A new memorial honoring Japanese Canadians who were detained during the Second World War was revealed at Vancouver’s Hastings Park recently. The memorial pays tribute to over 8,000 individuals who were held at the park while more permanent internment camps were being constructed in the interior of British Columbia. In the 1940s, approximately 22,000 people of Japanese descent were displaced from the B.C. coast and placed in camps following Canada’s declaration of war against Japan.
The memorial consists of 15 pillars with around 6,000 names engraved on them, leaving room for an additional 2,000 names as efforts are made to identify those still unaccounted for in historical records. Susanne Tabata, the founder and CEO of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society, emphasized the importance of acknowledging those who were imprisoned at the site to humanize their experience rather than viewing them as mere statistics.
Located outside the Livestock Building on the PNE grounds, where women and children were housed in former livestock stalls, the pillars serve as a reminder of the dark chapter in Canadian history. Hastings Park was chosen as a temporary holding facility in 1942 following government orders under the War Measures Act mandating individuals of Japanese origin to leave a restricted area along the B.C. coast.
The conditions at Hastings Park were described as extremely primitive and unsanitary according to City of Vancouver records. The facility, which first received detainees on March 16, 1942, officially closed over six months later on September 30, with a peak population of 3,866 residents. Many former detainees recalled the harsh living conditions, including poor food quality and unsanitary facilities that facilitated the rapid spread of diseases throughout the camp.
Despite the challenging circumstances, efforts are being made to ensure that the stories of those affected by the internment are not forgotten. An interpretive center is being developed inside the Livestock Building to educate visitors about this dark period in history through historical displays and public art. The center will be open temporarily during the PNE Fair until September 7, before becoming a permanent fixture in the spring of 2027.
Daniel Tokawa, the president of the Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre Society, highlighted the shared trauma experienced by the Japanese Canadian community and the importance of recognizing and learning from the past. The unveiling of the memorial and the establishment of the interpretive center mark important steps in acknowledging the hardships faced by Japanese Canadians and redressing historical wrongs.
In 1988, Canada formally apologized for its mistreatment of Japanese Canadians during the war, leading to the Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement, which provided financial compensation and established community funds to address the lasting impacts of the internment. The memorial and interpretive center at Hastings Park were funded by the B.C. government as part of a $100-million redress initiative announced in 2022 to address historical injustices. Additionally, a separate monument in Victoria will honor the Japanese Canadians who were displaced in 1942, featuring a wall with the names of nearly 22,000 individuals affected by the internment, including over 3,000 children born during that period.