Mcgill University's Racial Exclusion of Japanese Canadians, 1943-1945

“McGill University’s Racial Exclusion of Japanese Canadians, 1943-1945” Tess Elsworthy Department of History and Classical Studies McGill University, Montreal A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in History © Tess Elsworthy February 2020 / Abstract In February 1942, the Canadian government exiled all Japanese Canadians from the Pacific coast, including 76 students attending the University of British Columbia. While other Canadian universities enrolled some Japanese Canadian students recommended by the British Columbia Security Commission, McGill University’s Senate exceptionally banned all students “of Japanese racial origin” in October 1943. Using documents from McGill’s archives, the Department of External Affairs, Japanese Canadian oral histories, and press coverage, this thesis outlines exclusionist Senate members’ manipulation of rules of procedure to pass the policy, the resulting conflict at Senate, resistance from students and the public, threatened interference from the Board of Governors, and the policy’s ultimate repeal in 1945. The expulsion of one student is contrasted with the continued presence of at least seven Japanese Canadian students on campus while the policy was in effect. Denial of educational opportunity is characterized as part of the broader dispossession enacted on Japanese Canadians in the 1940s. Résumé En février 1942, le gouvernement du Canada a exilé tous les Canadiens d’origine japonaise de la côte pacifique, incluant 76 étudiants de l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique. Alors que d’autres universités canadiennes ont admis certains Canadiens d’origine japonaise, suite aux recommandations de la British Columbia Securities Commission, le Sénat de l’Université McGill a pour sa part bannit de façon exceptionnelle tous les étudiants « d’origine raciale japonaise » en octobre 1943. S’appuyant sur des sources provenant des archives de l’Université McGill, du ministère des Affaires étrangères à Ottawa, des médias et d’entrevues avec des Canadiens d’origine japonaise, ma thèse montre la manière dont le Sénat a manipulé le règlement interne de l’Université et les conflits internes qui en ont résulté, la résistance des étudiants et du public face à cette décision, la menace d’interférence du conseil d’administration et, ultimement, la révocation de cette politique en 1945. Elle montre également que l’expulsion d’un étudiant de cette institution contraste avec la présence avérée d’au moins sept Canadiens d’origine japonaise sur le campus pendant la période de mise vigueur de cette politique. Ce déni du droit d’accès à l’éducation supérieure s’inscrit plus largement dans le processus de dépossession des Canadiens d’origine japonaise qui a cours au Canada pendant la décennie 1940. 1 / Table of Contents Abstract 1 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 5 A Controversial Policy 6 White Supremacy and Resistance 9 Japanese Canadian Internment Historiography 10 Archival Sources and Limitations 15 A Historiographical Gap 20 Japanese Canadians Remember 25 Thesis Roadmap 27 Chapter 1: Japanese Canadian Students in British Columbia 31 A History of Exclusion 31 Undaunted Ambitions 33 Life on Campus 35 Disruption 41 Sudden Departures 42 Cadets Abandoned 44 A Cascade of Restrictions 46 Uncertain Futures 49 Dispossession 53 The Appeal of Montreal 55 Chapter 2: Old McGill 58 History of a National Institution 60 Freedom of Expression 63 Institutionalizing Subtle Exclusion 66 Abandoning Jewish Refugee Scholars 72 Chapter 3: Passing a Racist Admissions Policy 77 McGill Mobilizes 77 No Rush to Exclude 78 James Shifts His Position 80 Applications Arrive 82 The Department of External Affairs Abdicates Responsibility 84 The BCSC Reaches Out 87 James Neglects to Consult the ‘Expert’ 89 The First Policy 91 Orchestrating the Second Policy 95 2 / Dissent 99 Trueman Makes A Final Appeal 102 Chapter 4: Publicity, Protest, and Repeal 104 Adverse Publicity 105 The Students’ Executive Council Responds 108 A Japanese Canadian Alumna Speaks Out 110 Students Protest 112 The Senate Debate Resumes 116 More Public Condemnation 117 The Senate Reconsiders 118 James Contacts Other Universities 120 A New Strategy of Containment 128 The McGill Daily Leaks Senate Meeting Details 129 Senate Amends the Rules of Procedure 130 Finally Repealed 132 The Board of Governors Intervenes 136 The Conference Committee Meets 138 Wood Fights On 140 Epilogue 144 Unquantifiable Loss 144 A Student Displaced Again 144 The Students Who Stayed 146 Defying Exclusion 148 False Claims about Military Service 150 False Claims about the War Effort 153 False Claims about Security 155 False Claims about Veterans 158 A Remarkable Student Arrives 159 Bibliography 161 3 / Acknowledgements This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Ann and Tom Elsworthy. Their nuanced and compassionate perspectives shaped my view of history and their support made this project possible. I am indebted to my supervisor, Professor Laura Madokoro, for her generous feedback, wisdom, and faith in this project. Professor Madokoro’s pedagogy and publications have been a consistent influence since I took a course with her as an undergraduate student in 2014. It has been an honour to work with such an inspiring mentor. I am grateful to McGill alumna Betty Kobayashi Issenman, who agreed to be interviewed about her memories of McGill’s exclusion policy, and her daughters, Joanne Soroka and Peggy Issenman, for coordinating the interview. For their assistance with research, I want to acknowledge the staff of the McGill University Archives, Rare Books and Special Collections, especially Chris Lyons, Lori Podolsky, and Julien Couture. I also want to thank my co-supervisor John Zucchi and McGill Professors Jarrett Rudy and Suzanne Morton for their guidance. UQAM professor Greg Robinson shared files with me and offered invaluable analysis. Francois Dansereau and Gordon Burr provided insight about McGill’s war records. Kaitlin Findlay, Carolyn Nakagawa, and Ann Sunahara graciously shared knowledge about Thomas Kunito Shoyama’s studies at McGill. In 2017, I was awarded the Hide Hyodo Shimizu research scholarship by the National Association of Japanese Canadians and the Landscapes of Injustice project (LOI). While working for LOI, I was able to discuss my project with a broad network of research assistants, historians, and community council members, and to conduct archival research at the UBC Archives and the Nikkei National Museum. I am grateful to the National Association of Japanese Canadians, Jordan Stanger-Ross, Michael Abe, Kathryn Bridge, Linda Kawomoto Reid, the LOI Community Council, and my fellow research assistants for their assistance and mentorship. Special thanks to LOI community council members Mary and Tosh Kitagawa, who shared biographical information about former UBC students from their research for A Degree of Justice. I am grateful for the support of my family, and my friends, Andrée-Anne Talbot, Jay Moore, Van Ha, Leila Sidi, Leslie Hudson, Kim Smith, Karena Munroe, Sophie Ares Pilon, Karen Estrin, Cassie Oxenford, Bibi Careau, Dan Landreville, Lucero Lopez Garcia, Michael McNichol, Zack Seizmagraff, Bryce Mansell, the Thorne family, and the Clifford family. Finally, I want to thank my partner Miranthi Huwae, for her heartening moral support. 4 / Introduction When Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King announced on 25 February 1942 1 that all Japanese Canadians would be expelled from a hundred mile wide restricted zone along the Pacific Coast, 76 Japanese Canadian students were registered at the University of British 2 Columbia in Vancouver. Fourteen would graduate that spring; the remaining students were left to abandon their studies or transfer to other Canadian universities. In the fall of 1942, Queen’s University and the University of Toronto turned away Japanese Canadian students, but by 1943 both institutions admitted them alongside the 3 University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Manitoba. McGill University distinguished itself by legislating the total exclusion of Japanese Canadian students on racial grounds. On 20 October 1943, McGill’s Senate decided, by a vote of 11 to 9, that “it is inadvisable to admit any students of Japanese racial origin to the undergraduate courses of the 4 University during the present war.” McGill administrators singled out Japanese Canadians on 1 I use the term ‘Japanese Canadian’ with the understanding that it is imperfect. Identifying language evolves over time, and ‘Japanese Canadian’ may have different meanings according to generational, cultural, and political context. For more analysis, see Roy Miki, “Turning In, Turning Out: The Shifting Formations of ‘Japanese Canadian’ from Uprooting to Redress,” in Situating: Critical Essays for Activists and Scholars , ed. Jo-Anne Lee and John Lutz (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005), 94-113. 2 Ann Gomer Sunahara, The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War (T oronto: J. Lorimer, 1981), 39; A Degree of Justice, 1942 (Vancouver: n.p., 2017), 10. 3 A Degree of Justice, 41, 64. Both Queen’s and the University of Toronto registered Japanese Canadian students for the fall term of 1942 but yielded to pressure from Premier Mitchell Hepburn, university governors, and alumni groups to turn these students away. 4 McGill Senate Meeting Minutes, 20 October 1943, Senate Minute Book 1943 to 1945, RG 8, Container 11, File 357, Senate, McGill University

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