Japanese internment

During the Second World War, on 24 Feb. 1942, the Canadian government passed order in council P.C. 1486, which resulted in the containment and deportation of approximately 21,000 Japanese Canadians living within 160 kilometres of the Pacific coast, of whom approximately 75 per cent were Canadian-born or naturalized citizens. This legislation followed the Japanese attack on the American base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, which heightened the racism already experienced by Japanese Canadians living in British Columbia. These Canadians were mainly sent to internment and labour camps in British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba, where the living conditions were deplorable. Their property, which had been seized by the government, was sold at paltry prices, barely enough to finance their confinement. In 1945 nearly 4,000 were exiled to Japan. It was not until 1949 that these Japanese Canadians were allowed to return to the west coast, and only in 1988 that they received compensation.