Window to the Past – Sandon, BC - Japanese Canadian Legacies

“Window to the Past,” a new permanent exhibit in Sandon, BC, opened on July 19, 2025. Located on the renovated Burns Atherton building, this year-round accessible window display chronicles the history of Japanese Canadians interned in Sandon from 1942 to 1944.

The exhibit highlights the experiences of Japanese Canadian residents of Sandon, a historic ghost town located on the road between Kaslo and New Denver. It details their displacement from the West Coast, the creation of community life in Sandon during internment, and their departure in 1944 to other camps.

This is the first in a series of BC Heritage Sites videos to highlight an internment site. Please visit the JC Legacies YouTube channel to view videos on Port Edward’s North Pacific Cannery, the Maple Ridge CEED Centre, and Galiano Island’s Japanese Charcoal Pit Kiln. Subscribe to the channel to receive notifications when new videos are posted.

Window to the Past – Sandon, BC

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.