Landscapes of Injustice

By Liz Crocker, Learning Program Developer

HIDDEN HISTORIES Landscapes of Injustice

on the Learning Portal

This 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.”

Watch

Listen

This section features audio recordings. Listen to Tatsuro “Buck” Suzuki, a JapaneseCanadian fisher, describe in a 1977 interview what it was like to have his boat confiscated. Suzuki also shares the fears that JapaneseCanadians faced during dispossession and internment.

In 1942, approximately 1200 Japanese-Canadian fishing boats were confiscated by the Canadian Navy and brought to the Annieville Dike on Fraser River. The boats were later sold by the Japanese Fishing Vessel Disposal Committee.

An unidentified internment camp (possibly Princeton or Tashme) in 1942. Families lived in close quarters, often with two to three families sharing each shack. Kitchens and washrooms were also shared communal facilities.

Look

This section features videos related to the dispossession and internment of Japanese Canadians. One of the videos is a recording of a learning program I did in May 2021 with Landscapes of Injustice project manager Michael Abe. The program took place in Esquimalt Gorge Park on Vancouver Island, at the site of a former Japanese teahouse. Abe recounts compelling stories of what happened to the Japanese Canadian businessmen Yoshitaro Kishida, Hayato Takata and Kensuke Takata, who established and ran the popular local attraction. They, like thousands of other Japanese Canadian citizens, were forced out of their homes on the west coast of BC and into an internment camp in the interior of the province. Shortly after, local Esquimalt residents vandalized and looted the abandoned teahouse.

Teach

Galleries of archival photographs in the Look section visually depict the years before the Second World War and the years of dispossession and internment. The Landscapes of Injustice pathway also has a robust Teach section for educators, with classroom activities and lesson plans for both elementary and secondary school grades.

Through the Learning Portal, we aim to shed a bit more light on this dark chapter in Canadian and British Columbian history. This is a story we all need to know and reckon with, so that it never happens again.

learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/pathways/ landscapes-of-injustice/