Japanese Canadian Historic Places in B.C.

Engagement Summary

The Province invited the public to nominate places of significance to Japanese Canadians and Canadians of Japanese descent which reflect the development and history of British Columbia. Historic places of the highest significance were considered for formal recognition by the Government of British Columbia and placed on the B.C. Register of Historic Places and the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
 
Nominations were sought to tell a more complete story about the development of British Columbia. The nominated places were evaluated by the Japanese Canadian Evaluation Team, consisting of members from the Japanese Canadian community to determine which sites could be considered to have provincial significance. Heritage BC, a not-for-profit organization, Ministry of International Trade and Responsible for Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism and the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations’ Heritage Branch supported the process.
 
The Provincial Recognition Program’s Japanese Canadian Historic Places Project followed a highly successful 2015 pilot project which focused on historic places of heritage significance to Chinese Canadians, which resulted in the addition of 21 provincially recognized places in British Columbia to the BC Register of Historic Places.
 

Timeframe:

July 7 – November 30, 2016
 

Input Received:

Nominations were submitted online, via mail, email and fax which resulted in 151 online submission forms and 107 email submissions. In total 264 nominations were received, including those received by mail and fax, representing 191 individual places in British Columbia.
 
Nominations were received from all around B.C., as well as from Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
 

Input Leads to Action:

56 historic places were chosen as a result of the four-month nomination processand are to be marked on the BC Register of Historic Places and the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
 
Included in the recognized places are the internment camps, self-supporting sites, and road camps where Japanese Canadians and Canadians of Japanese descent were held or forced to work during the internment years. Other recognized places include fishing, mining and logging communities that had large JapaneseCanadian populations prior to 1942, many of which never saw the return of their former residents after 1949. The recognized places also celebrate the importance of education, civic responsibility and co-operative enterprise to the JapaneseCanadian community.
 
All 191 nominated places appear in an interactive map produced by Heritage BC.