Broken PromisesThe Dispossession of Japanese Canadians

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Usaburo Oikawa: Protest

Usaburo Oikawa was a retired farmer. He lived south of Vancouver with his wife, son, and son’s family. They raised chickens and grew strawberries.

When the Oikawas were uprooted in 1942, the family leased their land to a local farmer, Richard Fennig. The family spent the internment working on a sugar beet farm in Alberta.

In 1944, they received notice that the Office of the Custodian had sold their farm for $1,572.

Library and Archives Canada, RG33-69, RG117-A-1, RG117-C-3; NNM, The New Canadian

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