7 responses to “Japanese Canadian Communities in BC: Before Relocation”

  1. Donna Fraser

    Have you explored the Japanese community in Ruskin, BC? There were two classrooms of students in the Ruskin school but when the Japanese families were relocated there were only eight students left – my husband being one of them.

  2. Daryl Sturdy

    Have you any comments or pictures etc. of the Japanese in Port Alice, a similar town to Woodfibre. I have a picture of a group of young men standing outside their community hall.

    1. stuart hill

      Hello, thank you for your interest in UBC Open Collections .

      Based on a quick search of our digitized collections, it is uncertain if there are any materials related to the Japanese community of Port Alice. There are mentions of Port Alice in Open Collections, as indicated by this search result: https://open.library.ubc.ca/search?q=%2522port%2520alice%2522&p=0&sort=0&view=0&perPage=2&circle=n&dBegin=&dEnd=&c=2&ubc_repo_label=Digitized%20Collections
      These results include a few issues of the Tariku Nippo, a Japanese-Canadian newspaper of the early to mid-twentieth century.

      Its possible that if you searched through the Japanese Canadian Photographs Collection: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/jphotos you may find images that are of the Japanese-Canadian community in Port Alice, but are not labelled as such simply because there were no descriptions included with the items, or the individuals describing the items did not have the knowledge to recognize the location in which the photographs were taken.

      If you would like more information on this collection, I would recommend getting in touch with UBC Rare Books and Special Collections, as they hold the collection and therefore likely have much more knowledge of it than we do. https://rbsc.library.ubc.ca/contact-form/

      Thank you again for your interest in UBC Open Collections.

    2. Chris Lockhart

      Just curious that you had a picture of Japanese Canadians in Port Alice, my Grandfather went there in 1922 from Tottori ken and where he was to meet his father who died 40 days after his arrival. He left taking the ashes. I do not think that he returned

  3. Carolyn Arthur

    Do you have any information on the Japanese community at Knobb Hill near Brittania mine townsite? My mother recalls families being removed from there when internment occurred.

    1. Kin Man Leung

      Hello Carolyn,

      Thank you for your comment and interest in our collections.

      Based on a quick search of our digitized collections, it is uncertain if there are any materials related to the Japanese community at Knob Hill near Britannia mine townsite. There are mentions of Internment and Knob Hill in Open Collections, as indicated by this search result:
      https://open.library.ubc.ca/search?q=%22Internment%22%20AND%20%22Knob%20Hill%22

      Please visit the Japanese Canadian Photographs Collection to conduct keyword searches: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/jphotos
      You may find images that are of the Japanese-Canadian community at Knob Hill near Britannia mine townsite, but are not labelled as such because there were no descriptions included with the items, or the individuals describing the items did not have the knowledge to recognize the location in which the photographs were taken.

      Thank you again for taking the time to contact us and we wish you all the best with your search.

      Best regards,
      Digitization Centre Team

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