From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Japanese/
When the Japanese came to Canada, they were immediately perceived as what would now be called a “visible minority.” All felt the effects of discrimination in British Columbia, but economic and social problems within the community were compounded by generational conflicts. The traumatic events of World War II threw diverse individuals and families together, often in close quarters. The federal government’s policies of repatriation and dispersal subsequently scattered the community and sometimes tore families apart. Once resettlement was complete, 3,964 individuals had left Canada for Japan. Within Canada, members of the community were widely dispersed. By 1951, even though wartime regulations had been suspended two years earlier, there were more Japanese Canadians in Ontario (8,581) than in British Columbia (7,169). The relative distribution of Japanese among the provinces has remained relatively stable since then, except for British Columbia, which now has marginally more Japanese Canadians than Ontario.
Many who had experienced the wartime uprooting were anxious to forget the past and get on with their lives in mainstream Canadian society. Interest in Japanese organizations waned. Other Canadians had once vilified the Japanese as inassimilable, but that attitude rapidly changed. Marriage outside the group became the norm, especially for the third generation. In 1976 Ken Adachi, who was commissioned by the National Japanese Canadian Citizens Association to write what has become the standard history of the Japanese in Canada, observed that they “will likely fade as a distinct linguistic and social minority.”
Yet Adachi’s book, which was in part written “to reveal the demon [of racism] in all its scary ugliness and perhaps exorcise it,” helped to rekindle ancestral pride among Japanese Canadians. The third generation, few of whom had any personal recollections of the trauma of wartime and who have enjoyed economic success and developed a self-confidence that their parents could not experience, were shocked to learn their history. In Vancouver a group of young members of the third generation, together with several new immigrants, prepared a photographic history of the Japanese to celebrate the centennial of their arrival in Canada. The exhibit crossed the country and helped to inspire the redress campaign. Though that movement was initially divisive, the process helped the Japanese-Canadian community exorcise its past.
Because Japanese Canadians have virtually assimilated with the rest of the Canadian community, the opportunity to meet others of the same background has been limited. The success of the redress movement and the emergence of interest in Japanese culture and tradition among the later generations may result in more social interactions and lead to more marriages within the community. Certainly, the movement has renewed old friendships and revived pride in the Japanese-Canadian heritage through gatherings such as the Seniors Conference in Calgary in 1989 and Homecoming in Vancouver in 1992.
The post-1960 immigrants are very different from the original settlers and their descendants. In some localities the two groups have merged well; in others the differences seem insurmountable. The second generation’s conception of Japan is of the rural Meiji society from which their parents came; the new immigrants were raised in the urban society of the occupation years. Many did not experience the privations and restrictions of wartime Japan, and they have a self-confidence and an ancestral pride that older Japanese Canadians lack.
Predicting the future of the community and its leadership is difficult. Regional and generational conflict continues; younger people demand explanations for the “submissiveness” and “silence” of their parents. Yet it is clear that the Japanese-Canadian community remains strong. Its vitality is due in part to the experience of World War II. During that conflict, the intermingling of Japanese at Hastings Park, in the road camps, and in the interior settlements brought together many who might otherwise have never met. Though they were dispersed after the war, redress activities have renewed personal friendships. The discomfort that many felt in attracting public attention by large gatherings has dissipated. Not only do Japanese Canadians now confidently aid other mistreated groups, but they are commemorating their past. By the year 2000 the Vancouver-based Japanese Canadian National Museum and Archives Society expects to have new quarters in a National Nikkei Heritage Center in Burnaby, British Columbia. A small local museum has already been opened in New Denver. Paradoxically, the tragedy of World War II, which challenged the bond between Japanese Canadians, served to revive awareness of it.
