Richmond BC, Canada #richmondartgallerybc
Contributing to a Diverse and Multicultural Canada
Since the arrival in 1877 of the first Japanese immigrant to Canada, Manzo Nagano, this early ethnic minority persevered to become part of Steveston/Richmond, especially in the fishing and farming industries.
Japanese Canadians suffered under restrictive racist policies and regulations yet contributed to the betterment of our community. This display illustrates this by describing the many projects undertaken by the local Japanese Canadian community beginning in 1900 to the current decade.
These contributions to our community were made despite the injustice perpetrated on Japanese Canadians in 1942 with their removal from the 100 mile “exclusion zone.” At that time, Richmond had the second largest Japanese Canadian community in Canada comprised of approximately 2,200 residents. Over 22,000 residents of Japanese heritage were removed to self-supporting camps, incarceration camps, road construction camps, or to sugar beet farms in the Prairies. They were not allowed to return to the West Coast until April 1, 1949.
Only a fraction of the previous residents returned to rebuild their lives and continue to contribute to Richmond by helping build the first community center in Richmond as their first re-engagement with the community. While this display captures the many projects undertaken by this small group of immigrants, it doesn’t include the many other initiatives undertaken by the Richmond community, including Murakami House, Hide Hyodo Memorial Garden, the Maples Residence Fisherman’s Hospital Plaza, the Japanese garden at the Steveston Museum featuring the suikinkutsu (water koto cave), the relocated Japanese hospital nurse’s quarters building, and the Kishi Boatworks building. In addition the City funded the “Nikkei Stories of Steveston,” ten short documentary videos on the history of the Japanese Canadian pioneers.
This project is made possible with funding from the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society.
Steveston Japanese Canadian Cultural Center Advisory Committee
