BC Premier John Horgan pledged a $100 million endowment on Saturday to address the lasting effects of the internment of Japanese Canadians in the province during World War II.
Horgan made the announcement Saturday from the Steveston Martial Arts Center, the oldest Japanese-style dojo in North America, in Richmond BC.
It occurs on the 80th anniversary of the first arrival of Japanese Canadians at the Greenwood, Kaslo, New Denver, Slocan City and Sandon internment camps in 1942.
“This endowment will not change the past, but it will ensure that the generations that are still with us, and those that come after, will have the chance to see something positive come out of what was clearly a very, very dark period in our collective.” stories,” Horgan said at Saturday’s news conference.
the province said in a press release More than 90 percent of Japanese Canadians in BC were rounded up and dispossessed of their homes, possessions, and businesses during World War II.
The endowment, to be awarded through the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC), will support health and wellness programs for survivors of the internment era, the restoration of heritage sites, the creation of a monument to honor the survivors and updating the province’s school curriculum. to reflect this story.
NAJC President Lorene Oikawa said in Saturday’s announcement that approximately 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly uprooted in BC.
“They had nothing and they had to start over. And they did. This is very personal, this is my family. These are their families,” Oikawa said.
The province says the funding is based on a government apology for mistakes made by the BC Legislature in 2012 and responds to a remedy proposal put forward in 2021 by the NAJC.
‘legalized theft’
The province says around 6,000 people who were hospitalized are alive today. One of them, Keiko Mary Kitagawa, an 87-year-old internment camp survivor, spoke in Saturday’s announcement.
Kitagawa, who was born on Salt Spring Island, said his family and people in his community lost their fishing boats, farms, businesses, houses, personal items and vehicles, among many other things.
“It was legalized robbery,” Kitagawa said.
Memories of her father being taken away by the RCMP in 1942, when she was just seven years old, came flooding back.
“All the suffering came back to me…that’s a trauma I can’t get rid of,” Kitagawa said.
After six months of physical labor on roadworks, Kitagawa’s father was given the option to reunite with his family, but on the condition that they move to Alberta to work on a sugar beet farm.
“Sugar beet farming is really like slavery. It was hard work and we lived in this little shack, which is not really fit for humans,” Kitagawa said.
His entire family, including children and retired grandparents, were forced to work growing sugar beets.
The family was transferred to different internment camps in Alberta and BC until 1949, when the Japanese Canadians were granted freedom by the government.
“Many, like my grandparents, lost the enjoyment of a retirement they worked their whole lives to achieve,” Kitagawa said. “Many, like my parents, lost the most productive years of their lives.”
Reference-www.cbc.ca