Life in a Japanese Canadian Internment Camp, 1942-1946

The Tashme Internment Camp was one of eight internment camps established in British Columbia by the Government of Canada to intern Japanese Canadians during World War II. Located 14 miles southeast of Hope, Tashme covered 1,200 acres of land and, at its height, was home to 2,644 people. The camp was opened in 1942 and closed in 1946.

Those are the bare facts. But what was it like to live in Tashme? How did people feed, support and govern themselves? How did they educate their children? What did they do for fun?

That is what the Tashme Historical Project set out to discover. Led by former Tashme internee Howard Shimokura, assisted by a volunteer committee, and supported by the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre in Burnaby, BC, and the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, the project aims to record as full a picture as possible of what life was like in Tashme. 

This website is for all those who lived at Tashme, had relatives who lived at Tashme, or simply would like to learn more about what life was like during the internment.

 SITE DIRECTORY

In 1942, the site that was to become Tashme was chosen to house 500 families of men between the ages of 18 and 45 who were separated from their families and sent to work on the Hope Princeton Highway while living in road camps along the route... 

Tashme was a self-contained camp with 347 small houses and a variety of other buildings, including a hospital, a sawmill, gardens, a town centre and places of employment. Existing farm buildings were put to use as halls, community centres and apartments for the elderly and infirm... 

Despite the fact that Tashme was formed through the forced relocation of its residents, the camp functioned with a high degree of order, peace, and efficiency. A combination of municipal council, liaison with the BCSC, and proponent of community well-being, the Shinwa-kai became an essential force in the life of Tashme...

Everything the community needed could be found within its boundaries. Among them, residents possessed a variety of skills such as shoe repair, barbering and hairdressing, jewelry making and repair, and professional photography including film processing...  

A description of the Tashme Internment Camp and all of the aspects of internment life is but part of the story of Tashme. Personal stories of the people who lived there provide additional details, perspectives and colour to the Tashme experience...

The project to date is only a beginning. While the immediate focus is collection of factual material on the history, and structural features, we envision adding stories of it's people and events that will bring to life the Tashme internment experience...