MERCIFUL INJUSTICE
A SIXPART SERIES
A city polarized
The Unos built a successful life in Vancouver over fi ve decades and were in many ways typical of Japanese- Canadian immigrant families. They succeeded in business and their fi ve children enjoyed a good life in the city. As this story opens in January 1942, all that is about to change.
A watershed year
In a city facing immense change and stress, the downtown core was awash in beer parlours and cheap hotels and populated by gangsters, drifters and femme fatales. A handful of them crafted a robbery plan that would end up having far- reaching consequences.
‘ We will get them’
The good life comes to an end for the Unos and other JapaneseCanadian families, who are forced by federal decree to move away from the west coast. A police dragnet captures the Hughes gang and a riveting murder trial adds to tensions.
‘ May God have mercy on your soul’
Guilty verdicts and the prospect of four white men being hanged for the slaying of a young JapaneseCanadian man stirs deep feelings among Vancouver residents about racism, justice and internment in a nation at war.
Accidental or intentional?
The mother of Robert Hughes visits a famous criminal lawyer and begs him to take on the appeal and save her first- born son from being hanged. Did Robert Hughes shoot Yoshi Uno as he struggled with him during the robbery, or did Hughes stop and target the young man for death as he fled the Uno family store?
DAY SIX: The Uno family is moved to Lemon Creek, later settling in Montreal. Robert Hughes dodges the hangman, but meets a violent end.