Japanese-Canadian families in BC forced to move during WW2 (LAC C-46350)
Toronto. During the second world war (WW2) after Hong Kong and Pearl Harbour were attacked and Japan entered the war on the side of Germany, Many Asian Canadian and American families on the west coast were relocated inland.
A deadline seems to have been reached this year since many organization have reported the sad internment beginning in 1942. In the USA, people like Dorothea Lange were hired to show the efficient move of California families to inland detention camps. Apparently Lange el al were more sympathetic to the people moved than the government of the day so their photographs were not used at the time.
One story in the Code Switch article reports how a young Toyo Miyatake took a lens and film holder with him. American photographers such as Ansel Adams helped him take and process photographs in the camps. There is even a video showing Miyatake’s home made camera.
Both George Dunbar and Russ Forfar emailed me about the internment. George’s link to Code Switch seems to suffer fewer annoying ads than the Counter Current News site. Other sites include Wikipedia (Americans), Wikipedia (Canadians), History Channel, and Canadian Encyclopedia, etc. Do a Google search for more details.
