Event: Addressing injustice: UBC’s Response to the internment of Japanese Canadians students – a symposium to examine UBC’s role and response to the internment of 76 Japanese Canadian students during the Second World War, and how those issues resonate today
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 21, 5 – 8 p.m.
Location: Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Lillooet Room, 3rd floor
1961 East Mall
For a map, visit: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/?516
Details: Symposium includes a speaker program and video featuring six Japanese Canadians who were UBC students in 1942. For more information, visit: http://japanese-canadian-student-tribute.ubc.ca/
Video: A video of the symposium, is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKkR4PSs4WU
Seventy years after Japanese Canadian UBC students were forcibly removed and exiled from the B.C. coast, UBC is examining its own role in this injustice with a symposium.
Although the Canadian government implemented the internment policy, the role and responsibility of UBC regarding its Japanese Canadian students remains an uncomfortable question. Many U.S. universities protested the inclusion of Japanese American students in the forced removal, tried to place their students at other universities or supported the completion of their degrees during the internment.
This was not the case at UBC. Even before internment, Japanese Canadian students in the university’s Canadian Officers Training Corps (C.O.T.C) had their commissions stripped by the university’s Senate Committee on Military Education. Two UBC faculty members, Henry Angus and E.H. Morrow, were among the few who
spoke out against the injustice.
The symposium, Addressing injustice: UBC’s Response to the internment of Japanese Canadians students, seeks to answer questions about what happened 70 years ago and address about UBC’s responsibility. Participants will also examine related ethical issues that still resonate today.
A 15-20 minute video featuring the stories of six Japanese Canadians who were UBC students in 1942 will also be shown. The symposium will conclude with an open discussion.
Symposium speakers include:
- Mary Kitagawa, an active member of the Japanese Canadian community who led the campaign for UBC honorary degrees
- Stan Fukawa, community historian, will speak about what life was like at UBC for Japanese Canadian students before the war
- John Price, University of Victoria history professor, will speak about the larger contexts for the forced removal of Japanese Canadians in 1942
- Henry Yu, UBC history professor, will address issues of justice and responsibility both in the past and present and why an awareness of history is a crucial element of citizenship and civic participation for all Canadians
To register for the symposium, please contact: equity@equity.ubc.ca For media inquiries, please contact: Heather Amos at heather.amos@ubc.ca; 604.822.3213 (office) or 604.827.3867 (cell).
For more information, visit: http://japanese-canadian-student-tribute.ubc.ca/
SAVE THE DATE
Honorary degree ceremony for Japanese Canadian students of 1942
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 30, 4 p.m.
Location: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
6265 Crescent Road
For a map, visit: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/?130
A special ceremony will be held during UBC’s spring congregation to recognize and honour the Japanese Canadian students whose university experience was disrupted by internment in 1942.
Honorary degrees will be conferred on the students who were unable to complete their education when they were sent to internment camps in 1942. In addition, degrees will be re-conferred on the students who completed their studies but missed their graduation ceremony because of the internment.
For more information, visit: http://japanese-canadian-student-tribute.ubc.ca/the-ceremony/