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Analysis Of This Is My Own By Muriel Kitagawa

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The lives of several Japanese Canadians were influenced negatively by the policies of the Canadian government. For example, numerous Japanese Canadians were forced to leave their homes and possessions due to the fear of white Canadians towards the Japanese during the Second World War. British Columbia was the most opposing province in Canada against the Japanese community because local economic competitors wanted to remove Japanese locals from the economic competition. In this paper, I will argue that we ought to consider the hardships that the Japanese community encountered during the Second World War in Canada as Muriel Kitagawa’s “This Is My Own” provides insight to significant challenges and struggles of Japanese Canadians in terms of their social class and racial issues. Muriel Kitagawa’s “This Is My Own” was published in 1985, which comprises Kitagawa’s letters that accentuates the challenges of various minority groups including the Japanese Canadians who were subject to racial discrimination by white Canadians mostly in British Columbia from 1941-1948 after the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Moreover, Muriel Fujiwara …show more content…

For example, racism against Japanese Canadians intensified that led to government possession of Japanese property such as fishing vessels, which also caused the loss of employment for many Japanese fishers. This is significant because Japanese Canadians had no resources such as employment or possessions that they could utilize for their betterment so they were forced to move to internment camps due to discriminatory reasons against the Japanese race. Specifically, British Columbia wanted to remove Japanese Canadians out of fear and racial disparities, but also wanted to possess all Japanese property in order to benefit from the economic competition by the increase of employment

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