Video: Experiences of an Internment Camp Teacher

Ten years ago, Susan Yatabe was going through a long-forgotten corner of her mother’s basement. She discovered a collection of children’s drawings, black and white photographs of schoolchildren and teachers, valentines, and wartime correspondence from Kaslo BC dating back to the 1940s. Her mother, Kazuko Shinobu, had been interned there during the war and taught Grade 3 for one year before leaving for Toronto in 1944. 

The unearthed artifacts formed the basis of an exhibit, Experiences of An Internment Camp Teacher, on display last summer at The Langham in Kaslo. Several of Kazuko’s students and fellow teachers were housed in The Langham Hotel, which is featured in some of the drawings, along with other buildings in the town.

Upon discovering the trove of artifacts, Susan made it her mission to track down as many of Kazuko’s former students or their relatives as possible. Because her mother didn’t record the names of her 27 students, it took a lot of detective work on Susan’s part to identify them and make contact. In the end she was able to contact over half of the students. Twelve of the former students and two fellow teachers, or their family members, generously shared their family stories and photographs in the exhibit. 

The centrepiece of the Langham exhibit, funded in part by a JC Legacies Intergenerational Wellness grant, was a series of 27 pictures drawn by Kazuko’s students of buildings in Kaslo, some of which no longer exist. The crayon drawings were made on 6-inch square pages of newsprint and represent a unique perspective on an internment camp, seen through the eyes of a child. 

In a new video, filmed in Kaslo, Susan Yatabe talks about discovering the drawings and working with her mother, who was in the early stages of dementia, to delve into the past, an intergenerational journey of memory and discovery. Read the full story Experiences of an Internment Camp Teacher, HERE.