Health Care

Tashme Hospital Staff June 1943. NNM 2012.45.1.17

Back Row: Miss Tanouye, Marge Nishimura, Mary Kimi Yano, Mikiko Yamamoto, Dr Harold M Shimokura, Mrs Hatsue Kumano RN, Dr C G McNeil, Edna Lipsey RN, Mrs Alice Reid RN, Frances Tomiye Mitobe, Beatrice Fetterley RN, Dr Tai Kuzuhara, Tokuko Kawamoto, Mary Ishikawa, Unknown.

Middle Row: Mrs Sato, Vera Tamie Sumida, Hisaye Kihara, Mary Yoneda, Pat Shizue Adachi, Ayako Tehara, Lynda Yeiko Negata, Marge Morie Yonemura, Kimi Nakamura, Yukie Kaneko, Miss Masuda, Clara Shizue Kato, Lucy Kumoi.

Front Row: Mike Ishida, Mr Tanaka, Mr Komiyama, Mr Okada, Mr Yamamoto, Mr Shirakawa, Mr Kurita, Mr Okata, Mr Seto.

Hospital

LAC RG27 vol649 file23-2-4-11 pt1

Initially, there were no hospital facilities in Tashme. A makeshift clinic was set up in D building while a modern, well-equipped hospital was under construction. Completed in December 1942, the hospital was fully operational by February 1943. It had 50 beds, although it seldom housed more than 20 patients at one time. A duplex that served as a residence for two Japanese Canadian medical personnel (Dr. Shimokura and his family, and Dr. Kuzuhara) was constructed next to the hospital.

Click on photo to see a layout of the hospital.

The hospital also served the Hope-Princeton Highway road camps. Ambulance services from Hope or Vancouver were provided for cases that the hospital was not equipped to handle. Sometimes the RCMP provided transportation to Hope or Vancouver. Dr. Shimokura was permitted to keep his car to serve as an emergency vehicle for transporting patients to Hope or Vancouver.

Medical services were terminated and the hospital was closed in June 1946 shortly before the Tashme internment camp was officially closed.

Medical staff

The first head of the hospital was Dr. E. Harvey Cook, who was succeeded by Dr. Clarence G. McNeill, and later by Dr. S.M. Miller. Dr. Harold M. Shimokura, a Canadian-trained physician and surgeon, served as assistant to Dr. Cook and his successors. Other Canadian-trained Japanese doctors were sent to other internment camps.

There were several qualified nurses, including Mrs. Alice Reid, Miss Beatrice Fetterley, Miss Edna Lipsey, Mrs. Hatsue Kumano, and C. Mogenson, as well as about 12 Japanese Canadian nurses’ aides. Mr. Tom Seki served as hospital orderly.

Dr. Tai Kuzuhara, a US-trained dentist who had a practice in Vancouver prior to internment, was the resident dentist with an office and equipment in the Tashme hospital.

By 1945, a fully qualified Japanese Canadian resident optometrist also had an office and equipment in the hospital.

All hospital staff including doctors, dentist, nurses, nurses’ aides, orderlies, cooks, and maintenance staff were employed by the BCSC and paid a monthly salary.

See 1945 health statistics for Tashme

Biography of Dr. Shimokura

Dr. Harold Shimokura was born in Hiroshima, Japan, on January 4, 1904, immigrated to Canada in 1915, and was raised and educated in Vancouver. He attended the University of BC, enrolled in a pre-med program at the University of Alberta (because, until 1952, UBC did not have a program in medicine), and received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto in 1932. He completed his residency to practice medicine at St. Luke’s Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, returning to begin his practice in Vancouver in 1934. He married Ethel Ayako Ishiwara in 1936. They had three sons, Satoru Howard (born 1938), Alan Mitsuru (born 1943 in Tashme), and Raymond Shigeru (born1947). After the internment, the Shimokura family lived in Raymond, Alberta, and Lethbridge, Alberta, before returning to Vancouver in 1951, where Dr. Shimokura continued his medical practice. Dr. Shimokura retired in 1961 and died in Vancouver in 1975. Mrs. Shimokura died in Vancouver in 1994.

NNM 2012.45.1.15

Back row from left to right: Alice Reid, Mrs Ethel Shimokura and Miss Beatrice Fetterley. Front row from left to right: Dr Harold Shimokura, who holds his son Howard Shimokura, and Dr Cook, who holds Alex Reid.

Tashme hospital staff, March 1944. NNM 2012.45.1.20

Back Row: Mr Yamamoto, Mr Kumiyama, Mr Kurita, Mr Okada, Mr Okata, Mr Shirakawa, Mr Tanaka, Mr Komiyama

Middle Row: Mrs Sato, Lucy Kumoi, Marge Nishimura, Unknown, Shizue Kato, Yoshiko Yamanaka, Fumiko Tanouye, Harue Yoshitake, Hideko Masago, Jean Uchikura, Unknown, Unknown

Front Row: Lynda Yeiko Negata, Hisaye Kihara, Marge Morie Yonemura, Pat Shizue Adachi, Tokuko Kawamoto, Mikiko Yamamoto, Tomiye Mitobe, Yukie Kaneko, Kimi Nakamura, Mary Kimi Yano, Mary Ishikawa, Ayako Tehara.