Japanese Canadian Internment

(Text: Internment – Politics of Racism)
[Background images of Japanese Canadians and confiscated fishing boats]

[Black and white modern-day video of a young Japanese Canadian man, Samuel Araki, standing on a tramline.]

The corner of Moncton Street in number one Road was for decades the stop for the B.C. interurban tram.

[black and white photograph of an old tram from 1940s]

In the spring of 1942, at the start of internment, the tram played a major role in transporting Japanese Canadians out of Steveston.

[Large school class photo of Japanese Canadian teachers and students sitting in front of a building with the British and Japanese flags crossed behind them]

Prior to internment on the eve of World War two Japanese Canadians made up 2/3 of the population of Steveston and owned many of the businesses.

[Image of Japanese Canadian storefront]

But this vibrant community, a part of Steveston since its beginning, was changed forever on December 7th, 1941, when the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor.

[black and white photograph of a group of little Japanese girls all wearing white dresses and white headbands]

[Black and white modern-day video of a young Japanese Canadian man, Samuel Araki, speaking]

The surprise attack shocked all Canadians but it devastated Japanese Canadians.

[black and white photo of Japanese Canadian man standing on a fishing boat with three police officers aboard, confiscating his vessel]

The day after Pearl Harbor, the federal government ordered all Japanese Canadian fishing boats to port. The boats were impounded and towed up the Fraser River for storage.

[Photo of boats being towed away]
[Photo of hundreds of boats amassed together]

By late December 1941, the government had confiscated 1,200 boats owned by Japanese Canadians. Within weeks the boats were put up for sale creating a buyers market for the best-maintained vessels on the coast. Nikkei fishermen received much less than what they are worth.

[black and white photographs of fishing boats]
[photograph of sign that reads “Notice to All Japanese Persons and Persons of Japanese Racial Origin”]

In February 1942, the federal government declared Japanese Canadians to be enemy aliens and planned for their expulsion from the BC coast. In total nearly 22,000 Japanese Canadians were removed in B.C. Their properties homes, furniture, and businesses were liquidated by the federal government.

[Photograph of groups Japanese Canadians all walking  away from homes; Empty shops formally owned by Japanese Canadians]

By May 26 hundred residents of Steveston had been interned leaving a near ghost town to keep their families together many Nikkei worked on sugar beet farms in Alberta and Manitoba other families were sent to newly constructed camps in the B.C. interior, like New Denver and Lemon Creek.

[Photograph of a group of Japanese Canadians standing in a sugar beet field holding farm tools; Photograph of Lemon Creek and New Denver intern camps; Groups of buildings; half-built buildings]

Many of the makeshift three-room houses were still being built when internees arrived. Still other families were sent to the Kooteney Mountains, to abandoned mining towns like Greenwood. Empty hotels and businesses became one-room compartments for families.

[black and white image of old street view of small hotels; cramped quarters with many women and children together around a woodstove]

Overcrowding was severe several families had to share kitchen and toilet facilities.

[black and white photo of several extremely large banquet tables with hundreds of people sitting down to eat]

Through the years the interns settled in as best they could. They organized an infirmary staffed by Japanese Canadian nurses and converted the fire hall to a school.

[Black and white photo of Japanese Canadian nurse and new mother with infant; Japanese Canadian children outside of their school]

Greenwood was transformed into a once again bustling community where festivals parades and sporting events were a part of everyday
life.

[Black and white modern-day video of a young Japanese Canadian man, Samuel Araki, speaking]

When world war ii ended in 1945 Japanese Canadians were forced by the federal government to make difficult choices.

[Black and white photo of Japanese Canadian family standing outside of a wooden building]

They could remain in internment sites that weren’t destroyed, like Greenwood, and begin to rebuild their lives.

[Black and white photo of Japanese Canadians aboard a train with other family members speaking to them through the open windows from below]

Two other choices, resulting in a second uprooting, involved moving east of the Rocky Mountains or being deported to Japan, a foreign country to Canadian-born Nikkei.

[Black and white photo of two men and a young boy who is holding a buoy for a boat]

[Black and white modern-day video of a young Japanese Canadian man, Samuel Araki, speaking]

It wasn’t until 1949 seven years after the beginning of internment that they were allowed to return to the west coast.

[Black and white photo of two young Japanese Canadian children]
[Text:
Narrator: Sam Araki
Writer/Director: Gordan McLennan
Camera/Editing: Greg Masuda
Researcher: Lina Kawamoto Reid
Produced by Orbit Films]