The three major buildings used to house the interned Japanese Canadians were the Kaslo Hotel and the Langham Hotel, as well as St. Andrew's United Church, which served as a sanctuary for them beginning in 1942. It is likely that other buildings, no longer extant, may have housed the internees, as well.
The
Langham Hotel, now known as the Langham Cultural Centre, is the only hotel built during Kaslo's boom years that has survived. In the interim it has been, among other things, a bank, a bottling works, and a lumber office, and presently serves as a museum and a cultural centre. During World War II it provided housing for interned Japanese-Canadian citizens. By the mid 1970s the building was derelict and in danger of demolition, but was rescued at the 11th hour and restored to its present splendour.
The Langham Hotel is now viewed as a "
monument to the Japanese Canadian internment that occurred between 1942 and 1946 in Kaslo". Part of the second storey has been given over to a small museum recounting the story of the internment of Canadians of Japanese descent during the second world war. In the museum are many story-boards, photos and texts which relate the story, as well as a small amount of artefacts pertinent to the locale and the era.
To the right of the entrance doors, on the front of the Langham Cultural Centre may be found this bronze plaque, which relates a bit of the story of the wrongs done to Japanese Canadians in World War II.
INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE CANADIANS
In February of 1942, during World War II some 21,000 Canadians of Japanese descent, living on the B.C. Coast were stripped of their civil rights, uprooted and interned by the Federal Government. Their properties, businesses and community facilities were confiscated and sold without consent. While most were later forced to disperse across Canada, some 4,000 were exiled to Japan.
These innocent and loyal Canadians did not pose a threat to national security but were victims of racism and political expediency.
The loss of rights lasted until April 1st, 1949. four years after the war was over when Japanese Canadians were finally free to return to the coast.
Various "ghost towns" in the B.C. Interior, such as Slocan and Sandon, were selected as internment centres. Approximately 12,000 Japanese Canadians were sent to this area to be confined in hastily constructed, substandard dwellings for the duration of the war.
New Denver and Kaslo also became internment centres. 'This building, abandoned in 1912, was used to house Japanese Canadians.
May this plaque stand as a memorial to the courage and faith of Japanese Canadians who endured and overcame the injustices of the 1940s.
August 6, 1988.
From a bronze plaque at the Langham Cultural Centre