Education

Improvements to the BC curriculum surrounding the internment, dispossession & forced uprooting of Japanese Canadians are broadly understood as an opportunity to strengthen anti-racism education in BC & create more conscientious, pluralistic citizens, a critical priority in a time of heightened racism.

The BC Redress Education meeting took place on June 11th, 2021. Susanne Tabata co-chaired the meeting, attended by Lorene Oikawa, Paul Kariya, Art Miki, Masako Fukawa, and Mike Perry Wittingham. For the BC Government, Parliamentary Secretary Singh was joined by Hon. Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Education, and Hon. Anne Kang, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training, along with staff and officials.

Our Requests

  • Revise the BC curriculum (Social Studies 5 & 10) to make the internment, dispossession and forced uprooting of Japanese Canadians from 1942–1949 a mandatory, standalone component
  • $245,000 to fund the development of teaching materials for Japanese Canadian history in BC schools (project management, ‘memory tour’ field school for teachers, improvement of online teacher resources websites, creation of digital course for teachers)
  • At the invitation of the NAJC, the University of Victoria's Centre for Global Studies has also proposed the creation of an Art Miki Forum for Social Justice. The University is conscious that any BC Government funds allocated to the creation of such a Forum should not detract from BC Redress, or from funds that will be allocated to Japanese Canadian survivors.
Artefacts from the collection of the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre, New Denver, BC.
Lucerne School students and community members at interpretive sign unveiling, June 15, 2018. Photo courtesy Laura Saimoto.
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