On this day, 24 February 1942, the Canadian government approved Order in Council PC 1486, which would expel all people of Japanese descent from a 100 mile-wide area down Canada’s Pacific coast. The previous month Canada had ordered the removal of adult Japanese men, but following the US government beginning internment, Canadian authorities felt emboldened to do likewise. As a result, 22,000 Canadians of Japanese descent – most of whom had been born and lived in Canada their whole lives – were expelled from their homes.
Families were broken up, with many men sent to labour camps and women and children interned elsewhere. While 3,000 wealthier people were permitted to leave the area and buy new homes elsewhere in the country, the vast majority of people of Japanese descent were working class, and ended up in camps in Slocan Valley, British Columbia. They were housed in poor quality shacks, with no protection from the winter, and no food or clothing.
While interned, the government seized any homes, land and personal property of the Japanese Canadians and sold them at rock bottom prices. They then used the money to charge the internees for their confinement.
Even after the war ended, the Japanese Canadians were given two choices: leave British Columbia or be repatriated to Japan. Some attempted to resist being removed from British Columbia, so the government ordered the forced deportation of 10,000 people. While public opposition eventually ended this policy, 4,000 people had already been deported to Japan, many of whom could not return for years. The wartime West Coast bar remained in place until 1949.
Subsequent Canadian governments defended the plan, although thanks to decades of campaigning by the survivors of the camps, the government eventually apologised in 1988 and paid some compensation to surviving victims.
Pic: people being relocated from British Columbia
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