Apology to Interned Japanese-Canadians

“Government Apologizes to Japanese Canadians in 1988.” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. September 22, 1988. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/government-apologizes-to-japanese-canadians-in-1988-1.4680546. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.3238332. 

On September 22, 1988, CBC ran a news story about Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s official apology to Japanese Canadians whom the federal government had removed from their homes and forced into detention camps during the 1940s. This artefact includes snippets of the apology and reactions by people who had been interned during the Second World War, relieved to receive acknowledgment of the injustice done to them. 

Prime Minister Mulroney had made the apology a campaign promise in 1984; however, he only followed through on it after American President Ronald Reagan apologized to Japanese Americans one month earlier, along with compensation for internees. With another election looming, the prime minister had little choice but to follow through. The apology came with $21,000 per internee who was still alive, $12 million for a community fund, and $24 million to establish a foundation to support improved race relations in Canada. Those Japanese Canadians who had refused to enter the internment camps would finally have their names cleared. 

If these factors in the repayment finally paid to survivors were fueled by a desire for reelection, can we look at it as an exercise of reconciliation and reparation or an act of good publicity?

Bibliography:

[1] “Government Apologizes to Japanese Canadians in 1988.” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. September 22, 1988. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/government-apologizes-to-japanese-canadians-in-1988-1.4680546. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.3238332.