Maru: Immigration Stories Part 2

In 1907, the US government ended the migration of Japanese in Hawaii to mainland US. This decision triggered the transmigration of Japanese in Hawaii to the west coast of Canada. Before the year’s end the Japanese population in British Columbia increased by 40%.

Image: Rare Books and Special Collections (JCPC-36-002b), University of British Columbia Library

The animosity faced by Japanese immigrants in Canada was not unique as similar treatment was faced by the immigrant community across the Americas.

In Peru, tensions boiled over on May 13, 1940 when anti-Japanese riots broke out and violence was unleashed on the immigrant community.

Image: Archivo del Museo de la Inmigración Japonesa al Perú “Carlos Chiyoteru Hiraoka” – APJ

Image: Archivo del Museo de la Inmigración Japonesa al Perú “Carlos Chiyoteru Hiraoka” – APJ

On the morning of December 7, 1941, residents of Honolulu were awakened by the sound of explosions. After the declaration of martial law in Hawaii, leaders of the Japanese Hawaiian community were immediately arrested.

Over two thousand Japanese Hawaiians were removed to US Army internment camps in Hawaii before being forcibly relocated to US mainland concentration camps.

Image: Japanese American Relocation & Internment: The Hawaii Experience Archival Collection, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii

When Fred Korematsu refused to go into the temporary detention centres in the US, he was immediately arrested. Korematsu appealed his case all the way to Supreme Court, but the Court ruled against him in 1944. In 1983, Korematsu's conviction was overturned after it was proven that Japanese Americans did not commit acts of treason that justified incarceration. Korematsu’s work in activism continued well after the conclusion of redress for Japanese Americans.

Image: Courtesy of the Fred. T. Korematsu Institute

This photograph taken on a street in Seattle in 1942 shows boarded up stores after their Japanese American operators were removed.

Image: Courtesy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection (PI-28071), Museum of History & Industry

Japanese Peruvians arguably faced the worst persecution amongst the Nikkei communities in South America who faced deportation to internment camps in the US.

This memo from J. Daniel Hanley to an undisclosed recipient regarding the removal of Japanese Peruvians to the US. It discusses previous communications with the American Embassy in Lima including recommendations to the Peruvian government.

Image: Courtesy of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

In one of its most controversial moves, Peru deported Japanese Peruvians to internment camps in the United States.

Image: Archivo del Museo de la Inmigración Japonesa al Perú “Carlos Chiyoteru Hiraoka” – APJ

In Canada, Prime Minister Mackenzie King issued the Order-in-Council P.C. 1486 ordering the forced removal of over 21,000 people of Japanese ancestry from their homes on the west coast.

This photograph of Hasting Park in Vancouver illustrates the living condition for over 8,000 Japanese Canadian who were detained as they await decision as to where they will be sent next.

The hasty removal of Japanese Canadians to various internment camps meant that some had to live in temporary structures in the beginning. This photograph shows army tents in the Popoff internment camp where Japanese Canadians initially lived in while permanent structures were being built.

Rows of small houses in Tashme internment camp in British Columbia were built for Japanese Canadians removed from the west coast of Canada.