Redress Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice

by Miki, Roy

• ISBN13: 9781551926506
• ISBN10: 1551926504
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-06
• Publisher: Raincoast Books

Summary

From 1942 to 1949 some 23,000 Japanese Canadians were uprooted from their homes along the B.C. coast, dispossessed and dispersed across Canada. This passionate and compelling book - a creative blend of memoir, documentary history and critical examination - explores the Japanese Canadian redress movement of the late 20th century that resolved the violation of their citizenship rights during this mass expulsion.

Author Biography

Roy Miki teaches at Simon Fraser University.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	xi
INTRODUCTION Approaching Redress: Negotiating the Nation	1	(12)
ONE Framed by Race: A Canadian Knot	13	(26)
TWO Regulating Japanese Canadians: Racialization and the Mass Uprooting	39	(18)
THREE In Defence of Rights: The Nisei Mass Evacuation Group	57	(30)
FOUR Dispersed: Dispossession and Relocation	87	(24)
FIVE Now You See It, Now You Don't: The Perils of the Bird Commission	111	(22)
Interlude The Call for Justice in Moose Jaw	133	(6)
SIX Setting the Wheels in Motion: The JCCP Redress Committee	139	(24)
SEVEN Nineteen Eighty-Four: Defining the Redress Movement	163	(24)
EIGHT The Toronto Cauldron: Community Conflict and the Founding of the "Toronto Chapter"	187	(28)
NINE Getting the NAJC House in Order: Forging the Language of Redress	215	(26)
TEN Constructing a Redress Identity: History, Memory and Community Formation	241	(28)
ELEVEN The Politics of the Process: Encounters of the Federal Kind	269	(26)
Interlude Three Vancouver Visitations	295	(8)
TWELVE The Redress Settlement: Negotiations with the Nation	303	(24)
References	327	(20)
Works Cited	347	(8)
Index	355

Excerpts

"Roy Miki applies the concept of "negotiation" to the 20th century history of Japanese Canadians - a history formed out of complex mediations with a Canadian government that denied them fundamental rights. From the moment the first Japanese immigrants arrived in Canada, they had to confront, adjust to, and attempt to transform a system of laws and policies based on assumptions about race that predetermined the identities of all Japanese Canadian citizens." "Miki recounts the prewar efforts of Japanese Canadians to counter racist policies and also revisits the turbulent period of their internment. He explores the complicated reactions and often bitter conflicts that emerged in a community being torn apart by the government's actions and policies. Dispelling the common assumption that Japanese Canadians simply acquiesced to their internment, Miki recounts dramatic attempts to negotiate with the federal government, which prefigured the redress efforts of the 1980s." "The internal dynamics of the redress movement form the heart of Miki's book. Beginning with the acknowledgement of the settlement in the House of Commons, he unravels the history of the movement. Incorporating stories from his personal and family history, anecdotes of pivotal events, candid comments from interviews and documents only available in archival collections, Miki interweaves the strands of the movement that had to come together to create a redress language - and thus a voice - for Japanese Canadians."--BOOK JACKET.