SS 20, Issue 2, Ch. 6

Japanese Internment Camps in BC

New Denver BC

During World War II, New Denver became a Japanese Canadian internment camp. Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, men between the ages of 18 to 45 were sent to labour camps in the Interior of British Columbia or farther into Eastern Canada. Approximately 1,500 women, children, and elderly men were sent to the "Orchard", a small section of New Denver set up to house them. New Denver's Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre is dedicated to the history of the 23,000 Japanese Canadians who were interned by the Canadian government and is a National Historic Site of Canada.[2]

The Nikkei Internment Memorial CentreA National Historic Site dedicated to telling the story of over 22,000 Japanese Canadians who were forcibly relocated during World War II

T he Hayashi family were interned in New Denver, BC along with over 1600 other Japanese Canadians. New Denver was originally a silver mining community,

formed in 1892. By the 1940s, the town was mostly abandoned, so the BC Security Commission chose it as a site to build new houses for the internment.

The areas known as Harris Ranch and the Orchard were selected, across the river from the main part of town. A large tuberculosis sanatorium was also built on the shores of Slocan Lake. At first glance, this appears to be an idyllic cottage in the country. However, these rough wood shacks were built with little insulation, and no running water. Shared outhouses were placed nearby. Each house was only 14 x 28 feet and housed two families. The lush gardens shown in the photo were essential to help feed the residents. Japanese Canadians gradually left New Denver after 1947, but many houses still remain to this day. In 1994, members of the volunteer run Kyowakai (translated - “working together peacefully”) Society successfully achieved their dream of opening an interpretive centre to raise awareness about internment. As a National Historic Site since 2007, the NIMC cares for significant collections about the internment of Japanese Canadians. From a site of initial trauma, the Kyowakai Society members have transformed the Centre into a wonderful place of memory

Hundreds of tar-paper shacks were hurriedly built in the spring, summer and fall of 1942 in the new part of the Interior Housing Centres, consisting of Tashme (just east of Hope BC) and in the Kootenay Valley settlements of Lemon Creek, New Denver, Slocan and Rosebery. A few families only had tents to live in even after winter arrived in the cold Kootenay Valley climate. The older settlement part consisted of the ghost towns of Greenwood, Kaslo and Sandon in which the government tried to refurbish the housing abandoned by mining communities when the ores had run out.