Introduction
Why Another Redress Book?
Over a decade has gone by since Redress for Japanese Canadians was finally achieved in the House of Commons. Since then, several gifted authors in our community have written movingly about the long quest for justice, yet there are still pieces of the Redress story missing or only half-told.
This book is an attempt to recognize the personal sacrifices made by many “unsung heroes” of the Redress movement in Toronto. It is also an account of the serious division in our community over the basic principles and direction of the campaign. This division was so significant in Toronto’s Japanese community that it had an enormous impact on the strategy of the Redress movement nationally.
Following the euphoria of September 22, 1988, many of us in Toronto who had been actively involved in the struggle for justice met for a debriefing session. We soon concluded that we had to record what we had gone through for future generations. The Toronto Redress story was unique and only superficially known. Only a handful of key people in the Toronto area knew the details of the intense political manoeuvring that went on in Toronto’s Japanese community in the years leading up to the signing of the Redress Agreement. Getting the whole story out into the open was one loose end that we had to deal with in order to reach some sense of completion regarding the most tumultuous episode in our history.
In order to write this book, an ad hoc committee was formed from within the Toronto Chapter of the NAJC to gather and organize the information and resource material. Luckily, a few members of our community, such as Harry Yonekura and Mary Obata, had kept meticulous records of meetings and newspaper articles since the quest for Redress began.
The next task for our committee was to outline the sequence of events chronologically. We organized taping sessions for each chapter or event by inviting various people who had been involved at particular stages to share their recollections. Transcriptions of these sessions served as the foundation of raw material for this book. Through this method of information gathering, we aimed at creating a more personalized rather than academic account of the Toronto Redress story. It was amazing to discover how much we had forgotten even after a few years. Through this pooling of individual recollections, backed up by historical records, we feel that we have sifted out the truth to produce a multilayered examination of the past.
Because we wanted to avoid accusations of misinterpretation, we made sincere attempts to get input from those in Toronto who opposed the notion of individual compensation, but apparently the passage of time could not heal old rifts in our community. We would like to state for the record that invitations to participate in our book project were sent out several years ago to the two key people involved in the “Japanese Canadian National Redress Association of Survivors” , the organization opposed to seeking individual compensation, namely, George Imai and Jack Oki. Unfortunately, neither of them responded. We can only interpret their silence as a lack of interest in presenting their side of the story.
Facing a Stone Wall
It was not easy to convince the Japanese community in Toronto that individual compensation was the right objective. Prior to 1988, the majority doubted that Canada would ever agree to compensate individuals. Therefore, many Japanese Canadians in Toronto considered it a waste of time to get involved. However, after September 22, 1988, membership in the Toronto Chapter of the NAJC increased astronomically as some members of our community mistakenly assumed that only NAJC members were eligible to apply for compensation.
The relative apathy in our community during most of the 1980s can be traced to the failure of the Toronto JCCA to hold public meetings. By refusing to call a general meeting to renew their mandate, the executive directors managed to avoid giving the community a chance to debate the issue of individual versus group compensation. But, eventually, unable to escape the growing tide of Redress that was spilling over from the United States, the executive of the Toronto JCCA pushed to strike a quick deal behind closed doors and without consulting the rest of the Japanese Canadian community.
Certainly, compensating the community collectively with only a few million dollars was the government’s preferred route. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives were eager to negotiate with any Japanese Canadian spokesperson willing to accept only a lump sum. It didn’t seem to matter that some of these representatives were not democratically elected. During the mid-1980s there were various forms of support from the federal government to individuals and groups supporting the less costly community compensation proposal.
An additional obstacle facing the Redress movement in Toronto was the biased attitude of some of the Toronto based, Japanese Canadian community newspapers. Perhaps fearing the loss of revenue from government advertising, these publications were generally timid in their reporting of the Redress issue. One paper in particular, The Canada Times, published articles against the NAJC and supportive of the group opposed to individual compensation. This misrepresentation could not be allowed to go unquestioned. The task of counteracting the biased reporting fell upon the shoulders of the Toronto NAJC supporters. Another difficulty encountered by the Toronto supporters of the NAJC was the fact that they did not have mailing lists to start from in order to get the necessary information out to the issei, nisei and sansei in the Toronto region.
The chain of events that took place during the 1980s was convoluted, but crucial to the final Redress outcome. The sansei and nisei in Toronto who wanted to become actively involved in the struggle for justice faced a stone wall for several years from the Toronto JCCA executive. Instead of being seen as allies in a delicate and difficult undertaking, the Toronto NAJC supporters were treated as intruders.
Despite all the obstacles that they faced, the NAJC supporters were determined to realize the dream of Redress. They were not willing to give up. The Redress campaign in Toronto was unique because it involved not only the battle to get restitution for past wrongs, but also to ensure that the Japanese Canadians in Toronto would be accurately and democratically represented. No other Japanese Canadian community had to face such deep internal conflicts as in Toronto. The energy spent on the internecine conflict could have been put to more effective use in pursuing Redress.
We would like to note the fact that throughout this book we have tried as consistently as possible to use the word “expulsion” rather than the more familiar term, “evacuation” , for what happened to the Japanese Canadians during World War II. The word “evacuation” is a misnomer. A government evacuates people from their homes when a gas main is leaking or during a major flood. A government expels people from their homes for political reasons. Similarly, it is inaccurate to use the words “repatriation” or “deportation” in reference to what happened to nisei and sansei who were sent to Japan. These individuals were exiled or expatriated to Japan since Canada was their native land, not Japan. Using the words “repatriation” and “deportation” implies that the nisei and sansei were “going back” to their homelands.
What Did Redress Accomplish?
No one can deny the deep psychological trauma of what happened to the Japanese Canadians during World War II—the trauma of being uprooted and imprisoned as enemy aliens in one’s native land. Having to live with painful memories and all the unresolved issues attached to them for 40 years must have taken its toll in a variety of ways. Therefore, one might ask the question, “Did Redress erase or fade the psychological scars for all the issei, nisei and sansei affected? Did the Redress Settlement help unify our community and nurture a sense of cultural pride? Did the final outcome mend the rifts that were created along the road to our achievement? There are no immediate conclusive answers to these questions since there are too many individual variables involved. We can only speculate about them. Certainly, no amount of money can undo the damage completely, but we cannot minimize the historical and political significance of the Redress Settlement. Apart from the substantial financial and material gains outlined in Chapter 17 (“Benefits of Redress”), the moral victory for human rights will remain long after the bricks and mortar have vanished.
It took 41 years to achieve the goal of Redress from the establishment of the Bird Commission in 1947. For a minority group of only 40,000 in number, this victory over the Government of Canada is truly a David and Goliath story. It is hailed as the most significiant victory for civil and human rights in Canadian history. The people who worked so hard to gain Redress can now rest with the satisfaction that they have left a legacy and a lesson for Canada.
The hardships endured by Japanese Canadians during World War II were not in vain, having now established a precedent for Redress from injustices at the hands of the federal government. We can only hope that future governments will think twice before they intimidate and persecute any ethnic group.
The honour and dignity of loyal Japanese Canadians were restored in the House of Commons with a formal apology from the Government of Canada. The labels of “second class citizen" and “enemy alien” had been officially and forever removed. For our community, even the healing from the severe division during the Redress campaign, is progressing with time. Redress was the most significant achievement in Japanese Canadian history—something that will remain at the core of our collective memory for a long time.
The story of our struggle to win Redress is finally a story of democracy winning out, after four decades of trying to correct an injustice under public pressure. According to a national poll published in The Toronto Star (April 11, 1986), 63% of the public supported Redress for Japanese Canadians. Largely through the public education campaign of the NAJC, the people of Canada had spoken and the government listened.
We have tried to recapture the Toronto struggle in this book by providing firsthand accounts of the major episodes in the journey towards justice. We leave it to you, the readers, to draw your own conclusions.
The Ad Hoc Committee for Japanese Canadian Redress: The Toronto Story