The Past

Businesses
Churches
Communities
Community Services
Entertainment
Ethnic Groups
 ~ Chinese
 ~ Czechoslovakians
 ~ First Nations
 ~ Japanese
 ~ ~ The Japanese problem
 ~ Finnish
 ~ Ukrainians
Geography
Heritage Homes
Industries
Organizations
People
Schools
Transportation

Museum page

The earliest date found on the Japanese is in 1907. This date was found on a letter requesting whether one-hundred Japanese immigrants could come to Enderby to work the coal mine. However, the coal mine was closed within the next year. There may or may not have already been Japanese there at this time.

Between 1917-1919 the Enderby mill, Okanagan Sawmills, imported 250 Japanese workers; these workers had an overseer who we think might have been K. Imanaka. In 1920, a rumour started around the mill that it was closing. So in the same year the workers moved to a sawmill in Chase.

In 1920, fifteen Japanese names from a list of sawmill workers were discovered. These names are as follows: J. Kurokawa, H. Furukowa, S. Vagami, Y.N. Chida, I. Ogawara, K. Kawane, J. Niimi, A.Yamamat, I. Ikeda, T.H. Osakawa, M. Iwasaki, T. Okamoto, K. Nakata, K. Imanaka, and U. Fujiwara.

During World War II, several families of Japanese were sent to TrinityValley and Grindrod from the Coast. Many of these families remained in the area following the war years.

Scott Campbell, Marcus Imbeau
ALF School 1989