Japanese

Japaneses and the History of Canada Immigration Policy

The word “Japanese” was now being used instead of the word “Chinese” because the head tax discouraged Chinese contractors from bringing in the same large numbers of Chinese. But to the host population, this translated into the same demand for cheap labour that businesses such as the railways had been making for years. Behind the scenes, arrangements were being made for large-scale immigration of Japanese whose transportation costs would be borne by contractors who hoped to make a profit out of them.

In May, 1907, the Intermediate Class on the Empress of Japan was eliminated to make room for the large numbers of Orientals travelling to Canada by steerage class.

Alarm about Oriental immigration became more and more focussed on the Japanese. Despite the fact that Canada was experiencing a mild recession in 1907, one rumour said that five Tokyo immigration companies had filled an order for 5000 Japanese labourers to work for a Canadian railway company in B.C. Another said that the ship “Kumeric” had been chartered for $20,000 to bring 1177 Japanese labourers from Honolulu at a fare of $36 each.

Canadian manufacturers were experiencing a healthy trade with Japan and were prepared to sacrifice B.C.’s labour interests in order to preserve that trade. “Precisely the same thing had happened in the U.S. and anti-Japanese sentiment was running at a very high pitch” there.

On June 24, 1907, the Vancouver News Advertiser announced that 12,000 more Japanese would arrive. The same day, the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council met to form an Asiatic Exclusion League. On June 26, 1907, the Kumeric arrived with its 1177 Japanese labourers.(P. 203)

Shortly after, remnants of the parade assembled and rampaged through Chinatown breaking all the windows there and then proceeded to Japantown (Little Yokohama) to do the same. The Chinese were passive, but the Japanese fought back. Almost immediately after hearing about the attack, Prime Minister Laurier apologized to Japan, but said nothing to China. Canada’s valuable trade treaty with Japan, and no trade treaty with China, was the apparent reason.

In September 1907, Laurier met with Japan’s special commissioner who had been investigating Japanese persecution in the U.S. The commissioner agreed that the spirit of a Canada-Japan treaty which restricted Japanese immigration to Canada had been violated. (Note: Japan had previously agreed to restrict immigration to Canada from Japan, but in order to bypass this law, Japanese had gone to Hawaii and then boarded ships to Canada. Technically, they could argue, they were not coming from Japan, but from Hawaii.) Laurier asked that Japan limit its immigration to Canada to 600 per year.

Future Prime Minister Mackenzie King arrived in British Columbia in late October, 1907 to settle Japanese damage-compensation claims of $13,500. King uncovered some disturbing facts. “The Canadian Nippon Supply Company of Vancouver, backed by the CPR, had indicated to the Japanese government that labour was needed in B.C.” In the first ten months of 1907, 8125 Japanese had entered British Columbia. (1)

“Mackenzie King summarized the matter of the riots with a considerable amount of understanding. ‘The influx of 8,125 Japanese in ten months naturally caused great alarm and if anything more were needed to occasion unrest, it was found in the simultaneous arrival from the Orient of Hindus by the hundreds and Chinese in larger numbers than in preceding years.’ ”

“As matters stood…(in 1908), the Chinese were somewhat restricted by the high head tax (though in May, 1908, 120 paid $60,000) and immigration from Japan would be voluntarily restricted by that government. The loophole through Hawaii was sealed through a new Dominion law stating that all immigrants had to enter (Canada) directly from their country of origin. This also stopped the East Indians, since there was no shipping directly from their country. They had previously all entered by way of Japan. One had to admit grudgingly that the September riot had met with some success.” (2)

(28) Future Prime Minister Mackenzie King returned to British Columbia on May 6,1908 to settle Chinese compensation claims for the riot damage of 1907. King noted to Chinese government representatives that China had paid British subjects $50,000 for damages suffered during riots against them in Shanghai in 1905 and that Canada was prepared to follow a similar course of action.

King was amazed to hear that of the $26,217.12 claimed by Vancouver’s Chinese, two claims of $600 each had been made by Chinese opium manufacturers in Vancouver for the loss of six days of business. Despite the fact that opium was regularly advertised on the front pages of The Colonist, and despite the fact that B.C. Oriental legislation and M.P. complaints had repeatedly referred to opium, the 34 year-old Mackenzie King had no idea that opium was used in B.C. (Pp. 211-212)

“It is remarkable, too, with what dispatch legislation can be hurried through the House of Commons when the suggestion comes from the right source. Mackenzie King’s report and recommendation on opium was dated June 26. On July 13 (1908), the House passed a law prohibiting the importation, manufacture and sale of opium for other than medicinal purposes.” (P. 213)

(Summary Notes for Part 3: It seems that a moral issue such as the use of the drug opium carried much more weight than the moral issue of importing Chinese and Japanese surplus or replacement workers. Contrary to the conventional wisdom of 2006, the large number of labourers from China and Japan (in effect, surplus or competing workers) and the lower wages they worked for were the major reasons for the overwhelming support for restrictions on Chinese and Japanese immigration in British Columbia.

The business interests which profitted from Chinese and Japanese cheap surplus workers were a minority of the population. The complete inattention of Chinese and Japanese immigrant importers to economic factors such as the depression of the mid-1890′s, the recession of 1907, and Canada’s unemployment levels undoubtedly angered the host population.

(The constant badgering from almost all members of the B.C. legislature, from B.C. MP’s, from labour organizations—-in B.C. mostly but also supporters in other parts of Canada—-and from the B.C. population had precipitated a series of Chinese Head Taxes: the nominal $5 in 1885; $50 in 1886; $100 in 1900; and $500 in 1903.

(The Vancouver riot of 1907 was a reaction to B.C. businesses which were then using Japanese cheap surplus labourers instead of their Chinese labourer counterparts.

(Canada’s federal government opposed attempts to impose a head tax on the Japanese on the grounds that such a tax would jeopardize lucrative Canadian/British trade arrangements with Japan. The interests of Eastern Canadian exporters prevailed over those of British Columbia labour.)

Notes

1. Most of these Japanese had entered before Prime Minister Laurier had requested that Japan limit its immigration to Canada to 600 per year.
2. The plugging of the Hawaii loophole in 1908 was very similar to the enacting of the “Safe Third Country Agreement” recently between Canada and the U.S. In effect, both agreements said that if an immigrant/refugee passed through a “third country”—-his own was the first and Canada was the second—-his bid for immigration/refugee status would not be considered.

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This entry was last updated: November 6, 2014