Artefact 6; Photo of Tashme Internment Camp

Citation:

[Unknown]. 1949. “Tashme Camp.” P. Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection.  

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0049104. 

label:

This aerial photograph captures the Tashme Internment Camp, established in September 1942, shortly following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Located 14 miles southeast of Hope, British Columbia, Tashme was the largest of the eight camps designated for the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II. At its peak, it housed 2,644 residents, making it an important symbol of the wartime displacement faced by over 21,000 individuals of Japanese descent, who were forcibly uprooted under the War Measures Act.

Spanning 1,200 acres on the site of a former dairy and livestock farm, Tashme was initially intended to separate 500 families of men who were then laboring on the Hope-Princeton Highway. As family reunification occurred, the camp rapidly expanded into a self-contained community, satisfied with its own governance system, the Shinwa-kai, and a variety of facilities including schools, a hospital, and a town centre. Despite the appearnace of normalcy, life here was afflicted by severe restrictions and harsh living conditions.

The residents of Tashme displayed remarkable resilience and ingenuity, creating a healthy community life with the limited resources they had. They established small businesses, engaged in social and recreational activities, and adapted to their constrained circumstances with a high degree of organization and peace, all under the watchful supervision of the RCMP and the BC Security Commission. The history of Tashme is not just one of loss and injustice, but also of the profound strength and adaptability of the Japanese Canadian community during a time of extreme adversity. In the next artefact, we will see more details about the Tashme community.

Bibliography:

[1] "Life in a Japanese Canadian Internment Camp, 1942-1946", tashme.ca