Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross
I am currently the Director of Landscapes of Injustice a research partnership project that is devoted to telling the history of the dispossession of the property (homes, businesses, farms, fishing vessels, automobiles, and any and all personal belongings) of Japanese Canadians during the 1940s. In 1942, when over 22,000 Japanese Canadians were uprooted from coastal British Columbia after Canada’s declaration of war with Japan, the Canadian government passed a law indicating that their property would be protected for the duration of the conflict and then released back to them. A year later, the government commenced selling all of it. Japanese Canadians, 75% of whom were Canadian citizens, suffered severe individual material losses; neighbourhoods and communities built by generations of hard work were destroyed. Landscapes of Injustice is a collaboration of academics, museums, and community organizations that is now working together to unearth this history, to understand its legacies, and to communicate it to audiences in Canada and beyond. You can learn more about our project at landscapesofinjustice.com.
http://www.uvic.ca/humanities/history/research/index.php