Japanese Canadian internment

Written in 1981, Obasan explores the negative treatment Japanese-Canadians experienced in the internment camps during World War Two. Kogawa uses three women (Obasan, Aunt Emily, and Naomi) to illustrate the perspectives that the different generations have in regards to Canadian multiculturalism and how it relates to Japanese-Canadians. In the article “Joy Kogawa’s Obasan: Canadian multiculturalism and Japanese-Canadian Internment”, the author Laura K. Davis examines Obasan through a lens focusing on Canada’s evolution regarding racism and the laws that were developed during the time period that Obasan was written. Through Davis’ lens of Japanese-Canadian internment, Kogawa uses silence to demonstrate the lack of perceived progress into multiculturalism.…

in 1942, many Japanese-Canadians living near the British Columbia coast were relocated, and eventually put into internment camps, as Canadians believed if they were to be attacked by the Japanese, local residents would attempt to aid them. Despite the modern thoughts on the Japanese-Canadian internment, Canadians during World War II, specifically those living in British Columbia, believed that the Japanese deserved to be interned, as the majority of them felt unsafe with their presence. The…

United States (1944) was a well known Supreme Court case. Fred Korematsu had refused to enter an internment camp, so in 1942 he was arrested and sent to a camp. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1944. In 1983, Korematsu appealed the conviction. Later, a federal court in San Francisco stated the government’s decision was racially biased, misleading, and false. While, Japanese-Americans did make up the majority of people in internment camps, they were not the only people sent to…

Japanese Internment Canadians think that we are a perfect country that could never do anything wrong however, the internment of the Japanese proves that we are not. Ever since the Japanese arrived in Canada they had faced racism and prejudice. As well after the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II increase the racism they faced. With fear in Canadians hearts the country placed the Japanese in internment camps, where they faced many abuses and were forced to work. With the completion of…

Japanese Canadians lived in British Columbia before the start of WW II and three quarters of them were born in Canada. In 1941, Japanese Canadians were forced to register with the government, thus declaring them as enemy aliens. After the bombing of Pearl Harbour and attack of Hong Kong, the Canadian government confiscated their property, deprived them of rights and revoked their citizenship. Despite the RCMP and the Canadian Army and Navy stating there were no evidence of military threat and…

by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers that killed 2,403 people and destroyed nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King, decided to intern Japanese Canadian citizens based on speculative evidence. Both the RCMP and the Defence Department lacked proof of any sabotage or espionage, but even so, on February 24, 1942, an…

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor which was an American base in Hawaii. These actions forced the U.S into the war. At that time there were many immigrants from Japan in the States and in Canada, both were members of the allied powers. As a result of the attacks the Japanese-Americans and the Japanese-Canadians were viewed as the enemy because of their heritage, even though some of them were born and raised in North America. The Canadian government enacted the War Measures Act and as a result…

During World War II, many Japanese-Canadians were sent to internment camps. They were imprisoned, forced to work, and left to die with little to no food and exposed to fatal diseases. The Japanese became isolated among themselves and ripped from their homes in Canada. In the novel, Obasan, Joy Kogawa tells the story of Megumi Naomi Nakane and her family, Japanese-Canadians, experiencing exile that is both alienating and enriching. These experiences illuminate one of the many themes of the novel,…

for people of Japanese descent living in Canada. The Japanese-Canadian internment is a defining moment in Canada because it shows how poorly the Canadian governments, politicians, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and labour unions treated Japanese-Canadians. They had no freedom; were incarcerated in internment, road, or prisoners-of-war camps; and lastly, were unequal compared to everyone else living in Canada, especially the white people. After Japan bombed the Pearl Harbour and…

“Let our slogan be for British Columbia: No Japs from the Rockies to the seas” (CBC News, 2001). Japanese Internment commenced on the 24th of February, 1941, and lasted until the 31st of March, 1949, During these years, Japanese Canadians were cruelly mistreated while under the suspicion that they were all enemy aliens after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941. The inequality faced by Japanese Canadians caused great divisions in Canadian society and effected the lives of thousands…