Creating a Standard for Correcting Mistakes

‘The victims of the Japanese Internment made claims to the Federal government on the basis that the whole Japanese Interment episode inflicted more emotional pain on them than actual physical pain, and they were right. Even before the decision for them to be interned was made, Japanese Canadians living on the West Coast were discriminated by the rest of the population out of fear of a Japanese attack on Canada. After the decision was made to intern all Japanese Canadians in the BC Interior, the assets of Japanese Canadians were confiscated by the government and auctioned off without their permission. After a few years of suffering in the harsh environments of the BC Interior, the Japanese Canadians found out that their community on the West Coast was practically destroyed and racism was still at large in the area. As Muriel Kitigawa puts it, "You, who deal in lifeless figures, files and statistics, could never measure the depth of hurt and outrage dealt out to those of us who love this land. It is because we are Canadians, that we protest the violation of our birthright."6 The Japanese Canadians’ emotional damage was far more severe than the physical damage inflicted on them, and they deserve to be compensated by the Federal government.’