In 2024, the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) is looking at geographic locations where Japanese Canadians lived after migrating to Canada, since the 1800s, and where they were interned/incarcerated in 1942. We respectfully acknowledge the ancestral and unceded territories of Indigenous peoples who are the traditional keepers of the lands and waters.
The Story of Japanese Canadians in Greenwood
By Lorene Oikawa, Past President NAJC
Greenwood is on Crowsnest Highway #3 just after the highway heads north from the US border near Midway which is about 13 kilometres from Greenwood. The next town on the other side is Grand Forks which is about 41 kilometres east of Greenwood.
Greenwood’s current population is about 700, but because it was incorporated as a city in 1897, it is the smallest city in Canada. It is also known as the first internment camp for Japanese Canadians.
The bombing of Pearl Harbour created an opportunity for the government to do some ethnic cleansing and score points with the voting public. Japanese immigrants were industrious workers but were watched with suspicion as they built their savings and developed farmland, bought fishing boats, started businesses, and improved their housing and prospects for their families. The hate was encouraged by white separatists and racist politicians. The government wanted to move all Japanese Canadians from the west coast, but where would they put 22,000 people, from babies to seniors, and mostly families? At one point, Ken Adachi in his book, The Enemy That Never Was, says “Labour Minister Humphrey Mitchell told the Commons on June 16 that up to 7,500 women and children could be housed in Indian residential schools in Williams Lake, Edmonton or St. Albert, Alberta, and Elkhorn, Manitoba.” However, a few weeks later, Mitchell would announce the plan would be dropped. There had not been any consultation with the Security Commission who was already proceeding with their plans for expansion into ghost towns.
Greenwood was one of what the government called ghost towns in 1942. The towns that experienced the boom and then bust of the gold rush. In Greenwood, the discovery of gold, silver, and copper in 1891 caught the imagination of thousands who were determined to seek their fortune and they came. The sudden influx of people resulted in the rapid development of saloons, hotels, and other businesses.
Greenwood was incorporated as a city on July 12, 1897. Greenwood’s population grew to over 3,000 by 1899. The BC Copper Company smelter was built in 1901 with the first furnace blown in February. By 1906, the smelter was one of the most modern in the country with three mammoth furnaces with a daily capacity of 1800 to 2100 tons. Greenwood was known as the “hub” of the Boundary. After the First World War, the price of copper plunged. The smelter shut down in 1918. The huge slag pile and tall brick chimney can still be seen along Highway 3.
When the mining stopped, the thousands who had arrived for the fortune, left. By 1940, only a couple hundred remained and many of the buildings had been abandoned for years and were dilapidated and in need of repair.
I reached out to Chuck Tasaka who has written about the history of Greenwood and is working on historical projects in Greenwood.
Here’s what Chuck had to say about Greenwood becoming the first JC internment camp.
“Dr. Ian Baird, University of Wisconsin-Madison sent me an article from the Penticton Herald newspaper dated March 25th, 1942. Chamber of Commerce namely mayors met in a special meeting to not accept Japanese Canadians exiles. Mayor W.E. McArthur Sr. at the meeting agreed with the other mayors from the Boundary-Okanagan districts. I think it was a diplomatic move.
When Mayor McArthur returned to Greenwood, he did a complete 180 degree turn. He placed an ad in the Vancouver paper that “Greenwood will not refuse to accept the Japanese Canadians”. His reason was that he wanted to help with the war effort since he read that there were 5000 JCs detained at Hastings Park but no takers. The Mayor also told the town folks that the JCs will stay only for the duration of the war. When he met Father Benedict Quigley, it was within a month that the first wave of Japanese Canadians stepped off the train on April 26th, 1942.
BC Security Commission employees and JC carpenters and plumbers were there a week before to renovate the old, empty buildings. Most internees heard the sound of hammer and saw around town as they started settling in.”
The Catholic connection started in Vancouver with the Japanese Catholic Mission on Dunlevy and Cordova Street and another Japanese Catholic Mission that started in 1931 in Steveston. Father Peter Baptist Katsuno became the first Japanese Canadian who was ordained in the Franciscan Order. Parishioners asked the Franciscan Sisters and Friars to find a safe internment location which led to Father Quiqley’s trip to the interior of BC and meeting with the mayor in Greenwood who had placed the ad.
After several meetings and a town vote, the mayor convinced the townspeople that they needed people, and the vote was almost unanimous. During the town meetings, the issue of safety came up and Mitsi (Sasaki) Fugeta told Chuck Tasaka that the father told the mayor “it was the complete opposite. The Nikkei people were the ones afraid because they had no place to go.” Unknown to the public during that time was that the military and police had already told the government that there was no evidence of wrongdoing, and that no action was needed against the Japanese Canadian community. Unfortunately, the government had their own agenda and never made this information public.
About 1,200 Japanese Canadians filled the rooms of the old hotels and buildings. Chuck Tasaka describes “well-dressed city people” who reassured the townspeople by demonstrating that they were honest and hardworking.
Patrick Fujisawa’s father John Fujisawa was one of 11 children, and he went with his family to Greenwood. Patrick says one of the sisters was already married and the rest were 6 girls and 4 boys. He says two of the girls were twin sisters, Margaret and Catherine. He says they were identical twins and “the only way to tell them apart was their personality. You had to wait to talk them to tell them apart.” He says they became Franciscan nuns and one stayed in Greenwood. He also shared that his Uncle George became a lawyer and was the first Japanese Canadian to be called to the bar in British Columbia after the war, in the 1950s.
Lily Shinde was part of the Honouring Our People conference in 2009, and shared her story which starts in Greenwood in the follow up book, Honouring Our People: Breaking the Silence.
“In 1948, I was born in the Red Cross Outpost hospital in Greenwood and lived there for sixteen years. My father Kichitaro and mother, Yoshiye, had twelve children – four girls and eight boys. I was the last one or as some would call me, number 12!”
She was the first to attend public school, because public school wouldn’t allow Japanese Canadians to attend before her time. Her old siblings attended sacred Heart School because the Catholic Church said they would educate Japanese Canadian children.
Lily says there was probably less bullying than what her older siblings faced, but she still experienced some bullying from classmates and one teacher who kept her after school until 5:30 p.m. (demanding an apology every half hour) when she refused to use the racial slur “Jap” which was in a story about the Second World War. “My father punished me for not doing what the teacher told me to do. I was shocked because he always told me to be proud of who I am. This was very confusing to me as a child. He later told me that this was not the time to speak out.”
“If there is any one thing that helps me survive and endure the hardships of my childhood, I would say it was playing sports. I gained a lot of self-confidence and respect from peers because I excelled in all the sports I did – gymnastics, basketball, softball and track and field.”
“I believe the trauma of the internment affected my older siblings because they were educationally deprived and psychologically affected by the overt racism during that time. The nisei (my siblings) were the “silenced” ones and I know that most of my siblings do not talk about that period of internment in Greenwood and the hardship they endured.”
Chuck Tasaka’s family were too busy raising their nine children and did not talk about internment.
Chuck only learned about the reason for his family’s journey to Greenwood when he was an adult. This is a very common experience for Japanese Canadian families. Chuck has done extensive research and written many articles about Greenwood including about his family in an article for Discover Nikkei, The ironies of the Japanese Canadian Internment History: Part 1 – My Family’s Life in Greenwood.
Chuck’s parents Arizo and Hatsue (Maede) Tasaka lived in Steveston when news of the war and then forced uprooting started happening. In March 1942, some men were taken from their families and sent to forced labour road camps.
Father Benedict Quigley and Greenwood Mayor McArthur settled on an arrangement to move Japanese Canadian Catholics from Vancouver and Steveston to Greenwood. Chuck’s parents wanted to go, but they were Buddhists and not sure if they would be allowed. His mother consulted with her cousin Buntaro Dominic Nakatsu who was Catholic. “My mother asked Buntaro in her Steveston-Kishu dialect, “Sista ni nan-te (i)yutara en yo. [What should I say to the Sister?]” Buntaro replied, “Ah, gi-mi chaunsu te (i)yutara eh yo. [You should say, “give me a chance.”]” Therefore, my mother went to see Sister Eugenia of the Japanese Catholic Mission and said, “Gi-mi chaunsu. [Please give me a chance to go with the Catholics to Greenwood.”]”
It worked and they were sent to Greenwood.
Chuck reflects on the first arrivals in 1942. “Mayor McArthur had his welcoming committee and Sister Jerome and Sister Eugenia were at the train station to welcome their parishioners. Can you imagine that, a welcoming committee in 1942? Other communities, especially in the Okanagan, had “Keep Out” signs on the highway.”
Old buildings were numbered in sequence, for example, Internment Building #1. The rooms were shared, lacked privacy, and were overcrowded with communal cooking and washrooms. The mayor had been expecting 300, but about 1,200 Japanese Canadians were being shipped to Greenwood.
“My parents probably came on a later train. They were at first taken to the #1 Building or the old Pacific Hotel. There were 36 families, and more than 175 people filled the two floors of the hotel. There was one stove and one toilet per floor. The room was 10 ft. x 10 ft. to accommodate my mother and three young daughters. My father was sent to the road camp.”
“My brother Seiji was born on December 26, 1942. It was one of the coldest winters in that area, reaching -39 degrees F in February 1943. My mother told me that a kind gentleman friend scoured all over town to find scraps of coal and wood to keep the place warm so that a six-week-old baby would not freeze to death.”
Chuck’s father was released from the road camp. Chuck thinks it’s because his father was a barber, and this was considered an essential service. His father asked for a house, and the family was sent to #141, a two-storey house with two other families, and a total of 19 people. When his sister Yayeko was born in 1944 then they finally had a house to themselves in Midway. Chuck says that his father’s barbering business was in Greenwood so he had to take a bus or train to get back to it. Chuck was born in Midway in 1945, delivered by a midwife because there wasn’t a hospital. His family moved back to Greenwood in 1946 and that’s where he grew up.
Chuck writes that, “In Greenwood, Sacred Heart School was established by the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement in October 1942. Other camps weren’t as fortunate, as it took over nine months to set up the school infrastructure while the federal and provincial governments debated funding.” He also notes that the children had to attend school in shifts in 1943 because there were 364 students who had to use the four-room school
“Attending Sacred Heart School, I looked like nearly all my classmates and spoke like them (pidgin English-Japanese). We would play day and night after school. Children didn’t even have a phone or a wristwatch, but “no mada,” they knew where everyone hung out, at the wood sheds behind the “apartments.””
When the Second World War ended in 1945, Japanese Canadians incarceration did not end. Instead, the government told Japanese Canadians to decide to move east of the Rockies or go back to Japan, even though most were Canadian born and Japan was a foreign count to them. Most communities agreed with the racist politicians. Chuck reports the “Greenwood Board of Trade protested this unfair legislation.” Japanese Canadians in Greenwood did not feel the same pressure to leave. Chuck said the “Greenwood “internment site” morphed into a community. Over 50% of the shops and businesses were owned or operated by Japanese Canadians even before 1949. As a result, Greenwood became an unofficial Japantown.”
In 1949, Japanese Canadians were released from incarceration and had the right to move anywhere in Canada and the right to vote.
About 30 Japanese Canadians still live in Greenwood.
With over 60 heritage buildings the town looks like you’re stepping back into time. This was one of the reasons it was chosen as one of the locations for the 1999 filming of the book, Snow Falling on Cedars. If you watch the film, you’ll also see some Japanese Canadian survivors of incarceration who were cast as extras, portraying Japanese Americans. The story is about a Japanese American accused of murdering a neighbour in the Washington State area in the 1950s. The accusations are based on the prejudice against Japanese Americans following the Second World War and the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans. Watching this American film, you’ll spot some of the differences between Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians. Japanese Americans were released in 1945 when the Second World War ended whereas racist Canadian politicians extended the incarceration of Japanese Canadians until 1949, four years after the war ended. Also, Japanese Americans were allowed to enlist and serve their country. Japanese Canadians were denied until the British Army started accepting them later in the war. The US government didn’t dispossess Japanese Americans whereas Japanese Canadians had all their property taken. One thing unfortunately experienced by both JCs and JAs is the racism, both had to endure the hate and deceitful behaviour before, during, and after the incarceration.
If you are travelling in the area, please see the Nikkei Legacy Park in Greenwood. Nikkei Legacy Park was launched with a ribbon cutting on July 29, 2018. In the display are about 80 family plaques of Nikkei and Caucasian families. The title is “We lived together.” The hope is that the plaques will encourage some to return to their “furusato” [hometown] and to share their family stories with future generations. You may run into Chuck Tasaka who has been working on this project during his retirement. More info at https://www.greenwoodcity.com/visiting/things-to-do/
Resources:
Honouring Our People: Breaking the Silence, Ed. Randy Enomoto
The Enemy That Never Was, by Ken Adachi
The Ironies of the Japanese Canadian Internment History: Part 1—My Family’s Life in Greenwood by Chuck Tasaka in Discover Nikkei
https://discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2023/6/1/jc-internment-history-1/
Greenwood City https://www.greenwoodcity.com/
Snow Falling on Cedars in Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Falling_on_Cedars_(film)
