Historical background
Japanese immigrants began arriving in British Columbia in the 1870s, largely drawn to the abundance of work in the resource industries. Most were men who came intending to make their fortunes and return to Japan, but over time many settled here, sending for wives and starting families.
Wherever the Japanese Canadians settled up and down the coast, they built communities—opening businesses and forming their own social organizations, schools, temples, and sports teams. They also formed business associations to help one another prosper. By 1942, nearly 22,000 Japanese Canadians lived and worked in nearly 200 communities within 100 miles of the BC coastline, deeply woven into the fabric of the province.
When Canada declared war on Japan in 1941, a wave of actions targeted all Japanese Canadians. Overnight, homes, businesses, and possessions were seized, later sold without their consent. Communities were emptied, all Japanese Canadians removed from the West Coast. In 1945, the government gave Japanese Canadians two choices: move east of the Rockies or be banished to Japan. Almost 4,000 were exiled to war-torn Japan. Those who remained scattered across Canada, forced to rebuild lives and communities.
On 1 April 1949, four years after the war ended, Japanese Canadians were allowed full rights of citizenship, including freedom of movement within Canada. Less than half returned to British Columbia.
Lower Mainland
Canada’s early Japanese immigrant population centered around Vancouver’s Powell Street area, largely due to hiring practices of Hastings Mill on the waterfront. Neighbourhoods sprang up in Kitsilano, Marpole, and Fairview close to mills or gardening work. Entrepreneurs started boarding houses, restaurants, and services, with some branching out to remote communities throughout BC.
Steveston’s waterfront canneries attracted many fishing families, boat builders, and community services, becoming a hub for the fishing communities along the coast of BC and the Fraser River.
The fertile Fraser Valley was home to hundreds of farming families who revolutionized
hot house farming and built the area into the Berry Capital of Canada.
Mill towns such as Fraser Mills, Woodfibre, and Barnet, and mining towns such as Brittania attracted workers.
North Coast
BC’s Pacific north coast drew Japanese Canadians to places like Haida Gwaii, the Nass and Skeena Rivers, and Port Essington.
Japanese Canadians worked alongside the Nish’ga people in places like Arrandale and Mill Bay. Canneries along the Nass River housed many fishing families. Prince Rupert, an important port and access to rail transport, supported a commercial hub and boatbuilders in Cow Bay and Seal Cove. The abundance and size of fish attracted seasonal fishermen from Steveston. By 1942, the entire BC Nikkei fleet totaled about 1,200 boats, fishing the areas between Steveston and the northern communities.
Central Coast
BC’s Pacific remote central coastal areas attracted smaller settlements as the forestry and fishing sectors boomed in the early 19th century—places like Ocean Falls, River’s Inlet, Bella Coola and Seymour Inlet and Knight Inlet, Allison Harbour, O’Brien Bay, Simoon Sound, and Toba Inlet.
Interior and Kootenays
Early pioneers in the Okanagan were largely farmers who were hired to work farms and orchards before they could buy their own land. Communities included Coldstream Ranch, Winfield, the Okanagan Centre area, Bella Vista, Rutland, Oyama, Summerland, Vernon, and Kelowna.
In 1942, when Japanese Canadians’ lives were uprooted, some received permits to work in the Okanagan farms beyond the restricted 100-Mile Coastal Zone. Grand Forks, a farming community, welcomed Japanese Canadian families wanting to stay together.
Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands
Vancouver Island’s abundant forest and coastal areas attracted labourers and fishermen. Coastal settlements arose in areas such as Chemainus and Englewood (forestry), Cumberland (coal), Telegraph Cove (fishing), and Port Alice and Port Alberni (pulp & paper).
Coastal areas around Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands attracted herring
and subsequent processing industries. Charcoal kilns from Japan were replicated on
many of the islands. Nanaimo’s Newcastle Island and surrounding area became known as the Herring Capital of the World,
also shipping salted chum salmon and salmon roe overseas.
Victoria, the province’s capital, was home to a number of Japanese Canadians, some of whom
worked as houseboys for affluent Victorian families. Hayato Harry
Takata and Yoshitaro Joe
Kishida opened the hugely popular Japanese Tea Garden in 1907 in Esquimalt. Joe’s
father Isaburo Kishida was a Japanese gardener who designed the Tea Garden and the
Japanese section of Butchart Gardens around 1910, as well as the Japanese Garden at
Royal Roads University. Approximately 150 people of Japanese descent are buried in
Ross Bay Cemetery dating back to 1887. In 1937, the Japanese Canadian community float
won first prize at Victoria’s 75th anniversary parade. To celebrate the occasion,
the Japanese Canadian community donated 1,013 sakura (ornamental cherry trees) to
the City of Victoria that continue to blossom to this day.
Salt Spring Island was inhabited by Japanese immigrants as early as 1892. They initially arrived to work in fishing or logging but later turned to farming berries, raising poultry, and building hothouses on large plots of land. The number of Japanese Canadians on Salt Spring was about 77 in 1941. Together they owned over 1,000 acres of farmland.
Japanese Canadians were an integral part of a diverse multi-ethnic community that included Indigenous families, free Blacks from the United States, Hawaiians, Chinese, and settlers of European descent.
Today, very little evidence remains of the 200 Japanese Canadian prewar settlements established up and down the west coast, nor of the settlements that existed in the interior of the province.