Canadian Government’s Compensations for Japanese Canadians...

Canadian Government’s Compensations for Japanese Canadians Interments in World War Two Canadian Government’s Compensations for Japanese Canadians Interments in World War Two (restitution) No one would ever think that an apology and a meager amount of money would be sufficient enough to pay back for taking away freedom and rights for several years. Apparently, it appears as Canadian government did. During World War II, Japanese immigrants and Japanese Canadians were denied of their rights as humans and Canadian citizens, and were forced to live in internment camps (Baldwin, 2011). Although the Canadian government has realized its wrong doings to Japanese Canadians and has made attempts for reparation, the formal apologies and†¦show more content†¦Years after the war ended, in 1988, Ottawa provided twelve million dollars as compensation to National Association of Japanese Canadians (Mollins, 1999). However, this amount was not enough to repair the economic hardships that Japanese Canadians underwent, because their sufferings did not end when the war ended. Japanese Canadians came back from the internm ent camps, only to find out that their properties were either stolen or publicly sold. Even though the money from the sales was kept by Custodian of Enemy Alien Property and held in account under the owner’s name, there was no interest and only limited amount of money, hundred dollars per month, was allowed to be taken out by the owner. Moreover, the law did not allow the Japanese Canadians to work if they had money in their account (Hickman Fukawa, 2011). This prevented Japanese Canadians from building their financial status and getting involved in Canadian economic for many years. What is more, Japanese Canadians had to pay for their interment at camps (Hickman Fukawa, 2011). This requirement of payment for the camps was very unreasonable, because Japanese Canadians did not volunteer to go to the camps; in fact, they were forced to move