The Evacuation
Evacuee’s card carried by Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, ca. 1942-1945.
Galt Museum & Archives, P19790284038.
The Pacific War started with the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7, 1941. By December 16, the Canadian government required the immediate registration of all persons of Japanese origin, regardless of citizenship.
By February 1942, the federal government called for all Japanese Canadians to move out of the “Defense Zone” — a strip about 100 miles wide along the British Columbia coast. They were required to leave behind their homes, businesses, boats, and vehicles.
21,000 people were evacuated from the Defense Zone over an eleven month period. Many Japanese Canadians were interned in camps in the interior of British Columbia until after the war.
Over 2,500 Japanese Canadians were moved to southern Alberta in 1942, followed by an additional 800 in 1947. Those who came included Issei and Nisei.
Relocation (Transcript)
Relocation
[geese calling]
[woman]: I remember the long walk back home
from the beet field.
After school, my brother, sister, and I
would join mom and dad, who had been there all day,
and we all worked until suppertime.
It was hard work, and I got so tired.
Jiro, I'm tired.
Carry this water jug so I don't drop it?
No, Sumiko.
I'm tired too, and I'm carrying the hoes.
We don't have far to go.
Besides, you shouldn't complain.
We went through worse during the war.
I don't remember the war. What happened?
[woman]: Before the war,
our mother and father owned a store in Mission, BC.
We lived in a nice house and had a car.
[plane engine rumbles]
[bombs fall]
[Jiro]: When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,
Canada went to war against the Japanese.
[Sumiko]: But we're Japanese!
[Jiro]: Our ancestors are Japanese, but we are Canadians.
We are born here,
and Mom and Dad became citizens long before the war started.
[woman]: Our father and mother came to Canada
almost 20 years before the war.
They worked hard
and saved their money to start the store.
[Sumiko]: Why did we have to leave BC?
[Jiro]: They thought we might be spies.
[Sumiko]: I'm not a spy. Are you a spy?
[Jiro]: No one that we knew was a spy, but that didn't matter.
We were told to pack some things and leave.
[Sumiko]: Oh, I remember crying
because we had to leave our yellow cat all alone.
[meowing]
[woman]: All we were allowed to bring
was a few crates of belongings.
When the train got to Lethbridge,
a farmer showed us an old shack where we were to live.
Mother cried then.
[Sumiko]: Why didn't Daddy start another store?
He doesn't like to farm.
[Jiro]: He wasn't given a choice.
They needed help planting and harvesting beets.
Besides, we weren't allowed to live in Lethbridge.
[Sumiko]: Isn't that where Toshiko
wants to go to be a nurse?
[woman]: Our older sister, Toshiko,
wanted to attend the Galt School of Nursing,
but it wasn't until after the war
that a Japanese-Canadian girl was accepted there.
After the war, life got a little easier,
and the Buddhist celebrations,
like the Bon Odori festival for the ancestors,
were a happy time in the community.
[Sumiko]: I get to go with Mama
to the Bon Odori dance practice tonight.
We're going to make a new yukata
for me to wear this year.
[Jiro]: I love the dancing that happens
after the service at the cemetery.
It's such a special part of the day.
Reverend at the temple says the festival
is a joyful gathering in honour of our ancestors.
He says it helps us keep our courage up
and remember that the bad times pass.
Like now. See? We are home already.
[purring]
[§§§]