The majority were Canadian citizens by birth and were targeted based on their ancestry. Similar to the actions taken against Japanese Americans in neighbouring United States, this forced relocation subjected many Japanese Canadians to government-enforced curfews and interrogations, job and property losses, and forced repatriation to Japan.
From shortly after the December attack on Pearl Harbor until , Japanese Canadians were stripped of their homes and businesses, then sent to internment camps and farms in British Columbia as well as in some other parts of Canada, mostly towards the interior.
Japanese Canadians were forced to use the proceeds of forced sales to pay for their basic needs during the internment. The official policy stated that Japanese Canadians must move east of the Rocky Mountains or be deported to Japan following the end of the war.
Yet it was not until April 1, , that Japanese Canadians were granted freedom of movement and could re-enter the "protected zone" along BC's coast. On September 22, , Prime Minister Brian Mulroney delivered an apology, and the Canadian government announced a compensation package, one month after President Ronald Reagan made similar gestures in the United States following the internment of Japanese Americans.
Starting as early as with the influx of Asian immigrants during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush , beliefs and fears about Asian immigrants began to affect the populace in British Columbia BC. Canadian sociologist Forrest La Violette reported in the s that these early sentiments had often been "organized around the fear of an assumed low standard of living [and] out of fear of Oriental cultural and racial differences.
