy aliens, prisoners of wars, or political prisoners, without trial. Some have forced labour.

7. Poll! • http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/dDQHDKj4Zde5wpC

8. Concentration Camps • Germany • Poland • Who?

9. Country of Lucas has attackedMontreal!

12. Pearl Harbor Facts • Date: December 7, 1941 • Location: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory • Consequences: 1.) Japanese major victory 2.) U.S. & Canada Declare War on Japan 3.) The Tripartite Pact, Germany and Italy Declare War on the U.S. (They were already at War with Canada) 4.) U.S. Declares War on Germany and Italy, the United States has officially entered WWII. • Deaths/Casualties: 2,403 American casualties, including 68 civilians. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded. • Question: Do you think Pearl Harbor affected Canadians? If so, how? • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMhkLZkCZ4k • Time: 3:54 – 4:32

13. Canada’s Concentration Camps

14. December 7th, 1941: - Canada declares war on Japan - 38 Japanese nationals interned - Japanese-Canadian fishing fleet immobilized in B.C.  RCMP officer confiscating boat from Japanese fishermen.

15. January 14th, 1942: • All Japanese males, 18-45, relocated away from British Columbia coast.

16. February 24, 1942: • War Measures Act passed • A federal statute that gave broad powers to the Canadian government to maintain security and order during war or insurrection • Suspends civil liberties and personal freedoms • Gave government the power to intern all persons of Japanese descent. • 27,000 Japanese detained without charge or trial.

17. Why internment? • Fear of next attack. Who is next? Could it be us? When will it happen? • Rumours of illegal Japanese immigrants on coast • Fear of Japanese spies. • Strained relations with Japanese. BUT! RCMP, police, and military had NO evidence for these charges.

18. Primer Minister Mackenzie King “It is fortunate that the use of the bomb should have been upon the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe.” – Prime Minister Mackenzie King, Journal diary entry August 6th, 1945.

19. Overview of JapanesePresence in Canada • Key Dates: -1877: Manzo Nagano First Japanese person known to land and settle in Canada -1887: First Japanese woman to come to Canada, YoOya

20. Manzo Nagano YoOya

21. Key Dates (Continued) • 1906:-First Japanese language school, the Vancouver Kyoritsu Nippon KokuminGakko + More than 9,000 Japanese immigrants enter Canada from 1906-08. • 1909:A directory of Japanese immigrant businesses shows 568 businesses in the Powell Street area

22. Historical Discrimination and Difficulties • Discrimination can be traced back • Seen in Anti Japanese legislation • 1895:B.C denies franchise (voting rights) to citizens of Japanese origin (Chinese 1885) • 1907:A mob of white supremacists gathers in Vancouver and inflicts severe damage to Japanese and Chinese immigrant quarters. -Hostility towards Asians was an indication of the racism that the Japanese would face throughout the early period of history in Canada

23. Riot of 1907

24. Examples of Discrimination • 1908: -The Hayashi-Lemieux “Gentlemen’s Agreement” -Limits number of accepted male immigrants from Japan to 400 a year • 1916-1917-Hoping to prove their loyalty to Canada, over 200 attempt to enlist in the Canadian Army, but were rejected. • 1928: • Restriction on immigration increased to 150 a year • 1941: P.M. Mackenzie King  bans them from joining the armed forces

25. Peak of Xenophobia and Racism Japanophobia

27. Camps • Refusal led to deportation back to Japan • What happened to the Japanese Canadians? (1) Denied their basic rights (2) Issued special clothing (3) Stripped of their personal belongings and property (4) Forced relocated into camps. (5) Forced into manual labour • Gross violation of human rights

28. Camps (Continued) • Were desolate ghost towns and farms made into small cities • Heavy surveillance by the RCMP; little privacy • Two bedrooms and a kitchen had to be shared by two families • 1942: British Columbia Security Commission begins forcing men to road camps and women and children to "ghost town" detention camps.

29. Did You Know? …Montreal • 1942-1945: Begin moving to Montreal. • 1943: 200 + Japanese Canadians reside in Montreal.

30. How were the JapaneseTreated? • Government took their possessions and property…."Custodian of Enemy Alien Property”: sold and auctioned off at ridiculously low prices far below what they were actually worth • -Boats • -Houses • -Businesses • Camp Conditions: • -No electricity or running water until 1943 • -Several families huddled together in livestock buildings (2 families min) • -Conditions so poor that Red Cross sent aid • -Slept on straw covered beds

31. What Do I remember of the Evacuation? by Joy Kogawa What do I remember of the evacuation? I remember my father telling Tim and me About the mountains and the train And the excitement of going on a trip.

32. (I hear there were people herded Into the Hastings Park like cattle. Families were made to move in two hours Abandoning everything, leaving pets And possessions at gun point. I hear families were broken up Men were forced to work.

33. I heard It whispered late at night That there was suffering) and I missed my dolls. And my friends spat on us anyway And I prayed to the God who loves All the children in his sight That I might be white.

34. Effects: Psychological and Familial Detriment • Psychological: -Self-Identity Crisis -Many Japanese Canadians wanted and wished to be “White” • Family Disruptions -Fathers taken away (Some went to Manitoba and Alberta to work on Sugar Beet farms) -Family separation: Women and men sent to different camps

35. Effects (Continued) • Health and Well Being: "Long-term health consequences included psychological anguish as well as increased cardiovascular disease. Survey information found former internees had a 2.1 greater risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular mortality, and premature death than did a non-interned counterpart." -Gwendolyn M. Jensen

36. "Trauma may directly or indirectly affect the children of trauma victims. The multiple pathways of its effects create a variety of consequences…They are sad and angry about the injustice and attribute a number of negative consequences in their own lives to their parents' internment. These include feelings of low self-esteem, the pressure to assimilate, an accelerated loss of the Japanese culture and language, and experiencing the unexpressed pain of their parents.” • -Donna K. Nagata, 1993

37. "Long-term health consequences included psychological anguish as well as increased cardiovascular disease…They reported more post-traumatic stress symptoms of unexpected and disturbing flashback experiences than those who were older at the time of incarceration.” -Gwendolyn M. Jensen, 1997

38. Recap of What Happened 1949: Japanese Canadians regained their freedom to live anywhere in Canada

39. “The internment of Japanese Canadians can be explained by the racism of the time.”

40. Japanese-Canadians at the end World War II Prime Minister Mackenzie King stated in the House of Commons in 1944: “It is a fact that no person of Japanese race born in Canada has been charged with any act of sabotage or disloyalty during the years of war.” http://www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/faqs.htm#whynotcamps

41. Canadian-Japanese After World War II - Post-war discrimination continued - Ian Mackenzie, a MP from British Columbia, said this after the war: "It is the government’s plan to get these people out of B.C. as fast as possible. It is my personal intention, as long as I remain in public life, to see they never come back here. Let our slogan be for British Columbia: ‘No Japs from the Rockies to the seas.'' -NAJC(National Association of Japanese Canadians) is founded in 1947 -They continue to fight for the rights of Japanese-Canadians to this day -Reparations were already beginning in the 1950's, but the reparations only covered the property that was taken from Japanese-Canadians

42. Joy Kogawa • Born : June 6 1935 • Sent to live on an internment camp with her family [Slocan] • Canadian Poet and Novelist • 1986: a Member of the Order of Canada • 2006 : a Member of the Order of British Columbia • 2010: Japanese government honored her with the Order of the Rising Sun • Best known Works: • -Obasan (1981) : About internment • -Made it on list of “Literary Review of Canada's 100 Most Important Canadian Books”

43. Obasan • Historical fiction • Japanese Canadian family’s story during World War II based on Kogawa’s actual experiences • Centres on character, Naomi Nakane • -middle-aged • -Reflection and memory of her childhood

44. A notable figure who suffered through internment. David Suzuki

45. The Nature of Things, David Suzuki's show • Environmental Activist • Grew up in Canada, never lived in Japan • Sent to an internment camp when he was 6 • Won the Steacie Memorial Fellowship for the best young Canadian scientist in 1969. • Raises awareness for Japanese internment camps. Awarded the title of Greatest Living Canadian in 2004.

46. Apology from the Canadian Government

47. -Canadian government and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney issued an apology to the internment camp victims in 1988. Excerpt: “Know that I speak for the Members on all sides of the House today in offering to Japanese Canadians the formal and sincere apology of this Parliament for those past injustices against them, against their families, and against their heritage, and our solemn commitment and undertaking to Canadians of every origin that such violations will never again in this country be countenanced or repeated.” - 21,000$ was given to every Japanese-Canadian affected by the War Measures Act. - $12 Million given to help repair the Japanese communities infrastructure, that was damaged or destroyed during the War Measures Act -22 Million was given to the NAJC to protect future Japanese-Canadians.

48. Class Discussion -Do you think that the apology helped raise awareness about the Canadian internment camps and discrimination against the Japanese?

49. Justifications • “Breaking the activities in short segments.” & “Vary the style of instruction” - Stockard p.56 • “Bureaucracies of schooling, such as testing and textbooks [takes away from interpreting history]. … History, arrives, then at the classroom door as a lists of things students must learn, and, thus, teachers must teach – missing the problems and questions that make content coherent, significant and even fascinating.” - Bain p.182

50. REFERENCES Baizen, A. (n.d.). Canada DeclaresWar on Japan. http://azamadnan.blogspot.ca/2011/01/world-war-ii-newspapers.html. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YdwA1wl6avk/TSx_j9lUH4I/AAAAAAAACiw/WPwhgl8_-mk/s1600/IMG_0822.JPG Barron, S., Feldpausch, J., Oakley, D., Schilling, T., & Shoaps, L. (n.d.). RememberingNazism: WhatisNazism?. RememberingNazism: WhatisNazism?. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/rememberingnazism/what_is_nazism_ News. (2013, April 10). 50 Years of the Nature of Things - The Nature of Things. CBC news. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/50-years-of-the-nature-of-things Canadian JapaneseInternment Camps. (2011, May 11). Canadian JapaneseInternment Camps - The End. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://canadianjapaneseinternmentcamps.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/the-end/ Claridge, S. B., & Deloitte, J. R. (2010, September 10). Live YourLegacy Gala: Celebrating 20 years of the David Suzuki Foundation. David Suzuki Foundation.Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://www.davidsuzuki.org/about/gala/ Biase, .D. (2000, March 20). Japanese Canadian Internment. Information at the UniversityofWashingtonLibraries and Beyond. Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Canada/internment/intro.html Europe Map - Blank. (2011, January 1). Blankmap of Europe including black & white and coloring page. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://www.worldatlasbook.com/europe/europe-blank-map.html