page_title: Masumi Mitsui
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Masumi Mitsui / Biography / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of the Japanese War Memorial (cenotaph) in Stanley Park.
context_page_description: Masumi Mitsui, MM, was a Japanese-born Canadian veteran of World War I who had his property confiscated and was detained during World War II as part of the Japanese-Canadian internment.
  In World War I Mitsui fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and led 35 Japanese Canadians in the Battle of Hill 70. He attained the rank of sergeant and was awarded the British War Medal, Military Medal, and Victory Medal. Following the war, he served as president of British Columbia Branch No. 9 of the Royal Canadian Legion and pressed for the rights of Japanese Canadians. During World War II he and his family had their property confiscated and suffered Japanese Canadian internment, despite Mitsui's status as a decorated veteran of the First World War. He was a guest in 1985 at the ceremony in Vancouver's Stanley Park for the relighting of the lamp on the Japanese Canadian War Memorial; the lamp had been extinguished in 1942. He was the oldest surviving Japanese-Canadian veteran of World War I when he died.
context_section_description: In 1946 Mitsui and the other remaining 33 Japanese-Canadian veterans of World War I petitioned the Canadian government to restore their civil rights, but the National Emergency Transitional Powers Act passed in 1945 only increased the restrictions.  Interned Japanese Canadians were given the option of repatriation to Japan or relocation east of the Rocky Mountains; Mitsui opted to move with his family to Southern Ontario.  After staying in a hostel in Toronto they moved to a peach farm in St. Catharines before settling in Hamilton.  On Remembrance Day each year Mitsui dressed himself in his uniform and medals and stayed at home, refusing to take part in public services.
  Mitsui was a guest at the ceremony to relight the lamp on the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Vancouver's Stanley Park on 2 August 1985; the lamp had been extinguished in 1942.  The 98-year-old Mitsui stated in an interview: "I've done my last duty to my comrades.  They are gone but not forgotten."  He was the last surviving member of the 228 Japanese-Canadian veterans of World War I when he died on 22 April 1987.
caption: The Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Vancouver's Stanley Park, erected in honour of Japanese Canadians who served in World War I
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