Transcript Unit 3 WW2
JAPANESE INTERNMENT AND THE BOMB The End of WWII In the Beginning • Emperor Hirohito – Part of the ‘Axis Powers’, along with Hitler and Mussolini • Time of Japanese imperialism (expansion of their empire in the Pacific) • Dec 1941 Attack Pearl Harbor and the colony of Hong Kong – Being defended by Canadian soldiers • Now at war with Japan - Pacific A Defensive Canada • Canada feels vulnerable. A Japanese attack on Canadian soil is possible and feared • Pre-existing racism towards Japanese Canadians is aggravated by a fear of an attack Canadians of Japanese Ancestry - General • Japanese Canadians • look different • May speak a different language • have different customs • Live close to the coastline • Work mostly in the fisheries • Although many have been Canadian for generations they are feared, not trusted and suspected of possibly being spies • Perceived as a threat Treatment of Canadian’s of Japanese Ancestry • Striped of their rights / property / possessions • • • • • Loose the right to vote Forbidden employment Forbidden to attend school Carry id cards Property and possessions (homes, cars, fishing boats) confiscated • Property later sold at reduced rates to pay for their (Involuntary) internment Japanese Internment • Feb 1942. Mackenzie King announced that all Japanese Canadians would be forcibly removed from within a hundred– mile swath of the Pacific coast • To “safeguard the defences of the Pacific Coast of Canada.” • They were uprooted from their homes, stripped of their property, and dispersed across Canada Japanese Canadians • 22,000 people were taken from their homes and scattered throughout BC. The Canadian government set up 8 internment camps in interior BC • Dreadful conditions – cold, lack of fresh water, poor nutrition, disease… • After the war people were given a choice: to be scattered over eastern Canada or deported to Japan (10,000) • Slideshow • Peoples History Clip Disk 12 THE BOMB The Bomb • America had a top-secret plan: - Manhattan Project – To design and deliver an atom bomb before anybody else does • Included participation from England and Canada • Oppenhiemer – Lead Physicist The End of the War The A-Bomb • August 6, 1945, a lone American bomber flew high over the Japanese city of Hiroshima • Dropped a single bomb named “Little Boy”, Fat Man days later on Nagasaki • 1st atomic bomb unleashed on the world The A-bomb continued • 90,000–166,000 killed at Hiroshima • 60,000–80,000 killed at Nagasaki • Thousands would die later from radiation poisoning • Leukemia Hiroshima & Nagasaki after the Bomb V- J Day • Japan surrendered August 14 – 1945 • The War was OVER!!!! • The new world order • Two new world super – powers • Atomic age • A territorial war based on ideas (communism vs. free democracy / capitalism) • The Cold War begins Was the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Japan Justified?