Offensive history and the Good War: The internment of Japansese Canadians and Japanese Americans in World War II

In early 1942, the two great democracies of Canada and the United States interned their Japanese populations under the excuse of military necessity.;The topic of internment is complex, particularly when discussing events on both sides of the 49th parallel. For this reason, this thesis has focused on the respective contributions of intelligence agencies which influenced internment. While many other factors contributed to the final solution, it nevertheless remains clear that the policy of internment was rooted in intelligence gathering and in turn, the selective interpretation of that data by political forces in each nation. However, there exist some instructive differences between Canada and the United States in the use of state intelligence as a justification for incarceration. These variations reflect the unique history of each nation, the distribution of state power during war, the coordination of the various military and civilian intelligence agencies and ultimately, the influence of political leaders on the internment process itself.;An important sub-theme is the interpretation of this history by professional historians. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).