7 December 1941: A Turning Point in Canadian Wartime Policy Toward Enemy Ethnic Groups?

Abstract

In Canada the date 7 December 1941 has been associated with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with the heightened fears on the West Coast about national security that subsequently led to the evacuation of the local Japanese population to the interior. This measure, which failed to differentiate between those Japanese residents who were enemy aliens and those who were Canadians by naturalization or birth, was a flagrant example of racist decision-making. This paper points out that on the very day of the Pearl Harbor attack, events took place that helped to propel policy towards underprivileged and unpopular ethnic communities in the opposite direction. It concludes by suggesting that this transformation of the Canadian government’s approach to enemy ethnic groups came about as result of a number of developments, foremost among them a change in Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s inner circle of advisers.