Black-and-white photo of a racially diverse group of men in military uniforms standing together with a large crowd in the background.

ONLINE EXHIBIT:

Hidden histories in the Archives: Ontario and the World Wars

Ontario’s part in the World Wars is often lost in the larger Canadian story. This exhibit focuses on Ontario’s role in the World Wars through hidden histories. These stories include the experiences of Japanese Canadians, Black Canadians and Canadian women. The exhibit invites you to think about the effects of social change and how the act of archiving itself can be a form of strength.

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In this Exhibit

Exhibit gallery

01
Japanese Canadians

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Black Canadians

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Canadian Women

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Resources

Melanie Knight, “The Demise of a Black Organization: The Home Service Association (1921–65),” Canadian Journal of History 55, no. 1 (2020): 1–34, https://doi.org/10.3138/cjh-2019-0029.

Mélanie Morin-Pelletier, “‘Has Any Great Harm Been Done?’ Canadian Women Breaking Barriers During the First World War,” Histoire Sociale 57, no. 117 (2024): 117–38, https://doi.org/10.1353/his.2024.a928522.

Barbara Dickson, Bomb Girls : Trading Aprons for Ammo (Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press, 2015).

Brian D’Souza, Black Canadians in Canada’s World Wars (Collingwood, ON: Beech Street Books, 2023).

Hideo Takahashi, P.O.W. In my own country, 1942-1946 (Toronto, ON: Hastings Park Foundation Press, 2012).

Joseph Mensah, Black Canadians History, Experiences, Social Conditions (Halifax, N.S: Fernwood Pub., 2002).

Mary Taylor, A Black Mark : The Japanese-Canadians in World War II (Ottawa: Oberon Press, 2004).

Tim Cook, Fight to the Finish : Canadians in the Second World War, 1944-1945 (Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Canada, 2015).

Black Canadian Veterans Stories, 2023, https://www.blackcanadianveterans.com/.

Bomb Girls Legacy Foundation, 2024, https://www.bombgirlslegacyfoundation.ca/.

Canadian Commission for UNESCO, “Archives documenting the service of Black Canadians in No. 2 Construction Battalion added to the Canada Memory of the World Register,” CCUNESCO, November 19, 2024, https://en.ccunesco.ca/about-ccunesco/press/2024/11/archives-no2-construction-battalion-memory-of-the-world.

Parks Canada, “Japanese Canadian Soldiers of the First World War and the Fight to Win the Vote National Historic Event,” Government of Canada, April 18, 2024, https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/soldats-japonais-japanese-soldiers.

“The legacy of the [McCurdy] collection,” Archives of Ontario, https://www.archives.gov.on.ca/exhibition/black-histories-in-ontario-the-alvin-d-mccurdy-collection/the-legacy-of-the-collection/

Acknowledgements

This exhibit was researched and written by Kaylah Christie as part of a 2025 student placement at the Archives of Ontario through York University’s undergraduate Public History program.