warriors
mandatory
nineteen fortyboys
a single shade of warrior
did infantry squad
platoon drills
without arms
in British Columbia schools
mandatory
forty two
thirty-three Japanese
happily in cadet training,
quoted Education Committee
to Victoria School Board
but Yellow bodies
inspired grown-up nightmares
Ottawa was sleepy
BC scared
fear of imminent invasion
flew West to East
mouth to ear
tearing up the chain
"Delay, delay, delay!"
"Why are They still here?"
mandatory
little Yellow warriors
playing in the target zone
"Fire" was the command
Laura Thomas
"Single shade of warrior..."
In 1940 mandatory cadet instruction
was introduced in all British Columbia superior, junior high and high schools.
Cadet training had not been part of the physical education curriculum
in British Columbia since 1933.
"Happily in cadet training..."
It was reported in the Victoria Daily
Times on January 15th 1942 (p. 18) that in a survey reported
to the Victoria School Board by its Education Committee that there
were 33 Japanese boys in grades four or higher in Victoria schools
participating in cadet training. The Committee concluded that
the Board did not have the authority to exclude Japanese students
from cadet training nor was there any anti-Japanese sentiment
in schools where Japanese boys were participating. These comments
seem contradictory. While the Committee claimed that "to
date there have been no signs of anti Japanese feeling in our
schools" there must have been some fears about training Japanese
cadets otherwise the reporter would not have mentioned the Board's
lack of authority over it. Note that in the Victoria Daily Colonist
on February 21st 1942 it was reported that the special order barring
Japanese students from cadet training made "mandatory what
was before carried out by mutual arrangement in the schools"
(p. 13). While illegal exclusion may not have been going on in
the Victoria District, it seems to have been going on elsewhere
in the province.
Three other issues related to cadet training
and Japanese folks in British Columbia form the socio-political context for
the Council of Public Instruction's special order forbidding students
of Japanese racial origin from participating in Cadet Corps or
donning the cadet uniform. In 1942 the Canadian Physical Education
Association began its campaign for a national physical fitness
act. Underlying the campaign was the notion that physical education
lead to physical fitness and that the physical fitness of the
national body would ensure the development of a strong and ultimately
successful corps of soldiers. Second, the House of Commons tabled
financial legislation during the week of February 20th
that increased federal grants to Cadet Corps from $171,500 the
previous year to $659,000 (see for example Vancouver Province,
21 February 1942, p. 5 and the Globe & Mail, 21 February 1942, p. 3). This money was to go toward summer training
camps for senior cadets aged 15 to 18 and included provisions
for training more instructors who were predominantly primary and
secondary educators. Lastly, and most significantly, a palpable
fear of invasion emanated from British Columbia, a fear that caused
British Columbia's elite to ask - whose bodies? - in the context of this
national desire to define, discipline and physically develop the
Canadian warrior.
At the same time as the Minister of Education
signed the Special Order, Victoria Mayor Andrew McGavin sent a
telegram to Prime Minister Mackenzie King arguing that a Japanese
or "enemy" invasion of the British Columbia coast was inevitable (Globe
& Mail, 21 February 1942, p. 3). Conservative MP for
Vancouver South, Howard C. Green, echoed these sentiments in his
address to the Conservative Business Men's Club in Toronto that
same week. Summarizing Green's speech the reporter wrote, "A
pre-blitzkrieg Government ruled Canada today, and…the Canadian
people have been led to believe that the worst to be expected
were hit-run raids along the Pacific Coast." Green is then
quoted saying, "Should there be an invasion, our defenses
will be found entirely inadequate" (Ibid., p. 4),
inadequate because Ottawa was not taking the Japanese threat seriously.
"fear of imminent invasion..."
British Columbia's elite in particular were worried about the April 1st deadline for moving all male Japanese nationals of military age to the interior. They wanted Ottawa to speed things up and they wanted the removal policy to target "all men of Japanese origin" including those of Canadian nationality. As reported on the front page of the Victoria Daily Times on February 20th, 1942, the policy was expanded to address these concerns. The new plan included speeding up the removal of up to 7,000 Japanese men to "camps along the Jasper, Rupert, Hope, Princeton and North Thompson highways," roads the internees themselves would work on, as soon as the camps were ready. The key politicians involved in the removal policy were from Ottawa: Ian Mackenzie, the Pensions Minister; and from British Columbia, A. E. Dixon, Deputy Minister of Public Works; and W. Griffith, the relief administrator.
What is interesting and perhaps most problematic about this relocation of Japanese men and the barring of Japanese boys from mandatory cadet training was the conflation of nationality with skin colour. Regardless of country of birth people who had biological features associated with Japanese-ness or the skin colour "yellow" (yellow was a common referent for those of Eastern or Asian origin at this historical moment) were homogenized into a single race; a race that in the social consciousness of white British Columbia, threatened the security of the nation and the future of the province.
"warriors," by Laura Thomas. Contextual notes also by Laura Thomas, Educational Studies, The University of British Columbia, March 2000.
