Platted in 1892, Slocan City became a city in June of 1901. Built as a result of rich silver strikes nearby, it became a launching point and supply centre for he area's mines. As the mines played out and prospectors and miners moved on, the city shrank, becoming a ghost of its former self by 1920. In 1958 it reverted to village status and its name reverted to "Slocan", but remained known locally as "Slocan City", partially to distinguish it from Slocan Park and South Slocan, other communities in the valley.
Mass Confinement
By late summer 1942, all Japanese Canadians had been moved from the West Coast. Around 2,150 single men were sent to work on road labour camps. Another 3,500 Japanese Canadians opted to sign contracts to work on sugar beet farms outside British Columbia. (See Sugar Industry.) They served as exploited labourers, and thereby remained “free.” Some 3,000 more affluent Japanese Canadians were permitted to leave the coast in groups and settle in so-called “self-supporting projects” at their own expense.
However, the majority of Japanese Canadians, some 12,000 people, were exiled to the Slocan Valley, in BC’s eastern Kootenay region. They were housed in what were euphemistically called “interior housing centres.” These were mainly in largely-abandoned mining towns (e.g., New Denver, Kaslo, Greenwood and Sandon); or in a government-built camp called Tashme, near the town of Hope, in the Fraser Canyon.
Once moved to the Slocan Valley, they lived in abandoned houses hastily refitted by the government, or in newly-built shacks. The housing was hastily put together and did not protect against the frigid weather. Except for producing shelter, the government did not provide the inmates with any financial assistance. In the United States, the camps offered basic food, clothing and education. But Canadian officials provided no food or clothing, and no schooling above the elementary level. (See also Hide Hyodo Shimizu.) Ultimately, some Christian groups opened up high schools in the settlements. The government hired some Nisei to cut wood, but in general people had to find such work as they could or live off their savings.
From The Canadian Encyclopedia
It remains today a small village of approximately 300, supported primarily by the lumber and tourism industries.
Slocan City and Slocan Extension Internment Camps
Description of Historic Place
The Slocan Extension is a collection of four adjacent Japanese Canadian internment areas including Slocan City, Bay Farm, Popoff and Lemon Creek, located approximately 26 kilometres south of New Denver in the Slocan Valley in B.C.'s West Kootenay region.
Heritage Value
The four internment camp sites that make up the Slocan Extension have historic, social and cultural value as an enduring record of their association with the Japanese Canadian internment between 1942 and 1945 during which families were uprooted, their rights as Canadian citizens removed, and their possessions taken and sold.
Slocan City is significant as a former mining town with existing buildings which were re-purposed to create the internment camp which functioned as the service, social, government and economic centre of the Slocan Extension. The town is also the location of the Slocan cemetery which includes a monument commemorating at least nine Japanese Canadians cremated at the Slocan cemetery between 1942 and 1945, notable for being the only physical remaining indicator of the Japanese-Canadian internment in Slocan City. It was created in 1944 by the Slocan Buddhist Mission Society.
Slocan City has significance for functioning as a transfer point for internees, first from the B.C. coast en-route to other camps, while in 1946 it was a deportation point for Japanese Canadian citizens being 'repatriated' to Japan. This was a controversial event during which government policy gave Japanese Canadians the untenable choice of moving permanently east of the Rocky Mountains or leaving for Japan, a foreign country most of them had never seen.
Together, Bay Farm, Popoff and Lemon Creek internment sites have significance because they represent purpose-built camps integrated into government-leased existing farms in the Slocan Valley. Internees lived in unheated tents until dormitories, bunkhouses, family cabins and communal kitchen facilities were built with the forced labour of the internees themselves. The valley's Doukhobor farmers helped to feed the almost 5,000 internees, augmented by vegetable gardens in each of the camps. Even in these internment camps, Japanese Canadians were contributing to the economy of the province. There were several logging camps and sawmill sites where the men worked as loggers producing firewood, poles, posts and logs; there was a portable sawmill at Bay Farm. Others worked on the valley farms or for local businesses.
There is social value in the creation of community and recreation within the Slocan Extension despite the trauma and hardships associated with internment. Elementary schools and Japanese kindergartens operated at each of the camps, while the Catholic Church managed a high school for 250 students. Outstanding B.C. citizens Raymond Moriyama, David Suzuki and Joy Kogawa were educated at the Pine Crescent School at Bay Farm. There was a community hall, women's institute and baseball team.
Several individual buildings and structures hold specific value within the Slocan Extension. Today's Slocan Village Market, formerly Popoff's Market, is significant for its operation post-war as Kino's Market by Zenichi Kinoshita and operated as Kino's Market in Slocan City. Designed in 1952-53 by son James Kinoshita while an architecture student in Manitoba and operated by his parents, a modern, one-storey post and beam structure with a pitched roof and a large glass wall facing the street. Kinoshita would become a prominent international architect.
Built as an Oddfellows Hall in Slocan City in 1923, the Silvery Slocan Social Centre is significant for being a community and social hall for Japanese Canadians during internment. It was the site of a commemorative event in June, 2012 for unveiling of interpretive signs marking the former Lemon Creek and Popoff internment camps.
The internment sites associated with the Slocan Extension evoke the memories and stories of the Japanese Canadians who lived there, assisting with the education and understanding about what happened in B.C. during WWII. Every internment camp has heritage value for past, present, and future generations, and their individual recognition acknowledges Japanese Canadian struggles, tenacity and resilience.
Character-Defining Elements
Not applicable
From Historic Places Canada