THE KÜTNE READER

Uhachi Kihara’s burial site is marked, but the cause of his death is unknown. The cause of Yet Sue’s death is known, but we don’t know where he was buried.

At least nine people were born, 14 people died, and five marriage ceremonies were performed between 1942 and 1944 when Sandon was an internment camp.

Was a cabin at Retallack once a school? Or a hideout for armed robbers?

Concrete ruins adjacent to the Springer Creek campground in Slocan are from an unusual intersection of mining and Japanese-Canadian history.

Several envelopes that sold at auction have intriguing connections to West Kootenay Japanese-Canadian, Chinese Canadian, and mining history.

The story behind a charming painting created more than 75 years ago. At least two people who were there that day are still around.

Names scratched on bricks outside the Sandon museum are some of the few reminders of the town's days as a Japanese-Canadian internment camp.

When Kinji Nagatani died at Willowhaven Hospital on Kootenay Lake’s North Shore in 1970, with him went the amazing story of a roving gambler who stowed away aboard a trans-Pacific freighter, lost his life savings in a game of chance, and briefly avoided the Japanese-Canadian internment by hiding in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Fortunately he told much of it to Nelson’s Jim Sawada, who shared it with me. Kinji Nagatani lived at 606 Front Street in Nelson, seen here in a photo recrea

The most unusual military grave in the Nelson cemetery is the one seen below, which belongs to Usaku Shibuta, who died at the Balfour sanitarium in 1919. He was one of 54 Japanese Canadians whose death resulted from serving in the First World War. Of those, 27 have known graves in France. Shibuta’s is the only one in Canada. Shibuta enlisted on June 19, 1916 at Medicine Hat, where he lived. He was born on Feb. 20, either 1888, 1889, or 1890 to Shiyotado (or Nobujiro) and Ku

A little to the northeast of the Sandon cemetery — which is on a hillside about 1.4 km northwest of the ghost town — lies a concrete slab with the inscription: “July 8, 1942/Ken Sato.” It’s not a gravemarker, although I suspect its proximity to the cemetery has led to the erroneous belief that Japanese-Canadians were buried there during the internment era. There were cremations at Sandon, but no burials I am aware of. According to the BC vital events index, 14 Japanese-Canad

A few years ago, I wrote about Koto Kennedy , the only Japanese Canadian living in Kaslo immediately before the start of the internment in 1942. The late Aya Higashi remembered her as “a comfort to the internees” who was “held in awe as a highly cultured gentlewoman.” Although there was some mystery around how Koto came to Kaslo — including a story about a shipwreck — she was probably a prostitute, the occupation held by most if not all Japanese women in the West Kootenay at

In the early 20th century, Slocan City’s brothels were on the west side of Block 36, at the south end of Main Street between Giffin and Fitz avenues (pictured below on the original townsite map). Today Giffin does not connect to Main; the area in question is behind the W.E. Graham school field. This area was seldom spoken of. These are the only references I’m aware of in the Slocan Drill , published from 1900-05. Aug. 3, 1900: “Sunday evening Officer Christie was called upon

George Motosawa was a restaurateur and laundry owner in two West Kootenay ghost towns. We know he was born April 6, 1867 and immigrated to Canada in 1888. He shows up in our neck of the woods in 1898 at Brooklyn, a railway boom town on Lower Arrow Lake, operating the Mikado Laundry. This is the first ad from the Brooklyn News of Aug. 13, 1898. By mid-October he switched gears and took over the Queen Restaurant: In the 1898 civic directory, he was listed as proprietor of the

Long before Japanese Canadians were interned in the West Kootenay during the Second World War, a small number already lived here. They worked in forestry and ran restaurants and laundries. One such pioneer was Yodo Fujii (or Fugii, or Fuji). We don’t know much about him, but on July 11, 1903 the Revelstoke Kootenay Mail announced: “Messrs. Fujii & Ito have taken over the restaurant business formerly conducted by Mrs. Blake and hold their opening today. It will be known as the