Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution

Eric Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross, Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution, published by the University of British Columbia Press. Eric Adams is Professor of Law at the University of Alberta, Jorden Stanger-Ross is Professor of History at the University of Victoria.  After the Second World War ended, Canada planned to banish as many Canadians of Japanese descent as possible to Japan. Among the final laws issued under the War Measures Act, the exile proposed to remove more than 10,000 people, most of them Canadian citizens, to a country devastated by war. This book is a story of the legal system that made exile possible, and the resilience and resistance of people facing its injustice. It follows the lives of Japanese Canadians denied basic rights of citizenship, forced from their homes, stripped of their livelihoods and possessions, and pressured to accept exile during the Second World War. The authors examine the people behind these draconian measures, the politicians who devised the exile in crucibles of racist thinking, contortions of logic, and callous indifference. The book concludes with the exile in court. In hearings before the Supreme Court of Canada and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, lawyers and judges contemplated the meaning of citizenship, race, and rights under the wartime constitution and in the postwar world in decisions now largely forgotten. As a history that unfolded in a period of global conflict, sharpened borders, and racist suspicion, the exile of Japanese Canadians – an enduring story of the power and fragility of citizenship and the constitution – remains a vital story for today.