Mission and history: the Sisters of the Assumption and Japanese Students in Canada during World War II

Abstract

The educational work of women religious with Japanese evacuees in British Columbia during the Second World War and Canadian Catholic women’s missions in Japan have been overlooked by most historians. The Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin of Nicolet, Quebec published chronicles of their mission in Japan (begun in 1934) and in Slocan, B.C. (1943–1946) in their community journal, Assumpta. The community included francophone Canadians and Americans and some Japanese. During the War, the missionaries in Japan were either interned or repatriated. One of the latter Sisters, an American, taught at Slocan and then returned to Japan after the War. This essay draws on Assumpta chronicles to narrate the experience of the Sisters teaching the Japanese in Canada during the Second World War, and suggests that the framework of captivity narratives might be used to further discuss the complexities of the Sisters’ educational mission and history.