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Articles on Japanese internment camps

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Federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino said a registry of foreign agents would protect Canadians and bolster efforts to address foreign interference. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Concerned about foreign interference in Canada? An ‘enemy agent’ registry is not the answer

Political pressure is mounting on the federal government to launch a registry of foreign agents. But a history of racial discrimination is reason to be cautious.
In a 1949 photograph, Mori works in his family’s nursery in San Leandro, Calif. Courtesy of Steven Y. Mori

Toshio Mori endured internment camps and overcame discrimination to become the first Japanese American to publish a book of fiction

On Dec. 2, 1941, a publication date was set for Mori’s first book. Five days later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, upending the writer’s life and throwing the book’s publication into doubt.
On Sept. 17, 2001, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, left, met with President George W. Bush and others. Greg Mathieson/Mai/Getty Images

How memories of Japanese American imprisonment during WWII guided the US response to 9/11

In the wake of 9/11, some called for rounding up whole groups of people viewed as potential threats to the nation. But Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta knew the U.S. had done that before.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, surprised many court watchers by authoring the decision to expand the Civil Rights Act. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

When Supreme Court justices defy expectations

Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the Supreme Court as a conservative. But his ruling in a major civil rights case is part of a pattern of justices setting aside ideology to address historic injustices.
Japanese internees starting to leave the train which brought them from Hay on their way to the Loveday Internment Camp Group in the Barmera area (1943, Renmark, South Australia). Australian War Memorial/Photo: Hedley Keith Cullen

Friday essay: Japanese Australian veterans and the legacy of anti-Asian racism

Reflecting on the wartime treatment of two Japanese Australians (or Nikkei) raises the spectre of our racist past - and can prompt us to consider the vulnerabilities of Asian Australians today.
Asylum seekers cross the border from New York into Canada on March 18 at Hemmingford, Que., two days before Canada said it would now send those seeking asylum back to the U.S. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Coronavirus: Racism and the long-term impacts of emergency measures in Canada

Canada has closed its borders to asylum-seekers and non-citizens because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar emergency measures over the years should teach us that now is not the time for nationalism.
In this March 2019 photo, Central American migrants wait for food in a pen erected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process a surge of migrant families and unaccompanied minors in El Paso, Texas. The migrants were then destined for detention centres. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

Concentration camps have deep roots in liberal democracies

Concentration camps are by no means only synonymous with Nazi terror or totalitarianism. In fact, concentration camps have deep roots in the culture and politics of Anglo-American liberal democracies.
Carvings and barbed wire illustrate the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial on Bainbridge Island, Wash. The site, designed by architect Johnpaul Jones, opened in 2011. (AP/Seattle Times/Jordan Stead)

Why Japanese-Americans received reparations and African-Americans are still waiting

Social movement theory helps to explain why Japanese-Americans received reparations but the same will be much more challenging to provide for African-Americans.
Loyalty to the British Empire is taught to these second and third generation Japanese children in an Internment Camp in British Columbia circa 1942. (CP PHOTO/Jack Long National Archives of Canada C-067492)

300 letters of outrage from Japanese Canadians who lost their homes

Recently, 300 protest letters written by Japanese Canadians in the 1940s were reopened. The letters convey a deep sense of loss, injustice and outrage by Japanese Canadians who lost their homes.

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