<Begin Segment 23>

TI: And so, so I'm thinking, so as this is happening, what's the mood of the Japanese Canadian community when this is going on?

HS: Well, they were very, well, of course, they were worried about what was going to happen. But there was, everybody had ideas of what, and Papa was saying, "Oh, nothing's going to happen." He was pretty adamant, although he was already making preparations for possibility by trying to get rid of the, the restaurant, 'cause he thought, this'll not do, it won't go.

TI: But what were some of the rumors going around?

HS: Oh, rumors, well, the rumors were that nothing would happen. And also, second thing was that they would shoot us all and things like that. People, some people get really, really hysterical about what they think. The other thing was, of course, that they would be, we would have to be taken away somewhere, sent back to Japan, something of that nature. That's, that's generally, the idea was that we may have to go back to Japan, but we would, anywhere, there was this rumor that we would have to leave somehow, leave Prince Rupert. And in fact, incidentally, Tom Shoyama, just about that time, the newspaper they had, he had was The New Canadian. And The New Canadian was immediately, in December, right after the war, soon after, was shut down. But then they came to them and they said they want some information, they want the Japanese people to know. "You have a running newspaper, can you inform Japanese people that they have to register?" So that's in January, they said they have to go and register. Well, he says, "I can't unless I, unless I have a newspaper to send out." And then he said, "Not only that, I have to have, be able to write" -- see, they didn't like the idea of him writing a newspaper that had English and Japanese in it, because Japanese was foreign to them, and they said this was code. "You could, you could tell people to do things without knowledge of, of the authorities." "Well," he says, "I can't write a, unless you give me information, I can't write a, just a blanket statement saying you have to register, you have to give 'em a reason why this was being done." It's a part of the, part of the, as a matter of fact, they were using the War Measures Act to do this. Anyhow, they said, "Okay, we'll give you, we'll give you the, the permission to go back and produce your newspaper." So they allowed him to put the newspaper back out.

TI: So that's how information got out to the community.

HS: Yeah, community had, so then he got the information out to the community saying that we had to register, and so we get the New, got The New Canadian, too. And in it he had an editorial, and in it he discussed what is going to happen, what's going to happen. And his, his discussion about this -- and I still remember him saying -- he said he did think that we may have to, we may have to lay low for the remainder of the war, but in knowing, he says, but knowing that the Canadian government is following the British example, he believed that they would, they would follow the British tradition of fair play. He said we would be treated fairly. And so he, he was, whether or not he believed this or not, he, anyhow, this is what he wrote in his editorial for people to read. And eventually, that newspaper continued on during the whole war, because they had to have some method of communicating with the Japanese citizens, and Tom pointed out to the RCMP, he said, "You know, at least fifty percent of the Japanese on the West Coast do not read English. I'd have to write it in Japanese." So they said, "Okay, well, I guess if you have to, go ahead." And then, so then on top of that, he says, "You know, our newspaper system is completely, we can't even do anything with the newspaper because we have no money. Our whole subscription thing is disappeared because of the, because nobody has the money to buy a newspaper anymore. You destroyed their livelihood." So the RCMP says, "Okay, we'll pay you to run the newspaper."

TI: So at this point, I mean, did the community, how did the community perceive The New Canadian during this period? Did they view it as an independent newspaper still, or did they view it as more --

HS: No, well, they always felt that he, I think a lot of the Issei felt that, that Tom was playing into the hands of the enemy, as they say.

TI: Oh, so sort of being used by the...

HS: Yeah, used by the authorities.

TI: ...by the government, and just sort of, in some ways, perhaps...

HS: Being a, being a traitor to the, to the community.

TI: And that some of it was propaganda from --

HS: And I think, and I think Tom had to withstand a lot of that criticism, although his feeling was he's doing it because people have to know what's going on, and if they don't, if he shuts up, then who's going to tell them, because the English press wasn't going to. They, they didn't want to have anything to do with -- and then on top of that, like he pointed out, a good portion of the Japanese population didn't speak English.

TI: Yeah, but for him to come out with an editorial about this fair play, and then, and then as events happened, I would imagine that would probably damage his credibility in the community.

HS: Oh, yeah. I mean, he was, his credibility was damaged because of that, no question. But he, he really honestly believed that they, knowing the parliamentary system and the way people... the whole, the whole, sort of the premise of Canada was on their, when they formed the country, they, according to his estimation, is that the Canadian government -- it's not like the Constitution of the United States. You know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that sort of thing. It's peace, order and good government. That's what their premise of the government, of the country was supposed to be. Peace first, good order, and good government. [Laughs] Nothing else. There's nothing about individual freedoms and things of this, that was the premise of the, of the Canadian government.

TI: So it was more of a focus on the common good.

HS: Common good. More focused on keeping order, keeping things, you know... and so as a result, there's nothing about individual liberties or rights. That's, that's one of the major difference between the government of the United States and the government of Canada.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.