History Docs: World War II
 

Daily life in Japanese internment camps

This set of primary and secondary sources includes personal letters, photographs, interviews and government documents that describe the daily living conditions of Japanese Canadians held in internment camps during the World War II era.

Format: PDF
Subject: Social Studies, History
Grade: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Type of resource: Source Documents
Language: English

Student Tasks

What were conditions like for Japanese Canadians in internment camps during the World War II era?

When determining what conditions were like for prisoners in internment camps, you may want to consider the following:

  • living conditions (e.g., sleeping quarters, cooking and eating facilities, access to water, education, medical treatment, leisure activities, safety)
  • working conditions
  • treatment by authorities (governments, R.C.M.P., military, guards)

Historical Context for Teachers

Fear of Japanese attack

  • White Canadians’ fear of Japan’s aggression and expansionism increased in 1931 after Japan invaded Manchuria (a province of China) and in 1937 attacked the rest of mainland China. The atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during their invasion of China (the Rape of Nanking, for example) and other parts of Asia were widely publicized.
  • Several civic leaders and members of the press discussed the ties between Japanese-Canadians and the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces. Some people believed that Japanese Canadians would act as saboteurs against Canadian military installations along the west coast at the first sign of aggression by Japan.
  • From March to August 1941, six months before Canada went to war with Japan, all Japanese Canadians aged 16 and older were forced to register with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.) and carry an identification card at all times.
  • After the successful Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and many other locations in the Pacific on December 7, 1941, Canadian newspapers discussed the possibility of Japan invading the west coast of Canada. Prime Minister Mackenzie King questioned the loyalty of the Japanese Canadians during a radio broadcast seven hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

War and restrictions begin

  • When war was declared with Japan on December 8, 1941, there were 23 224 people of Japanese origin living in Canada. Of these, 14 119 were Nisei (second-generation Canadian born), 3 159 were naturalized as Canadian citizens, and 6 000 were still Japanese citizens. A small number of Japanese Canadians joined the Canadian army before war was declared with Japan.
  • At the beginning of World War II, the Canadian government passed the War Measures Act that gave the government the power to arrest and detain people suspected of being enemies of the state, including enemy aliens [citizens of a country in a state of war with the country they are living in] without the usual protection of the law.
  • Shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, some 22 000 men, women and children of Japanese descent were branded "enemy aliens." Politicians, newspapers and veterans’ groups began calling for Japanese Canadians to be moved away from the coast so they could not support a potential invasion by Japan.
  • The government took several steps to deal with the issue. From December 8, 1941-January 12, 1942, Order in Council PC9760 was passed and carried out. Japanese Canadians were forbidden from fishing for the duration of the war. 1 200 boats were taken away from Japanese Canadians and later sold at auction for rock-bottom prices. Japanese-language newspapers and schools were shut down and all cameras and shortwave radios were confiscated and vehicles were impounded.
  • As the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces continued to conquer territory in the Pacific throughout 1942 and stories emerged about the mistreatment of Canadian soldiers in Japanese prisoner-of-war (P.O.W.) camps following their capture in the Battle for Hong Kong, anti-Japanese feelings in Canada grew stronger.
  • In January 1942, a 161 km strip along British Columbia’s west coast was designated a protected area. People of Japanese origin were not allowed to be in this zone.

Expulsion and internment

  • On March 4, 1942, the B.C. Security Commission was established to carry out the "systematic expulsion of the Japanese from the area within 100 miles of the BC coast.” As a “protective measure” all individuals of Japanese heritage were ordered by the RCMP to leave the protected area within 24-48 hours and turn over their property and belongings to the Custodian of Enemy Alien Property who was authorized to hold all land and property in trust.
  • Despite the government’s promise to hold the property in trust and later return it to owners, the Custodian of Enemy Property sold the confiscated properties without owner’s consent. The money earned was used to pay for administrative costs of the sale and for the internees’ living expenses.
  • Each person was allowed one suitcase each, and 150 pounds of clothing, bedding and cooking utensils (kids were allowed 75 pounds). A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on all Japanese Canadians and the R.C.M.P. had the authority to enter homes at will without a warrant.
  • Thousands of Japanese Canadians from the 161 km exclusion zone were sent to "clearing sites" such as the Pacific National Exhibition (P.N.E.) grounds at Hastings Park in Vancouver  where they were held in livestock buildings until internment camps were prepared.
  • At Hastings Park, men between the ages of 18 and 45 underwent a physical examination to determine their ability to work. All males slept in rows of bunks, spaced three feet apart, on straw mattresses. Troughs were used as toilets and the facility contained only 48 showers. Women and children were segregated from the men and forced to live in cattle stalls with sheets around them for privacy.
  • Any men who showed the slightest resistance were imprisoned and sent to P.O.W. camps located in Petawawa and Angler, Ontario. Some men remained there for the duration of the war.
  • Between March and June 1942 2 000 men were placed at various road camps throughout the interior of B.C. working on road construction projects. While the average work rate in the interior was 60 cents per hour, men in road camps were paid 25–35 cents an hour, of which $22.50 was deducted each month for room and board, and another $20 was deducted from married men for family support. By October 1942 many of the men were allowed to join their families in the interior internment camps.
  • The vast majority of Japanese Canadians (over 12 000), were sent to isolated camp locations in the B.C. interior and housed in tents until the hastily built shacks and buildings, or abandoned hotels in “ghost towns,” were ready.
  • With the shortage of labourers during the war, sugar beet growers in Southern Alberta and Manitoba made arrangements for Japanese families to go to sugar beet farms as family units, and about 4 000 Japanese Canadians went to work on the farms.
  • With permission from the B.C. Security Commission a small group of internees were allowed to go to “self supporting projects” where they had to pay for their transportation, housing materials and living expenses in return for allowing the families to stay together.
  • In the spring of 1945, before the end of the war, the Japanese were given the option of “dispersal” to towns east of the Rockies, or to be “repatriated” back to Japan. Initially, 10 000 Japanese-Canadians chose this, however, after growing opposition from many Canadian groups the government withdrew the deportation policy. By 1947, 4 000 Japanese Canadians were deported from Canada, 2 000 of whom were Canadian-born.

Japanese Canadian Internment Camps in British Columbia

Internment-map.jpg

Courtesy of the National Association of Japanese Canadians
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