At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Japanese community in
Alberta numbered 540 people, largely comprised of farm families in
southern Alberta. Many Japanese Albertans feared that anger would be
directed at them with the start of the Pacific war in December 1941.
They had seen hostility directed at Albertans of Germans and Italian
descent beginning in 1939.
Notably, newspaper editorials in Calgary and Lethbridge cautioned
readers against precipitous action, reminding readers of the
contributions of Japanese Albertans to their communities. As well,
Japanese Albertans were serving with Canadian forces in the theatres
of war in Europe. There were unfortunate incidents, among these the
firing of Japanese Canadian employees by Canadian Pacific Railways
in 1944.
It was the plight of Japanese British Columbians that would have the
greatest effect on Japanese Albertans in this period. Public fear
and anger led resulted in federal legislation that Japanese
Canadians could not live within 100 miles of the coasts of British
Columbia. This came about despite RCMP and military advice to the
contrary. This led to the removal and internment of Japanese British
Columbians, relocated to internment camps in the interior of the
province.
Labour shortages in Alberta's sugar beet fields resulted in growers
asking that displaced Japanese British Columbians, many from the
farms of the Fraser Valley, be brought to Alberta. Opposition grew
in the province as people began to arrive. The citizens of
Lethbridge, Raymond and Taber held public meetings directing their
opposition at the British Columbians, not the Japanese who had lived
in Alberta before the evacuation.
The Alberta government demanded that, at war's end, the federal
government remove and relocate those who had come to Alberta from
British Columbia. While the prospect of life in Alberta was
undesirable, many families realized that they would otherwise be
separated, with husbands and older boys assigned to work gangs and
women, children and elderly confined to the crude camp villages in
the mountainous interior of British Columbia.
Many of those who came arrived to face terrible living conditions
and difficult physical labour. Restrictions included confinement to
their assigned farms and prohibitions against moving into towns.
Because of this, most of the nearly 2700 who came from British
Columbia lived on the brink of poverty, destitute compared to their
former prosperity on the West Coast.
In response to the mistreatment and despite wartime regulations, the
community organized to improve their conditions. For example, Seiku
Sakumoto, a former secretary of the Japanese Camp and Mill Workers
Union, worked to have Japanese included in a vegetable grower's
cooperative. With opposition from non-Japanese, Sakumoto worked with
others to create a Beet Workers Association.
The Association worked to change the poor conditions and contracts
presented by the beet growers, particularly their refusal to allow
families to transfer to different farms. Japanese Albertans risked
their own well being in order to help the interned Japanese from
British Columbia. Similar restrictions on Japanese Albertans came
into effect in September 1942. The Japanese Albertans, like their
British Columbian counterparts were subject to censorship of their
mail and phone calls and unless carry a special permit, confined to
within 12 miles of their homes. In spite of these restrictions, the
Japanese Albertans used the organizations help others find better
jobs and to create food cooperatives for the displaced Japanese.
Key among these organizations were Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Churches
established in Picture Butte, Taber and Coaldale. Reverends Shinjo
Ikuta and Yutetsu Kawamura were key in helping the evacucee
communities in this way and the churches became important for social
and cultural activities for the community as well as cultivating
religious life.
Heritage Community Foundation Presents
 and Toru Iwaasa (right) serving in Canadian armed forces, 1942',2,2))
)
)
