Carefully Considered Words: The Influence of Government on Truth Telling about Japanese Canadian Internment and Indian Residential Schools

Abstract

Formal apologies and compensation are well-used modes of reparation for survivors of historical injustices in Canada. Examples of historical injustices, which took place in Canada, include the internment of Japanese Canadians and Indian Residential Schools. Truth telling is a central element of reparations movements which refers to processes used to uncover and reveal a formerly denied or ignored part of history. This paper opens up critical space for understanding how government influences and limits truth telling. Based primarily on analysis of archival documents of the Canadian federal public service about Japanese Canadian redress in the 1980s, the paper demonstrates that the government was highly invested in limiting the story of the internment and managing risks regarding compensation. I demonstrate that the government emphasized isolating redress from the claims of other “ethno-cultural” groups and argue that the government’s statements on the internment erase Canada’s oldest and ongoing historical injustice – the appropriation of Indigenous lands by settler governments and practices that attempt to eliminate Indigenous peoples from their lands.