Letter to the Custodian of Enemy Property

This artefact is a letter sent as an appeal to a government official while his parents worked on a sugar beet farm in Alberta. The author acted on behalf of his parents, who entrusted the government with their home while detained. The author discovered the government had prepared to sell the house and the family’s belongings, even though his father received naturalization before the cutoff period. The letter’s content tells us how little information internees and their families actually knew. The son recognized Japanese nationals as “enemy aliens,” creating a distinction between good Canadians, like his parents, and those who might be worthy of suspicion. Finding his parents interned and losing their home must have seemed treacherous to this son, who could only imagine these actions as a mistake by a government meant to protect its citizens. What he did not realize was that the Government of Canada confiscated and sold assets of Japanese Canadians to fund the internment camps. With nowhere to return “home” to, the internees might choose to live outside British Columbia. 

This case was one of many instances when the government sold Japanese Canadian homes.

Bibliography:

[1] Project ‘44. “Japanese Canadian Internment.” Canadian Research and Mapping Association. n.d. https://www.project44.ca/japanese-canadian-internment#:~:text=their%20own%20expense.-,Dispossession,for%20pennies%20on%20the%20dollar.

[2] “Gaman - Endurance.” Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre. 2024. https://writingwrongs-parolesperdues.ca/en/exhibit/gaman.