Kohan Reflection Gardens - New Denver, BC - Japanese Gardens on Waymarking.com

These beautiful gardens were the inspiration of a Reiki student in 1989. The full name of the gardens is "The Kohan Japanese Internment Memorial Reflection Gardens". They were intended to make travelers aware of a tragic and regrettable event in Canadian history.

In doing so, the student achieved a work of great beauty that will, it is hoped, be available for locals and visitors alike to enjoy for many years to come.

Here's a short account of the sad story, as taken from From Kohan Reflection Gardens.
A Brief History of the Japanese-Canadian Internments

After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, in 1942, the homes, businesses and chattels of Japanese-Canadians in BC were expropriated by the Canadian government. A writ forbade them to live within a 100-mile strip next to the Pacific coastline. At first, they were held in converted cattle pens on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) grounds, at Hastings Park in Vancouver. Then they were dispersed.

Many women, children, the aged and infirm were shipped to the sparsely populated BC interior, as able-bodied husbands and older sons were sent to labour camps.

Conditions in these communities were primitive and, in winter, brutal. Canada had always prided itself upon being a just society which upheld the freedom of its citizens, but it was four years after the end of the war, in 1949, before Japanese-Canadians could return west. Nothing was left for them; everything they owned had been auctioned off in 1943.

In 1988, the government formally apologized and offered redress.

We visited the gardens in late spring, the perfect time to experience their beauty, and they definitely did not disappoint. I won't try to describe them here - just take some time to wander through the pix included.

Name: Kohan Japanese Internment Memorial Reflection Gardens Location (specific park it is located within): Standalone garden adjacent to the New Denver campground City: New Denver Fees: no Designer: Reiki Student - name unknown Date of Creation: 1989 Garden Website: http://newdenverbritishcolumbia.blogspot.ca/2011/07/kohan-reflection-gardens.html Parking Coordinates: Not Listed

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