People uprooted from Rose Harbour (4)

Rose Harbour, on Kunghit Island in Haida Gwaii, was established by the Queen Charlotte Whaling Company (Pacific Whaling/Consolidated Whaling) as a whaling station in 1910. Originally known as Port Huff, the station relied mostly on Japanese Canadians to do the arduous work of flensing. There was never a permanent settlement established, as the workers typically arrived seasonally and would live in segregated bunkhouses.

Many of the whalers would work at the Ikeda copper mine on Moresby Island in the off-season. The station briefly closed from 1921 to 1923 due to recession and excess whale oil from other markets. The whaling station lost the majority of their workforce when Japanese Canadians were forcibly uprooted, causing them to cease operations by 1943. There is a memorial for Japanese and Chinese workers who died in the whaling industry between 1926 and 1941.