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They began immigrating in the early 1900s. Japanese moved to Canada for a few reasons. Many wanted to escape the hardships that they had back in their home country. There was also the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway which would involve many new jobs for the Japanese immigrants. -
On December 7 of 1942 Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbor. They wanted to expand and take resources. Japan also wanted to destroy there military powers using the surprise attack. -
This attack did not go as planned because the next day Canada declared war against Japan. Canada was worried that the Japanese were trying to expand because it was very close to territories owned by them. Also because Canada was working with other allies like the UK they felt the need to support them which means they felt the need to attack back. -
On January 16 Japanese immigrants that were males started getting removed. They thought that because they were Japanese they were considered a threat to the safety. -
On February 24 the War Measures Act was put into place. It was created because they thought that the Japanese immigrants were “enemy aliens” and could be working with Japan. For safety and security they decided to create this act. It allowed Canada to detain people without question and take away there human rights. -
A mass evacuation of the Japanese Canadian immigrants began on February 26. It was considered a safety policy to take them. They said it was to keep their "safety." -
On March 4 Japanese were forced to give many of their belongings to the government making it the governments property. They wanted to get rid of anything that could help the Japanese Canadians. Many of them had to give away their properties, homes, cars, and other personal belongings. -
In total there were ten internment camps in Canada. Often these camps were overcrowded and poorly run. They were often put in remote places away from the rest of the world. Work there would often be hard and tiring. Men and women were likely to be seperated to complete different jobs. Men were often put to work on sugar beet farms. -
The internment camps began to close because the war was beginning to end and Japan was close to being defeated. This made the government feel like the internment camps were becoming less necessary. Many people also noticed that the internment camps were not used as much for safety as a racist way to control them.