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Government's permission to publish Japanese newspaper in Canada during World War II

And in fact, incidentally, Tom Shoyama, just about that time, the newspaper they had, he had was The New Canadian. And The New Canadian was immediately, in December, right after the war, soon after, was shut down. But then they came to them and they said they want some information, they want the Japanese people to know. "You have a running newspaper, can you inform Japanese people that they have to register?" So that's in January, they said they have to go and register. Well, he says, "I can't unless I, unless I have a newspaper to send out." And then he said, "Not only that, I have to have, be able to write" -- see, they didn't like the idea of him writing a newspaper that had English and Japanese in it, because Japanese was foreign to them, and they said this was code. "You could, you could tell people to do things without knowledge of, of the authorities." "Well," he says, "I can't write a, unless you give me information, I can't write a, just a blanket statement saying you have to register, you have to give 'em a reason why this was being done." It's a part of the, part of the, as a matter of fact, they were using the War Measures Act to do this. Anyhow, they said, "Okay, we'll give you, we'll give you the, the permission to go back and produce your newspaper." So they allowed him to put the newspaper back out.


Canada newspapers The New Canadian (newspaper) World War II

Date: July 25 & 26, 2006

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Tom Ikeda

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Henry Shimizu was born in Prince Rupert, B.C. in 1928 and was interned in New Denver during the war. After leaving the internment camp, he moved to Edmonton where he still resides. As a medical graduate, Dr. Henry Shimizu specialized in plastic surgery and has been active in the medical community by serving in numerous leadership positions. From 1989 to 2002, he served as chairperson of JCRF. He is an artist and has painted a number of scenes from his internment days. His works were exhibited in several communities. For his outstanding contribution to the community, he has received several awards including the NAJC National Award 1999, the University of Alberta Distinguished Alumni Award 2004 and the Order of Canada 2004. (July 26, 2006)

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