Fear is a primary motivator for many actions. Historians have been asking the question whether conscription and Japanese internment occurred out of fear or discrimination. During World War I conscription put a lot of strife between the French and English of Canada, so during World War II for obvious reasons, William Lyon Mackenzie King tries to prevent conscription at all costs. While working through that crisis though, he interned thousands of Japanese Canadians. William Lyon Mackenzie King had to deal with different minority groups during his term, and while attempting to keep them happy, creates the biggest shame in Canadian history.
"At the outbreak of war in 1914, over 30 000 volunteers joined the army, far more than expected. These volunteers were mostly recent immigrants from Britain, as well as unemployed young men from the English-speaking provinces." (Wikipedia, par 1) Robert Borden had promised 500,000 more volunteers but there was no one volunteering. So Borden was forced to put conscription into effect in 1917. This put a huge strain on English - French relations in canada. The English and French started to play the blame game. The English speaking Canadians pointed out that only four percent of the man power involved in the war were French Canadians, yet forty percent of the men between eighteen and forty-five are French Canadian. So basically the English were upset with the French involvement in the war while the French Canadians were upset for being made to participate in a war where they felt no loyalties to the countries involved. They did not feel they should fight a war that they felt had nothing to do with them. So the whole conscription issue during World War I made the French and English of Canada at wits with each other.
From the strife conscription had put on French-English relations in Canada, it made sense for William Lyon Mackenzie King to try and prevent conscription during World War II at all costs.
Prime Minister Mackenzie King admitted at this time that no dishonest act had been performed by any of the Japanese-Canadians in the country. ... The betrayal suffered by the Japanese-Canadians can never be repaid, hopefully this injustice will never happen again to any other ethnic minority group. ...
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had reliable evidence which stated there was no threat presented by those Japanese living in British Columbia. However, public opinion, mounting international concerns, and the threat to the safety of the Japanese themselves forced King's hand. ... In 1941 Vincent Massey the high commissioner in London reported to Mackenzie King that there was "secret" reliable information, which revealed that the Japanese were taking an interest in the British Columbia coast and that the Japanese living in those costal areas were actively involved (Johnson and...
Prime Minister Mackenzie King wrote in his diary on March 29, 1938, "I fear we would have riots if we agreed to a policy that admitted numbers of Jews," and Frederick Charles Blair, director of the immigration Branch of the Department of mines and Resources had said, "No country could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere.... The statement that Mackenzie King had written in his diary and the statement made by Frederick Charles Blair, shows the unwillingness of the Canadians to chan...
