In January 1942, Ottawa decided that all males who were Japanese citizens, 18 to 45 years of age would be moved out of the Defense Zone, a strip about 100 miles wide along the B.C. coast. On February 26, the federal government ordered a complete evacuation of all people of Japanese origin, regardless of their citizenship, from the Defense Zone. Their possessions and properties were impounded and sold. The Standing Committee on Orientals recommended that all Japanese (some 24,000) be held in camps in the interior of B.C., where they would be formed into labor corps. |