1. public
memory archives

2.  “Public memory suggests that whatever
comes into an archives, by whatever
route, is important for society’s collective
sense of its past. Archives in this sense are
testimony to the loss, imagined and real, of
societal memory” (Cox 234).

3.  “the notion of public memory… suggests
the ability of society to be constantly
forming and reforming the manner in which
we view a record or artifact – making one
wonder, if memory is a criterion for
appraisal, just how many times an appraisal
decision would change over a few
decades” (Cox 241).
› Zelizer’s “history-in-motion”; “collective memory
is more mobile and mutable than history” (Cox
quoting Barbie Zelizer, 240).

4.  “Archival appraisal is… an artifact of its
times, and the documentation we should
have of the appraisal process could be very
useful in helping both users of archives and
archivists themselves to comprehend the
effects of appraisal decisions” (Cox 245).
 “The vicissitudes of public memory may force
archivists to reimagine appraisal not as a one-
time act in regard to a specific group of
records, but as a continuous process” (Cox
253).

6.  During WWII 22,000 Japanese Canadians
were stripped of their Canadian citizenship
and property and “uprooted” to
internment camps on the basis of posed
national threats.
› The issuing of the “JP” form – a document that
attested to property and financial status; 17,135
cases were reported on this form
› By 1949, all Japanese Canadians were released
and given their citizenship back; however,
property had been absconded by the
government.
 Only 1,434 claims were sought and awarded
compensation in 1950

7.  “Up until the 1970s, Japanese Canadians did
not publically talk about those events or
question their fairness” (Roberts-Moore 69).
 “Beginning in 1983, the NAJC mounted a
continuous campaign for redress from the
federal government for the treatment of
Japanese Canadians during the Second
World War” (Roberts-Moore 70).
› The usage of records in the National Archives of
Canada

8.  NAJC’s 1984 brief: Democracy Betrayed: the Case
for Redress
› “made use of archival documents to prove that the
uprooting of the Japanese Canadian community took
place because of “racism and political opportunism””
(Roberts-Moore 70).
› The study concluded the economic losses suffered by the
Japanese Canadians totaled $443 million in 1984 dollars.
 $333 million in income loss; $110 million in property loss
 In 1988 – the Redress Agreement awarded $21,000 to
each eligible Japanese Canadian who suffered
losses during their internment and $12 million to the
NAJC to undertake activities that promote human
rights

9.  “In 1994, the National Archives of Canada undertook an
archival appraisal of those records and recommended
that certain administrative and operational records as well
as an electronic database be acquired as the archival
record. Only a small example of case files were
recommended for transfer since their contents duplicated
records already held by the Archives or were largely
administrative in nature” (Roberts-Moore 72).
 “The Custodian of Enemy Property and Bird Commission
records with their extensive case files were acquired by
the National Archives long before the Archives developed
its macro-appraisal theory, methodology, and strategy.
Application of conventional appraisal criteria determined
that the records had high archival value. Although the
National Archives has recently adopted the strategic
approach embodied in macro-appraisal, there is no
question that these records have archival value” (Roberts-
Moore 73).

10.  What kind of value, if possible, can we as
archivists assign to public memory when
appraising our collections?
 Keeping the NAC/NAJC case in mind, how
can archives and archivists address the
changing value of records with the
constantly evolving perception of public
memory while answering their own
questions about appraisal?

11.  Cox, Richard. “Appraisal as an act of
memory” in No Innocent Deposits, 231-258.
Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
 Roberts-Moore, Judith. “Establishing
Recognition of Past Injustices: Uses of Archival
Records in Documenting the Experience of
Japanese Canadians During the Second
World War.” Archivaria 53 (Spring 2002): 64-75.