In the bitterness and confusion, many Japanese opted to go to Japan. A total of around11, 000 wanted to go to Japan. In the interior camps of British Columbia, over 80 percent of the adults favored the repatriation. East of the Rockies, on the other hand, only 15 percent wished to leave. Subsequently two-thirds of those who had declared for repatriation changed their minds. The government was strict and argued that the decision to leave was evidence of the disloyalty the Japanese had Canada. In 1946, the government tried to deport 10,000 Japanese-Canadians but massive public protest made it impossible. In the end, only 4000 left Canada for Japan, all of them voluntarily. By the end of World War II, the Japanese community was shattered and the spirits of the people were broken. Of those who remained, the majority relocated on the prairies, where they found new homes and jobs and resumed their lives. Thus by 1949, only 30 percent of the 20000 Japanese in Canada still lived in British Columbia. The pattern and structure of Japanese Canadian society had been altered permanently.
Not until after the War did Canada finally begin to accept Asians as part of their people and remove anti-Asian immigration restrictions. In the 1950s, racist immigration policies were lifted though a few remained in place. By the 1960s, restrictive laws were repealed and soon legal discrimination against Asians in Canada was a thing of the past and a lot of Asian immigrants once again started to come to Canada.
The new generation of immigrants were very different from the earlier peasants who worked very hard to secure a place for themselves. Instead, these immigrants are highly educated, most are professionals and many speak English as well as their own language. These new immigrants have made a place for themselves in Canadian society. Though racism and discrimination still exists, these recent immigrants have made a much easier life.
Some of the wrongs committed against Asians in Canada have been addressed. In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, gave 16,000 wronged individuals $21,000 each. In addition, the Canadian government established the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with 24 million dollars and gave money to the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation to assist in rebuilding the community.
The early Chinese and Japanese immigrants to the West Coast of Canada gave a great deal of their life’s energy to the building of the infrastructure of Canada. All of the early pioneers came to Canada prepared to work hard in order to send money back home to support their families and to build new lives in Canada. In many cases, this was a long and lonely sacrifice and few experienced support from the white settlers or received protection from the government. In almost every situation, the Asians were paid less than the whites and had no rights or privileges in the new country. Little by little, they were denied until eventually, immigration was rejected altogether separating families and leaving individual alienated from their loved ones. Thousands of men and women sacrificed and endured a great deal of pain in order to be accepted as citizens of Canada. Their stories are a vital part of the history of the West.