Open Collections

Hoy, Bailey Irene Midori

University of British Columbia

This thesis uncovers and examines the history of Japanese Canadian girls who served in symbolic queen roles in beauty contests, May Days, and other forms of pageantry during the wartime incarceration, relocation, and reformation of the Japanese community (1943-1953). Within these ten years, Japanese Canadian girls performed symbolic roles as Queens in extracurricular pageants, contests, and events at a critical moment when the meanings of community, national identity, and civic agency were often in conflict. Amid deep community turmoil, displaced Japanese Canadians used Queen contests as continual markers and statements of community identity, stabilizing everyday life, while also demonstrating hopes for a Canadian future for the Nisei. Subtly embedded in the narratives were the girls themselves, who, in the midst of chaotic turmoil and traumatic racism, were able to find spaces for happiness and beauty. Acting as national symbols, agents of acceptance, community hopes, and teenage girls, Japanese Canadian Queens reigned at highly complex crossroads of communal, civic, and national power.

Text

2024-09-05

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89172

History

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/