By Liz Crocker, Learning Program Developer
HIDDEN
HISTORIES
Landscapes of Injustice on the Learning Portal
T
his scroll petition stretched out across multiple tables in the BC Archives reference room illustrates that old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The 1930 document lists the signatures of 1,487 British Columbians, all asking the provincial government to ban citizens of Asian descent (including Japanese-Canadians) from purchasing land or resources in BC. This lengthy, racist scroll was one of many archival resources identified in the Royal BC Museum and Archives’ collection in the multi-year Landscapes of Injustice project. One of the museum’s roles in the Landscapes of Injustice project was to develop and publish related online content on our popular Learning Portal. The Landscapes of Injustice Learning Portal pathway, like other pathways, is a cluster of different types of media related to a particular topic, in this case the dispossession and internment of Japanese-Canadians forced to leave their homes during the Second World War by the Canadian government, under the War Measures Act.
Researchers examine a scroll petition using a magnifying glass.
Read on for more about the resources available on the pathway.
Read The Read section provides links to a number of short articles and text resources. Read about how the fishing vessel Soyokaze was seized by the government from its owner Shigekazu “Smiley” Matsunaga, and how that same boat found its way to the Campbell River Museum on Vancouver Island.
“The Matsunaga family’s lives changed drastically in December 1941, when Japanese Canadians living on the BC coast were forcibly relocated to internment camps in the Interior. The Canadian Navy confiscated a total of 1,137 Japanese Canadian–owned fishing boats, which were brought to Annieville Dike on the Fraser River and tied in flotillas. The boats, including Matsunaga’s beloved Soyokaze, were sold by the Japanese Fishing Vessel Disposal Committee for rock-bottom prices, and the money made from the sale of personal possessions was used to pay for their owners’ detention.”
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