“Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.” This was once said by American author Rita Mae Brown. People can always review something that has happened in the past, but humans tend not to think twice about what they are doing in the present. Throughout history, people have gained hindsight through experience, so is it fair to blame others without understanding their reasoning? The majority of people believe that the internment of Japanese Canadians was unjustified, but if they were British-Canadian during World War II, would they still have the same thoughts as they do today? The internment of Japanese Canadians prevented violent discrimination from Canadian citizens, helped strengthen Canada as a nation and also saved thousands of lives. Although many human rights were violated, Japanese internment benefited Canada over time. The Japanese Canadians were discriminated whether they were interned or not. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbour, racism towards the Japanese Canadians was not something new. Japanese Canadians “had defined their communities since the first immigrants arrived in the 1870s”. An Anti-Asiatic League was formed in Canada in 1807, it was the source of much of the hostility toward Japanese Canadians. The league was made to bound the amount of passports distributed and restricted them from working the sectors of British Columbia. Another group entitled the White Canada Association were, “dedicated to combating the ‘evils’ of the Asian presence in British Columbia.” During the federal election of 1935, both the Liberal and Conservative parties ran smear campaigns against the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, now known as the New Democratic Party, condemning the... ... middle of paper ... ...panese Canadians interned during the Second World War. Dalhousie University, 20-21. [4] Ann G. Sunahara, The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians during World War II(Toronto: James Lorimer & Co., 1981), 161. [5] Sunahara, 10 [6] Fujiwara, Aya. “Japanese-Canadian Internally Displaced Persons: Labour Relations and Ethno-Religious Identity in Southern Alberta, 1942-1953. Page 65 [7] http://www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/samples_secondary.htm [8] http://www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/timeline2/timeline2b.htm [9] http://www.history.com/topics/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki [10] http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/72.pdf [11] http://www.deathcamps.info/ [12] http://www.stripes.com/military-life/taiwan-horrors-of-japanese-pow-camps-revealed-to-visitors-at-kinkaseki-1.218978 [13] http://library.thinkquest.org/26074/pages/japan.htm
Labour leaders in Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s were strongly opposed to the idea of Asians immigrating to Canada. In “Constructing the Great Menace” by David Goutor, it outlines the oppression of Asians by labour leaders which does not conclude that labour leaders hated all immigration and had a prejudice against all racialized groups. The unionists’ main argument for this opposition is based on the stereotype that Asians were claimed to have “accepted low wages and degraded working conditions” thus proving that they will diminish the standard of living for Canadian workers. These Labour Leaders were prejudice to Asians in an effort to supposedly protect Canadian workers and their jobs. However, it is not fair to say that labour
“They spoke of the Japanese Canadians,'; Escott Reid, a special assistant at External Affairs, would recall, “in the way that the Nazi’s would have spoken about Jewish Germans.'; Just like in that statement, I intend to expose you to the ways that the Japanese were wronged by Canadians throughout the Second World War. As well, I intend to prove what I have stated in my thesis statement: After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the Japanese in Canada were wronged by being torn from their homes to be put into internment camps to serve Canadians through hard labour.
...panese Canadian Interment and Racism During World War II." IMAGINATIONS. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
23 .Roger Daniel, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in the World War II 1993, Hill and Yang.
was the driving factor that ultimately resulted in the internment of the Japanese Canadians. Racial prejudice against Orientals had been around in B.C. since the 1850s when Chinese immigrants came to Canada to help with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A newspaper article described the Chinese as a “marvelous human machine, competent to perform the maximum of labour on the minimum of sustenance” (Adachi 42). While they were beneficial for contractors, they posed a threat to the white population (Figure 3). The cartoon suggests that the low living standards of the Chinese allowed them to endure the harshest conditions, while being satisfied with the lowest wages. In contrast, the typical European is portrayed as a civilized human being who cannot compete with the Chinese workers without sacrificing his dignity. As a result, when the Japanese started immigrating to Canada later on, the British Columbian population only saw them as another threat to their culture due to the similarities they shared with the Chinese. However, the Japanese proved to be a greater problem since they were not affected by the Head Tax imposed on the Chinese (Hickman, 33; Morton). The attack on Pearl Harbour was an excuse that finally allowed British Columbians to release the anti-Japanese sentiment that they had been suppressing for years. In addition, when the final decision to intern the Japanese Canadians was passed, the government considered them all as potential threats (Figure 4). There was no effort made to distinguish those who posed potential threats and those who did not; most of them had no connection with Japan besides for their ancestry. This can only be attributed to racism, as there are only 38 suspects out of the 22,000 internees. Similarly, selling of Japanese property was another racist act that the government claimed to be necessary for the war effort and to increase national security (Sunahara 90; “The War Years”).
Fleras, Augie. “Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Repairing the Relationship.” Chapter 7 of Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada. 6th ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2010. 162-210. Print.
Reed, Kevin, Natasha Beeds, and Barbara Filion. Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2011. Print.
Harold Cardinal made a bold statement in his book, The Unjust Society, in 1969 about the history of Canada’s relationship with Aboriginal peoples. His entire book is, in fact, a jab at Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s idea of ‘the just society’. Pierre Elliott Trudeau made great assumptions about First Nations people by declaring that Aboriginal people should be happy about no longer being described as Indian. His goal was to rid Canada of Indians by assimilating them into the Canadian framework. Considered by many as a progressive policy, Trudeau’s white paper demonstrates just how accurate the following statement made by Harold Cardinal at the beginning of his book is : “The history of Canada’s Indians is a shameful chronicle of the white man’s disinterest,
In the process of war the public skipped to the conclusion that all Japanese Americans were out to get them. The suspicion of a government takeover was on everyones mind. Paranoia led people into to thinking every single Japanese American was guilty, no matter if it was a child, a WWI veteran, or if they had ever even been to Japan. The suspicion did not end there, inducing temporary segregation, and the exploitation of japanese american’s human rights. Mass hysteria and racism influenced the government's actions towards the Japanese.
The Incarceration of Japanese Americans is widely regarded as one of the biggest breaches of civil rights in American History. Incarceration evolved from deep-seated anti-Japanese sentiment in the West Coast of the United States. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, pressure from the military leadership, politicians, media and nativist groups in the West Coast eventually convinced the President Franklin Roosevelt that action had to be taken to deal with the national security “threat” that Japanese Americans posed. In reality, Japanese Americans were no real threat to the United States, but the racist sentiments against them prevailed and greatly influenced United States policy during the war.
It all started with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. During the 1940s, United States placed an embargo on Japan’s access to war materials in an attempt to stop Japan from further invasion in Asia. However, the plan did not work out well. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the US’s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, and caused more than 2,400 deaths of Americans (Roark 671). This surprise attack not only pushed the United States into World War II, but also triggered the start of racial discrimination against Asians in America, specifically Japanese Americans, Chinese, and of course, the Japanese. In this essay, an excerpt taken from the Life Magazine will be analyzed and supported with The American Promise written by James Roark et al.
The Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedom today are well known internationally for encouraging multiculturalism, protecting individual rights and being inclusive of immigrants and refugees from other countries. Unfortunately, Canadian policies were very different several decades ago as they had a surprising history of discrimination and racism, especially towards Japanese Canadians. When Canada entered the Second World War [WWII], the country was not only at war with Nazi Germany, but also with the Japanese Empire. Compounded with the fear and distrust of Japanese immigrants that started even before WWII, Canadian policies became increasingly more prejudice against those of Japanese descent, to the point where Japanese Canadians were interned. Although the Canadian government acknowledged its prejudice policies and gave monetary restitutions to those directly affected by the internment, it could have done a lot more to compensate the Japanese Canadian, as the pain and suffering experienced by the Japanese Canadians were unforgettable and scarring, the amount of restitution paid by the Canadian government was much less than what was paid by other governments who had similar discriminatory policies, and the negative impact of internment on the Japanese culture and descendants in Canada.
Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, there was still tension between Japanese-Americans and other United States citizens. Laws like the “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” a way of restricting Japanese immigration, was put into place in 1908 in fear of a “future Japanese ‘takeover’” (Hata and Hata, 7). After the attack on Pearl Harbor, growing hysteria filled the country and Japanese-Americans feared for their future. About a year later, Franklin D. R...
It was no secret that when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, countless Americans were frightened on what will happen next. The attack transpiring during WW2 only added to the hysteria of American citizens. According to the article “Betrayed by America” it expressed,”After the bombing many members of the public and media began calling for anyone of Japanese ancestry။citizens or not။to be removed from the West Coast.”(7) The corroboration supports the reason why America interned Japanese-Americans because it talks about Americans wanting to remove Japanese-Americans from the West Coast due to Japan bombing America. Japan bombing America led to Americans grow fear and hysteria. Fear due to the recent attack caused internment because Americans were afraid of what people with Japanese ancestry could do. In order to cease the hysteria, America turned to internment. American logic tells us that by getting the Japanese-Americans interned, many
Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.