Seventy years is a long time, but it’s not too long to forget.
In 1942, Japanese-Canadians who lived on the B.C. coast were forcibly relocated to internment camps in the Interior and other parts of Canada, by order of the federal government. Their crime – some were suspected of being possible security leaks to the Japanese government,
Canada had gone to war with Japan shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7, 1941, which brought the Americans into the Second World War.
Last December, this column noted that many Japanese Canadians who had lived in Surrey and Delta up to that time seemed to be forgotten by local governments (Don’t underestimate hate, Dec. 15).
While some Fraser Valley municipalities (notably Mission) have honoured former residents of Japanese background with street names, for example, there is little in either Surrey or Delta to remind today’s residents that there was once a thriving Japanese-Canadian community here.
That December column, and one by another writer on the effect of Pearl Harbour on the Lower Mainland Japanese-Canadian community, prompted North Delta resident Tosh Suzuki to do a little investigating.
He found that there had never been a formal apology, or even a statement, in the B.C. Legislature about the harsh treatment given to the more than 20,000 law-abiding citizens of Japanese origin, many of whom were born in Canada.Some served with the Canadian forces in the First World War.
He and his wife, Amy, were both interned as children. At the age of seven, he and his family were taken from their Pitt Meadows farm and sent to a camp in Manitoba, where they picked sugar beets until long after the war. His father’s 16-acre farm was sold off by the government for a fraction of its true value. His wife’s family was interned at Lemon Creek in the Kootenays, and she eventually moved to the New Denver internment camp that today is a fascinating museum, and the lone physical reminder of the internment camps.
He approached the B.C. government through Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto, the North Vancouver MLA who is the the first B.C. cabinet minister of Japanese heritage. Her father was also interned in the Second World War.
He also asked his MLA, Guy Gentner of the NDP, to get involved, and legislators of all political stripes co-operated to bring forth the apology on Monday.
As Suzuki said, “Most of these causes take time. It happened so quickly that I was overwhelmed.”
It is curious that B.C. never issued a formal apology back in the late 1980s, when the federal government did so, and also offered compensation to all those who were interned.
As Yamamoto noted in the House Monday, the provincial government was complicit in the removal of the Japanese-Canadians. The forced relocation was driven by anti-Oriental politicians at all levels of government, in particular the B.C. legislature and Vancouver city council.
Suzuki’s late brother-in-law once owned land on 88 Avenue just east of Scott Road, which is now a major shopping centre. Other Japanese-Canadians operated small fruit farms in the Strawberry Hill area, and others fished from Annieville on the Fraser River.
While an apology 70 years later cannot make up for the hardships that the internees endured, it is a welcome and overdue step.
The Suzukis deserve thanks for their willingness to take on this cause, and obtain formal recognition of the wrong done so long ago.
Here’s hoping that local governments in Surrey and Delta will now do their best to honour the hard work of many Japanese-Canadian residents who lived here until they were forcibly removed.
Their hard work helped to build this community.
Frank Bucholtz writes Thursdays for the Peace Arch News. He is the editor of the Langley Times.