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I am honoured to receive a Centennial Legacy Fund grant from the British Columbia Historical Federation, for my work on a photographic mass biography of First World War soldiers of Japanese descent.
Since the day I led “Lest We Forget Cenotaph Research Project” workshops at Library and Archives Canada, I wanted to show students the ethnic diversity in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. What I discovered in aging yellowed envelopes was a paper trail of the history of a visible minority group’s political stance.
The Japanese Canadian community was eager to enlist in the Canadian army. The right to vote and equal rights were at stake. Is there among your ancestors a pioneering spirit who hoped for a better future for all Japanese Canadians by answering the call to arms?
Patriotic, they were keen to serve under the Anglo-Alliance of 1902 between Great Britain and the Empire of Japan – many of the soldiers upon immigrating to Canada were naturalized British subjects.
While there is a photographic honour roll of the fifty-five war dead, there does not yet exist a collection of photos of the remaining original Japanese Canadian volunteer soldiers. The battalion was organized and sponsored by Mr Charles Yasushi Yamazaki whose presentation trophy I helped save from the auction block last December. Writing these soldiers’ biographies is the simple part, unearthing the photos is the ultimate challenge. In order to do this, I am appealing to the public for help.
These warriors were very popular among their white comrades, and more than a few served as personal batmen to officers. King George V and Queen Mary took special interest in them on their hospital visits. Several had served in their youth as soldiers in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and were revered by the enemy. Many were married men with children – a complete anomaly compared to white soldiers, who were mostly between the ages of 18 and 25, single men.
The loss of life was heavy, with 25 per cent of the original battalion laying down their lives on foreign battlefields. They proved their loyalty to a country that would betray them twenty years after they returned home as heroes. Despite their service and sacrifice to Canada during the First World War, veterans whose battle honours include Vimy, Passchendaele, Arras and Hill 70, they were interned during the Second World War and several injuriously exiled to Japan in 1946.
Now, with the digitized archival government records made easily accessible by the Landscapes of Injustice initiative, the full story of internment and dispossession can be told. It is possible to piece together these soldiers’ stories post-Armistice.
Several went on to start farms on land that was granted to them via the Soldier Settlement Board, only to be stripped of them by the same board during the Second World War (to give to a white returning soldier). Others resumed their careers in the fishing industry only to have their boats confiscated and sold without consent in 1942.
How could a hero in one war be treated as an enemy alien in another? The irony is not lost on me and I endeavour to collect, preserve and tell the history of British Columbia, Canada and Japanese Canadian soldiers of the Great War.
The timing of compiling this mass biography project comes on the heels of advocacy work I have been doing. Last spring, I was successful in my bid to have the names of two fallen Japanese Canadian soldiers included on the City of Richmond’s cenotaph.Private Hikotaro Koyanagi and Private Kazuo Harada were finally recognized after over one hundred years of being forgotten.
Here are the names of soldiers whose photos I am searching for: Manza Araki, Kaiza Chiba, Seijiro Chiba, Chutaro Chujo, Taichi Fujii, Sataro Fuji, Yoshimatsu Fukaye, Yichimatsu Fukushima, Bunshiro Furukawa, Shinjiro Goto, Bunkichi Hamade, Teizo Hamamatsu, Saburo Harada, Mosaburo Hayashi, Tsunenejio Hirai, Takaji Hirota, Robert Rikuzo Hoita, Takezi Hoshizaki, Masakichi Ehara, Niichi Ikeda, Tomasaburo Inohara, Kandayu Inouye, Kosho Matano, Mosaki Iwasaki, Kinnosuke Iwasaki, Hirokichi Isomura, Shigeshi Iwashita, Sakuziro Izukawa, Takakichi Kaji, Otoji Kamachi, Tsurumatsu Kamei, Soichi Kanda, Kameji Katena, Katamasa Kato, Yoshio Kawai, Kinjiro Kawase, Kiichi Kimoto, Shigeru Kondo, Yeisaku Kubodera, Jennojo Kubota, Kuwajiro Matsuda, Nobio Matsuda, Zenkichi Matsumoto, Tamotsu Mikuriya, Tomejiro Miyagawa, Suketaro Miyahara, Eigoro Miyata, Noboru Murakami, Sakutaro Murata, Saburo Muto, Eijiro Nagai, Sasuke Nakagawa, Manichi Nakamura, Tomoyoshi Nakamura, Shigeji Nakata, Masaji Nakauchi, Takashi Namba, Tanizo Naruse, Masaru Nishijima, Yasunobu Nishimura, Tsunezo Nonaka, Ryotaro Obayashi, Tosabura Okutsu, Sentaro Omoto, Toshimitsu Omoto, Tomoichi Otsubo, Kantaro Saito, Yashichi Saito, Yasukichi (Yashichi) Sakamoto, James Den Sato, Saburo Sato, Yoshikatsu Sawada, Jinsiro Shiga, Kichiji Shimizu, Jihei Shimizu, Ichimatsu Shintani, Genseki Sobuye, Kiyoshi Sugimoto, Yasaku Tajino, Kanae Takahashi, Yasuo Takashima, Kanichi Tohana, Thomas Tomoda, Kiyozo Tomoguchi, James Jitsui Tsubota, Masataro Uyeda, Nobuichi Uyeda, Raymond Kenji Uyehara, Nobuhei (Nobuhu) Watanabe, Otojuro Yamamoto, Otamatsu Yamamoto, Zenkichi Yamasaki, Hiroma Yano, Torakichi Yasuda, Kaura Yoshihara, Matakichi Yoshikawa, Kazuo Yoshizawa.
As we mark the 80th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 2025, let Canadians know and remember that it would take four more years after 1945 for freedom to come to all interned and dispossessed people including veterans of the First World War.
On April 1, 1949, Japanese Canadians were finally able to freely move back to the coast of British Columbia. Today, we stand on the shoulders of these men; let us remember them by putting faces to their honoured names.
Please scan high resolution photos and email them to me at jcanadianscef@gmail.com by December 31, 2025. You will be acknowledged and given photo credit. Thank you for your kind assistance.
This summer, the Nelson Museum, Archives & Gallery invites visitors to experience the forest like never before—through the hands of artists, the lens of history, and the echoes of culture.
WOOD is a visually striking group exhibition featuring eight acclaimed contemporary artists from across Canada. From traditional birch bark biting to immersive audio/visual installation, sculpture, weaving, and carving, these artists showcase the incredible versatility of wood as both medium and message.
Participating artists include Peter von Tiesenhausen, Samuel Roy-Bois, Xiaojing Yan, Rita McKeough, Susan Point, Pat Bruderer, Stephen Noyes, and Nadia Myre. Together, they demonstrate how wood can shape—and be shaped by—cultural, environmental, and artistic identities.
The artists featured in WOOD bring a wide range of perspectives and practices to the exhibition.
Peter von Tiesenhausen is an Alberta-based artist known for his land-based works and environmental stewardship; his practice blends sculpture, installation, and performance to address themes of time and transformation.
Samuel Roy-Bois, originally from Quebec and now based in British Columbia, is celebrated for his large-scale installations that blur the boundaries between art, architecture, and everyday life.
Xiaojing Yan, a Chinese-Canadian artist, combines traditional Chinese materials like lingzhi mushrooms and ink with contemporary sculptural forms to explore cultural identity and transformation.
Rita McKeough, a beloved figure in Canadian media art, has spent decades creating immersive installations and sound works that fuse activism, humour, and empathy.
Susan Point, a Coast Salish artist from Musqueam, is internationally recognized for revitalizing Coast Salish design through contemporary wood carving, serigraphy, and public commissions.
Pat Bruderer (Half Moon Woman) is one of the few remaining practitioners of the ancient Indigenous art of birch bark biting and is a passionate cultural educator and knowledge keeper.
Stephen Noyes blends traditional woodworking with modern design, crafting refined objects that speak to place and material and using cedar gathered from both British Columbia and Washington state to craft the burden basket on display.
Nadia Myre, a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, is a multidisciplinary artist whose work in beading, sculpture, and participatory projects has been shown around the world, including a retrospective currently showing at the National Gallery of Canada, and the Biennale of Sydney. “The incredible challenge and compensatory reward of group exhibitions that illustrate the diversity of any given medium, such as WOOD, is that a vast landscape of past and present, traditional and contemporary, political and personal, and all points in between starts to be seen,” says Nelson Museum curator Arin Fay, “like the forest for the trees.”
Running concurrently in Gallery B is Deep Roots, an art/history exhibition that looks at the community’s connection to the forest, past and present. Through archival photographs, artifacts, contemporary artworks, film, and written reflections, Deep Roots reveals the ongoing relationship between people and place—and the many ways that connection has evolved over time.
Together, WOOD and Deep Roots invite visitors to reflect on the forest not just as a resource, but as a source: of creativity, memory, meaning, and identity. These exhibitions are more than the sum of their parts—they are a reminder that these multi-faceted stories, rooted in wood, are still growing.
Vancouver Heritage Foundation has some walking tours coming up!
June 25 at 6 p.m and July 5 at 10 a.m.: Walking the Line with John Atkin
From 1891 to 1954, the BC Electric interurban Central Park Line ran between New Westminster and Vancouver. At its peak the Central Park Line operated with 16 Stations. Following some of those stations from west to east, this set of walks will be exploring the history, heritage and legacy of BC Electric interurban Central Park line. The June 25 tour will explore the area around the Lakeview Station and the July 5 tour the area around the Gladstone Station.
June 28 at 10 a.m.: Sunsets Sunny Slope with Rob Howatson
As the hill steepens, the neighbourhood lore deepens. Join native South Vancouverite Rob Howatson for a stroll around Lower Sunset, where quiet residential streets meet the noisy bustle of the city’s largest industrial area.
If you are interested please use the link here to register.
Effective July 1, Johnson Insurance Group Benefits and Travel operations will come together with belairdirect and rebrand as belairdirect group benefits and belairdirect travel insurance, respectively.
To further support their system integration to belairdirect, their Group Benefits and Travel departments will be closed from Saturday, June 28 at 2 p.m. PST to Wednesday July 2 at 3:30 a.m. PST for planned system upgrades.
All services will resume on Wednesday, July 2.
The 2025 LiterASIAN Festival arrives with the theme of "Origins," an exploration of heritage and resilience that reflects two significant milestones: the 30th anniversary of the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and the centennial of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Join award-winning Chinese Canadian community historian, curator, and author Catherine Clement in exploring the human experience of the Chinese Exclusion Act as revealed through the stories of the lives it touched – and that are featured in her new book, The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Date: Saturday, June 28
Location: Chinese Canadian Museum (51 E. Pender St.)
Time: 3 - 4:30 p.m.
Cost (includes museum admission): $15/general admission visitor; free for CCM annual pass holders *GST not included
Register: Registration link here
Book Pre-orders: Pre-order book here
On display at the Royal BC Museum until mid-January, the 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V Touring Limousine features a vibrant, kaleidoscopic paint job that has become a fan favorite. This iconic car was used by the Beatles in 1965 when they drove to Buckingham Palace to receive medals from the Queen. Originally painted Valentine Black, Lennon had the car repainted in 1967 by artist Steve Weaver, who incorporated elements of the psychedelic era and Romany designs. This customization was completed just before the release of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Weaver used latex house paint for the design, which has proven vulnerable over time. The Royal BC Museum has carefully monitored the car’s paint condition and undertaken conservation efforts to preserve it.
In 1987, Jim Pattison generously donated the vehicle to the museum after its display at Expo '86 in Vancouver. The Rolls-Royce has remained in operational condition for over fifty years, with its powerful engine supporting the brakes—a necessary feature given its substantial weight of 3,000 kilograms.
This iconic car is part of the Museum’s exhibition, Beyond the Beat: Music of Resistance and Change, opening on May 30. The exhibition will feature artifacts that highlight music’s powerful role in social and political change, including items from Neil Young, Elton John, Tegan & Sara, and Chuck D of Public Enemy.
ROSSLAND, BC – The Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre is thrilled to announce a significant milestone: a $1,000,000 grant from the Province of British Columbia through the Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program (REDIP).
This grant supports the Museum’s ambitious “Elevate the Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre: Heritage Hub & Economic Catalyst” project—an initiative designed to enhance infrastructure, expand year-round programming, and attract visitors to the region through a dynamic, inclusive, and immersive museum experience.
The REDIP funding underscores the Museum’s dual role as a steward of local heritage and a driver of regional economic diversification and cultural tourism. With this contribution, the project has now secured a total of $5 million toward its $5.9 million goal. The Museum continues to seek both financial and in-kind support to close the remaining gap.
“This generous support from the Province is a huge step forward for our community and our organization,” said Joelle Hodgins, Museum Director. “This investment builds on over a decade of community-driven planning and fundraising. We’re so close to fully realizing this vision and can’t wait to welcome visitors into the renewed Museum space next year.”
The multi-phase Renewal Project includes major capital upgrades and new interpretive features—most notably the immersive Mine Experience, which will bring Rossland’s rich industrial heritage to life through interactive, sensory-rich exhibits and expanded programming. Additional improvements include a reimagined entrance, enhanced accessibility, and flexible indoor and outdoor gathering spaces.
"The Rossland Museum is not just a great spot for tourists, but a pillar for the community that preserves important history and facilitates programming in the City of Rossland," said Steve Morissette, MLA for Kootenay-Boundary. "I'm grateful our government could support them in continuing to expand their services so their impact can be felt for years to come!"
The REDIP grant reflects the province’s commitment to long-term, sustainable community development. The Rossland Museum project was one of just 80 initiatives selected this year for its strong economic and cultural impact.
The Museum is deeply grateful to the Province of British Columbia and all the generous supporters who have brought the project this far—including Teck Trail Operations, Columbia Basin Trust, BC Arts Council, Heritage BC, the Raymond Gaudert Estate, and numerous individual donors, sponsors, and community organizations.
As the project enters the final design and early construction phases, the Museum welcomes additional contributions to help close the final funding gap.
To learn more or support the project, visit www.rosslandmuseum.ca/renewal
Wednesday, June 18th, 2025
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm PT Access is one of the largest barriers to repatriation. The Government of Yukon's Searching for our Heritage project locates artifacts of Yukon First Nations origin housed in museums around the world, helping to facilitate research and ultimately return belongings home.
Join the BCMA and Cathy Ritchie, Collections Management Advisor for the Government of Yukon, to learn about the Searching for our Heritage Database, how it came to be, explore how it can be used, and discuss its successes and challenges.
Register here!
In the video below, Linda Ambrose, author of Pentecostal Preacher Woman: The Faith and Feminism of Bernice Gerard (2024, UBC Press) presents at the BC Historical Federation's annual conference on May 3 in Williams Lake. Ambrose provides a summary of her book, the winner of the 2025 Lieutenant Governor's prize for historical writing.
Bernice Gerard (1923-2008) was an evangelical pastor, talk-show host, university chaplain, municipal politician, and a musician. The book explores her multifaceted life describing her as one of the most influential spiritual figures of twentieth-century British Columbia, whose complicated blend of social conservatism and social compassion has lessons for our polarized times.
Based on Rev. Gerard’s personal archives and life writing, Pentecostal Preacher Woman foregrounds her own voice to trace the complex evolution of a conservative woman’s ideas about faith and society.
BCHF president Rosa Flinton-Brown (pictured) presented a speech at the awards dinner at the annual conference in Williams Lake on May 5.
Rosa's recent remarks reflect her understanding of the critical nature of our work, the current threats to the historical record and how we can support each other in it. An excerpt is below.
Rosa will remain with the BCHF in her role as past president/treasurer for the next three years. She is very excited to support Sarah Ling, an excellent historian and experienced leader, as she takes over the presidency of the BCHF.
While I am not a historian myself, my involvement in this organization has deepened my appreciation for the members of the BCHF. Public historians are the architects of our social fabric. The work you do transcends academic interest—it weaves together the disparate threads of individual lives, community experiences, and cultural traditions. When you recover forgotten voices and overlooked narratives, you help create a more complete understanding of who we are as a society. In an era of fragmentation and division, this work of connection and contextualization has never been more essential.
As we learn more about what has been happening across the border over the last 100 days, we are reminded, once again, of a very sobering reality. We must confront an uncomfortable truth: history is fragile. It can be lost, altered, or deliberately erased. We have witnessed this in our own province, where certain narratives—particularly those of Indigenous peoples—were systematically suppressed by government policies. The residential school records that disappeared. The documents regarding the Chinese Exclusion Act that are just now becoming available for the first time. The countless women's stories never deemed worthy of official record.
These are not just gaps in our archival collections; they are wounds in our collective memory. They remind us that history is never neutral—it reflects power structures and priorities. Current events underscore the ethical responsibility that comes with this work. When we preserve the past, we are making a statement about what deserves to be remembered.
Archives and record-keeping are acts of resistance as much as they are acts of preservation. The digital revolution has transformed our field in ways that expand our reach and capabilities, allowing us to safeguard deteriorating materials and make collections accessible beyond physical walls. But these advances also create new vulnerabilities—digital decay, format obsolescence, the overwhelming volume of information being created daily. Meeting these challenges requires not just technological solutions but institutional commitment and public support.
And now a terrifying new challenge, that a government can choose to erase large swaths of these digital archives with relative ease. How do we, as a historical community, speak out and act to avoid the mistakes of the past? How do we build meaningful relationships across borders to allow for a replication of records, a duplication of archives to ensure that the historical record cannot be “disappeared”?
Throughout this weekend, we have experienced together that peculiar mixture of sadness and revelation that comes with uncovering difficult histories. There is genuine grief in confronting the violence and exclusion that mar our provincial story.
Yet there is something profoundly healing in this work. When you recover silenced voices and forgotten experiences, you open the possibility of a more honest reckoning with who we have been—and who we might become. There is redemption in truth-telling, even when the truths are painful. There is dignity in remembering, even when the memories are difficult.
This tension between sorrow and enlightenment is at the heart of what historians and storykeepers do. You dwell in this space not because you enjoy discomfort, but because you believe that a society can only move forward when it has fully acknowledged where it has been.
Tonight, as we celebrate achievements in your field, let's also celebrate each other and the community you've built together. In a profession that often involves solitary hours in archives or behind computer screens, you sustain each other. As we enjoy this evening and the year ahead, let's continue supporting one another in this vital work. Let's share our successes, learn from each other's approaches, and remember that while our individual projects matter tremendously, it's our combined effort that truly preserves the fullness of British Columbia's story.
Thank you all—not just for being here tonight, but for the work you do every day to ensure that our history endures in all its complexity, challenge, and wonder.
British Columbia Historical FederationPO Box 448, Fort Langley, BC, Canada, V1M 2R7Information: info@bchistory.ca
With gratitude, the BCHF acknowledges that it carries out its work on the traditional territories of Indigenous nations throughout British Columbia.
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