What Have You Done for Country, Enderby, B.C., Canada?

We drove up into the Okanagan region from Vancouver this summer. The Okanagan, set east of Vancouver, is the warmest area of Canada. Cache Creek, Canada's only desert, sits on the northern fringe. There are wineries throughout, winding, steep roads with speed limits that dip down to 20 km/hr. leading up into the Rocky Mountains. When I was a kid, I used to go down to the Okanagan from Prince George to play sports. I was impressed by the heat even then. Now it is similar to California. Scorching hot. Zero humidity. 

This is a record of men from Princeton, B.C. who died during WWII. This war took place in Europe, not Canada. Canada was a colony of Great Britain, so youngsters were dragged into war, half a world away. 

Enderby, B.C. The museums are so expensive in Canada now. I walk around the downtown Main Streets and hit the parks nearby to get a lesson. Who is going to pay $30 to go into a museum? 

The population of Enderby, B.C. is 2,947. The town runs between a ridge to the north and a river, for around twenty blocks. I bet Enderby was smaller eighty years ago. Fourteen guys died from Enderby in World War One. 

Here is the memorial for the men that fell in World War One from Richmond, B.C., Canada. Notice at the base of the memorial two people with Japanese surnames who died: Kazuo Harada and Hikotara Koyanagi. "They died for you," the memorial reminds us. This was a war that took place in Europe, not North America. I am not really sure why these two immigrants fought. To uphold inbred monarchs or stop Germany who was late to imperialism from achieving colonies of her own? They were not defending their homes or way life at all. In World War Two, 22,000 Canadians with Japanese last names, some undoubtedly related to Harada and Koyangi, would be interned in prisoner camps. Old people, kids, women. They were forced out of their homes. The businesses they had created and operated were smashed by mobs. Pretty much all they worked for was stolen from them and not compensated until 1988. In 1988, PM Mulroney signed a bill to compensate the survivors of the prisoner camps and Canadian mob rule $22,000 per.

Around 5,000 people of Ukrainian descent were interned in similar camps during World War One. This was another case of the Canadian government invoking the War Measures Act and detaining (not arresting as habeas corpus was not upheld) any one not looking right.