Squaw House and Melbourne Hotel(PART 1 OF 3)
Japanese Loggers in Seymour
Although this particular spot in North Vancouver's Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR) looks like nothing out of the ordinary, the site represents an important piece of British Columbia's history.
This is where Muckle and a team of 15 archaeology students uncovered a Japanese logging camp dating back to the 1920s.
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Records show that in 1900, one out of four workers in British Columbia's logging industry was Japanese. Even Japanese fishermen often relied on logging to offset the seasonal nature of fisheries work.
While the Japanese are recognized as pioneers in B.C.'s fishing industry, relatively little is known about their contributions and involvement in the province's seminal logging industry.
"Digging Up the Past" by Alexa Love
Roots section
"Pacific Rim Magazine" in 2011
Diane, do you remember the above article?
Yes, I do. I gave the copy to you the other day. What's the matter with the above article?
Since I received it, I've been wondering why the Japanese were logging in the mountains of North Vancouver around the turn of the century. There must have been more lucrative town jobs.
I suppose, the Japanese couldn't obtain town jobs due to the racial discrimination.
Yes, that may be the reason, but you know, Diane, a great number of Japanese fishermen lived and worked in Steveston in those old days.
Yes, I know.
Then how come they didn't join the fishermen in Steveston?
Probably because too many fishermen were working in Steveston, they couldn't get the jobs. So they moved up to the logging camp in North Vancouver, I suppose.
You're right, Diane. Anyway I've been still wondering on and off since then, and come across a certain book at the central library.
What book is it?
The following book.
■"The above infomation from Vancouver Public Library"
This is a quite interesting book.
What is so interesting?
I read the following part:
Tragedy on Don Island
Shima Oikawa was born on Don Island, which is actually a located near the estuary of the Fraser River. Near Don Island is a much larger island called Annacis Island. Shima Oikawa had lived on Don Island until May 1917, when she went back to Japan. She was thirteen old.
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One day, Shima told me about a tragedy, in which her older brother, Eiji, was drowned in the Fraser River. It took place on May 1912. Eiji was ten yeras old; Shima was eight.
"I don't know how it happened," said Shima Oikawa. "My brother was a clever and careful person. There were no eye-witnesses. My father said that my brother might have fallen from a boat when he climed over it."
"When Eiji failed to come back home late in the evening," continued Shima, "my mother started looking for him, but in vain. All my neighbors on the island became agitated by the news. Soon afterwards a white man living near the estuary in Steveston found a floating body and realized that it was a corpse of a Japanese boy. He reported to the police.
Since the death of Eiji, my mother had been sick in bed for quite some time. She couldn't even attend his funeral. At long last she regained some health, but she came to hate the river and became quite maddened when she heard even the slightest sound of the river. My mother used to be a tough and vigorous woman. Since the incident, however, she became weak, and sometimes she was sleep-walking. Even though she seemed fast-sleeping, she suddenly got up and called his dead son, "Eiji! Eiji!", and then she dashed to the river bank.
Only eight years old, I was really scared by my mother's state of mind, and was grievingly worried. Yet, I didn't know what to do to help my mother. I was at a total loss. Since my father told me to keep an eye on my mother all the time, I did so by all means."
SOURCE: pp. 125-127
"Lost Scenes" by Takao Yamagata
Published on November 15, 1996
１２５ - １２７ページ 『失われた風景』
著者： 山形孝夫
１９９６年１１月１５日 第１刷発行
発行所： 株式会社 未来社
『愛と孤独（２０１１年８月３１日）』に掲載
It's a quite sad story, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
What made you bring up the story?
Shima's father was a famous man among the Japanese immigrants. Have you noticed, Diane, I wrote a comment about the book:
If you're a Japanese living in Vancouver, this book is a must to read.
You know what?
You'll be amazed to know that there are so many adventurous Japanese folks in the Meiji era.
They came to Canada with a hope to see better days and a determination to get away from the miserable situation in Japan.
I honestly felt for those eighty-plus poor yet encourageous folks including three young women.
You can read an unbelievable story about illicit-immigration attempt.
The story was reported by the Victoria Daily Colonist on October 21, 1906.
It goes like this: the Japanese schooner Suian Maru was yesterday seized by the authorities because of an alleged attempt to run a schooner-load of Japanese into Canada via Beecher Bay.
Nine of the Japanese surreptitiously landed were arrested at Parson's bridge and the provincial and city police are in pursuit of others, some of whom have reached Victoria and are in hiding.
I'm quite positive that you won't be disappointed.
So, if you've got some time, simply borrow this book and read it.
Mind you, this book is written in Japanese! :)
To be exact, eighty-three Japanese landed on Vancouver Island illegally, and they were all arrested.
Wow! It must have been an astonishing crime in the community at the time.
Oh yes, it was indeed. It created a big commotion and the newspaper went like this:
But how come you brought up the above newspaper article? Shima's father has something to do with the avove incident?
Oh yes, he has. He was the one who had organized the above attempt. His name is Jinzaburo, who immigrated to Canada ten years earlier. He was a hard worker and saved enough money to purchase Don Island, which he called "Oikawa Island" after his family name.
Amazing! Did he really purchase the iasland only after ten years of hard work?
You believe it or not, it was the historical fact. Jinzaburo tried to build a cannery and needed some hard-working Japanese workers for fishing and canning.
So did he go back to Japan to recruit 83 workers?
Yes, he went back to his home village in Miyagi prefecture to recruit those 83 prople, who were mostly poor farmers.
Diane, do you recognize the above map?
Yes, I do. It's the map for the Fukushima disaster, wasn't it?
Yes, it is. Jinzaburo's village is near Sendai, where I entered the university.
(To be continued)
