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JapaneseCanadian Internment refers to the detainment of Japanese Canadians following the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong and Malaya and attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent Canadian declaration of war on Japan during World War II. This forced relocation subjected Japanese Canadians to government-enforced curfews and interrogations, in addition to job and property losses. The internment of Japanese Canadians was deemed necessary by the federal Cabinet headed by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, largely due to existing racism. This was done so, despite evidence supplied by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Department of National Defence that this decision was unwarranted. Beginning after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and lasting until 1949 (four years after World War II had ended) all persons of Japanese heritage were systematically removed from their homes and businesses and sent to internment camps. The Canadian government shut down all Japanese-language newspapers, took possession of businesses and fishing boats, and effectively sold them. In order to fund the internment itself, vehicles, houses and personal belongings were also sold.〔 In August 1944, Prime Minister Mackenzie King announced that Japanese Canadians were to move east into prisoner of war () camps and internment camps as had been previously encouraged. The official policy stated that Japanese Canadians must move east of the Rocky Mountains or be repatriated to Japan following the end of the war. However, by 1947 many Japanese Canadians had been granted exemption to this enforced no-entry zone, and by 1949 legislation was enacted that allowed Japanese Canadians the right to vote provincially as well as federally, officially marking the end of internment. == Prewar history== Tensions between Canadians and Japanese immigrants to Canada existed long before the outbreak of World War II. Starting as early as 1858, with the influx of "Orientals" during Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, negative beliefs and fears about Asian immigrants began to affect the populace in British Columbia. These fears were often "organized around the fear of an assumed low standard of living () out of fear of Oriental cultural and racial differences." Both Japanese and Chinese immigrants were feared to be taking jobs from white Canadians and thereby impacting their ability to work. Due to this, many Canadians argued that "Oriental labour lowers the standard of living of White groups." It was also argued that Asian immigrants themselves had a lower standard of living that they were perfectly content with. The argument was that many Chinese and Japanese immigrants in British Columbia lived in unsanitary conditions and were not inclined to improve their living space thereby proving their inferiority and their unwillingness to become truly Canadian. These ideas were often refuted with the argument that, while the Japanese and the Chinese did in fact often have poor living conditions, both groups wished to improve but were hindered by the difficulty they had in finding steady work. In reference to Japanese Canadians specifically, prior to the war, racism "had defined their communities since the first immigrants arrived in the 1870s". Starting in 1877 with Manzo Nagano, a nineteen-year-old sailor who was the first Japanese person to officially immigrate to Canada, entering the salmon-exporting business, the Japanese were quick to integrate themselves into Canadian industries. Some Canadians felt, while the Chinese were content with being "confined to a few industries," the Japanese were infiltrating all areas of industry and competing "with an aggressive efficiency" that overwhelmed white workers. This was exemplified in the growing rate of Japanese fishermen. By 1919, 3,267 Japanese immigrants held fishing licenses, and 50 percent of the total licenses issued that year were issued to the Japanese. These numbers were alarming to Canadian fishermen who felt threatened by the growing number of Japanese competitors. The Japanese were also accused of being resistant to assimilation into Canadian society, with Japanese-language schools, Buddhist temples, and low inter-marriage rates being cited as examples. It was claimed that the Japanese "have their own way of life," even going so far as to claim that many of the Japanese who had become Canadian citizens "was due to their desire to obtain fishing licensees rather than their wish to become Canadian." These arguments were tied to the idea that the Japanese remained strictly loyal to Japan. The situation was exacerbated when, in 1907, the United States began prohibiting Japanese immigrants from accessing Mainland America through Hawaii resulting in a massive influx (over 7,000 as compared to 2,042 in 1906) of Japanese immigrants into British Columbia. Largely as a result, on August 12, 1907, a group of organized labourers formed an anti-Asiatic League, known as the Asiatic Exclusion League, with its membership numbering "over five hundred."〔 On the 7th of September, 1907, some 5,000 men in support of the League marched on City Hall, where they had arranged a meeting with both local and American speakers. By the time of the meeting, it was estimated that at least 25,000 people had arrived at City Hall and, following the speakers, riots broke out, culminating in a march on Chinatown and Japantown. Many windows were smashed, but the Japanese in Little Tokyo were able to push back against the mob without any serious injury or loss of life. After the riot, the League and other nativist groups used their influence to push the government into an arrangement similar to the United State's Gentlemen's Agreement, limiting the number of passports given to male Japanese immigrants to 400 per year. Women were not counted toward the quota, so "picture brides," women who married by proxy and immigrated to Canada to join (and in many cases, meet for the first time) their new husbands, became common after 1908. The influx of female immigrants — and soon after, Canadian-born children — shifted the population from a temporary workforce to a permanent presence, and Japanese Canadian family groups settled throughout British Columbia and southern Alberta.〔 During World War I, opinions of the Japanese improved slightly. They were seen as an ally of Great Britain and some even enrolled in the Canadian Forces. On the homefront, many businesses began hiring groups that had been under represented in the workforce (including women, Yugoslavian and Italian refugees who had fled to Canada during the war, and Japanese immigrants) to help fulfill the increasing demands of Britain and its allies overseas. Businesses that had previously been opposed to doing so were now more than happy to hire the Japanese as there was "more than enough work for all." However, at the end of the war, soldiers returning home to find their jobs filled by others, including Japanese immigrants, were outraged. While they had been fighting in Europe, the Japanese had established themselves securely in many business and were now, more than ever, perceived as a threat to white workers. "'Patriotism' and 'Exclusion' became the watchwords of the day."〔 While many groups, like the Asiatic Exclusion League and the White Canada Association, saw the Japanese as a possible threat to their way of life, by the 1920s other groups had begun to come forward in their defense. A group known as the Japan Society is one such example. The Japan Society, in contrast to rival groups membership being mostly laborers farmers and fishermen, consisted of wealthy white businessmen whose goal was to improve relations between the Japanese and Canadians both at home and abroad. The heads of the organization included a "prominent banker of Vancouver" and a "manager of some of the largest lumbering companies in (Columbia )." They saw the Japanese as being important partners in helping open businesses in British Columbia up to Japanese markets. Others still worked to hinder the progress of Japanese immigrants in Canada. This was especially apparent in the fisheries industry of British Columbia during the 1920s and 30s. Prior to the 1920s, many Japanese were employed as pullers, a job that required them to help the net men row the boats out to fish. The job required no license so, for first generation Japanese immigrants who were not Canadian citizens, the job was one of the few they were able to acquire. In 1923, however, the government lifted a ban on the use of motorboats and also enacted a law that required pullers to be licensed. This had a large impact on the Japanese it meant that first generation immigrants, known as Issei were unable to get jobs in the fishing industry. This resulted in large scale unemployment among these Issei. Second generation Japanese immigrants, known as Nisei began entering the fishing industry at a younger age to compensate for this but even they were hindered as the increased use of motorboats resulted in less need for pullers and only a small amount of fishing licenses were issued to the Japanese. This situation escalated in May 1938 when the Governor General abolished the pullers license entirely despite Japanese protest of the move. This resulted in many younger Japanese being forced from the fishing industry leaving Japanese net men to fend for themselves. Later that year, in August, a change to the borders of fishing districts in the area resulted in the loss of license for several Japanese fishermen who claimed they had not been informed of the change. While these events did result in reduced competition from the Japanese in the fishing industry, it created further tensions elsewhere. The Japanese had already been able to establish a secure position in many businesses during World War I, but their numbers had remained relatively small as many had stayed working in the fishing industry. As the Japanese began to be pushed out of fishing, they increasingly began to work on farms and in small businesses. The result of this move was that white Canadian farmers and businessmen began having to compete with Japanese immigrants leading to increased racial tension. In the years leading up to World War II, there were approximately 29,000 Canadians of Japanese ancestry in British Columbia, of whom 80% were Canadian nationals.〔Summary of Memorandum, Maj. Gen. Maurice Pope, Vice Chief of General Staff (VCGS) to Chief of General Staff (Permanent), 13 January 1942, extracted from HQS 7368, vol. I, Defence Records, 322.009(D358), DND. in (The Politics of Racism ) by Ann Gomer Sunahara〕 At the time, they were denied the right to vote and barred by law from various professions. Racial tensions often stemmed from the fact that many believed that all Japanese immigrants, both first generation Issei and second generation Nisei, remained loyal to Japan alone. A professor of the University of British Columbia was quoted by Maclean's Magazine as saying that the "Japanese in B.C. are as loyal to () as Japanese anywhere in the world." Others felt that tensions, in British Columbia specifically, originated in the fact that the Japanese were clustered together almost entirely in and around Vancouver. As a result, as early as 1938, there was talk of encouraging the Japanese to begin moving east of the Rocky Mountains, an idea that became a reality during World War II. The actions of Japan leading up to World War II were also seen as cause for concern. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1934, began ignoring the naval ratio set up by the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, and, in 1936, refused to follow the Second London Naval Treaty and allied with Germany with the Anti-Comintern Pact. Being that many felt that resident Japanese immigrants would always remain loyal to their home country, the Japanese in British Columbia, even those born and raised in Canada, were often judged for these actions taken by their ancestral home. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Japanese Canadian internment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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