75th anniversary of Japanese-Canadian internment camps echoes as fears of Islamophobia rise

Mary Kitagawa was only seven years old in 1942, but she remembers the moment a Mountietook her father from her as though it were a movie.

The gun inthe RCMP officer's holsterwas right at her eye level.

"When I saw that gun and the way he was manhandling my father, I thought for sure that he was being taken away to be shot," said Kitagawa, 85.

She and her three sisters ran after the truck yelling "Daddy! Daddy! Come back!"

Her mother stood near the house on their farm on Salt Spring Island, B.C., clinging tightly to their baby brother in her arms.

"That was a very, very traumatic period in my life as a child."

Banished from the West Coast

It was 75 years ago this week when the federal government issued an Order in Council to remove Japanese-Canadians from a 160-kilometre area off theB.C. coast ahistoric event that Kitagawa says has disturbing similarities to the treatment of Muslims in the United Statestoday.

The order targeted about 22,000 Japanese-Canadians who were labelled as "enemy aliens" despite many of them havinglived in Canadafor generations.

The change was prompted by the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour and Hong Kong in December1941.But many groups say it was the result of long-standing resentment against the thousands of Japanese-Canadians in B.C.

In 1967, CBC broadcast a look back at the treatment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War:

Japanese internment in B.C.

8 years ago

Duration 3:36

CBC archive video showing Japanese Canadians who are forced to sell major assets and relocate to internment camps in B.C.s Interior.

Shortly afterward Kitagawa'sfather was taken away, sheand her family joined thousands of other Japanese-Canadians sent to Hastings Parkin Vancouver to livein the livestock building at the PNE.

"My mother couldn't believe we were being led to live in that barn," she said.

"We could smell the urine and feces and we could feel the straw still underneath our feet."

Inside, the familyfound bunk beds tightly packed together, made up with straw mattresses with twogrey army blankets. Maggots crawled through the floorboards.

"There was nothing for us to eat that night," Kitagawa recalls of that day.

Internment camps inland

The family was first sent to Greenwood, B.C., the site of a former copper mine, where they slept on the floor of the tiny shack, where they were forced to live.

They had no idea there father was still alive when, one day, her mother received a letter from him.

Like hundreds of other Japanese-Canadian men, he had been assigned to do roadwork, getting paid 25 cents per hour, with room and board deducted.

The letterexplained that they could be reunited if he agreed to work on a beet farm in southern Alberta, where there was a labour shortage.

"We were so happy to be a family again," Kitagawa said.

But the family's situation on the beet farm inMagrath, Alta., was even more dire.

Their home was a shack next to a pig pen, with no kitchen, beds or other facilities.They ate out of cans and drank water from the same ponds the animals lived in.

"[My parents] decided that if we lived in that condition any longer, we would all perish," Kitagawa said.

'We were destitute'

The family bouncedfrom one internment camp to the next in B.C.'sSlocanValley, each seemingly worse than the last.

In 1943, they found out the federal governmenthad issued an order liquidating all property owned by Japanese-Canadians that has been in the government's custody.

Their cherished farm and home on the West Coast had been sold. Therewould be nothing to return to.

"We were destitute," Kitagawa said.

It wasn't until 1949, four years after the end of the war, that the order was lifted. Families like Kitagawa's never got their property back.

The following videois a short documentary aboutKitagawa, whose maiden name isMurakami, and her family:

The long journey home for a Japanese Canadian family after the war

28 years ago

Duration 9:15

The Murakami family returns to Salt Spring Island to begin again. Aired March 21, 1997 on CBC-TV news.

Parallels today

Today, 75 years later, Kitagawa says she sees parallels between her experience and how Muslims are currently beingtreated in the U.S.

She says the first sign that troubled her was when President Donald Trump promised, during his election campaign, to force all Muslims in the U.S. to registerwith the government just as the Canadian government had done with those of Japanese descent.

"It just sent shivers downmy spine. I didn't think they could ever do a thing like that, but I guess with Trump you never know," she said.

"Today, because of the different law and rules we have in Canada, I don't think this could happen again.But still, it'sa frightening thought that it could.

"What has to happen is people like us who went through this terrible journey have to support these people who are being victimized right now."

In 1988, the Canadian Government officially apologized to Japanese-Canadians for what they experienced during the war.

The long-awaited apology came with a $300-million settlement.

Canadian government apologizes to Japanese Canadians for wartime internment

36 years ago

Duration 4:30

A formal apology and compensation package are offered to the Japanese Canadian community.