Sunshine Valley, British Columbia

Sunshine Valley, formerly named Tashme, is an unincorporated settlement and former Japanese Canadian internment camp on the Crowsnest Highway between of the town of Hope (NW) and the entrance to Manning Park in the Cascade Mountains of British Columbia.  Located just outside the 100 mile "quarantine" zone from which all Japanese Canadians were removed during World War II, it was a large camp housing 2400 people on the site of a former Depression-era Relief Workers' Camp. Men housed in the camp were employed in the construction of the highway during the war. After the war, the site was sold off and has continued in existence as a proposed Boy's Town, the Allison Lumber Company (a combined lumber and mine venture) and then a small campground and recreational community, and served as the basetown for the small Silvertip Ski Area which was located at the head of Tearse Creek, a tributary of the Upper Sumallo River which flows north into the town from the south & upon entering the town, turns southeast & enters Manning Park.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

About all that remains of the Tashme internment experience in the public conscientiousness is this brief Wikipedia entry. Much of the rest is long forgotten. If you go to Sunshine Valley, only a few remnants of Tashme remain. Only the large barn that served as the apartments for some Japanese families is visible. It is now a community centre for Sunshine Valley. A large concrete silo across the street from the community centre is all that remains of the barn that served as the Tashme school and community hall. The shacks are all gone. A small building that was the kindergarten is still standing. The rest is now a small but thriving recreational community of summer cabins of city dwellers and homes of some permanent residents.

Today, nearly 70 years have passed since the Tashme camp was closed, and no detailed record exists of its origins and history, a description of its features, nor a repository of stories of its existence. This Record is a "better late than never" attempt to correct the omission.  It is a "best effort so far" resurrection of the facts, the history and the stories of the Tashme Internment Camp that was once located in this beautiful valley in the BC interior between 1942 and 1946.

Substantial information on Tashme has been assembled, and continues to be researched, from a variety of sources. Sufficient information is now at hand to produce this version one of the Tashme Record.

Unfortunately, much of the details about Tashme, especially factual data about its infrastructure does not appear to exist anywhere. Blueprints, construction drawings, survey and other maps, and other detailed information that once existed to construct Tashme have not turned up so far in our search of the Library and Archives Canada files where all of the Department of Labour Japanese Division records were sent after the Japanese Division was closed.  Only the blueprint of the Tashme hospital has been found.

Our hope is that this work will inspire others to join the project, recall the past, help us find and document pieces of history that will add to our knowledge of what took place during the Tashme years. 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.

People who contributed to this project and website

Do you have information, stories, photographs, or artifacts related to Tashme to share?

How you can help

See references for further information on Tashme and other internment camps.

Contact us

If you have questions, concerns or would like to suggest changes or additions to the site, please contact us!

Nikkei National Museum
6688 Southoaks Crescent
Burnaby, BC V5E 4M7
T: 604.777.7000
E: info@nikkeiplace.org
www.nikkeiplace.org

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