text: Small numbers of military-age Japanese-Canadian men were permitted to serve in the Canadian Army in the Second World War as interpreters and in signal/intelligence units. By January 1945, several Japanese Canadian men were attached to British units in the Far East as interpreters and translators. In total, about 200 Canadian  joined Canadian forces during World War II.
  Throughout the war, Canadians of "Oriental racial origin" were not called upon to perform compulsory military service. Japanese Canadian men who had chosen to serve in the Canadian army during the war to prove their allegiance to Canada were discharged only to discover they were unable to return to the BC coast, or unable to have their rights reinstated.
  Forced removal, dispersal, and internment of Japanese Canadians
  After Canada's declaration of war on Japan on December 8, 1941, many called for the uprooting and internment of Japanese Canadians under the Defence of Canada Regulations. Since the arrival of Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian immigrants to British Columbia in the late 1800s, there had been calls for their exclusion. Vancouver Member of Parliament Ian Mackenzie saw the war as an opportunity to expel Japanese Canadians from British Columbia. He wrote to a constituent that "their country should never have been Canada ... I do not believe the Japanese are an assimilable race."