Landscapes of Injustice project enters phase II

Housed at CAPI and led by UVic Department of History associate professor Jordan Stanger-Ross, the Landscapes of Injustice project is a seven-year, multi-partner research project exploring the forced dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.

The project team is currently transitioning from its research phase into the second phase, that of public dissemination of its findings that will culminate in a travelling museum exhibit beginning in 2019:

Over the next three and a half years, our project will encourage the gathering of diverse talent around research findings— talented curators, talented teachers, talented filmmakers, and talented programmers.
Jordan Stanger-Ross
Project lead

Landscapes of Injustice display at the Royal BC Museum
A lightbox display at the Royal BC Museum currently features documents the "Provincial Records cluster" of Landscapes of Injustice found in the BC Provincial Archives during their research (until mid February 2018, near the coat check; photo: BC Archives). The Royal BC Museum and the Nikkei National Museum will be creating a complete exhibit as part of Phase 2 of the project that will be touring to various institutions across the country starting in 2019.

In addition to the recent publications of two books: Witness To Loss: Race, Culpability, and Memory in the Dispossession of Japanese Canadians (McGill-Queens University Press) edited by Stanger-Ross and project collaborator Pamela Sugiman and The Tree Trunk Can Be My Pillow (University of Victoria Press) by Tadashi (Jack) Kagetsu, the project brought Japanese Problem, a site-specific play depicting the detainment of Japanese Canadians in barns at Hastings Park, to Victoria for a run of performances.

Japanese Problem was only about 40 minutes long, but it will stay with me forever

Marsha Lederman
The Globe and Mail

In November, the project received national and international media attention (e.g., the National Post / NHK, Japan's national public broadcaster) for the discovery of 300 forgotten letters of protest written by Japanese Canadians to the federal government about the forced sale of their belongings, businesses and homes. 

screenshot of National Post article about Landscapes of Injustice

On January 28th, Landscapes of Injustice will be hosting a UVic Lansdowne Lecture by Dr. Sugiman at the Royal BC Museum in which she will confront the complexity and messiness of human relationships, revealing a troubling silence: not the silence of Japanese Canadians, but rather of their friends, neighbours, classmates, teachers, co-workers, employers and religious leaders:

"Acts of Kindness and Complicity: The silence of bystanders and eyewitnesses to the dispossession and internment of Japanese Canadians"
Dr. Pamela Sugiman
Royal BC Museum
Newcombe Conference Hall
Sunday, January 28, 2018 
2:00-3:30 pm
Free and open to everyone   
 Seating is limited