In June 1948, Japanese Canadians were granted the right to vote federally. In March 1949, they were granted the right to vote provincially in BC. “Japanese Canadians were now eligible to receive the Old Age Pension bonus, no longer excluded from employment on public works contracts, and could practise law and pharmacy (Theurer, p. 312)”. A week later, they were free to return to BC when War Measures Act restrictions were removed. Few possessed the means or inclination to return there. The farms, boats, homes, and businesses they had once owned in the province had been seized and sold during the internment. The provincial franchise had long remained an impossible dream for Japanese Canadians. No one expected it to be granted so suddenly.

Veteran George Tanaka had been on the executive of the Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy, which pushed for nisei enlistment, and later became the Executive Secretary of the Japanese Canadian Citizens Association, which fought to obtain the vote for all Japanese Canadians. Tanaka was in the BC Legislature when the amendment to allow JCs to vote was being discussed.  He was there with Seiji Homma, President of the B.C. Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association.  Homma was the son of Tomekichi Homma, who had first sought the vote for Japanese Canadians 50 years earlier. Both were overcome with emotion on learning that the fifty-year struggle for the vote was over.