The Tashme Incarceration Camp (/ˈtæʒmɪ/ [Anglicized pronunciation] or /ˈtɑːʃɪmɪ/ [Japanese pronunciation]) was a purpose-built incarceration camp constructed to forcibly detain people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast of Canada during World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Since the 1860s, Japanese people had settled in British Columbia, working as lumbers or fishermen on the coast while facing racial struggles to be accepted in a predominantly white culture.
In the first few months of 1942, the hate against Nisei, who only knew Canada as their home, had peaked, and racist stances against Japanese Canadians became hard to endure.
Nevertheless, under Prime Minister Mackenzie King, the government issued an "Order-in-Council PC 1486"[8] for national security reasons.
The legislation was to remove "all persons of Japanese Racial Origin" from 100 miles far from the BC west coast to the interior lands.
The BCSC, the British Columbia Security Commission, fixed the power for the RCMP to remove Japanese Canadians from their home forcefully, set dusk to dawn curfews, and confiscate personal properties.
[8] The camp was notable as the temporary home of celebrated Canadian artist Kazuo Nakamura, who suffered from the same abuses and confiscation as other inmates.
[9] Camp staff strongly disapproved of free artistic expression, and would often destroy or remove work by Nakamura.
The site chosen for Tashme was 22 km southeast of the village of Hope and on the border of the 100-mile coastal exclusion zone.
[5] In addition to its position outside of the coastal exclusion zone, this location was chosen because it was a large enough property to fit the 500 families that the government anticipated would stay there.
[11] Interned Japanese Canadian men were taken from Hastings Park to build Tashme before other internees moved in.
Tashme, as an internment camp, closed on August 26, 1946,[1] a year after World War II ended, and was fully dismantled in October 1946.
The undried, green timber that was milled quickly to construct the cabins shrunk as it dried, creating drafts in the tarpaper shacks.
[10] Later, many services and resources were established including a soy sauce and miso factory, bakery, shoe repair shop, butcher shop, logging camp, schools, a 50-bed hospital, a post office, livestock farm, large garden, general store, powerhouse, RCMP detachment, and mess hall.
[14] While families cooked and ate by themselves, the single men and non-Japanese staff or RCMP officers had meals on separate ends of the mess hall, divided by a kitchen in the centre.
[11] In addition, there was a Girl Guides group, a Tashme Youth Organization, Judo club, and students council.
The RCMP detachment, bakery, powerhouse, and other small buildings were next to the town centre, which contained the BCSC offices as well as a general store and a warehouse.
The interned Japanese Canadians were employed by the BC Security Commission and the Federal Department of Labour.
The factory supplied Tashme as well as other incarceration camps and Japanese Canadians outside of the coastal exclusion zone.
Some Japanese Canadian internees were unable to work, and because their houses and jobs had been taken away due to the war, they were supplied with welfare by the BC Security Commission.
This department worked with families and ensured that people received the standard relief rate for BC and their specific situation.
[19] Tashme was the first internment camp that was scheduled to close after the war, and by June 1946, families began to leave to find work in other provinces.
Shinichi Negoro, in addition to other entrepreneurial Japanese-Canadian families, planned to open a shoyu and miso factory in Ashcroft.
The Consultative Council for Cooperation in Wartime Problems of Canadian Citizenship and Ottawa shared ideas that opposed that of BC's.
If they did not sign the survey or if they were deemed disloyal to Canada, they would be put into a separate camp and deported following the end of the war.
They were given the choice to either repatriate to Japan at an unknown date, or to immediately move east of the coastal exclusion zone with no promise of permanency.