Evolution of Racism in Canada After 1946

Much of the racism in the post-war period consisted of the use of verbal displays of animosity not backed up by government policy.

What helped aid in preventing government policy from affecting all ethnic communities began with the citizenship given to Japanese and other nationalities living in Canada from 1947 onwards. It helped that Diefenbaker, of Saskatchewan, was elected to power in the 1950s. He helped mold the Canadian psyche to accept the ideal of pluralism, where each citizen did not see himself as a hyphenated Canadian. Later, in the 1970s, Trudeau pushed the ideal of multiculturalism where ethnic communities could celebrate their heritage.

During the next 50 years, bias and prejudice evolved from attacks on the Japanese as a racial group to personal attacks on individuals within the Japanese community who did not conform to social pressures to "blend in." Any racial incident between a Japanese person and another person was seen as reflecting badly on the Japanese people as a whole.

As a result, the motivating forces of shame and guilt about Japan losing the war led the Japanese of the post-war era to assimilate into Western society, with a few of them remaining in the Interior of Canada, and the majority migrating eastward to urban centers east of the Rockies. However, a minority of Japanese-Canadians took the option to return to Japan after the war.

When Japanese who assimilated into mainstream society in Toronto moved back to B.C. to retire, they discovered cultural differences between themselves (who were higher educated and spoke mainly English) and the Japanese who never left B.C. (most of whom graduated high school but had varying command of both English and Japanese). In response, a few Japanese from Toronto who retired in B.C. soon realized a sense of loss due to the after-effect of internment. This has led to identification with victims of the Japanese militarists' regime between 1936 and 1945 in Asia, including victims of bio-chemical warfare in North Korea, Asian "comfort" women, and prisoners-of-war both Asian and non-Asian in prison camps throughout S.E. Asia.

In 1988 Japanese redress issues were resolved by the Canadian government through token payment to all Japanese born before 1946 and the establishment of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Since that time, anti-racism education has enlightened most of eastern Canada and urban centres in Western Canada.

By 2001, racism was seen as a person's cultural biases and prejudices rooted in fear of other cultures. In some ways, racism is a fear-based tool used by a person or group of people rooted in the psychological dynamics of the inferiority-superiority complex. The subconscious fear of racial inferiority results in an imagined racial superiority of one's own culture, while the fear of inferiority is projected as inferiority of the other culture. Rather than inquiring about them, the racist projects her fear about the other culture in a socially inappropriate manner.

Thus, the key to overcoming racism is through education.