JC Glossary

Compensation: government payment of $21 000 as a symbolic apology for losses due to the mass incarceration of Japanese Canadians (JCs) during WWII.

Disenfranchise: loss of the right to vote.

Dispossession: taking away of person’s belongings.

Enemy Alien: a person of foregin descent living in a country that is at war with their country of ancestry. This term was used in government notices and in the media to describe JCs.

Evacuate: term used for the forced removal of all people of Japanese ancestry from the Pacific coastline of British Columbia.

Exile: JC people during WWII were told to move out of BC to another province or to Japan.

Franchise: the right to vote.

Gajin: “foreigner.”

Gaman: “patience,” “perseverance.”

Generational Japanese: before the war.

Gosei: fifth generation immigrants.

Hafu: Japanese word for mixed race Japanese individuals. Some JCs use it to indicate that they are mixed.

Hapa: an Indigenous Hawaiin word for mixed race Hawaiin people that is used by some mixed Asian Canadians and Asian Americans. It is controversial for the fact that is has been appropriated from its Hawaiin origins.

Impoundment: the seizure of a possession from an individual by the authorities.

In Trust: the Canadian government told JCs during WWII that they would hold their impounded property until after the war. Instead the government sold these assets.

Issei: first generation immigrants.

Nikkei: Japanese emigrants and their descendants across the world.

Nisei: second generation immigrants.

Picture Bride: Japanese women who were approached in Japan by families who had already moved to Canada. The women were shown a picture of the man looking for a wide and agreed to come to Canada to marry him.

Prison Camp: a place where individuals were sent to be guarded by the military during the war. Japanese Prisoners of War (POWs) were sent there for refusing to go to road camps, being separated from their families, breaking curfew, or other minor issues.

Redress: to right a wrong, sometimes by compensating the victim or by punishing the wrongdoer. Also refers to the movement within the JC community for an official apology and payment for the injustices of the government’s actions toward JC. 

Registration: all people of Japanese descent were required to register with the RCMP after Pearl Harbor, by reporting their name, place of residence, and other personal information.

Repatriation: to send back to one’s own country of birth or place of citizenship.

Road Camp: a category of internment camp where Japanese Canadian men and boys over 18 were sent to do forced labor, often work on roads.

Sanatorium: a hospital like facility that cared for people with tuberculosis.

Sansei: third generation immigrants.

Self-supporting Camp: a category of internment camp where men were allowed to stay with their families, but each family had to pay for their own accommodations, schools, teachers, and other basics. 

Shikata Ga Nai: Japanese phrase for “it can’t be helped,” “nothing can be done about it.”

Shin-: Suffix for generation indicating that ancestors immigrated to Canada after WWII. Example: Shin-Nisei means second generation immigrant from a family that arrived after the war.

Shinai: a wooden or bamboo stick that is used in Kendo to replace the traditional swords.

Sympathizers: JCs were accused of being in favor of the Japanese military war efforts during WWII.

War Measures Act: a canadian law that gave the government the right to label individuals as enemy aliens and take away their civil rights.

Yonsei: fourth generation immigrants.

Citation: Hickman, Pamela. & Fukawa, Masako. (2011). Righting Canada’s wrongs: Japanese Canadian Internment in the Second World War. Toronto, ON: James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers.