Japanese Internment
“The Yellow Peril”
WWII in Canada
Canadian POWs in Hong
Kong
Almost 2000 Canadians attacked
Hong Kong in 1941
50 000 Japanese troops armed
with superior weapons attacked
1672 Canadians were captured
and sent to a POW camp in Japan
The prisoners, treated inhumanely,
suffered from disease and
starvation.
In 1998 our own Canadian
government compensated our
Hong Kong veterans $24 000 each
Back in Canada –
War Measures Act invoked again
Fear of Japanese Canadians working as spies resulted
in the internment of 22 000
Japanese Canadians were seized, held in barns at
Hastings Park then moved into BC’s interior
•Anti-Japanese marches in Vancouver convinced
750 people to move voluntarily
•The gov’t confiscated Japanese property, possessions were
auctioned off and owners received nothing
•1945 – Japanese Canadians were forced to either move back
to Japan or permanently settle east of the Rocky Mountains
•3964 Japanese Canadians were deported, 2000 of them
Canadian citizens
•1988 – our Gov’t apologized and compensated those still
Alive $21 000 each and restored Canadian citizenship to those
deported