Licensing

Internment Camp - 1943, New Denver, B.C.

This internment camp was located in the village of New Denver, British Columbia beside the beautiful Slocan Lake. Approximately 300 wood shacks were built in a flat area called the Orchards and three surrounding leased ranch acreages by the internees. 1505 Japanese Canadians were assigned to this area.

One of the benefits of the evacuation was that a tuberculosis sanitarium, called the “San” was constructed in March 1943 at New Denver in an ideal setting beside the clear Slocan Lake amid a background of a glacial mountain. Due to its setting and treated later with miracle drugs, most patients made remarkable recoveries which may not have been possible prior to the war. This was to be the main hospital to serve the dental and medical needs for all internees in BC’s interior.

The evacuees cultivated their own gardens as the climate and soil was highly conducive to growing.

The Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre was established in New Denver in the Orchard area in 1994 as the only interpretive centre in Canada dedicated to the history of the uprooting and internment of over 22,000 Canadians of Japanese heritage. It displays three original internment shacks and the original community hall set in a memorial garden.