“I have to pay taxes, but have never been allowed to vote. Even now, they took our land, our houses, our children, everything. We are their enemies.”(1) This is a perfect quote by the Japanese Centennial Project to represent the mistreatment of the Japanese Canadians in Canada. Between the years 1941 and 1949, the Japanese people of Canada had their belongings taken, and were relocated to internment camps in the interior of British Columbia. Where they would be forced to stay for the entirety of the war. The human rights violations, hardships in the camps, and the redress that came too late made the Japanese Canadian internment a national disgrace. The internment began after the Japanese attack on Hong Kong and Pearl Harbour. …show more content…
Just after the Japanese attacks, the Canadian government passed Order in Council PC 9760 which forbid all Japanese Canadians from working as fishermen and lumberjacks. Before this change these jobs were the main source of income for most Japanese Canadian families. Over 1200 Japanese Canadian fishing boats were confiscated by the government between December 1941 and January 1942. As a result, the unemployment rate among their community skyrocketed (10). When they were taken to the Internment camps in 1942, the government proceeded to gather the rest of their belongings and sell them. This goes against the right to own property and that no one shall be deprived of their property. This is stated in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights Article 17. (2.1). The second human rights violation was of article 9 “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile” (2.2) The Japanese Canadians were detained in internment camps for almost 4 years without reason, perhaps because of the racist views of the Canadian Government at the time. Lastly, the Canadian Government violated workers' rights. In the Declaration of Human Rights article 23, it states “ Every grown-up …show more content…
Many of the Japanese Canadians who lived through the camps suffered from PTSD and other mental disabilities such as depression and anxiety. Many Japanese Canadians of the time were brought up thinking of themselves as lesser, with many people of high power talking down to them, as can be heard by Thomas Reid on January 15, 1942 “Take them back to Japan. They do not belong here, and here, and there is only one solution to the problem. They cannot be assimilated as Canadians for no matter how long the Japanese remain in Canada, they will always be Japanese.” (4), Even though the government later apologized in 1988 for their wrongdoings, they would never be able to compensate for the mental and physical strain it had caused to them and their