Guide to the monument panels

How the panels are organized

On this wall, Japanese Canadian names are grouped by their home Communities at the time of uprooting.

These Communities are grouped under Regions, Sub-regions, and Areas, which are displayed on numbered wall panels. The Communities are listed in the Map Legend on the third panel on the east side of the Monument site.

There are four coastal geographic Regions on the wall: Vancouver Island, North Coast, Central Coast, and Lower Mainland.

Within each Region, Sub-regions have been created in order to separate large land masses and create an easier user experience.

Areas are listed within Sub-regions to further break down clusters of Japanese Canadian settlements.

The Communities are geographically-linked groups of Japanese Canadians. The names of Communities are derived from primary source documents researched and digitized by the University of Victoria.

Names of people are arranged alphabetically by surname according to where they were living in 1942. This information is drawn from primary source documents created at the time of uprooting.

In order to simplify the visitor experience, the Monument lists individuals under the broader Area headings with a note in the legend indicating which Communities are grouped under each Area.

Navigating all panels on the monument

Only the panels containing names of individuals are numbered.

The first panel of the Monument contains the name Japanese Canadian Monument. It is not numbered.

The second panel of the Monument provides a brief summary of the history of Japanese Canadians in BC prior to and including uprooting, displacement, and dispossession. It is not numbered.

The third panel of the Monument provides a finding aid to help visitors find panels on the wall. The index is broken down into Regions, Sub-regions, and Areas, with individual Communities listed under the Areas.

The fourth panel contains a map of British Columbia showing the Regions and Areas. The map contains an inset of the Metropolitan Vancouver area.

The numbered panels containing individual names begin on the fifth panel on the wall, numbered Panel 1 to Panel 95.

Panels 1–81 include individual names of those uprooted; panel 81 also contains the names of individuals uprooted from outside the 100-Mile Coastal Zone.

Panels 82–95 list the names of over 3,000 children born after uprooting.

Clicking on a panel thumbnail will bring up a rendering of the panel.