Dear Editor,
How about a Truth and Reconciliation Day that recognizes the brutal treatment that Canadian-Japanese citizens received at the hands of our government during the Second World War?
We confiscated their homes, businesses, and personal possessions and then rounded them up like criminals and sent them to concentration camps.
These were Canadian citizens who supported democracy but for racial reasons were treated in such a manner while Canadian-Germans were left entirely alone.
These actions were particularly focused on the Japanese community in the Steveston area where their homes, fishing boats and businesses were seized and then sold for pennies-on-the-dollar to rapacious Caucasian buyers.
If we are really serious about telling the truth about historical events in this country, and in Richmond in particular, we should examine the facts related to how Japanese-Canadians first played such a strong role in building our community’s social and economic environments and then how they were punished for no other reason than their race.
The truth is defined by facts, and facts should not be ignored, as the Indigenous community is making us fully aware of these days.
Ray Arnold
Richmond
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