The Friendship Garden - Tashme Japanese Internment Camp - Hope, B.C.

Just past Hope's only set of traffic lights and adjacent to Memorial Park - there a Beautiful little Japanese Friendship Garden.  Built in the summer of 1991, the garden was dedicated to all the Japanese-Canadians who had to remain in internment camps during the Second World War. 

Probably the most famous camp in this area was Tashme......located just 14 miles east of Hope.  Looking much like they did 50 years ago, the barns they lived in are now part of the Sunshine Valley community. The bright red roof makes it pretty easy to see from Highway 3.

When I lived in Sunshine Valley - I was saddened to hear the stories about Tashme.  My daughter Sarah had a teacher, in Hope who was interned there as a child.

To think that my kids were playing in a recreation centre that once housed hundreds of Japanese-Canadians....?.... and yet other then the centre and a few outbuildings - there is nothing to mark the part they played in the history of this Valley.  It wasn't until later..much later, that I discovered this Friendship Garden.

For three years from 1942-1945, 2,300 Japanese-Canadians were interned at this camp. Its a sad story - of what can happen during war time.

Authentically Japenese,the garden was modelled after the traditional gardens of the Orient.  With gorgeous Japanese Cherry Blossoms, a circular walkway, this little garden gazebo is but a small tribute to these Japanese-Canadians....It's the only memorial that acknowledges in a small way the  Japanese-Canadians who suffered this fate....

Its a reminder of a period in Candian history that shouldn't be forgotten.

Check out my other posts about the Hope Area!

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Additional Links:

1.  Japanese Internment - CBC
2.  Establishing Recognition of Past Injustices: Uses of Archival Records in Documenting the   Experience of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War. Roberts-Moore, Judith. Archivaria: The Journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists, 53 (2002).
3.  My Sixty Years in Canada, Dr. Masajiro Miyazaki, self-publ.
4.  Wild Daisies in the Sand: Life in a Canadian Internment Camp, Tsuneharu Gonnami, Pacific    Affairs, Winter 2003/2004.
5.  Explanation of different categories of internment, Nat'l Assn. of Japanese Canadians website
6.  Map of Internment Centres in BC, Nat'l Assn. of Japanese Canadians website
7.  Japanese Canadian Internment, University of Washington Libraries
8. "From Racism to Redress: The Japanese Canadian Experience", Canadian Race Relations Foundation
9. Apology and compensation, CBC Archives

• Photographs of the Japanese Canadian eviction from the West Coast in the B.C. Multicultural Photograph Collection of the Vancouver Public Library
• The New Canadian, a newspaper published by interned Japanese Canadians
• Photographs by Masumi Hayashi
• CBC Archives - Relocation to Redress: The Internment of the Japanese Canadians

If you or someone you know is thinking of Buying or Selling property in Cultus Lake, Chilliwack, Hope, Abbotsford, Langley or anywhere in the Fraser Valley Area of B.C. - or if you would like more information please give Liz  Moras of Landmark Realty Chilliwack a call at- 604-799-0459 or e-mail at lizmoras@gmail.com.