The French version of Gateway to Asia is Au seuil du Pacifique.Before the war, British Columbia was treated as a unique "back door" to the Pacific and considered by many as one of Canada's playgrounds.

The fast-growing mining industry with its roots back to Gold Rush days and the extensive commercial fisheries which provide more than 1/2 the fish production in Canada, are also important.

The use of the Northwest Staging Route with airstrips, airports and radio ranging stations built in Alberta, the Yukon and British Columbia was a "skyway" to Asia.

At the threshold of a new age, with the advent of high-speed air travel, Canada's Pacific gateway to Asia, will also become a new international trade route to connect to over 1/2 of the people of the world.

The widespread expulsion of Japanese-Canadians from Pacific coast "restricted" areas, as depicted in Gateway to Asia is reflective of official government policy during the Second World War.

[2] While mention is made that property was abandoned, the large fishing fleets, farms and businesses owned by Japanese-Canadians, through the War Measures Act (1942), were actually sold with their previous owners forced to give up their rights for recourse.

[3] [Note 1] The detention camps may not have been prisons, but the film uses them as a backdrop, along with ominous music representing Japan, to justify the expulsion with the disclaimer that a final determination of permanent resettlement has not yet been made.