Internment of Japanese Canadians

From 1942 to 1949, Canada forcibly relocated and interned over 22,000 Japanese Canadians—comprising over 90% of the total Japanese Canadian population—from British Columbia on the grounds of national security. The majority were Canadian citizens by birth and were targeted based on their ancestry. This decision followed the events of the Empire of Japan's war in the Pacific against the Western Allies, such as the invasion of Hong Kong, the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the Fall of Singapore which led to the Canadian declaration of war on Japan during World War II. Similar to the actions taken against Japanese Americans in neighbouring United States, Japanese Canadians were also subjected to government-enforced curfews and interrogations, job and property losses, and forced repatriation to Japan.

From shortly after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor until 1949, Japanese Canadians were stripped of their homes and businesses, then sent to internment camps and farms in British Columbia as well as other parts of Canada, mostly towards the interior. The internees had their property seized and sold, including houses, farms, businesses, fishing boats, motor vehicles and personal belongings. The proceeds of these sales were used to pay for their basic needs of the internees during the internment.

In August 1944, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King announced that Japanese Canadians were to be moved east out of the British Columbia Interior. The official policy stated that Japanese Canadians must move east of the Rocky Mountains or be deported to Japan following the end of the war. By 1947, many Japanese Canadians had been granted exemption to enter the no-entry zone. It was not until April 1, 1949, that all Japanese Canadians were granted freedom of movement and could re-enter the "protected zone" along British Columbia's coast.

On September 22, 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney delivered an apology, and the Canadian government announced a compensation package, one month after President Ronald Reagan made similar gestures in the United States following the internment of Japanese Americans. The package for interned Japanese Canadians included $21,000 to each surviving internee, and the reinstatement of Canadian citizenship to those who were deported to Japan. Following Mulroney's apology, the Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement was established in 1988, along with the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation (JCRF; 1988–2002), to issue redress payments for internment victims, with the intent of funding education.