More than eighty years ago, Japanese Canadians came together to sustain The New Canadian, the only newspaper specifically for the community that was allowed to be published through the Second World War.

Page 1 of The New Canadian newspaper from December 12, 1941, after the Pearl Harbour attack. More than eighty years ago, Japanese Canadians came together to sustain the New Canadian, the only newspaper specifically for the community that was allowed to be published through the Second World War.

More than eighty years ago, Japanese Canadians came together to sustain The New Canadian, the only newspaper specifically for the community that was allowed to be published through the Second World War.

Now the community has come together again — and may have saved the newspaper’s archives from the digital scrap heap.

Supporters say the newspaper that published from 1938 to 2001 was a pillar of the community during the turmoil of the war when Japanese Canadians were interred, stripped of assets and had their patriotism questioned.

The New Canadian’s digital archives had been facing deletion, after Simon Fraser University Library announced recently it would no longer host them on its servers from this fall.

But after the announcement sparked outcry — and more than 3,000 people signed an online petition calling for the archive to be saved — SFU said in a statement on Monday that it recognized the importance of preserving access to sources including The New Canadian, and it would continue to host the archive until an accessible online alternative is found.

You can read much more on the richmond-news web site at: https://tinyurl.com/muf7fdew