CRIMES VS. HUMANITY: LESSONS FROM ASIA PACIFIC WAR

RACISM & THE WARTIME JAPANESE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE

_{Judge Maryka Omatsu 3/03}

This conference on the Lessons from the Asia Pacific War 1931-1945 will focus on crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial army in Korea and China, on the U.S. decision to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the treatment of Canadians of Japanese ancestry from 1942 – 1949. If one examines these events, the one factor they have in common and which permitted the governments of these countries to unleash inhumane miseries on civilian Koreans, Chinese and Japanese Canadians was racism.

Let me begin by telling you the story of my community’s experience in Canada. It is a tale of almost spirit breaking discrimination ending in tacit acceptance by the mainstream through our virtual assimilation. We are among one of Canada’s smallest minorities, (60,000 +). Presently into our fifth generation in Canada, with an inter-marriage rate of over 95% and with virtually no immigration from Japan, Japanese Canadians are disappearing into the genetic wash of Canada. We will leave behind, however, our successful struggle for redress for the WWII injustices, as a shield and a precedent for others.

THE HISTORY

From our first arrival on Canada’s West Coast, Japanese Canadians have been subject to virulent racism.[1] At one time, we were visible, shunned, and discriminated against ... the most hated minority in the country. Our history of racism did not begin at the outbreak of WWII but stretched back to our arrival on these shores.

Most Japanese migrated to Canada from the late 1870’s to the 1920’s. The first Canadian census of Japanese immigrants in 1901 indicated some 4,738 (primarily single males). From 1905-1907 a further influx of 12,000 was recorded.[2] This sudden mass arrival of Asians (i.e. Chinese and Japanese) culminated in 1907 with race riots, when gangs of whites vandalized and terrorized Vancouver’s China and Japan towns. The “yellow peril” problem was addressed through the 1908 Hayashi-Lemieux “Gentlemen’s Agreement” that restricted immigration from Japan.[3] With limited immigration and with an 80% return migration to Japan, by the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese Canadian community nonetheless numbered some 23,000 living primarily along the coast of British Columbia.

Noteworthy are the following facts: in 1895, the British Columbia provincial “Elections Act”’ which had deprived the Chinese and East Indians of the right to vote was amended to include Japanese immigrants and their children born in Canada.[4] Despite a lawsuit brought by Tomekichi Homna a naturalized Canadian of Japanese ancestry, challenging this discrimination, the English Privy Council upheld the law in 1902. As a result, Japanese Canadians were denied most of the rights, whites took for granted.[5] Since being on the provincial voters’ list was a frequent job requirement, many employment doors were slammed shut. Effectively Japanese Canadians could not obtain timber leases, log on crown lands, receive government contracts, or work as public school teachers, underground miners and provincial or municipal civil servants. They were also denied entry into professions, such as law and pharmacy. Canadians of Japanese ancestry were refused basic civil liberties including the right to vote, serve on juries and to run for political office. The prohibition of the franchise and citizenship rights remained in place until 1949 for Japanese Canadians.

We could not forget,

Nor yet go back to Japan.

Without our homeland

Most of us Issei were like

Trees that were slowly dying.

- Kimiko Ono, an issei immigrant [6]

THE WAR YEARS

Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7^th, 1941, Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s Liberal government deemed all Japanese Canadians to be “enemy alien” security risks.[7] This despite advice from the Canadian military and the R.C.M.P. that Japanese Canadians did not pose a defence threat. In 1940, Assistant Commissioner Frederick John Mead, the R.C.M.P. officer responsible for West Coast security, advised that “there is far more possibility of trouble developing against the Japanese in Canada as a result of agitation being carried on by certain individuals, (such as Ian Mackenzie, the only B.C. member in Mackenzie King’s Cabinet and Vancouver city alderman Halford Wilson) than there would be by the Japanese against this Country.”[8] Major General Ken Stuart, Chief of the General Staff stated, “From the army’s point of view, I cannot see that Japanese Canadians constitute the slightest menace to national security.”[9] At a Conference on the “Japanese Problem in B.C.” held in Ottawa in January 1942, representatives from the Dept. of National Defence, the Naval Services and the R.C.M.P. all opposed the incarceration of Japanese Canadians and maintained that the measures already in place were more than adequate.[10]

Notwithstanding this informed counsel, within months the entire community was uprooted, quickly transported to Hastings Park and then relocated away from the coast. Most (i.e. women, children and the elderly) were funneled to hastily constructed camps deep in the British Columbia interior. Families were sent to work as indentured labour on sugar beet farms in Alberta or Manitoba. Some 2000 able-bodied men between the ages of 18 – 45 were deployed to road camps in the Rockie Mountains and 700 men who resisted the internment were housed in POW camps in northern Ontario. As the Government moved the Japanese Canadians away from the 100-mile strip along the coast, they quickly seized the personal belongings and property of the evacuees. Taken were the homes, cars and businesses of an entire community, for e.g. 769 farms in the Fraser valley comprising 13,000 acres of the finest agricultural land in B.C., and 1,200 fishing boats were appropriated.

The next year, 1943, the Canadian government sold the internees’ property without the consent of the owners at prices substantially below market values and used the proceeds to pay for the cost of their imprisonment.[11] This also occurred in Nazi Germany where the property of Jewish prisoners was sold and used to pay the costs of running the concentration camps. When the Canadian sales were challenged in 1943, by Japanese Canadian property owners, Judge Thorson of the Federal Court strategically delayed throwing the case out until 1947, long after the new owners, largely friends of the government and returning soldiers were in occupation of the lands, farms, fishing boats, homes and businesses.[12]

It wasn’t until my father was near his death, that he felt able to return to Vancouver to visit the corner of Broadway and Granville. A modern Royal Bank branch office remains on the site where his restaurant had been. I have passed the area in Kitsilano where my family lived pre-war and I may have walked by the address on Powell Street where my paternal grandparents had a store. I have never visited my maternal grandparents’ farm in the Fraser valley, but I have pored over the sepia photos in my aunt’s album that picture a wooden farmhouse and acres of hops, market vegetables and fruits.

Despite the Japanese surrender on September 2^nd 1945, the Government passed the “National Emergency Transitional Powers Act” to continue the repression against Japanese Canadians. In 1946, the Canadian government attempted to deport and exile half of the community (10,000 persons) to war-decimated Japan.[13] A lawsuit was launched to fight the deportations. The Government’s actions were upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada and later in December 1946 by the Privy Council in England. Shortly thereafter the Government packed some 20% of the community (4,319) into American troop carriers and shipped them to Japan, a country most did not know.[14] The remaining 80% (18,000) still held in camps were dispersed across the country and prohibited until 1949 from returning to the West Coast.

My family, like most Japanese Canadians decided to resettle in eastern Canada, where it was whispered, there was less racism. In 1948, when my family was released from the camps, they relocated to Hamilton, Ontario, where I was born, partly because my mother, who had been born near the snow-capped Rockie Mountains in northern British Columbia, had heard there was a “mountain” there. Prime Minister Mackenzie King himself the prime mover of the incarcerations allowed that “no person of Japanese race born in Canada has been charged with any act of sabotage or disloyalty during the years of the war.”[15] In leaving B.C., We left family and friends.

Many were reunited but it was not the same.

Nor will it ever be the same.

And in going forward we tried

with many a backward glance to keep in sight

all that we held dear to our hearts.

The time comes when we must lose

the last link to these too,

and until the moment when one takes

the last step into oblivion,

one remembers the sound of fading footsteps,

the quiet sadness of a silent farewell.

- Muriel Kitagawa 1946 [16]

EXPLANATIONS FOR THE TREATMENT

I suggest that two factors are crucial to understanding the treatment accorded to Japanese Canadians. The first and obvious one is racism. Although Canada and the U.S. were at war with Germany and Italy, both Governments mass incarcerated only their citizens of Japanese ancestry. When the U.S. declared war on Italy, Washington considered interning Italian Americans. However the plan was quickly scuttled for fear that Americans would not countenance the internment of the all American baseball hero and the man who was to become the husband of Marilyn Munroe, Joe DiMaggio.

By contrast, from their first steps onto Canadian soil, Japanese Canadians were discriminated against and never considered to be Canadians. For much of their history in this country they were isolated and friendless. The pervading racism of the times allowed the Government to subject Japanese Canadians to draconian treatment.

The second factor was the “War Measures Act” of 1914. This Act is empowering legislation. Its existence illustrated our trust in the good will of Government and our willingness to hand over our civil and human rights whenever so ordered. This submissiveness is something I would like to consider further because I find this more difficult to understand. No doubt this uneasiness comes from our experience whereby the combination of repressive legislation, political opportunism and racism led to our WWII experience. The seamless transition from democracy to police state for Japanese Canadians was made possible because of the “War Measures Act” which authorized the transfer of power from the democratically elected House of Commons, to the Cabinet, which was able to quickly without debate and public scrutiny to introduce through Orders-in-Council measures to override civil liberties.

This transition was further assisted by the lack of a constitution to protect citizens’ rights in a time of emergency. It is our belief that Japanese Americans were treated less severely than Japanese Canadian in part because of the U.S. Constitution. For example, the Americans did not confiscate and sell the internees’ property without the owners’ consent, the Americans did not exile or deport Japanese Americans and the repression there ended with the end of the war and not in 1949 as in Canada.

CONCLUSIONS: LESSONS LEARNED--RACISM

What is the relationship between racism and war? My view, informed as it is by the experience of Japanese Canadians during and after WWII, is 1) first, racism exacerbates some of the worst of wartime practices. It is well known that racism is used to whip up hatred, especially on the part of combatants, with respect to the enemy nation—hence the demonization of Germans as the monstrous “Hun” in both world wars. In the case of Canada, however, I would like to believe that Canadian racism during the 1940’s was too artificial and too weak to have authorized the mass incarcerations of Japanese Canadians. Most likely the explanation is more complex and can be attributed to “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership”. This is the conclusion that the bi-partisan committee into the U.S. Wartime relocation and internment of civilians came to when they examined Executive Order 9066 that authorized the U.S. incarcerations.[17]

2) A second lesson is that just as racism makes wartime excesses possible, war also exacerbates racism. During our campaign for Redress, when ordinary white Canadians learned of the treatment of Japanese Canadians they were almost always shocked and angered by the history. This indignation helped my community to get the Mulroney Government in 1988 to acknowledge the wrong and to make token reparations.

3) A third lesson relates to racism during wartime and the failure of the law to protect civil rights. Our experience was that during the 1940’s, Japanese Canadians were forced to live under police state conditions, with the consent of the majority and with the stamp of approval from the highest courts. Although some racist politicians at the time fanned the flames by scare mongering, fifth column activity was nil, despite what justifications, McKenzie King apologist, Professor Jack Granatstein, might try to drum up today. Japanese Canadian history reminds us that even a democratic country waging a war for liberty and human rights abroad, nevertheless treated 21,000 of its own civilian citizens during WWII, as prisoners of war.

A positive outcome of the successful redress movements in Canada and the U.S. was that post September 11^th, 2001, President Bush and Prime Minister Chretien reminded people of the internments as events never to be repeated. Despite the demands from some to detain Middle Eastern Americans and Muslims or deport them, apparently at present, there are some 1,000 “enemy combatants” in American or Cuban jails. However, contrast this to 120,000 Japanese American and 21,000 Japanese Canadian internees. Some progress I suggest has been made on the anti-racism front.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

This brings me back to the willingness of Canadians to hand over our civil liberties in times of crisis and to live under anti-civil libertarian conditions. The introduction of the Constitution in 1982 and the repeal of the “War Measures Act” in 1988 was a step forward. Japanese Canadians together with other Canadians lobbied successfully for both of these initiatives. The new “Emergency Powers Act” of 1988 prohibited the worst excesses of the “War Measures Act” i.e. mass internments of ethnic minorities and property confiscation without compensation. As a result, our community slept more soundly.

However, the bombing of the twin towers in N.Y.C woke us up to a new reality. Fast forward to 2001 and we have the Liberals introducing one month after 9/ll a disturbing piece of legislation the “Anti-Terrorism Act” which became law two months later.

Although this Act has come under much criticism and scrutiny,[18] I will mention two provisions cited by Professor David Paciocco that are inconsistent with our legal traditions. Under this Act, persons can be held without charges if they are suspected of aiding or being involved with a listed terrorist organization, and they can be forced to provide evidence in investigative hearings which might abrogate their right to silence and their right against self-incrimination. [19]

Yet with the New York city bombings, Americans seem strangely willing to support racial profiling, to give up their rights to privacy, and to take away the rights of some Americans. These so-called “enemy combatants”, which can include American citizens, can be held in custody indeterminately, without charges, bail, or the right to a lawyer if they are suspected of being connected to a terrorist group.

The Canadian “Anti-Terrorism Act” has aspects of totalitarianism as well. Its harshest provisions apply to refugees and permanent residents and not mainstream Canadians. We are saved from its excesses because we are not governed by a Hitler or a Stalin. Professor David Paciocco warns of “creeping incrementalism”, however. He fears that with time these “exceptional measures” will become woven into the fabric of Canadian criminal law” and that they may come to be “acceptable law enforcement initiatives” our having forgotten that the justification for these totalitarian measures is the exceptional context of North American fear of Islamic fundamentalist acts of mass terror.

A colleague of Paciocco, Professor Error Mendez said that “post 9/ll we have entered a new territory between crime and war—a new paradigm challenge. We must not allow it to overwhelm our fundamental values of human rights, equality and multiculturalism.” Ontario’s Chief Justice, Roy McMurtry said that “future terrorism rulings will force Judges to make agonizing choices between liberty and security. Judges must continue to uphold the rights of minorities…and when the majority takes away the rights of a minority that is not democracy.”

A present debate being conducted in the pages of the Globe and Mail concerns the ethical question whether it is legitimate to torture someone like al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz argues that the State should be required to apply to the courts for a “torture warrant” much like they now apply for a search warrant. William Schultz, executive director of Amnesty International USA replied that torture violates both the Convention against Torture, which the U.S. ratified in 1994 and the U.S. Constitution. I find it disturbing that we are engaged in this debate.

U.S. civil rights lawyer, Leonard Weinglass described a country where in federal institutions conversations between a lawyer and his client are taped, where citizens can disappear, be held incommunicado without a right to a lawyer, without charges being laid and now where they can be tortured.

How to explain why our fear of random acts of mass violence has justified the curtailment of our basic civil liberties? I am genuinely puzzled, given that Canadians have not been attacked, why we are prepared to go down this path. We do not consider ourselves to be bellicose or nationalistic. We pride ourselves on our toleration and our respect for civil liberties. Yet this abrogation of our rights and freedoms has been generally accepted. I welcome any explanations from this audience.

These are disturbing times that we live in. In some respects we are in uncharted waters. However as the old adage goes, we must learn from the past if we are not destined to repeat our mistakes. As a Japanese Canadian I feel a special responsibility to remind Canadians of our history and the fragility and importance of our democratic ideals. On this topic, David Suzuki warned that “democracy is most challenged when faced with a crisis. When times are good, it’s easy to guarantee all kinds of rights and freedoms, but it’s only when times are tough that those guarantees matter.”[20]

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[1] Bruce Ryder, “Racism & the Constitution: The Constitutional Fate of British Columbia Anti-Asian Immigration Legislation, 1884-1909” (1991) 29 Osgoode Hall Journal 619. Ryder documents over 100 provincial statutes enacted between 1872 and 1922 discriminating against Chinese and Japanese.

[2] Dermot Vibert, “Asian Migration to Canada in Historical Context”, (The Canadian Geographer 32, no. 4, 1988), p.352

3. Ken Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was A History of Japanese Canadians, (Toronto, McClelland and Stewart) 1991, chap. 3. See Adachi for a detailed history of Japanese Canadians pre-redress.

[4] Adachi, p.41

[5] 1902 Tomekichi Honma, a community leader, lost this fight for the franchise.

[6] Cited in Maryka Omatsu, Bittersweet Passage: Redress and the Japanese Canadian Experience, Between the Lines: Toronto, 1992, p. 51

[7] Order in council P.C. 1486, Feb. 24, 1942, permitted the removal and detention of any persons from the protected area.

[8] Report to R.C.M.P. Commissioner S.T. Wood, 21 August 1940, Dept. of National Defence Papers, RG 24, Vol. 2730, File HQS-5199x, Public Archives of Canada

[9] Maurice Pope, Soldiers and Politicians: The Memoirs of Lt. Gen. Maurice Pope (Toronto: U. of T. Press, 1962) p. 177

[10] Conference on Japanese Problems in B.C., 8-9 Jan. 1942, Minutes, External Affairs Files 773-B-40-C, External Affairs archives

[11] Order-In- council PC 469 pursuant to the War Measures Act authorized the Custodian of Enemy Property to sell off the property of the internees without their consent.

[12] Thorson, J. had been in Cabinet in 1942. He determined that the Custodian was not a servant of the Crown and that the Japanese Canadian property owners had sued in the wrong court.

[13] Order-in-Council PC 7355 authorized the deportations, however, it was later repealed.

[14] Ann Gomer Sunahara, The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, (Toronto: Lorimer, 1981), and pp. 118-128. Sunahara maintains that the repatriates left under duress, amidst great confusion and misinformation.

[15] William Lyon Mackenzie King, House of Commons Debates, 1944, p. 5913

[16] Cited in Omatsu, Bittersweet Passage, supra, p. 71

[17] U.S. Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal Justice Denied Part 2 Recommendations, 1983, p. 5

[18] Ron Daniels et.al. Editors, The Security of Freedom: Essays on Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Bill, U. of Toronto Press, 2001

[19] David Paciocco, U. of Ottawa law professor, paper for the NJI 2002 in Vancouver

[20] David Suzuki, “Nikkei Voice”, Mar. 2003, p. 1