At a meeting between British Security Coordination and Canada’s External Affairs ministry, a decision was made to send 35 nisei for attachment to British Forces serving in Southeast Asia Command (SEAC).
The first of the twelve nisei that Captain Mollison had found to serve in the British Army was Albert Takimoto, who became the group’s leader (Ito, 1984, p. 235). The ability of each recruit in the Japanese language was assessed at a civilian house in Toronto. Those who passed the test were to travel to England as civilians, to be inducted into the British Army. The twelve recruits waited six months for their passports to go overseas, paid by the British Army. On February 24, 1945, just before they were sent to Britain, they learned that the Canadian government had decided to let them go overseas in Canadian uniforms (Oki, 1967, Adachi, 1976, p.294). They were quickly inducted into the Canadian army with no training and departed on a ship, on loan to the British Army (Adachi, 1976, p.294).
Trooping Depot; Deolali, India, ca. 1945. These men are nine of the 12 in the first group of Nisei sent to India. Courtesy of Patti Kagawa, daughter of Tatsuo Fred Kagawa.
Front row L to R: Sid Sakanashi, Jin Ide. Middle row: Frank Moritsugu, Harold Hirose, Albert Takimoto, Edgar Iwamoto. Back row: Elmer Oike, Tatsuo Fred Kagawa, Ernie Oikawa.
Photograph of India Group Soldiers, ca. 1945. Courtesy of Yatabe family.
Front Row: -, Frank Moritsugu, -, Fred Kagawa;
Back row: Edgar Iwamoto, Albert Takimoto, Jin Ide.
All nisei who were allowed into the Canadian Army after January 1945 became part of the Canadian Intelligence Corps. The nisei soldiers (excluding the three sent to Australia) who served overseas all travelled first to the U.K. to become attached to the British Intelligence Corps.
The second group of 21 nisei recruited by Mollison included men from Winnipeg, London, Ontario and other locations. The second group were to be provided with basic training in Toronto and four months language training in Pacific Command (Ito, 1984, p. 177). However, they left for overseas, shortly after the first twelve, with essentially no training (Ito, 1984, p. 182).
A Group Portrait of Mollison’s Second Group; Calcutta, India, ca. 1945. Photographed by Jim Miyasaka. Roy Ito Collection. JCCC 2001.76.04.03.
Back row, from left: Jim Kagawa; Tom Imada; Nobby Koyama; Ray Takeuchi; Katsu Oikawa; Deo Suzuki; Bill Sasaki; Bob Hoita.
Middle row: George Higa; Jim Matsuo; Pat Saito; Tom Nishio; Tak Maekawa; Bob Kayahara; Frank Takayesu; Jim Miyasaka.
Front row: Goro Suzuki; J.F. Seyer; D.M. Davies; Doug Uchida; Kaide Shimizu.
Goro Suzuki and Tom Nishio in Fagu, India, ca. 1945. Tom Nishio Collection. JCCC 2007.22.02.10B.
The remaining 33 nisei left Canada for England in February 1945. They sailed from London to Bombay, and were sent to Poona for basic training at the Force 136 Far Eastern Warfare School (Ito, 1984, p. 235), then to Calcutta for language testing.
As the nisei were arriving in India, the Japanese Army was retreating from Burma. The focus of the Allied forces under Commander Mountbatten shifted from Burma to Malaya.
Photo of Canadian Nisei Veterans; Farnham Camp, England, ca. 1946. JCCC Original Military Collection. JCCC 2005.01.01.06.
The Canadian nisei were divided into groups and sent to different locations, based on their Japanese language ability. They were attached to SEAC. Some worked at the SEAC Headquarters in Ceylon. Some worked in psychological warfare, using loudspeakers to intimidate the enemy. Some were assigned to radio broadcast work in Ceylon and Rangoon. Several nisei were in the invasion force that landed in Malaya, then disarmed Japanese soldiers, and assembled Japanese civilians in Kuala Lumpur (Oki, 1967).
George Suzuki and Fred Nogami, in the second group sent to India, were in a plane that crashed into a barge in the Singapore Strait on March 27, 1946. Out of the 23 on board, only 7 survived; Suzuki and Nogami were lucky to escape with minor injuries. They were the only Canadian nisei to be injured during Pacific service (Ito, 1984, p. 260).
Nisei Affairs; Vol. 1, No. 1; Toronto, ON; 20 July 1945, pages 3 and 6. Ed and Muriel Kitagawa Collection. NNMCC 2010.30.7.2.3.Scrapbook Page of Tom Nishio, 26 August 1945. Tom Nishio Collection. JCCC 2007.22.02.07.
Nisei Affairs; Vol. 1, No. 1; Toronto, ON; 20 July 1945, pages 3 and 6. Ed and Muriel Kitagawa Collection. NNMCC 2010.30.7.2.3.
The Australian Army approached Canada first, in March 1944, about the availability of nisei soldiers with a good knowledge of Japanese. The Australian Director of Military Intelligence requested the loan of up to 200 Japanese Canadian soldiers for intelligence work (Ito, 1984, p. 164). The Canadian military attaché was embarrassed to admit that Japanese Canadians were not allowed in the Canadian Army, and that the reason was political, not because they couldn’t be trusted (Ito, 1984, p. 163). The attaché later recommended that Australia, not Canada, enlist the Japanese Canadians.
The second request came from Captain Don Mollison of the British Army in Burma. Expecting that it would be easy to request Japanese linguists from the Canadian Army, he was shocked, like his Australian counterpart, to learn that Japanese Canadians were excluded from the military. He also learned from the Canadian representative of British Security Coordination that although Japanese Canadians were the most loyal ethnic group in Canada, nisei might be allowed to join the British Army, but not the Canadian Army (Ito, 1984, p. 168).
The Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy continued to send letters to the Minister of National Defence, offering the services of Japanese Canadians in the armed forces.
By July 1944, the attitude of the Cabinet War Committee was changing, recommending the enlistment of nisei with language abilities to help in the Far East with intelligence and interrogation of POWs (Ito, 1984, p. 168). The Canadian Army began secretly compiling lists of nisei willing to volunteer, with the help of the Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy (Library and Archives Canada, n.d., Japanese Volunteers for Canadian Armed Forces). The names of Eichi Oike, Louis Suzuki, Frank Takayesu, and Kiyoshi Kitagawa were incorrectly spelled in these volunteer lists.
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At the same time, Admiral Mountbatten, the supreme allied commander of Southeast Asia Command (SEAC) in India, requested nisei to serve in propaganda units in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) established by Churchill to operate behind enemy lines. Canada responded that nisei were not allowed to be enlisted in Canada and they should be enlisted in the Indian Army (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 232).
In October 1944, the Cabinet War Committee again refused to permit nisei enlistment, but permitted them to enlist in the Armed Forces of other members of the United Nations (Ito, 1984, p. 175).
Captain Mollison was only able to find twelve nisei who were willing to sign up as members of the British army in Burma (Ito, 1984, p. 174). He acknowledged that most nisei would want to serve as Canadians, not in uniforms of other countries. There was no guarantee that they would be allowed to keep their Canadian citizenship on their return. And if they could return to Canada after the war, they could not demand the vote. Mollison was becoming exasperated, as the need for nisei linguists overseas accelerated. As a last resort, he sent a message to William Stevenson of British Security Coordination to request that Churchill pressure the Canadian government to let nisei enlist (Ito, 1984, p. 176)
The Cabinet War Committee reluctantly agreed on January 17, 1945 to enlist 100 Japanese Canadians in the Canadian Army. This decision was made in secret (Ito, 176), and was not publicized.
Enlistment began in March in Toronto. Eiji Yatabe, one of the first nisei recruits, accompanied Lieutenant Cecil Thomas and Major H.J. Duchesnay throughout southern Ontario to recruit other nisei over three days. Many of the recruited Japanese Canadians had been interned by the government they were now pledging to serve. Some nisei that signed up were disowned by their families, who were very bitter over the internment (Broadfoot, 1977). Some of the nisei who enlisted had brothers in Japan who were fighting on the opposite side. Two of the enlisted soldiers came directly from internment camps to volunteer (Ito, 1984, p. 250). The greatest regret of the recruits was that enlistment was for linguistic purposes only, rather than combat.
Recruiting team, February, 1945. Second Lieutenant Cecil Thomas (left), Eiji Yatabe, Minoru Yatabe, CWAC driver, Major H. J. Duchesnay, in Kensington Market area, Toronto. Roy Ito Collection. 2001.4.4.5.15
Min Yatabe said:
“When the enlistment decision was announced, most nisei lads welcomed it as an opportunity to demonstrate our loyalty to Canada and thus show our community in a good light to the country of our birth.”
Nisei recruits were placed in two groups – the so-called India group under the British officer Captain Mollison, and the S-20 group, sent to Brantford for basic training and then to the S-20 Japanese language school prior to service. The India group included the 12 who had previously volunteered, plus 23 who were sent to India soon after (Oki, 1967). Three nisei who lived in the Okanagan (outside of the Protected Area) were sent to Melbourne, Australia (Ito, 1984, p. 191).
In 1944, the Allies were intensifying their campaign in the South Pacific, as the European War was winding down. Demand for Japanese Canadians in the Forces came from outside Canada rather than from Canada. Australia and Britain were in dire need of Japanese-speaking translators in Southeast Asia to question Japanese POWs and to translate Japanese documents. Canada was the only country in the British Empire with any substantial Japanese-speaking population. Many locations around the Pacific Ocean needed the services of Canadian nisei.
Three years earlier, the US army had set up a Japanese-language training school (Military Intelligence Service Language School, MISLS) for interpreters and translators at Fort Savage, Minnesota, and later at Fort Snelling, Minnesota (Nakamura, 2024, Denfield, 2015). By 1946, approximately 6000 students, mostly nisei, had trained at the school (Ito, 1984, p. 162). They served at many locations around southeast Asia, translating captured documents, interrogating prisoners, intercepting radio messages, and communicating with civilians and soldiers. They were essential in the post-war occupation of Japan.
Fifteen Canadians (of non-Japanese ancestry) enrolled in the one-year language course. Most of the fifteen were found to be unsuitable students. Their lack of education and long absence from study made it impossible for them to learn the language quickly (Lamarsh, 1967).
General Charles Willoughby, G-2 intelligence chief, described the language training American nisei received: “The nisei saved countless Allied lives and shortened the war by two years. General Douglas MacArthur said, “Never in military history did an army know so much about the enemy prior to actual engagement (National Japanese American Historical Society, undated)”.
General Douglas MacArthur set up the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS) in 1942. ATIS became the largest military intelligence centre assisting in the war against Japan. It was based, at consecutive times during the war, in Australia, Dutch New Guinea, and the Philippines. ATIS translated seized Japanese items and provided interpreters for the interrogation of prisoners. A large proportion of ATIS staff were American nisei (seayourhistory, undated). In 1944, the Southeast Asia Translation interrogation Centre (SEATIC) was established to interrogate Japanese prisoners-of-war and to translate captured Japanese documents. SEATIC urgently required qualified linguists in order to become fully operational (Ito, 1984, p.163). Allied and Canadian forces were enrolling non-Japanese in their 12-month Japanese language school and attempting to graduate them as expert interpreters and translators (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 231).
The service of the nisei in the Second World War was not publicized by the Canadian government. They were not given any special awards or ceremonies and their work was not publicly recognized in the way that the military service of nisei (such as the soldiers of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team) was highlighted in the US.
“The nisei contribution to the Canadian war record rested – through no fault of their own – upon what was a short and far from glamorous period of accomplishment; moreover, its impact on race relations in Canada was almost negligible (Adachi, 1976, p. 195)”.
Trooping Depot; Deolali, India, ca. 1945. These men are nine of the 12 in the first group of Nisei sent to India. Courtesy of Patti Kagawa, daughter of Tatsuo Fred Kagawa.
Front row L to R: Sid Sakanashi, Jin Ide. Middle row: Frank Moritsugu, Harold Hirose, Albert Takimoto, Edgar Iwamoto. Back row: Elmer Oike, Tatsuo Fred Kagawa, Ernie Oikawa.
Albert Takimoto was in the first group of Japanese Canadians who was enlisted by Captain Mollison to served in the British Army. He had been the first to be contacted by Mollison, and was the first volunteer in the group. A graduate of UBC, he was also designated as the leader of the group of twelve (Ito, p. 235, Theurer, page 240). He worked as a radio broadcaster at SEAC in Ceylon. He reported news items in Japanese four times at day (Ito, 1984, p. 236). The broadcasts were aimed at Japanese troops in the field (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 240) in Burma and Thailand. When Albert learned about the apocalyptic bombing of the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, he used a dictionary to quickly translate the words “atom bomb” into Japanese and decided on genshi bakudan for use by Radio Ceylon. That was the first use of the expression genshi bakudan and it has become the accepted Japanese term (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 240).
Edgar Iwamoto, who was in the second nisei group sent to India, was shocked to learn about the fate of Hiroshima, where he had lived from the ages of four to sixteen with his aunt. He was sure that his aunt, friends, neighbors, and relatives in the city were all dead (Ito, 1984, p. 246).
After a second catastrophic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Emperor of Japan announced on August 14, 1945 in a radio broadcast that Japan should surrender. The Second World War came to a sudden end.
Nisei Affairs, a journal published by The Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy, printed an editorial on Victory in Japan Day, expressing relief on Japan’s surrender and the effect of the war on Japanese Canadians: “Ever since the Japanese war machine invaded China, we Japanese Canadians have lived under the shadow of her guilt even though we had no part in her crime (Nisei Affairs, 1945, p. 2)”
As the war ended, the work of the nisei in southeast Asia shifted to liaising with Japanese soldiers in locations that Japan had previously captured. Nisei had to accept official surrenders and intercept soldiers who had committed war crimes (Moritsugu, 2015); they had to question surrendered personnel to determine what the Japanese had learned about the work and plans of the Allies.
Between 1942 and 1945, Japanese Canadians were officially banned from participating in the armed forces of their own country, although many tried very hard to enlist. Despite the ban, 32 nisei served in the Canadian military in the Second World War during that period.
Opposition to enlistment of Japanese Canadians in the Canadian military came from many directions: the Canadian public, the government, and from the families of internees.
From 1942 until 1945, Japanese Canadians were banned from participating in the Canadian Forces, although many tried very hard to enlist and were turned down. Despite the ban, 32 nisei served in the Canadian military at this time, as nisei outside of BC had been able to enlist before Pearl Harbor. Many of this group experienced combat in Europe.
At a conference in Ottawa on January 8 and 9, 1942, the issue of nisei serving in the armed forces was raised. The 32-member Pacific Joint Services Committee, representing the army, navy and air force recommended nisei enlistment, but the five committee members from BC were strongly opposed and suggested instead that able-bodied male adult Japanese nationals be removed from the province (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 133). On January 10, Ian Mackenzie, the chairman, sent a private letter to Prime Minister King stating his opinion that nisei should not be permitted to enlist (Ito, 1984, p.141).
There had been a tentative plan proposed at the same conference to organize a Civilian Corps of Japanese, which would allow nisei to participate in the war effort. An Order-in-Council was passed by the Cabinet in February 1942, but due to anti-Japanese public opinion, the plan was dropped (Ito, 1984, p. 144-145).
Soon after, Order-in-Council P.C. 1486 was introduced, and the removal of all “enemy aliens” began from the Protected Zone in BC.
The Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy promoted the service of nisei in the Canadian army in order to demonstrate their loyalty, stating that nisei were willing to fight against Japan if necessary (Ito, 1984, p. 195). In January 1945, a raucous public meeting was held in Toronto in order to discuss this issue. The chairman, Eiji Yatabe, discussed the well-known success of the Japanese American 100 Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team as an example of why nisei should demonstrate their loyalty to their country (Obata, 2000; Ito, 1984, p. 195).
“I can recall violent threats, false accusations, and angry shouting matches in every direction. It was chaos. Finally, it came to a vote. Should the JCCD seek the elimination of the government policy barring Japanese Canadians from the Armed Forces? Those present at the meeting overwhelmingly rejected our proposal. I couldn’t believe the response. Then in a moment of spontaneity, the entire executive stood up and resigned en masse right then and there and almost all the male members of our JCCD executive volunteered to serve overseas once the restrictions against us were lifted (Obata, 2000)”.
The executive members who resigned, then enlisted soon after, included Roger Obata, George Tanaka, and Eiji Yatabe. Kinzie Tanaka (who was born in Japan) was later accepted for enlistment but did not serve due to the end of the war (Ito, 1984, p. 305).
“The conflict within our community arose from the fact that some people felt very bitter towards the Canadian government because of the expulsion, incarceration, and relocation ordeal, and wanted nothing to do with helping out a country that had treated its own citizens so shamefully (Obata, 2000)”.
Some nisei who enlisted were disowned by their families, who were very bitter over the internment (Broadfoot, 1977, p. 305).
“First, they won’t let us join up when we’re in BC. Then they kick us out of the place like we’re no good and spies and they put us in camps all over the country, and then when the British say they want us, they raise a fuss and say ‘No, these men are Canadian citizens. They go to war like Canadians’. Funny business (Broadfoot, 1977, p. 307)”.
In 1944, the BC Security Commission office in Toronto was collecting names and Identity numbers of nisei who were willing to enlist in the army for General Service, but did not publicize this fact. Lists dated November 13, 1944 and December 13, 1944 include the names of nisei located in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
The irony that nisei were volunteering to serve the country that was persecuting them was expressed in an editorial by Allan P. Allsebrook of Kaslo in the October 28, 1944 issue of the New Canadian newspaper. The editorial was written in response to an anti-Japanese letter posted in the Nelson Daily News.
“Is he aware that the majority of our able-bodied young nisei — homeless, driven, bewildered, shamelessly robbed of their possessions, reviled, spat upon, and humiliated…are ready and willing to vindicate their honour and loyalty to Canada by enlisting for service? But our priceless politicians will have none of them (Allsebrook, 1944).”
Building K, Men’s Dormitory (Formerly Forum); Hastings Park, Vancouver, BC, circa 1942. Photographed by Leonard Frank. Alex Eastwood Collection. NNMCC 1994.69.3.18.
The forced removal of Japanese Canadians had started on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked, with the removal of 39 respected Japanese nationals from the community to Prisoner-of-War camps.
Eventually, 20,000 citizens would be uprooted and forcibly moved.
Facing pressure from British Columbia politicians, the Cabinet of Mackenzie King passed Order-in-Council P.C. 365 on January 16 which created a 100-mile Protected Zone extending from the BC coast. Male enemy aliens (Japanese nationals) aged 18-45 were removed from this zone beginning on February 24 and sent to work camps in the Rocky Mountains west of Jasper (Ito, 1984, p. 142, Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 136).
On February 7, 1942, all male Japanese Canadian citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 were ordered to be removed from the Protected Zone.
On February 24, 1942, Order-in-Council P.C. 1486 was introduced, requiring all people of Japanese origin, regardless of citizenship, to be removed from the Protected Zone. Japanese nationals, naturalized Canadians, and Canadian-born citizens were all considered to be enemy aliens. Japanese women who were married to white men were allowed to stay in the Protected Zone. A curfew was established. Japanese Canadians were prevented by law from owning land or growing crops.
On March 4, 1942, the BC Security Commission was created to oversee the evacuation (Suzuki, 1987, p. 59).
In March 1942, Order-in-Council P.C. 1665 was introduced. Japanese Canadians were ordered to turn over property and belongings (plus items that ‘evacuees’ could not bring with them) to the Custodian of Enemy Alien Property as a “protective measure only.” Homes, farms and properties of Japanese Canadians were seized by the Custodian. Vehicles, cameras, radios, and firearms were confiscated.
Temporary detention of Japanese Canadians at the livestock building of Vancouver’s Hastings Park began. Able-bodied men were sent to road construction camps around the country and women, children and elderly people were forced to go to internment camps, most of which were ghost towns in the BC interior, outside the Protected Area. Living conditions in the camp were very crowded and many families were unprepared for the cold winters in tents and poorly insulated buildings. All mail was censored. Families who wished to stay together were sent to sugar beet farms in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario to work and live under very harsh conditions. Some people were only given 24 hours to pack their belongings and leave. Adults were limited to 150 pounds of baggage, and children, 75 pounds. Those who protested about denial of their rights were sent to the Petawawa and Angler POW camps in Ontario, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
Issei veterans from the First World War learned that winning the franchise in 1931 and various medals for their bravery did not protect them from internment. Land, including farms, that the veterans had been granted from the Soldiers Settlement Board in 1919, was confiscated and sold during their internment. Only one First World War veteran, Zennosuke Inouye, regained his land after internment.
The provincial and federal governments argued about schooling for children in the internment camps. The federal government finally hired inexperienced nisei teachers for grades 1 to 8. The young children were taught by high school graduates who had taken a one-month intensive teaching course. High school students paid for correspondence courses or paid fees to attend schools. In some cases, they attended classes organized by Catholic, Anglican, and United churches.
The New Canadian Newspaper remained open and was moved to Kaslo, one of the ghost towns. The New Canadian became a bilingual English/Japanese newspaper and was essential in maintaining communication between those who were scattered in many locations. It was also used by the Canadian government to publish public announcements to the scattered Japanese Canadian community.
Removing the Japanese from the workforce had a major impact on BC’s economy. The fishing boats and equipment seized from the Japanese were quickly sold, and the boats were soon operating with non-Japanese crews. In June 1942, the Director of Soldier Settlement was allowed to purchase or lease vacated farms. The Custodian of Enemy Alien Property sold the boats and farms belonging to the internees without their knowledge or consent (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 186). Internees received money from the sale, but most received far less than market value once various agents, lawyers and other middlemen were paid. Internees needed the money to pay for the costs of their own internment.
By the end of 1942, Japanese Canadians had been forcefully removed to the following locations:
12,029 prison camps in the BC interior
945 labour camps
3991 sugar beet farms in the prairies and Ontario
1161 self-supporting camps outside the Protected Zones
699 prisoner-of-war camps in Ontario
42 deported to Japan
111 incarcerated in Vancouver
105 hospitalized in Hastings Park, Vancouver
Approximately 2,000 Japanese Canadians were living outside the Protected Zone and allowed to remain in place, but subject to registration, restriction of activities, travel, and confiscation of prohibited items. 1359 were provided with special work permits that allowed them to work inside the Protected Zone (Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, undated).
In 1943, the Custodian of Enemy Alien Property began to sell other belongings of internees without their consent.
British Columbians did not want the Japanese Canadians to return to BC and constantly lobbied to have the internees moved eastward or deported to Japan. In order to encourage settlement in eastern Canada, improvements to the camps were discontinued (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 189). People were allowed to leave the camps if they agreed to settle east of the Rocky Mountains. “BC.’s characterization of Japanese Canadians as dangerous subversives had been so effective that few people actually wanted them living in their communities, complicating the government’s efforts to settle evacuees in the east. For most of the Japanese, leaving the camps voluntarily was not an inviting prospect because they faced discrimination, uncertain employment prospects, and unjust living restrictions (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 190)”. They were afraid they would experience the same racial prejudice that they had encountered in BC.
The Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy was organized in 1943 by BC nisei (mainly UBC students) including George Tanaka and Roger Obata, who had moved from BC to Toronto. It helped Japanese Canadians with resettlement and with problems such as the loss of their property and belongings. It also fought against the deportation of internees to Japan. The Cooperative Committee on Japanese Canadians, comprised of YWCA council members and church societies, was also established in 1943 to help internees from BC with resettlement (Anonymous, undated).
“On December 7, 1941, an event took place that had nothing to do with me or my family and yet which had devastating consequences for all of us – Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack. With that event began one of the shoddiest chapters in the tortuous history of democracy in North America. More than twenty thousand people, mostly Canadians by birth, were uprooted, their tenuous foothold on the West Coast destroyed, and their lives shattered to an extent still far from fully assessed. Their only crime was the possession of a common genetic heritage with the enemy (Suzuki, 1987, p. 11).
“The nisei hadn’t anticipated the treachery of the devastating ‘sneak attack” on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. That attack confirmed every bigot’s belief in the inherent deceit and untrustworthiness of the Japanese race (Suzuki, 1987, p. 56).
At the time of the Pearl Harbor attacks, three-quarters of Japanese Canadians were either naturalized or native-born Canadians (Izumi, 2024).
There were immediate repercussions on the JC community. All three Japanese language newspapers were shut down. Japanese language schools were closed. 39 respected leaders within the Japanese Canadian community were dragged on December 7 from their homes to the Vancouver Immigration building, then moved to P.O.W. camps in Seebe, Alberta, and Petawawa, Ontario, eventually being incarcerated in July 1942 in the Angler P.O.W. camp in Ontario (Okazaki, 1996). The 39 included a Buddhist minister, manager of a logging company, Japanese language teachers and Japanese language newspaper editors. They were considered “fifth columnists” by the RCMP because they were powerful and influential. 1200 Japanese fishing boats were confiscated; boats were towed to a dispersal centre and many boats were damaged. Licenses of Canadian citizens of Japanese descent were suspended. There were mass firings of hotel, railway, mill, and factory workers throughout the west coast. Homes and businesses owned by Japanese families were vandalized. On December 16, the lantern on the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Stanley Park was extinguished. The lantern was finally relit 44 years later, on August 2, 1985 by First World War veteran Sergeant Masumi Mitsui (Wakayama, 2005). Everyone of Japanese descent aged 16 years and older, regardless of citizenship, was ordered to register with the Registrar of Enemy aliens.
“The newspapers were full of reports of Japanese espionage and sabotage on the west coast. ‘Japs go home’ signs appeared. The Chinese people started wearing ‘I’m Chinese’ buttons to make sure they were not mistaken for Japanese and assaulted. The declaration of war against Japan caused panic and enabled irrational fear and racism to influence decisions and actions at every level, from local school boards to the federal government in Ottawa (Theurer and Oue, 2021, p. 128)”.
In January of 1942, nisei at the University of British Columbia who were enrolled in the Canadian Officer Training Corps were ordered to turn in their uniforms. The 72 Japanese Canadian students at UBC, mainly nisei, were urged to leave (Ito, 1984, p. 138). They were unable to complete their university studies or missed their graduation ceremonies when they were sent away from Vancouver later in 1942.
