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Now, 77 years later, there’s a different conversation happening around reclaiming in the area.

The internment and dispossession of Japanese Canadians, done on the excuse of national security, has come to be recognized as a grave injustice for which all three levels of government have apologized. The federal government issued its formal apology in 1988, and signed a redress agreement allotting money for surviving internees and investments for a Japanese community fund.

In 2012, the B.C. government made its own apology, and while that was seen as an important step, community members say, it was only a step.

B.C.’s 2012 apology caught many Japanese Canadians by surprise, including Lorene Oikawa, president of the National Association of Japanese Canadians, because the government did not consult with nor include the community in the process. Nor did the provincial apology include any efforts toward redress.

“So we wanted to work with the government to have some meaningful followup,” Oikawa said, “and that’s the commitment right now from the current B.C. government: They want to work with us, and they’re supporting our community consultations.”

In April 2018, the association presented a proposal to B.C. Premier John Horgan and cabinet ministers. In March of this year, the government confirmed its support for the B.C. Redress Project, providing the association $30,000 to conduct consultations.

The City of Vancouver also apologized, in 2013, for its part in wartime injustices against Japanese Canadians, and there have been attempts since then to talk to the city about reclaiming a property in the Downtown Eastside “as a way to make that apology more meaningful,” said Judy Hanazawa, president of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association.