Cartographies of Violence: Women, Memory, and the Subjects of the “Internment”

Canadian Journal of Law and Society

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 39-69

  Oikawa, Mona ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 85010112751     PISSN: 08293201     EISSN: 19110227     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0829320100006360     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. M. Oikawa, Cartographies of Violence: Women, Memory, and the Subject(s) of the “Internment” (D. Thesis, University of Toronto, 1999) at 300 [hereinafter Cartographies of Violence]. Pseudonyms are used for the women cited from interviews.
2. I use the terms internment camp and prison camp interchangeably.
3. K. Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976)
4. T.U. Nakano & L. Nakano, Within the Barbed Wire Fence: A Japanese Man's Account of His Internment in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980)
5. R.K. Okazaki, The Nisei Mass Evacuation Group and P.O.W. Camp 101, Angler Ontario, trans. J.M. Okazaki & C.T. Okazaki (Toronto, 1996);
6. Y. Shimizu, The Exiles: An Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue canadienne droit et société, 2000, Volume 15, no. 2, pp. 39–69.
7. Archival History of the World War II Japanese Road Camps in British Columbia and Ontario (Wallaceburg, ON: Shimizu Consulting & Publishing, 1993)
8. A.G. Sunahara, The Politics of Racism (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1981).
9. War Measures Act, [1914] c. 2, s. 4 [hereinafter War Measures Act].
10. Michel Foucault uses the term carceral to describe various spaces where people are punished, disciplined, and monitored. M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. A. Sheridan (New York: Random House, Vintage Books, 1995) 299.
11. A.M. Alonso also uses this term in “The Politics of Space, Time and Substance: State Formation, Nationalism, and Ethnicity” (1994) 23 Annual Review of Anthropology 394.
12. Cartographies of violence, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 1.
13. R. Shields, Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity (London & New York: Routledge, 1991) at 18.
14. E. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (London & New York: Verso, 1989) at 7.
15. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. at 11.
16. Foucault, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory 6 at 141.
17. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory 11 at 120.
18. D.T. Goldberg, Racist Culture (Oxford & Cambridge: Blackwell, 1993) at 188.
19. Racist Culture.
20. A. Kobayashi, “The Historical Context for Japanese Canadian Uprooting” in L. Müller-Wille, ed., Social Change and Space (Montreal: McGill University, 1990) at 70.
21. War Measures Act, Social Change and Space 5. For a description of the use of the War Measures Act, see A. Sunahara, “Legislative Roots of Injustice” in R. Miki & S. McFarlane, eds., in Justice: Canada, Minorities, and Human Rights (Winnipeg: National Association of Japanese Canadians, 1996) at 7–22.
22. Adachi, Justice: Canada, Minorities, and Human Rights 4 at 209.
23. Justice: Canada, Minorities, and Human Rights, at 216.
24. Justice: Canada, Minorities, and Human Rights, at 232.
25. Justice: Canada, Minorities, and Human Rights, at 200.
26. T. Watada, Bukkyo Tozen: A History ofJodo Shinshu Buddhism in Canada (Toronto: HpF Press & Toronto Buddhist Church, 1996) at 107.
27. Adachi, A History ofJodo Shinshu Buddhism in Canada 4 at 209.
28. “The Case for Redress Information” (Toronto: National Association of Japanese Canadians, n.d.) at 2.
29. Sunahara, (Toronto: National Association of Japanese Canadians, n.d.) 4 at 28.
30. (Toronto: National Association of Japanese Canadians, n.d.), at 218.
31. (Toronto: National Association of Japanese Canadians, n.d.), at 233.
32. See, for example, art critic Christopher Hume's review of Andrew Danson's photographic exhibit “Face Kao: Portraits of Japanese Canadians Interned During World War II” [Toronto] Star (11 April 1996) at 66. Hume states “In 1941…Pearl Harbor had just been attacked and if you were a Canadian of Japanese descent, you suddenly found yourself in a prison camp.” While Hume does add that Japanese Canadians were “interned in isolated sites where they lived in hardship,” he does not specify where these sites were, not even mentioning British Columbia as a geographical location. In addition, Hume makes an error in stating, “4,000 Japanese Canadians [were] forced into exile.” The Danson photographic exhibit also warrants further analysis which cannot be attempted here.
33. For an analysis of how the “respectability” of bourgeois subjects depends upon their discursive and material construction of pathologized spaces, see S. Razack, “Race, Space and Prostitution: The Making of the Bourgeois Subject” (1998) 10 C.J.W.L. 341. Razack also emphasizes that the assertion of dominance over the subjects in pathologized spaces is a violent process.
34. Numbers cited herein are from the National Archives of Canada [hereinafter NAC], Records of the British Columbia Security Commission [hereinafter BCSC], RG 36/27, vol. 42, file 2505, part 1, Canada
35. Report on the Administration of Japanese Affairs in Canada: 1942–1944 (Ottawa: Department of Labour, 1944) at 8 [hereinafter Japanese Affairs].
36. NAC, BCSC, RG 36/27, vol. 42, file 2505, part 1, Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas (Vancouver, 1942) at 2 [hereinafter Removal of Japanese].
37. Sunahara, Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas 4 at 66–70.
38. Okazaki, Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas 4.
39. According to Sunahara, 296 Issei (first generation) men and 470 Nisei (second generation) men were interned in prisoner-of-war camps. Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas, at 70.
40. Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas, at 66.
41. Adachi, Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas 4 at 232.
42. Sunahara, Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas 4 at 59,65–76.
43. Japanese Affairs, Removal of Japanese from Protected Areas 32 at 5.
44. Numbers are calculated from the 1941 census. Canada, Eighth Census of Canada 1941, vol. 3 (Canada: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1946) at 164.
45. Adachi, Eighth Census of Canada 4 at 246. Approximately 14,000 people were sent directly to other sites.
46. Sunahara, Eighth Census of Canada 4 at 55.
47. Removal of Japanese, Eighth Census of Canada 33 at 8.
48. M. Yegenoglu's, Colonial Fantasies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) at 6. While arguing against a conflation of European colonial technologies outside of North America as identical to practices mobilized by white settlers in Canada, I would emphasize that the technologies of genocide used against Aboriginal peoples in Canada underpin the spatial structuring of the nation and its denotation of citizenship.
49. Colonial Fantasies, at 96.
50. Cartographies of Violence, Colonial Fantasies 1 at 150.
51. Colonial Fantasies.
52. Sunahara, Colonial Fantasies 4 at 57.
53. Removal of Japanese, Colonial Fantasies 33 at 8.
54. The Canadian-born “males” were listed as numbering 3,590 and the “women and children” as 2,994, NAC, RG 36/27, vol.1, file “Distribution of Japanese.” “Memorandum Covering Japanese Movement Pacific Coast” (18 July 1942).
55. For an analysis of the relationship between space and constructions of disability, see R. Kitchin, ‘“Out of Place’, ‘Knowing One's Place’: Space, Power and the Exclusion of Disabled People” (1998) 13:3 Disability and Society 343–356.
56. Removal of Japanese, Disability and Society 33 at 11.
57. For a description of Japanese Canadian women and domestic work, see M. Oikawa, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” (M.A. Thesis, University of Toronto 1986) at 54–58 [hereinafter “Forced Resettlement”];
58. Cartographies of Violence, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 1 at 227–237.
59. Cartographies of Violence, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 1 at 212.
60. “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”, at 213–214.
61. See, for example, R.H. Webb, Lieutenant-Colonel of National Defence, who in 1942 argued that using the abandoned buildings in Greenwood, Slocan, New Denver, Sandon, and Kaslo would be the “best and most economic” plan. He also argued that this method would “cut down the cost of feeding [Japanese Canadians] by what they produce themselves.” “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”, at 105.
62. See Sunahara's conclusion that the proceeds from the confiscation and sale of people's property and possessions were used to pay for the incarcerations. “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 4 at 105. In addition, I would argue that the labour of Japanese Canadians was used both to support the war effort and to pay for the incarcerations.
63. Foucault states “forced labour is a form of incarceration,” “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 6 at 115.
64. “Forced Resettlement”, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 54 at c. 2.
65. Sunahara, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 4 at 82.
66. The repatriation survey is described by Ann Sunahara as having two objectives: “to repatriate or deport as many Japanese Canadians as possible, and to disperse the rest across Canada.” “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”, at 118. As Sunahara illustrates, the survey was fundamentally coercive and was conducted under conditions of duress. The term “repatriation” is also a misnomer as most of the incarcerated were Canadian citizens and had never lived in Japan.
67. Sunahara, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 4 at 143. Sunahara also describes the fight against deportation at ch. 7.
68. “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”.
69. Adachi, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 4 at 317.
70. For discussions of the distantiated processes of expelling racialized peoples from the nation, see Goldberg, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 15 at 81, 98,137.
71. Removal of Japanese, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 33 at 20.
72. Cartographies of Violence, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 1 at 168.
73. “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”, at 169–170.
74. The first three commissioners of the BCSC were industrialist Austin C. Taylor; John Shirras, the assistant commissioner of the B.C. Provincial Police, and RCMP Asst. Comnr. Frederick J. Mead. Sunahara, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 4 at 53.
75. The BCSC was established through Order-in-Council P.C. 1665 of 4 March 1942 under the authority of the Federal Minister of Labour, Humphrey Mitchell and the supervision of the Deputy Minister, A.J. MacNamara. The BCSC was dissolved by Order-in-Council P.C. 946 of 5 February 1943.
76. The Commission was replaced by the Japanese Division and was maintained under the authority of the federal Minister and Deputy Minister of Labour. See Japanese Affairs, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 32 at 8;
77. “Forced Resettlement”, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 54 at 34.
78. Removal of Japanese, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 33 at 25.
79. “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”, at 26.
80. Japanese Affairs, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 32 at 11.
81. Cartographies of Violence, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 1 at 173.
82. “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”, at 187.
83. Removal of Japanese, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 33 at 24.
84. “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949”.
85. Cartographies of Violence, “Driven to Scatter Far and Wide: The Forced Resettlement of Japanese Canadians to Southern Ontario, 1944–1949” 1 at 190.
86. Kay Anderson describes “Shaughnessy” as “Vancouver's British-origin neighbourhood” emphasizing its elite spatial positioning. K. Anderson, Vancouver's Chinatown (Montreal & Kingston: McGill Queen's University Press, 1991) at 30.
87. Japanese Affairs, Vancouver's Chinatown 32 at 23.
88. NAC, Records of the Department of External Affairs, RG 25, Volume 2937, file 2997–40, part.l, “Japanese Population in the Dominion of Canada as of June 30, 1943” at 1.
89. Cartographies of Violence, Vancouver's Chinatown 1 at 195.
90. Vancouver's Chinatown.
91. W. Benjamin, Illuminations, ed., H. Arendt (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1955) at 257.
92. Cartographies of Violence, Illuminations, 1 at 197.
93. For a description of the term shikata ga nai, see e.g. Adachi, Illuminations, 2 at 355–356.
94. For an analysis of this representation, see Cartographies of Violence, Illuminations, 1 at 32–33.
95. I. Grewal & C. Kaplan, “Introduction: Transnational Feminist Practices and Questions of Postmodernity” in I. Grewal & C. Kaplan, eds., Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices (Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press, 1994) at 7.