What was the 1988 federal apology for Japanese Canadian internment?

On September 22, 1988 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney delivered a formal apology in the House of Commons for the wartime forced relocation, internment, dispossession, and attempted deportation of about 22,000 Japanese Canadians under the War Measures Act between February 1942 and 1949. The apology was accompanied by a redress settlement that included 21,000 dollars to each of about 17,000 surviving internees and their estates (totalling about 357 million dollars), 12 million dollars for a Japanese Canadian community fund, and 24 million dollars for the newly created Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

The redress campaign had been led by the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC, founded 1947, reformed as the modern NAJC in 1980), with leadership from Art Miki, Audrey Kobayashi, Maryka Omatsu, and others. The NAJC's Justice in Our Time campaign began in 1980 with detailed research documenting the financial losses suffered by Japanese Canadians (Price Waterhouse estimated property losses at about 443 million dollars in 1986 dollars). The campaign's strategy emphasised both an apology (acknowledging moral responsibility) and individual compensation. Roy Miki, Joy Kogawa, and other Japanese Canadian writers helped shape public consciousness through their literary work. Joy Kogawa's novel 'Obasan' (1981) was particularly influential.

The negotiation of the federal redress was extended. In 1984 Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government took office. Multiculturalism Minister Otto Jelinek (and his successor David Crombie) negotiated with the NAJC. Multiculturalism Minister Gerry Weiner concluded the agreement that was announced at the September 22, 1988 ceremony. Mulroney's apology in the House of Commons was witnessed by Roy Miki, Art Miki, and other NAJC leaders. About 17,000 surviving Japanese Canadians who had been subjected to internment, deportation, or loss of citizenship received the 21,000 dollars each. Surviving family members of those who had died after wartime injustice and before September 22, 1988 also received compensation.

The 1988 redress settlement is often cited as a model of how a state can acknowledge historic injustice. It was later cited as precedent for other Canadian apologies, including the 2006 Chinese Head Tax apology (by Stephen Harper), the 2008 Indian Residential Schools apology (by Harper), and the 2018 Komagata Maru apology (by Justin Trudeau). The Canadian Race Relations Foundation, established by the redress settlement, has worked since 1996 on race relations education and research. The Japanese Canadian internment is now widely taught in Canadian schools as a constitutional and moral lesson. The Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre in Burnaby, BC and the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto preserve the history. The redress settlement remains a significant federal acknowledgment of wartime Canadian injustice.