Japanese Canadian residents
Continue to Olson Road to complete the Cultural Walk
Japanese Canadian residents were an integral part of the community
Prior to World War II, Japanese Canadians were a vital part of the local community in Tofino and in Clayoquot on Stubbs Island. Eik Landing was one of five main areas of local settlement for Japanese Canadians in Clayoquot Sound.
While few Canadian families of Japanese descent reside in Tofino today, in the early part of the 20th century, about one third of the residents of Clayoquot Sound were Issei (first-generation) or Nissei (second-generation) Japanese Canadians. The term “Nikkei” refers to any Canadian of Japanese descent.
The first Japanese settlers to Clayoquot Sound arrived in the 1920s after they faced discrimination and restricted fishing licences in the Fraser River area on mainland British Columbia. Most families had moved from the same prefecture in Japan – Wakayama. In total, about 90 families moved to the west coast – this includes Bamfield, Tofino, Clayoquot, Ucluelet.
In Beckoned by the Sea, Ellen (Kimoto) Crowe-Swords described how the First Nation communities “looked after the Japanese families that first winter. There is still a strong bond between the Japanese-Canadian community and the First Nations community”.
Throughout the cold months food was shared around. Families made their homes in five main communities: Clayoquot (on Stubbs Island a.k.a. Nakanoshima), Eik Landing (by the Eik Cedar), Nishi Kazi (a.k.a. West Wing; where the Tofino Resort is located), Storm Bay (up the Inlet from the Crab Dock), and Grice Point (by Duffin Cove).
Trademarks of the Nikkei fishermen were their skill and co-operation on the water. All the boats would go out to fish together and return together.
At one point, most trollers in Clayoquot Sound were owned and operated by Nikkei fishermen. A locally developed trick of the trade, using a 'wobbler' or 'spoon' for trolling, was adopted and further developed by Umetaro Morishita after watching a Nuu-chah-nulth fisherman using tin as a flasher. Leaders to the spoons were made of piano wire. Another innovator was Matakichi Uyeyama of Ucluelet who charted waters off of Ucluelet and improved fishing gear for trolling.
Unfortunately, most of these boats were confiscated during the internment of coastal-residing Japanese Canadians during the Second World War – with little to no compensation offered for the boats or any other personal property.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, the paranoia of the Canadian Federal Government and on the west coast, reached a peak. Japanese Canadians were referred to as 'enemy aliens' and in the spring of 1942 all Japanese-Canadian families would be forced to relocate to internment or work camps. Japanese residents got a knock on their doors notifying them to pack up their things to be ready to leave in the morning on the steamship the steamship Maquinna. They were permitted only one suitcase each. The Maquinna‘s departure was extended another 24 hours after local pressure.
The Maquinna brought them Port Alberni. From there, families were loaded onto a train to Nanaimo, eventually ending their initial journey in Hastings Park, Vancouver, where they were housed temporarily in recently vacated livestock stables. Approximately 22,000 people were interned in camps in interior BC or relocated to road camps and other labour jobs such as in Ontario – their families separated from one another. More than half of these Japanese Canadians had been born and raised in BC.
While full citizen rights were restored to Japanese Canadians post-war, discrimination continued to create barriers to regaining their lives.
In 1947, a “wartime resolution” was passed by the Commissioners of the Corporation of the Village of Tofino excluding all Asian Canadians from “owning property or carrying on a business directly or indirectly within the municipality” – a policy that would not be rescinded until a half-century later in 1997.
Despite initiative on the part of BC Packers in the 1950s to rehire former Japanese-Canadian residents who had contributed so much to the fishing industry here pre-war, Tofino remained unwelcoming and those who did return settled in Ucluelet.
In 1997, a local Japanese-Canadian resident approached the District of Tofino Council and asked them to remove the “Wartime Resolution” prohibiting people of Japanese descent from returning to Tofino. On November 24, 1997, the Council passed the following motion with respect to the “Wartime Resolution Regarding Orientals.”:
“Resolution No. 710-97: ...this Council wishes to set the record straight by rescinding the Resolution Regarding Orientals (1947) and emphasize that the District of Tofino rejects any exclusionary policy based on racial or ethnic origin. Carried.”
An article posted on the website of the Legislative Assembly of BC acknowledges that, “No Japanese Canadian was ever charged with disloyalty, and the incident is now acknowledged as one of the worst human rights violations in BC’s history. In 1988, the Government of Canada formally apologized and offered compensation to Japanese Canadian survivors and their families”.
On June 3, 2019, then Mayor Josie Osborne, on behalf of the District of Tofino, formally apologized to former Japanese-Canadian residents of Clayoquot Sound.
— Courtesy of Tofino Clayoquot Heritage Museum and the exhibition, “The Nikkei residents of Clayoquot Sound”,
