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Japanese Canadian Monument
– Susanne Tabata, CEO JC Legacies SocietyThe dream and vision for the monument is that it will envelope the origin story of Japanese Canadians who settled in cities, towns, and villages, primarily along the coast. The tactile names on the wall will help to recognize individuals and families and where they lived before the forced uprooting, seizure and forced sale of assets, incarceration, internment, permanent dispossession, and two waves of displacement. We hope there will be a digital version of this project wherein people can search for the names and where they are situated on the monument.
Returning to the Port of Entry
In the 1800s, Victoria served as Canada’s Pacific port of entry; the inner harbour was where the first Japanese immigrants stepped ashore to begin their lives in this country.
Location
The Monument will be located at 839 Academy Close, Victoria, BC, a short distance from the BC Legislature, Ross Bay Cemetery, and Beacon Hill Park.
The Wall of Names
The centerpiece of the Monument is a 300-foot-long wall consisting of 100 granite panels. For the first time, the names of the nearly 22,000 uprooted Japanese Canadians will be presented together alongside over 3,000 children born during the internment era (1942 – 1949).
Descendant families will be able to see their ancestors grouped by their places of uprooting – from the fishing grounds of the north and central coast to the farms of the Fraser Valley – allowing for a symbolic return to the neighbourhoods and communities we once called home.
The names and locations engraved on the wall provide a stark illustration of a community torn apart by policies that were driven by a confluence of race, economics, and power. To set them in stone here is to ensure they are never again forgotten or marginalized. With its location in close proximity to BC Legislature, the Monument ensures that the community’s history is anchored at the seat of provincial power. Once it opens, the Monument will be a place of pilgrimage where visitors and residents alike can sit in quiet contemplation. Once it opens, the Monument will be a place of pilgrimage where visitors and residents alike can sit in quiet contemplation.
A Generational Debt
At its heart, this project is an act of profound gratitude. We owe an immeasurable debt to our elders who endured the trauma of dispossession with quiet dignity, shielding their children from the full brunt of their suffering while rebuilding their lives from nothing.
This Monument is not merely a list of forgotten names; it is a long-overdue acknowledgment of a community that endured through incredible hardship and injustice and found a way to persevere. By engraving their names in granite, we ensure that our ancestors are remembered not as statistics of a government policy, but as the foundation of our community.
Monument Design Team
In 2022, JCLS consulting architect Jack Kobayashi of Kobayashi Zedda, worked with Susanne Tabata on the first predesign of the Monument, which greatly informed the scope and scale of the project. The BC Government, in partnership with the JCLS, selected the design team of Toronto-based architecture firm KPMB led by founding partner Bruce Kuwabara, who is working in collaboration with Vancouver-based landscape architect Kelty Miyoshi McKinnon of PFS Studio. Chandos Construction is the general contractor responsible for building the project.
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