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| Michael Marshall |
Before WWII, all Japanese-Canadians were daily subject to subtle and not-so-subtle racial discrimination.
As well as random acts of kindness from some in the white majority.
Usually the Japanese-Canadians bore this hostility in silence, but that does not mean they forgot.
Finally all , from grandmothers to babies, were 'interned' - most, at least for a time, inside barbed wire camps - but all were interned informally, in the sense their freedoms were gravely restricted.
What happened to them all was broadly similar but interestingly, their reactions were as individual as all humans are.
Some like David Suzuki felt the sting of oppression and of being a 'victim' and swore they'd try their darnest to see no one else ever felt that too.
Others like Kanao Inouye , the Kamloops Kid, kept their cool - while in Canada .
Kanao even felt racial discrimination from the authorities in Japan, because they did not fully trust this semi-westernized individual.
But when Kanao was forced to be a Japanese conscript, though a Canadian citizen, he morally chose to fully enter into his new role.
His other choice was to do as little as possible to harm those under his care and later plead he only acted under extreme duress.
Instead, he became infamous for sadistically mistreating Canadians and Europeans generally, letting them know this was payback time for his life back in Canada.
He become a full time, professional, victim and now he was going to dive into the profitable Culture of Entitlement , full tilt.
His country and his fellow citizens owed him for all those years of abuse.
They couldn't give him money or a formal apology - but by God, they'd give him their blood.
Yes he was a victim, but even those who freely acknowledged this had little sympathy for Kanao,because he had simply gone far too deep into his cult of Entitlement and Redress.
Finally, in 1947, he was hung in Hong Kong, the only Canadian* hung for treason.
*(Louis Riel, (like Lord Haw Haw) was also hung for treason in a trial that still leaves most legal scholars very uncomfortable. They have strong doubts whether or not he could be charged with treason, if he wasn't truly a subject of Canada.
Inouye's case was so clear cut, because of his repeated claims that he was a Canadian, such that no lawyer has ever objected to his conviction, only his sentence.)
If you are going to make a career of being a victim - be it in journalism or in politics - please be a victim - show sympathy for others who also suffer - please don't become a victimizer and a bully instead ...
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