Why were the Japanese in Canada sent to camps during World War 2 while German people were left alone?

Question

I believe that sending either without just cause would've been bad anyway, but it was just the Japanese who were sent to camps despite the fact that Germany was the greater threat.

Answer 1

I was born and raised in Steveston BC, and the whole Japanese population was sent to the interior of BC and other places in Canada, and all of their businesses and holdings were given away to the locals, one of the major tragedies of Canada's racist past. Most of the Japanese residents were second generation Canadian, and yet we followed the example of the Americans and imprisoned these lovely folks. I believe that it is because of the colour of their skin, and that the Germans are white and it would have been more of a problem to imprison white people in a white dominated society like ours. It was wrong, and I agree with you that neither party should have been persecuted for what their former countries were up to.

Answer 2

I don't know Canada's reasoning but in the U.S. I think it had to do with Pearl Harbor and the fact that Japan actually attacked a U.S. state. Also German Prisoners were sent to the U.S. and kept in work camps. My parents talk of a "German" prisoner camp that was near the rural town they lived in in the western U.S. So there were German camps in a sense as well. There is also the unfortunate fact that it was simply easier to distinguish people of Asian decent from other groups. They were more easily targeted.

Answer 3

Sorry I cannot speak to the camps in Canada, I did not know they exist.

But in the US, it was simply a racist move. The Americans of Japanese decent or the recent Japanese immigrants simply looked different than the policy makers in Washington, D.C. It was the Japanese that did start World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii---65 years ago today.

Answer 4

I think you'll find both groups were. But there were far more 'Japs' than traceable 'Germans'.
And, Europe was across the Atlantic. The Japanese had already reached Hawaii - who was actually the greater 'threat' to Canada?

Answer 5

In America Both Japanese and German citizens were interned but the Germans were white and many of them were in fact spy's so it doesn't come up much.

Answer 6

Germany and Italy did no longer attack the rustic and Japan did. the yankee *** have been despatched to internment camps as they have been regarded as a guess to the secure practices of the rustic. right here interior the united kingdom, German and Italians have been despatched to internment camps.

Answer 7

both were sent away to camps, but more japanese-americans were sent away.

Furthermore, 150,000 Japanese-Americans were interned by the U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as nearly 11,000 German and Italian residents of the U.S.

Answer 8

because most Germans were living in Germany

Answer 9

There were hardly any germans.