The Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection (JCPC) chronicles the experiences of Japanese Canadians / Nikkei in British Columbia including their internment during World War II. These photographs from the JCPC are a testament to the popularity of baseball at internment camps. (Left: at Lucerne, B.C. in the Yellow Pass, Bottom: at an unidentified camp) Baseball was a cornerstone of social life in internment camps, and at the forefront were former players of the Vancouver Asahi, a Nikkei baseball team based at Oppenheimer Park. Before disbanding after the 1941 season, the Vancouver Asahi competed against Nikkei and Euro-Canadian teams and won multiple championships. When playing at camps, they helped ease the pain of internment, and their sportsmanship brought about mutual respect between the Nikkei and Euro-Canadians.
My father, Fukuichi Hoshizaki, is in this picture, front row second from the left. His brother, Kazuo Hoshizaki is in the back row, second from the right.
Sorry for the late reply to your comment.
We really appreciate getting additional context to add to our descriptions. We especially appreciate that this item has such a personal connection to you and your family; so thank you for sharing that.
If you’re interested, a better quality digital version of the photograph itself, on Open Collections (our online platform for digitized materials), is available at the following link:
https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0049346
This is a photo of the Hammond/Haney Farmers baseball team before the war. Tom Sawayama is in the front row on the left kneeling and he made it onto the legendary Asahi Baseball Team in Vancouver.
Thank you for this valuable context! I see there is another comment on this photograph as well so we will look at enriching the description on Open Collections. If you’re interested, the item itself can be viewed on OC by using the following link:
https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0049346
That does look like Yellowhead Mountain in the background of the top photo. I believe the Japanese work camp was at Lucerne for a short period only — less than a year. My grandparents moved to Lucerne in 1945, so I think they only heard about it second hand, but I know the men were housed in the old Canadian Northern Railway station, which is in the background of this photo, and I know they built a Japanese garden somewhere in the bush as well as the old bridge that still spanned the lake narrows when I was a kid. My grandfather told me that they had carved their initials under the bridge, but the bridge is long-gone now.
Thank you for the enriching context on this photograph!