Heritage Site: Mayne Island
Mayne Island Japanese Canadian Legacies Project
Organization: Mayne Island Agricultural Society
Address: 430 Fernhill Road, Mayne Island, BC
Contact: Michael Kilpatrick: michael@michaeldesign.ca
Hours of operation: Open year round, access limited to between sunrise and sunset.
Admission cost: Free admission
Project Opening
The Mayne Island Japanese Canadian Legacies Project launched August 16, 2026 with twin events at the Japanese Memorial Garden and the Mayne Island Museum attended by survivors, descendants, and community members. The gatherings collectively honoured the sizeable pre-war Japanese Canadian community that shaped the island’s cultural and economic fabric prior to their forced removal and internment in 1942.
Funded by the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society (JCLS) through BC Heritage Sites, the project features two key sites:
- Japanese Memorial Garden: restoration of the existing 24-year-old garden near Dinner Bay, including refreshed torii gates and a refurbished cedar roof along the surrounding fence.
- Mayne Island Museum: a new, permanent outdoor exhibit detailing pre-war Japanese Canadian history.
Japanese Memorial Garden
Conceived by local residents in the late 1980s and opened in 2002 near the site of a historic Japanese-owned fish saltery, the Japanese Memorial Garden stands as a lasting tribute to former neighbours whose contributions went unrecognized for many years. Its tranquil layout features a central reflection pond, wooden bridges, stone lanterns, and traditional Japanese plantings.
Garden Opening Ceremony
To mark the completion of the restoration, survivors, descendants, community members, and guests gathered in the garden for an official opening ceremony. The event featured remarks from project leaders, JCLS CEO Susanne Tabata, and Louvaine Kadonaga, who spoke on behalf of the Kadonaga family descendants and other early island families.
Louvaine Kadonaga and Mayne Island resident Mary McKinnon untied the ceremonial rope before guests joined together for a shared lunch in the garden.
Museum Exhibit Opening
Following the garden gathering, attendees moved to the Mayne Island Museum for the unveiling of the new permanent outdoor exhibit. The program included project overviews, remarks from Deputy Consul-General Toru Sugio, and reflections from Mona Kado, a descendant of the island’s pre-war Saga family. The event concluded with closing remarks and the formal unveiling of the three-sided kiosk.
Mayne Island Museum Outdoor Exhibit
“I was 8 years old when I became a dangerous enemy alien to Canada.” – Tom Endo, sansei, 2024
The new three-sided, permanent outdoor exhibit at the Mayne Island Museum offers an exploration of prewar Japanese Canadian history on the island. Combining archival photography, historical text, personal memories, and family registration numbers along the base, the interpretive panels detail two distinct eras:
- Life on Mayne (1890–1942): highlights the large pre-war community, celebrating the families who built early island industries, farmed the land, and established a thriving cultural presence.
- Uprooting, Dispossession, and Internment (1942–1949): documents the forced uprooting of 79 Japanese Canadians from Mayne Island on April 21, 1942, tracing the state-sanctioned dispossession, including loss of their homes, livelihoods, and community.
A section towards the end, “Returning to Mayne,” highlights the fact that virtually no families returned to Mayne following the war, and that it is the descendants of the pre-war pioneers who now return to visit and pay tribute to their ancestors.
The exhibit serves as an space for education, truth-telling, and remembrance for all who visit.
History of Japanese Canadians on Mayne Island
Japanese workers from Fraser River fish canneries first arrived in the Gulf Islands during the 1890s to cut cordwood, establishing camps at Horton Bay on Mayne Island. By 1901, Japanese immigrants began purchasing land on Mayne Island and invited family and community members to join them. They referred to Mayne Island as “Gon” Island after Gontaro Kadonaga, the first Japanese settler to purchase property there in 1901.
Most families emigrated from Japan’s Tottori prefecture and formed a collective organization, the Tottori Kenjin Doshi-Kai, to support one another in business, farming, and family affairs.
The community built a thriving local economy—raising livestock and selling eggs, cream, apples, and charcoal. They ran a fish saltery and harvested seafood, seaweed, and kelp. By 1941, 12 Japanese Canadian families operated eight acres of greenhouses, shipping high-quality tomatoes and cucumbers to the mainland twice weekly.
Families lived self-sufficiently by repurposing materials, crafting their own staples (including miso and tofu), and sewing clothing from sacks or wool.
With the mass uprooting of Japanese Canadians from the west coast in 1942, one-third of Mayne Island’s population was forcibly removed, their properties confiscated, leaving nothing to return to, even after restrictions were lifted in 1949, four years after the end of the war.
In 2007, the bay on the south side of the Kadonaga family’s original property was officially named Kadonaga Bay to honour this enduring legacy.
Places of Memory in BC
The Mayne Island Japanese Canadian Legacies Project is part of a broader effort to highlight and preserve places of memory across British Columbia. Supported by the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society through the BC Heritage Sites and Legacy projects, these community-led initiatives restore historical locations, establish permanent educational exhibits, and ensure the deep-rooted presence, contributions, and wartime experiences of Japanese Canadians are permanently recognized throughout the province. Collectively, these initiatives create meaningful places to return to for survivors and descendants, while forging lasting relationships with local communities through shared history, learning, and reflection.
