Tashme Incarceration Camp

Tashme was previously called Fourteen Mile Ranch, a dairy and livestock farm of Amos B.Trites. From there, the name was changed by the BCSC so that it could be recognized as a mailing address.[5] The name Tashme was created by combining the first two letters of the last names of three men who worked for the BC Securities Commission, a now-obsolete branch of the Provincial Government. TAylor SHirras and MEad, after Austin Taylor, John Shirras and Frederick Mead.[4] Although it sounds like it could be a Japanese word, the name proved difficult to pronounce for Japanese-speaking inhabitants as the short sh sound without the vowel i following it is not seen in the Japanese Language. In English the name is commonly pronounced tahj-mi, versus the Japanese pronunciation of ta-shi-mi.

Since the 1860s, Japanese people had settled in British Columbia, working as lumbers or fishermen on the coast while facing racial struggles to be accepted in a predominantly white culture.[6] Japanese immigrants worked hard and raised their own families; in 1941, the government recorded 13,000 Nissei, second-generation Japanese Canadians.[6] Most Nisei were living in the Downtown east side, known as Japantown. In the heart of Japantown, on Oppenheimer Park, they would form a historical baseball team that influenced the Vancouver baseball culture: Asahi.[7]

The internment of Japanese Canadians was initiated from fears of Japanese forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In the first few months of 1942, the hate against Nisei, who only knew Canada as their home, had peaked, and racist stances against Japanese Canadians became hard to endure. Nevertheless, under Prime Minister Mackenzie King, the government issued an "Order-in-Council PC 1486"[8] for national security reasons. The legislation was to remove "all persons of Japanese Racial Origin" from 100 miles far from the BC west coast to the interior lands. The Japanese incarceration was one of Canadian history's worst violations of freedom. The BCSC, the British Columbia Security Commission, fixed the power for the RCMP to remove Japanese Canadians from their home forcefully, set dusk to dawn curfews, and confiscate personal properties.[8]

The camp was notable as the temporary home of celebrated Canadian artist Kazuo Nakamura, who suffered from the same abuses and confiscation as other inmates.[9] Camp staff strongly disapproved of free artistic expression, and would often destroy or remove work by Nakamura.[9] Like other young Japanese men, Nakamura was assigned to woodcutting work, and only provided an elementary education.[9] To pass the time and ensure his content passed harsh censorship, Nakamura took to imitating and tracing books of Canadian Art available through a Christian Mission in Tashme.[9] His works from this time are largely concerned with landscape scenes.[9]

Tashme was the largest Japanese-Canadian incarceration camp in British Columbia. The site chosen for Tashme was 22 km southeast of the village of Hope and on the border of the 100-mile coastal exclusion zone.[5] In addition to its position outside of the coastal exclusion zone, this location was chosen because it was a large enough property to fit the 500 families that the government anticipated would stay there. As it was a dairy and livestock farm, it also had many already constructed farm amenities, such as the horse stable, pig barns, blacksmith's and metal shops.[10] It was surrounded by the Cascade mountains in a picturesque but isolated setting. In July 1942, the Tashme Incarceration Camp opened for Japanese Canadians. Nikkei were forced into unsanitary shacks and were pressured to construct houses starting in 1942. The camp was designed to house the families of men employed to work on constructing the Hope-Princeton highway, and was one of several road camps.[4]

Tashme was the only internment site that was built for the purpose of Japanese Canadian internment, while the other sites were in ghost towns or villages.[11] Interned Japanese Canadian men were taken from Hastings Park to build Tashme before other internees moved in.[12] Construction on the site began in 1942 and, like other incarceration sites, Tashme was constructed hastily with limited materials, leading to a difficult first winter. Accounts of the winter of 1942-1943 are that it was particularly cold with heavy snowfall. Even after the war, Japanese Canadians were banned from returning home from the internment camps until 1949,[6] and even worse, their homes were sold at bargain basement prices by the government. Tashme, as an internment camp, closed on August 26, 1946,[1] a year after World War II ended, and was fully dismantled in October 1946. The Canadian government encouraged Niseis to either move east of the Rocky Mountains or move to Japan.[5] With no home to return to, most Nikkei chose repatriation, though they were foreigners in the eyes of citizens in Japan. All Japanese Canadians who chose repatriation were collected in Tashme and were forcefully sent to Japan.[5] The internment of Japanese Canadians was the government's response to the public pressure against the Japanese race during the heightened hate against the Japanese force during the war.

Japanese Canadian men who were between the ages of 18 and 45 and lived inside the coastal exclusion zone were sent to work camps in interior BC to do work creating roads for the federal Department of Mines and Resources. One of these work camps was the construction of the Hope-Princeton Highway. Over 1000 men, living in 5 different road camps, worked on the Hope-Princeton Highway, many of whom had families in Tashme. In 1943, due to changed regulations, the men joined their families at the internment camps. The interned Japanese Canadians were employed by the BC Security Commission and the Federal Department of Labour. Most Japanese Canadian internees that were not specialists were paid $0.25 per hour, and road camp workers were paid $0.35. The average wage at the time in Canada was $0.62 per hour for men and $0.37 per hour for women.[19]

After more establishments were built at Tashme, more jobs were available. Internees worked for the BCSC at offices, the hospital, schools, as shop workers, and as municipal service workers. Tashme also had livestock barns and vegetable gardens where people could work. Men were hired at the Tashme sawmill, making materials that would be used to build housing and other buildings. Later, another sawmill a few miles away from Tashme hired other internees, offering higher wages than that of the Tashme sawmill. Men 16–20 years old worked on logging trucks, and other younger men worked in businesses in Tashme, having to leave work at 3:00 pm to attend their highschool classes.[19]

The opening of the shoyu and miso factory in Tashme 1943 generated more jobs for internees. The factory supplied Tashme as well as other incarceration camps and Japanese Canadians outside of the coastal exclusion zone. The BCSC opened the factory, and the operations and workers were organized by Mr. Shinichi Negoro.

Some Japanese Canadian internees were unable to work, and because their houses and jobs had been taken away due to the war, they were supplied with welfare by the BC Security Commission. The people that received welfare were those who were unable to earn sufficient money, the elderly, single parents, the injured or sick, or people who did not have the physical ability required. Financial help was provided, as well as clothes, food, and housing. In Tashme, they had a welfare department with a manager and Japanese Canadian workers. This department worked with families and ensured that people received the standard relief rate for BC and their specific situation.[19]

Tashme was the first internment camp that was scheduled to close after the war, and by June 1946, families began to leave to find work in other provinces. In August 1946, Tashme officially closed, although some families stayed behind to clean up the location for the owners. The last family left in October 1946.[10] This was the family of Shinichi Negoro, the organizer of the shoyu and miso factory. Shinichi Negoro, in addition to other entrepreneurial Japanese-Canadian families, planned to open a shoyu and miso factory in Ashcroft. While internees were in the process of being deported to Japan, and the Tashme factory was decommissioned, the Negoros were processing the raw supplies left over from the Tashme factory to move to their new factory. They left in early November 1946.[19]