Life in the Canadian Internment and POW Camps


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The British Columbia Security Commission established a number of internment camps in the interior of British Columbia. One new "model" camp, Tashme, was built outside of Hope, B.C., but the rest were located in abandoned ghost towns in the remote mountain valleys of the interior of B.C. Unlike the internment camps in the United States, the Canadian internment camps (with the exception of Angler in northern Ontario) were not barbed wire encampments, but were located in areas so isolated and remote that escape was theoretical at best. These camps were "home" for the Japanese-Canadians from 1942 until 1946. In the meantime, all of the homes, businesses and properties of the Nikkei, including that of Canadian citizens, were sold by the Custodian of Enemy Property, an agency that had originally been established on the promise to the community that it would safeguard such property while the Japanese-Canadians were interned. The proceeds from the sale of their property were used to pay the costs of their internment.
Despite the harsh and primitive conditions of the Canadian internment camps, the internees made the best of their situation. They worked hard to improve the physical condition of the camps and their tar paper shacks and instituted a variety of institutions and activities designed to maintain the community including schools, sports and social clubs. The B.C. and Canadian federal governments disavowed any responsibility for educating the nisei children in the camps. With the assistance of church groups, notably the United Church of Canada, makeshift schools were established and teaching groups, largely comprised of nisei volunteers, were organized.

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Life in the Canadian Internment and POW Camps

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