| First Person Account Mits Sumiya I was attending the University of British Columbia when the war with Japan broke out. I had joined the OTC, pledging my allegiance to the King. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I was ordered to turn in my uniform. Why Angler? Primarily for refusing to be evacuated, i.e., sent to road-camp. The government’s response was an immediate arrest by RCMP and turned over to the military, under guard, for incarceration at the immigration building. I remember I slept on the floor. The dinner was unchanging rice with stew poured on it, plus 2 pieces of meat on top. After a month and half of them, we were put into an old rail coach with wooden benches plus an armed guard of soldiers to escort us to Angler, Ontario. In Angler, the attire of the internees was notable. They were unique and highly visible. There was a big red, 12 – 15 inch circle on the backs of shirts, jackets, coats and cardigans. The trouser leg had a 3-inch-wide strip running down from the thigh. The cap also had a red strip. The red was not in honour of the rising sun but to provide a better target for the guards in case of an escape. Those considered trouble makers were sent to Angler. Among them were men who protested the breaking-up of family and demanded that the families be moved as a unit. There were some whose permit had expired or who had broken curfew and got caught. There were very few of us, myself included, who felt that their inherent rights as Canadians were being violated and refused to be evacuated. Then there were some, as sometimes is the case, who were there for no apparent reason that I could fathom.
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