warriors

mandatory nineteen forty
boys
a single shade of warrior
did infantry squad
platoon drills
without arms
in British Columbia schools

mandatory
forty two
thirty-three Japanese
happily in cadet training,
quoted Education Committee
to Victoria School Board
but Yellow bodies
inspired grown-up nightmares
Ottawa was sleepy
BC scared

fear of imminent invasion
flew West to East
mouth to ear
tearing up the chain
"Delay, delay, delay!"
"Why are They still here?"

mandatory
little Yellow warriors
playing in the target zone
"Fire" was the command

Laura Thomas


"Single shade of warrior..."

In 1940 mandatory cadet instruction was introduced in all British Columbia superior, junior high and high schools. Cadet training had not been part of the physical education curriculum in British Columbia since 1933.

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"Happily in cadet training..."

It was reported in the Victoria Daily Times on January 15th 1942 (p. 18) that in a survey reported to the Victoria School Board by its Education Committee that there were 33 Japanese boys in grades four or higher in Victoria schools participating in cadet training. The Committee concluded that the Board did not have the authority to exclude Japanese students from cadet training nor was there any anti-Japanese sentiment in schools where Japanese boys were participating. These comments seem contradictory. While the Committee claimed that "to date there have been no signs of anti Japanese feeling in our schools" there must have been some fears about training Japanese cadets otherwise the reporter would not have mentioned the Board's lack of authority over it. Note that in the Victoria Daily Colonist on February 21st 1942 it was reported that the special order barring Japanese students from cadet training made "mandatory what was before carried out by mutual arrangement in the schools" (p. 13). While illegal exclusion may not have been going on in the Victoria District, it seems to have been going on elsewhere in the province.

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"Yellow bodies..."

Three other issues related to cadet training and Japanese folks in British Columbia form the socio-political context for the Council of Public Instruction's special order forbidding students of Japanese racial origin from participating in Cadet Corps or donning the cadet uniform. In 1942 the Canadian Physical Education Association began its campaign for a national physical fitness act. Underlying the campaign was the notion that physical education lead to physical fitness and that the physical fitness of the national body would ensure the development of a strong and ultimately successful corps of soldiers. Second, the House of Commons tabled financial legislation during the week of February 20th that increased federal grants to Cadet Corps from $171,500 the previous year to $659,000 (see for example Vancouver Province, 21 February 1942, p. 5 and the Globe & Mail, 21 February 1942, p. 3). This money was to go toward summer training camps for senior cadets aged 15 to 18 and included provisions for training more instructors who were predominantly primary and secondary educators. Lastly, and most significantly, a palpable fear of invasion emanated from British Columbia, a fear that caused British Columbia's elite to ask - whose bodies? - in the context of this national desire to define, discipline and physically develop the Canadian warrior.

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"BC scared..."

At the same time as the Minister of Education signed the Special Order, Victoria Mayor Andrew McGavin sent a telegram to Prime Minister Mackenzie King arguing that a Japanese or "enemy" invasion of the British Columbia coast was inevitable (Globe & Mail, 21 February 1942, p. 3). Conservative MP for Vancouver South, Howard C. Green, echoed these sentiments in his address to the Conservative Business Men's Club in Toronto that same week. Summarizing Green's speech the reporter wrote, "A pre-blitzkrieg Government ruled Canada today, and…the Canadian people have been led to believe that the worst to be expected were hit-run raids along the Pacific Coast." Green is then quoted saying, "Should there be an invasion, our defenses will be found entirely inadequate" (Ibid., p. 4), inadequate because Ottawa was not taking the Japanese threat seriously.

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"fear of imminent invasion..."

British Columbia's elite in particular were worried about the April 1st deadline for moving all male Japanese nationals of military age to the interior. They wanted Ottawa to speed things up and they wanted the removal policy to target "all men of Japanese origin" including those of Canadian nationality. As reported on the front page of the Victoria Daily Times on February 20th, 1942, the policy was expanded to address these concerns. The new plan included speeding up the removal of up to 7,000 Japanese men to "camps along the Jasper, Rupert, Hope, Princeton and North Thompson highways," roads the internees themselves would work on, as soon as the camps were ready. The key politicians involved in the removal policy were from Ottawa: Ian Mackenzie, the Pensions Minister; and from British Columbia, A. E. Dixon, Deputy Minister of Public Works; and W. Griffith, the relief administrator.

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"Yellow warriors..."

What is interesting and perhaps most problematic about this relocation of Japanese men and the barring of Japanese boys from mandatory cadet training was the conflation of nationality with skin colour. Regardless of country of birth people who had biological features associated with Japanese-ness or the skin colour "yellow" (yellow was a common referent for those of Eastern or Asian origin at this historical moment) were homogenized into a single race; a race that in the social consciousness of white British Columbia, threatened the security of the nation and the future of the province.

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"warriors," by Laura Thomas. Contextual notes also by Laura Thomas, Educational Studies, The University of British Columbia, March 2000.