Enemies within?: Japanese-Canadian Internment 1941-1949

by Lindsay Epp

From the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 until years after the war had ended, Japanese-Canadians were forced from their homes and into internment camps, most of these in British Columbia.


David Suzuki talks about his family’s internment in WWII
David Suzuki is one of Canada's prominent Japanese-Canadians that was forced into internment during WWII. He has spoken about the long-term effects that this period has on himself and his family. This NFB clip shows him visiting the Slocan Valley internment camp where he was interned at six years of age.

“By Turns Poetic”
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Roy Miki, prominent Canadian poet and scholar (currently a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University) describes the long process of redress in "By Turns Poetic". 

From Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation Through the Lens of Cultural Diversity. Edited by Ashok Mathur, Jonathan Dewar, and Mike DeGagne. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2011.

Forced To Close
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Japanese-Canadian business owners were forced to surrender their businesses and properties to the Canadian Government. Here Yamato Silks tries to clear out inventory with a sale advertisement (Vancouver Sun)

Decades of Prejudice: Vancouver Anti-Asian Riots, 1907
This image depicts damage done to a storefront in Japantown during the 1907 Anti-Asiant Riots in Vancouver. These riots help to illustrate that racial injustice was nothing new to Japanese-Canadians at the time of internment. (Historica Canada Library and Archives)