Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats

“The gardener plants an evergreen

Whilst trampling on a flower

I chase the wind of a prison ship

To taste the sweet and sour”

– The Court of the Crimson King, King Crimson, 1969

Hi everyone! Our latest project in Humanities focused on the wrongs of Canada’s past and how they must not be forgotten and repeated. To make people remember these injustices, we created miniature memorials symbolizing our group’s injustice. My group was assigned Japanese Internment. Beginning in 1942, Japanese Canadians were interned in remote towns in the interior. Internment would end in 1949; four years after World War II was over. After internment ended, Japanese Canadians had to fight for nearly 50 years to receive an apology from the Canadian government. Our memorial serves as a visual reminder of the injustices committed against Canadians of Japanese descent. Visually, our memorial is a metal cherry blossom tree with barbed wire wrapping around it. On the branches of the tree hangs multiple glass fishing floats, representing how property, including fishing boats, were seized. It also represents how many Japanese Canadians had lived their whole lives near the coast, and how, much like fishing floats in trees, they felt out of place when interned in the interior. The barbed wire wrapped around the tree represents the generational trauma that was created by internment camps. In some places, the tree had grown into sections of the wire, symbolizing that even with the trauma there, Japanese Canadian culture is healing from a great wound. Despite the barbed wire around it’s trunk, the tree still blossoms, representing the resilience of the Japanese Canadian community.

You can see our full memorial explainer here.

Even though an apology cannot erase the suffering caused by internment camps, it has spread awareness about Canada’s less than savoury past, making sure that those mistakes are not forgotten or, most importantly, repeated.

 

“First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me”- First They Came, Pastor Martin Niemöller