by Roland Sawatzky
The Manitoba Museum
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Aya Fujiwara, Ethnic Elites and Canadian Identity: Japanese, Ukrainians, and Scots, 1919-1971. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012, 256 pages. ISBN 9780887557378, $27.95 (paperback)
In this book Aya Fujiwara sets out to contextualize ethnic group leaders in Canada as they laid the groundwork for modern Canadian multiculturalism prior to the 1960s. Elites in the various communities were essential for commu-nicating the needs and pro-moting the values of each group (both to themselves and mainstream society). The study compares three groups: Japanese, Ukrainians, and Scots, each with very different group experiences. While the Japanese were racially defined in their early period in Canada and made up a very small percentage of the population of the western provinces, the Ukrainians were defined by the mainstream more for their religious and linguistic differences, and they made up a significant proportion of the prairie demographic. These differences between the groups are well discussed, with clear repercussions for later political inclusion and activism in Canada. More description of the initial reasons for immigration of Japanese and Ukrainian settlers would have been helpful at the outset, since these reasons may help us better understand later developments.
The Scots were a very different case, having a much longer immigration history in Canada and with huge numbers, making up a good proportion of mainstream society. Ethnic consciousness, such as it was, relied mostly on a handful of politicians and scholars who hoped to retain Scottish myths and symbols. The choice of Scots as a comparative element in the study is interesting, and Fujiwara relates a number of times that people of Scottish background did not form an ethnic community. This inclusion of the Scots does, however, provide a mainstream contrast, as well as ways to conceptualize ethnicity other than as a tool for group political action.
Throughout her analysis, Fujiwara is sensitive to the conflicts and tensions within the ethnic groups she studies. Among the Japanese there were tensions between the isseiand nisei (first- and second-generation), while among the Ukrainians the dominant conflicting groups were nationalists and communists. It is telling that this type of intra-ethnic tension was absent from Scottish descendants, who helped define the mainstream and whose “ethnicity” was not used for self-protection or political aims.
For some Ukrainians and Japanese the constant references to the homeland went hand-in-hand with nationalist tendencies, and this created a dangerous complexity in times of international conflict. Many isseitended to identify with the Japanese Emperor and the myth of common descent with the Yamato race. Japanese imperialism in the 1930s and 1940s severely tested this fidelity, and the internal dynamics were forever changed with the Second World War and Japanese-Canadian experiences of internment and property confiscation. Leaders of the Ukrainian National Federation in the 1930s hoped that the Nazi regime might redraw national boundaries in Europe, potentially liberating Ukraine from Soviet rule. Once the war actually began, however, most Ukrainians in Canada whole-heartedly supported the Canadian war effort. This event was used by Ukrainian organizations afterward to promote the “Third Element” of Canadian culture (all the ethnic groups that were not British or French in origin) in a bid for true multiculturalism. Communist Ukrainian-Canadians, on the other hand, made it clear they felt ethnicity was transient and at worst isolationist, making it at odds with the promotion of an international communism.
Chapter 6, “Ethnic Movements and the Road to Multiculturalism,” is the strongest chapter in the book and outlines in considerable detail the rise of multiculturalism as national trope and the part ethnic elites played in this development. Fujiwara reminds us that “all parties promoted the concept as Canada’s new identity” (p. 156), including mainstream Canadians. Inspired in part by post-war Human Rights developments and their own experiences, ethnic elites nevertheless emphasized very different visions about what multiculturalism meant. While Ukrainian nationalists were the most active in seeking “collective rights” and acceptance of linguistic and religious differences, Japanese Canadians and Ukrainian communists sought basic human rights regardless of ideology or race. The Canadian government felt real pressure in the 1960s as a result of changing demographics in the nation, of Canada’s explicit commitment to the Declaration of Human Rights, and of the rise of Quebec nationalism. Fujiwara presents a subtle analysis of the implications of ethno-nationalism and multiculturalism in this context. Multiculturalism was eventually somewhat successful in actually diffusing “collective rights” movements that promoted regionalism and separation, while at the same time acknowledging the lack of Canadian cultural homogeneity and the worthiness of different ethnic backgrounds.
Ethnicity is notoriously difficult to define, and early in the book the very idea of what is “ethnic” is explored as a necessary starting point for the entire study. Fujiwara’s analysis is useful because it does not rely on a single defining element. Homeland memory, rhetoric, religion, symbol use, and myths (old and new) are all investigated as tools of ethnic identity construction and negotiation with a larger society. Among scholars, ethnicity is often seen as an instrument for achieving group objectives. Other definitions view ethnicity as a primordial set of dispositions that bind people together based on shared memories and values, especially during times of social stress. It can of course be both things, and ethnic identification (adaptable as it can be) is generally most strongly represented during times of discomfort or conflict with the host nation-state. Fujiwara’s book makes this dynamic clear.
We thank Clara Bachmann for assistance in preparing the online version of this article.
We thank S. Goldsborough for assistance in preparing the online version of this article.
Page revised: 29 March 2020
