The B.C. government has started construction of a new memorial park honouring the tens of thousands of Japanese Canadians who were forcibly displaced or moved into internment camps in the province during the Second World War.
The new memorial park is being built on Academy Close in Victoria, just north of Beacon Hill Park and directly south of St. Ann’s Academy National Historic Site.
The park will include a wall that lists the names of 22,000 people of Japanese descent – most of whom were born in Canada – who were forced from their homes in B.C. in the 1940s, as well as the names of 3,000 children who were born after their families were displaced.
It will also include a “Japanese-inspired garden” surrounding the wall, according to the province.
More than 90 per cent of Japanese Canadians in B.C. were detained under the “War Measures Act” in 1942, stripping them of their homes, possessions and businesses.
“After the war ended, Japanese Canadians were given the choice to move east of the Rockies or go to Japan, a country many had never known,” said the province in a release Tuesday.
It wasn’t until four years after the Second World War ended, in 1949, that Japanese Canadians were allowed to return to the West Coast of Canada. Even then, racist policies and discriminatory treatment continued, and “many communities never recovered,” said the province.
“This monument park is a powerful reminder of the harm caused when racism and fear are allowed to shape public policy,” said Amna Shah, B.C.’s parliamentary secretary for anti-racism initiatives.
“It honours the strength and resilience of Japanese Canadians and invites all of us to confront racism wherever it exists,” she said. “By remembering this painful history, we help ensure that such injustice is never repeated.”
The province says the monument was designed in partnership with the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society, and that the site was chosen in consultation with the neighbourhood, Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, and the overall Japanese Canadian community in B.C.
The memorial park is expected to open in fall 2026.
“We are grateful to government for recognizing the contributions of the many Japanese Canadians who helped shape this province,” said Susanne Tabata, CEO of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society.
“By honouring our people, most of whom have been lost to time, we reconnect their names to the communities we once called home, seeking healing across generations,” she said.
Construction of the park is being paid for through a $100-million redress package for Japanese Canadians who were impacted by government policies during the Second World War that was announced in 2022.
