Battle of Hong Kong & Japanese Internment

Does war justify the taking away of peoples’ rights?

Hong Kong, 1941• British Colony in Asia• Canada asked to

provide troops (2,000)• first major mission of

WWII • The Winnipeg

Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles

• lack of training; classified by the Canadian defence department as “unfit for combat.”

The Bombardment of Hong Kong

• The day after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong

• Battle lasted 17 days

• The British thought the Japanese would never come across the water at night. Canadians were assured that the Japanese were racially prone to seasickness. Because of their eye shape, their night vision was supposed to be poor.

The Attack

• At 10:00 pm on December 18, the Japanese crossed to the island, the Canadians found themselves under fire in the pitch black.

• By the time British headquarters accepted that the attack was real, the Japanese had landed 7,500 soldiers on the island of Hong Kong.

• The Japanese swept across the channel from the mainland and rolled the defenders back up the mountains in the centre of the island.

The Surrender

• Allied forces surrender to Japan on Christmas Day 1941

• Allied soldiers were now prisoners of war (POW)

• many expected to be treated civilly according to the rules of the Geneva Convention

Geneva Convention

• signed in July 1929 • 53 nations sign & ratify• rights of captive and captor• prisoners of war “must at all times be

humanly treated”• Japan signs Convention, not ratified

The Geneva Convention Article 13• Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any

unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest.

• Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

• Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.

The Geneva Convention Article 14

• Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour. Women shall be treated with all the regard due to their sex and shall in all cases benefit by treatment as favourable as that granted to men. Prisoners of war shall retain the full civil capacity which they enjoyed at the time of their capture. The Detaining Power may not restrict the exercise, either within or without its own territory, of the rights such capacity confers except in so far as the captivity requires.

Japanese Ideology

• saw captives as cowards to be punished • shame to be captured• ideology influences treatment of captives

Conditions

• inhumane• buildings drafty, filthy, infested with lice, bed

bugs• crowded sleeping quarters• forced to learn Japanese to obey commands• beatings• poor food; usually filthy rice• slave labour (coal mines, building bridges)

Conditions, cont’d

• disease (pneumonia, dysentery)• malnutrition• no medication• Cholera (intestinal disease)

POW Camps

• Canadians not liberated until 1945

• about 300 Canadians die in the POW camps

• if Japan were invaded, all prisoners of war would be executed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqrG_yinyC4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b6i8PEm1u8

That sounds bad, right?

But look at what was happening to Japanese Canadians…

Long Standing Prejudice Against the Japanese

• Japanese immigrated to Canada from 1900-1914

• Mostly settled in Vancouver because it faces the Pacific Ocean

• 1907-Asiatic Exclusion League formed

• There was a “race riot” in “Little Tokyo” in 1907

Long Standing Prejudice Against the Japanese

• Approx. Japanese Canadians fought for Canada in WWI

• By 1928, only 150 Japanese allowed to enter Canada

• Japanese and Chinese Canadians were denied the right to vote (only veterans got right to vote in 1931)

Pearl Harbour

• Japan attacked Pearl Harbor• 22,000 Japanese Canadians living in British Columbia• Pressure on government to do something about the

Japanese “threat”• Many had fishing boats (lived on the coast) so were

considered a security risk• Feared they might supply the Japanese with secret

information to help them invade Canada

A High Ranking Canadian Politician Said…

• Ian Mackenzie B.C. Federal Cabinet

"It is the governments plan to get these people out of B.C. as fast as possible. It is my personal intention, as long as I remain in public life, to see they never come back here. Let our slogan be for British Columbia: No Japs from the Rockies to the seas.'"

Who were the Japanese Canadians?

• 22,000 in British Columbia. Of those 22,000:-14,119 born in Canada-3,189 naturalized Canadians-5,924 Japanese nationals

• Many spoke no Japanese or had little or no connection to Japan

So what did the Canadian government do?

• War Measures Act—could seize Japanese-Canadian property and remove people from their homes

To Be Posted in a Conspicuous Place- End of Order In Council Notice -

Notice To All Persons of Japanese Racial Origin (Feb. 26, 1942)The Order in Council PC 1486, passed on February 23, 1942 authorized the

removal of all "persons of Japanese racial origin" and gave the RCMP the power to search without warrant, enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew, and to confiscate cars, cameras, radios, and firearms.

So what did the Canadian government do?

• 1200 Japanese • Canadian fishing • boats confiscated

So what did the Canadian government do?

• Internment of Japanese Canadians• Sent to camps (‘ghost towns” in Alberta and

Manitoba for the remainder of the war

CONDITIONS OF THE CAMPSTWO FAMILIES TO A HOUSE IN EACH GHOST TOWN

NO RUNNING WATER

OR ELECTRICITY

BOREDOM

SCHOOLING?

Japanese men were treated like POW’s

Why were there circles on their backs?

PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY APOLOGIZESForty-three years after the end of the war, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney acknowledged the wartime wrongs and announced compensation packages including of $21,000 for each individual directly wronged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxZHR3hl-7k

Davis Suzuki speaks about internment

Does war justify the taking away of individuals’ rights?

-consider why rights were taken away in Japan and Canada

-can this be justified in a time of war?