| W.F. Russell, Secretary of the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers’ Association, applied to employ Japanese evacuees in Southern Alberta, to solve the war-time labor shortage in the beet fields. Opposition from the provincial government to this plan was so strong that the federal government agreed to guarantee strict control over the evacuees. They were to be confined to the farms to which they were assigned, and removed from the province once the war was over. Approximately 3,650 Japanese Canadians came to Southern Alberta under this agreement. |