Who Wants Japs?

The Prime Minister had long ago laid down the Government's postwar policy on Japanese Canadians: they would be dispersed across the Dominion, never again be allowed to concentrate in British Columbia. Last week the British Columbia Security Commission, the federal agency in charge of Japanese Canadian affairs, went into details:

P: A survey of all Japanese Canadians (some 23,000) will begin in early April.

P: Those who volunteer for repatriation will be sent back to Japan after the war, with expenses paid and with compensation for property they leave behind. (In Ottawa, estimates of the number of volunteers ran from 4,000 to 10,000.*)

P: Those who wish to stay will be asked to settle somewhere east of the Rockies, "as evidence of their desire to be good Canadians."

P: Those who decline to make a choice will be considered "disloyal," presumably subject to compulsory repatriation.

British Columbians generally applauded the Commission's plan. Some even thought it was too lenient (in the Provincial Legislature last fortnight, the Government's agriculture committee recommended legislation making it illegal for Canadian Japs, wherever born, to own or lease any land or business). Anti-Jap feeling was strong elsewhere, too. Alberta's Public Works Minister W. A. Fallow said that his Province wanted no postwar Japs. Quebec's Premier Maurice Duplessis said that he would take "necessary steps" to see that no Japs were relocated in his Province. Said Nova Scotia's Premier A. S. MacMillan: "We've got troubles enough."

Few Canadians spoke up for the Japs who had moved eastward from British Columbia in the early days of the war--although most of them had proved to be good workers and had fitted quietly into their new communities.

* For news about U.S. Japs who want repatriation, see U.S. AT WAR.

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