WWII AND CANADA’S

HOME FRONT
Themes in the 1930s
 Prior to the outbreak of war Canada took an
isolationist policy of remaining outside the affairs of
other countries

 Many in Canada were openly anti-Semitic (remember

Mackenzie King’s real estate purchases)
 Few were like Thomas Crerar (Liberal Cabinet Minister) and
Carine Wilson (first female Senator) who openly supported
accepting Jewish refugees
 Canada admitted 5000 Jewish refugees between 1933
and 1945
Declaration of War
 In 1914, Canada was automatically at war with
Britain’s declaration of war

 In 1939, the Canadian government debated in

parliament and declared war one week after
Britain
 60 000 volunteered to serve despite the war weariness
Canadians felt following WWI
 However, Canada was NOT prepared to go to war
Canada’s Contributions
 Canada established the British Commonwealth Air
Training Plan (BCATP) to train Allied pilots,
engineers and ground crew

 Major contribution as Canada paid over 1.54

billion of the total cost
 King had hoped to mostly send supplies and troops as
he knew that conscription could ruin him and his
government
Canada’s Contributions
 Total War – The federal government used the
National Resources Mobilization Act (June 1940) to
assert government control over all industries
 CD Howe was the dictatorial “Minister of Everything”

 Crown Corporations were created

 Government owned companies that were created to do
the work if no private businesses could provide what
the war effort needed
Political-Economic-Social Changes
 As in WWI women work in factories and have
greater independence

 The federal government feared a return to economic

depression after war
 Victory Bonds and increased income taxes for
financing the war
 Wartime Prices and Trade Board froze wages and
prices
 Rationing of amounts and types of foods
 Proved the government could influence the economy
 Watch for the unintended impact of the
government’s war measures on the social fabric
of Canada’s economy and political landscape,
particularly the rise of the CCF

 War Machine-18:39
 Of Elephants And Chickens 1:11:35
Internment: Context
 BC had a long history of anti-Asian activities and
attitudes
 Many of the Japanese immigrants had prospered in
BC and this was resented by many white British
Columbians

 Hysteria about the threat of Japanese attacks

 December 7 1941 the US base in Pearl Harbor was
bombed by the Japanese drawing the US fully into the war
 Japan also attacked Hong Kong and by Christmas 1941 all
the Canadian soldiers in Hong Kong were dead or in POW
camps
What’s the Problem?
 Ottawa did not have any evidence about the
disloyalty of Japanese Canadians

 Since 1938 the RCMP had observed Japanese

Canadian residents and never found any sign of
treason or treachery
Canadian government Capitulated
 January 1942
 Canadiangovernment created a 100 mile protected area
and removed male Japanese nationals from this area
 February 1942
 announced decision to remove all people of Japanese
descent from the Pacific Coast
 close to 22 000 people affected; almost 75% were born in
Canada or were naturalized Canadians
 Families were often separated with men sent to
work camps while women and children were sent to
different camps

 Those that wanted to remain together were sent to

sugar beet farms in Alberta or Manitoba
War Measures Act invoked 1941
 Living conditions
appalling
 Small shacks some without
running water or electricity
 Bed bugs, cold, isolated,
few possessions, etc.
 Their property was to be held under the protection
of the federal government
 Actually auctioned off for far less than market value

 Following the Allied victory in May 1945 internees

were given the choice of relocation east of the
Rockies or repatriation in Japan
• Apology came in 1988 after many years trying to
gain redress

• Survivors received $20 000 in compensation

Internment
 Watch for all the reasons that Japanese Canadians
were interned and consider the conditions they
faced at the hands of fellow Canadians
 The Dispossessed 32:24
Conscription 1942 and 1944
 When war was declared many people first thought
about conscription and the danger it posed
 At the outset of war Prime Minister Mackenzie King
promised that there would be no conscription

 The National Resource Mobilization Act (NRMA)

allowed for conscription for home defense but this
was insufficient and King held a plebiscite (1942)
 “Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if
necessary”