1988: Government apologizes to Japanese Canadians
As Canadian soldiers were fighting overseas in the name of democracy, at home the federal government was staging the largest mass exodus in Canadian history. During the Second World War, roughly 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly evacuated from the west coast and resettled in other parts of the country. Their struggle continued after the war as they fought for an apology and redress for their loss. CBC Television and Radio covered the crucial issues in their journey from relocation to redress.
• "We cannot change the past. But we must, as a nation, have the courage to face up to these historical facts." The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney (1988)
• The federal government confiscated and sold their property. Unlike prisoners of war, who are protected by the Geneva Convention, Japanese Canadians had to pay for their own internment. Their movements were restricted and their mail censored.
• Men were separated from their families and forced into work crews building roads, railroads, and sugar beet farms. The women, children and older people were sent inland to internment camps in northern British Columbia.
• After the war ended in 1945, Japanese Canadians were offered a choice: to either be deported to Japan, a defeated country unknown to most, or to re-settle in eastern Canada.
• In 1949, four years after the war was over, Japanese Canadians were finally given back full citizenship rights, including the right to vote and the right to return to the west coast.
Program: The National
Broadcast Date: Sept. 22, 1988
Guests: Charles Kadota, Sisko Miki, Masui Tagashira, Tony Tamayose
Host: Peter Mansbridge
Reporters: Wendy Mesley, Karen Webb
Duration: 4:29
Last updated: September 16, 2013
Page consulted on September 10, 2014
All Clips from this Topic
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John M. Ewing proposes repatriation.
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Following the Allied victory in Japan, Kinzie Tanaka says that Japanes...
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Arthur Tateishi recalls the discrimination he faced when he moved to T...
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Canadians fight for and against the evacuation of the Japanese Canadia...
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A father and two sons are sent to a PoW camp for resisting the evacuat...
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Academics and Japanese Canadians re-examine the relocation policy in t...
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CBC Radio examines the issue of reclaiming lost property during the Ja...
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Muriel Kitagawa and Hide Shimizu describe their experience of the evac...
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David Suzuki recalls his period in the internment camps as bittersweet...
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The Mulroney government backtracks and says the Japanese Canadians wil...
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A conflicted Japanese Canadian community agrees on one thing: it must ...
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War veterans express opposition to the Japanese Canadian redress.
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Japanese Americans receive an apology and compensation.
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Canada issues a formal apology for the Japanese Canadian internment.
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The Murakami family returns to Salt Spring Island to begin again.
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The federal government apologizes to Japanese Canadians for internment...
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As Canadian soldiers were fighting overseas in the name of democracy, ...