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Plucked from their homes under guard of Acton man BCs Japanese Canadians herded out to ghost towns A THE HERALD Wednesday November Page This picture was taken a I in Building of a Security clearing Station Park vaicouvcr taken In 134Z Jipn I Canadian were told when that their would be kept until after the war was later told off or Public Archives of arry Ockenden was a witness He saw thousands of families herded by trainloads to prison camps thrown off their denied freedom of religion speech assembly not accused of a crime or given the right to be tried by a court of law He saw it all But Garry Ockenden was not in Nazi Germany And these prisoners were not sent to Soviet What Garry Ockenden witnessed took place in British Columbia and the prisoners were Japanese Canadians in Garry Ockenden had never seen a Hope was one of the closest camps Japanese person until he joined the Vancouver Previously beef cattle Royal Canadian Mounted Police in farm the owner had turned hla land January 1942 over to the British Columbia Security Within a year the IB yearold was Commission The Commission was seeing hundreds of Japanese daily responsible for the evacuation and transporting them into the British settlement in the C interior of these Columbia interior JapaneseCanadians At that time the process had Sondon was a great trip Mr started recalled We had to go to area inland Mr Ockenden now a Nelson by train then by barge up to whitehaired Acton resident said a former mining town then by That was what 1 ended up doing while train to Sandon I was there Sandon was also a mining town in There was Vancouver British Valley with maybe SO Columbia the first place Mr Ockend residents he said An old hotel en was sent to by the after he main building of the town It five months training In from Vancouver Saskatchewan There was beautiful country in It was Garry second trip since Mr said In he left the Saskatche- wintertime I guess it was pretty bleak wan prairie farm on which he been were more or less ghost raised The first had been to to towns in those days join the RCMP In most cases the Japanese Hed joined the colorful force in in towns that looked like those of the hopes of being sent overseas Garry old westerns with their high roofed wanted to see the world stores and fronts However he dldnt get beyond Although just the men were put If you re going to protect your country you have to do things We needed protection of the coast Today Garry Ockenden works in Malton at the Norenda division of Hawker Siddley Canada Ltd He looks after payroll He quit the many many years ago because the wages vercn I too hot and I wanted a change Working with him is a Japanese nun Ten years ago they got talking and they taken the same tra out to camp Today they arc good friends Canada s borders spending instead much of his time in the western provinces during the war years It was 1942 and Canada had Schools closed cars cameras and boats wore confiscated is about the first trains out the government changed Its mind and moved families as groups in subsequent evacuations By September 1942 Japan declared war on Japan following the had been evacuated to the C December Japanese attack of Interior OvcrhalfofthemwereBentto naval base at Pearl Harbour in places like Sandon and nearby New the Hawaiian Islands Denver on the shores of Lake There were about Japanese Some were sent to sugar beet farms in people living in Canada most of them Alberta Manitoba and Ontario About In Vancouver and area and some In were in detention camps the and Okanagan Volleys of Atthecamps British Columbia butik beds and did their own cooking With the declaration of war things and cleaning began to change for the Japanese They did the best they could with living in Canada although many of nat they had Mr Ockenden said Nisei or second general Iguesaitwasn Spacewas on Japanese who considered fairly small Canadians Most of the Japanese ted no crimes and Canadian After moving them into the Interior of British Columbia the government began in January 1943 selling off the impounded goods of the evacuated families Fishing boats them sold along with land homes furniture and other taj the panes iivlr In The government was Japanese Canadians would iK5SS2iJ Jif SuS SSrJ5irttJJ31 Japanese were moved t Vancouver WyS assembly and fasting Park In th exhibition They were llowed to leave park and their letter were censored to SE WIS sure they weren helping rnSTe Then the government announced the Japanese Canadians were to be Spending the war years doing moved from the coast starting with factory farm rood or domestic work just the menfolk the evacuees barely survived on the When the trainloads of Japanese pittance they were able to earn and were being transported into the British had to accept relief which in Columbia interior In Garry cost the government nearly was here million In his official uniform he In May Germany surrendered was making sure the train rides went the government regulations smoothly and the Japanese dldntoffer on how the JapaneseCanadians must any resistance live became more relaxed In August We Just never had any trouble 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Mr remembered of his Japan Sept Japan signed uncondi many trips to camps at Hope Nelson surrender terms Sandon and Kaslo British Now you think about what Columbia We never lost any on our happened when I was young I was train trips to my knowledge doing my job When you get older your By himself the yearold would thoughts change and you think of what supervise three carloads of people different procedure could have been there used Mr said I cant were more train cars of Japanese- come up with an answer because Canadians another officer dont think Ihere Is any different would make the trip with Garry procedure that could have been follow A lad or 18 back In 1941 Garry of guarded the movement Japanese Canadians from the coast to British bias Interior An officer he made sure train rides went smoothly with no trouble on board J no or to I or no- STORIES BY -SOS- a A concentration War compensation camp the fate of Sumis brother Sumi remembers going to the train station af ter the Second World War to bid her friends goodbye Her friends were going back to Japan Mrs Ibuki was almost going to leave Canada herself then My father wanted us to go back to Japan butnoneof had ever been to Japan and we dldn want to go Ihe Georgetown woman said About one month after the war Mrs father died and rather than move to Japan the family decided to join Mrs Ibukl older brother and sister in Hamilton We had to come here and start from scratch with just the shirts on our backs Mrs remembered Four days were spent on the cheapest train to Toronto We lay down or any thing 1 never forget that she said Since then she tries to avoid train tripe Mrs laughed Bom In 1934 one of eight children Mrs Ibuki was a young girl when the Canadian government started trans porting the coastal Japanese into the British Columbia Interior Those were painful years she recalled She and her brothers and sisters were Canadian born Her father had been living in Canada since the turn of the century returning to Japan only to find himself a bride Mrs Ibukl mother was 17 when she came to Vancouver and IS years younger than her new husband Because Mrs father was in his late fifties he was allowed to stay with his family when they were moved An older brother and sister had already gone out east so the family consisted of six children when settled into a building that housed a former barbershop Mrs oldest broth cr had been sent to a concentration camp because he was 16 and her eldest sister spent the war years sewing parachutes for ihe Canadian war effort We were given one room to sleep in and a communal kitchen we shared with two other families Mrs said referring lo Kaslo You know when I was at high school in Hamilton I felt so proud to be Canadian Ihen I went to the library Continued on page Canadian problem reelings are mixed among JapaneseCanadians when It comes to compensation for the losses they suffered during the war years This month The National Association of JapaneseCanadians held a national conference and made plans to rally more public support for Its cause The Association t by the federal government offer of a formal apology for the evacuation and internment of JapaneseCanadian during World War Two to lie million for a foundation to promote human right and better race relations The Association Is undertaking a study by the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse to tally the suffered by the more than JapaneseCanadians who were evacuated In The study Is expected to be completed by March or April next year A IS DM cheque was received tail week from the City of Toronto to offset the coal of the study The Toronto chapter of the Japanese Canadian Association has taken a different stand on the Issue In fact after national conference dropped out of the National Association There is a very strong philosophical difference in our position from national posit Ion Citizens Association spokesman George lmai totd The Herald To put It bluntly they re seeking vengeance We re not A former president of the National Association Mr Imal The Cilbens Association was satisfied with a formal apology and million to lit million for a foundation Of course let us not forget the past hut we plan for the future This kind or Injustice which was done to us not be done to anyone else and we should strive for better race relations for all people Mr Imal said He said the Citizens Aiioclatlon had taken Independent surveys most notably in York University prof found of that per cent of JapaneteCanadlana wanted group compensation rather than Individual compensation Asked when compensation would be realised Mr laughed and said he had no Idea 1 think we re further from It now I think this Is a Canadian problem and not Mr Imal stressed We re part of this country and what happened to a group of Canadians should never happen again He fall group is hoping to hold a national conference in Toronto before Christ ma with the agenda to have the Cltiiens Association position before the government again as a reminder Attempts to gel comments from Minister of State for Mullkultarallin Otto Jellnek on this matter were unsuccessful as of press time Cora This map above Indicates where the Internment camps were during the Second World War This camp for JapaneseCanadians was located near Hope miles from the coast By September of 439 JapaneseCanadians had been evacuated to the C Interior Al camps they slept In bank beds and their own cooking and cleaning Seen here are homes at Tashm- camp taken in Japanese Canadian Cultural Centra