On Sunday, May 3, the former site of the largest Japanese Canadian internment centre was bustling with visitors who witnessed the opening of the expanded Tashme Museum in Sunshine Valley. The event brought together community–including Japanese Canadian descendants from across the country–to officially unveil two major additions to this important historic site: the new Tashme Research & Archive Centre and the newly rehabilitated Tashme Kindergarten Schoolhouse housing the new Howard Shimokura Tashme Resource Centre, along with showcasing the recently completed Tashme Beautification Project.
Tashme Museum grounds beautification. Photo by Matt Koeleman.
Left to right: Ryan Ellan and Howard Shimokura in front of Tashme Kindergarten Schoolhouse. Ryan is the founder and curator of the Tashme Museum. Howard Shimokura was relocated to Tashme with his family at age four and attended the kindergarten. His father, Dr. Harold Mitsugi Shimokura, was the camp doctor.
Tashme Museum team in computer lab/resource centre of the new Howard Shimokura Tashme Resource Centre, named in honour of longtime community historian Howard Shimokura. Left to right: Ryan Ellan, Lorraine Hale, Kathy Fuerst, Keith Fuerst, and Lisa Konishi.
Keith Fuerst, who did much of the construction and beautification work. Photo by Susanne Tabata.
Left to right: Masako Arima, Junichi Hashimoto, Susanne Tabata, Frank Kamiya, David Iwassa. Photo by Susanne Tabata.
Survivors taking photos of Tashme map.
Sunshine Valley resident Sharon Langlois with symbolic double koi cedar log she carved as part of Tashme’s Beautification Project. Photo by Matt Koeleman.
Ryan Ellan shows museum collection to Consul General Takahashi. Photo by Matt Koeleman.
Howard Shimokura with replica of Tashme internment camp. Photo by Matt Koeleman.
Japanese Canadian Legacies are initiatives that honour our elders past and present. We are grateful to be doing this work on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples.
