People uprooted from Steveston / Steveston Highway (2357)

Steveston, on Lulu Island, was established by non-Indigenous settlers in 1877. Salmon canning began on the Fraser River in 1871, and by the 1890s forty-five canneries operated along the river, nearly half of them in Steveston. During the summer months, as many as 10,000 fishery and cannery workers lived in the community.

The first Japanese settler, Tomekichi Homma, arrived in 1882, and in 1887, the Fraser River Japanese Fisherman’s Association (Gyosha Dantai) was established under his leadership. In 1888, Gihei Kuno, visited Steveston and encouraged emigration from Mio-mura in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. By 1896, approximately 1,300 Japanese men and fewer than fifteen Japanese women lived in Steveston, primarily in cannery housing at Garry Point.

Prior to 1923, Japanese Canadian children were excluded from public education in Steveston. After being aproached to contribute funds to the completion of the new elementary school, the Japanese Canadian community were able to send their children to the school. In 1930, the community contributed $20,000 toward a new, larger school building and provided annual operating funds in exchange for space for Japanese-language instruction. A Buddhist temple was also built in the mid-1920s.

By 1941, Japanese Canadians owned forty-six of Steveston’s sixty-two businesses, making the community one of the largest Japanese Canadian settlements in BC. Following the forced uprooting and internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, more than half the town’s population was uprooted, and local school enrolment fell from 550 to 137 students.