Japanese Influence On Canada

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Japanese Canadians played a huge part in the growth and prosperity of the Canadian economy in the decades prior to World War II. During the late 1870’s, thousands of Japanese people came to Canada in hopes of a better future. They not only brightened their own future but also the future of Canada as they fished, worked in lumber mills, and opened businesses. As soon as the dark days of WWII came closer, so did the demise of Japanese Canadians as the hatred and racism towards them flourished throughout Canada. When WWII was under way, the Japanese aggression in Asia, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the fall of Hong Kong, caused many Canadians to fear that Canada’s west coast of British Columbia might be attacked next. As a result, the Canadian government decided to evacuate all persons of Japanese decent from the coastal areas of British Columbia as…show more content…
In fact 75% of the Japanese Canadians were born in Canada and had little or no connection to Japan. It is totally understandable that the Canadian government wanted to protect their country but what does not make sense is why Japanese Canadians were not given a chance to defend themselves. In the court of law it is always said “one is innocent until proven guilty.” The obvious reason behind why the Canadian government did not allow Japanese Canadians to prove their innocence and sent them to a prisoner-of-war camp as punishment for their defiance was because they had absolutely no proof of what they were accusing the Japanese Canadians of. Furthermore, justice was denied on March 31, 1943 when the Japanese Property Owners Association took legal action when the Canadian Justice System dismissed their case on a technicality. As you can see, the actions the Canadian government took in WWII were based on merely their feelings and not facts and

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