Japanese Canadian Internment National Historic Event

Vancouver, British Columbia
Japanese Canadian Internment © Expired
Japanese Canadian Internment
© Expired
Japanese Canadian Internment © ExpiredJapanese Canadian Internment © Expired
Address : Hastings and Renfrew Streets, Vancouver, British Columbia

Recognition Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date: 1984-11-23

Other Name(s):
  • Japanese Canadian Internment  (Designation Name)
  • Evacuation of ethnic Japanese from the West coast of Canada  (Other Name)

Importance: Internment of 22,000 Japanese-Canadians during World War II

Plaque(s)


Existing plaque: Hastings Park Hastings and Renfrew Streets, Vancouver, British Columbia

In 1942, wartime politics brought to a head mounting discrimination against some 22,000 innocent people of Japanese ancestry on this coast. Their properties were confiscated and sold without consent, and they were forcibly dispersed to internment camps in the B.C. interior and to farms in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. From March to November, 8,000 men, women and children were confined in livestock barns on these grounds before being relocated. Few voices opposed a federal government policy which denied civil liberties to Japanese Canadians until April 1, 1949 - the day they were finally free to return to the coast.