People uprooted from Mission / Mission City / Mission District (685)

Mission was originally established as the site of St. Mary’s Mission and Residential School in 1861. After the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the area in 1885, it began to develop rapidly, and in 1891, the first bridge across the lower Fraser River was completed, serving both road and rail traffic. The community of Mission Junction formed and was incorporated as the Village of Mission in 1922; it became Mission City in 1958.

The first Issei settler, Kumekichi Fujino, arrived in 1904 and purchased thirty acres of forested land. Others followed; Kaichi Senda started farming berries, and Tashiro Hashizume began growing fruit and vegetables near Mount Mary Ann; by 1938 he employed thirty-two workers. Between 1904 and 1942, over a hundred Japanese Canadian families settled in the Mission area.

In 1915, Japanese Canadian farmers founded the Mission Japanese Farmer's Association (Mission Nokai), a cooperative that supported agricultural production and community life. Its hall hosted meetings, social events, and a kindergarten established in 1918. By the 1940s, Japanese Canadian children comprised about thirty percent of Mission’s school population. The community also maintained a Japanese Language School, a Buddhist church built in 1928, a women’s association (Fujinkai), and a judo club.

Agricultural innovator Bunjiro Sakon developed a greenhouse rhubarb variety and an autumn-fruiting strawberry, extending the growing season and increasing farm profitability. Through the Nokai’s quota system, farmers coordinated production to avoid oversupplying markets. The cooperative became so successful that non-Japanese farmers sought membership, leading to the creation of the Pacific Co-operative Union in 1932. Japanese Canadian farmers comprised roughly seventy-five percent of its membership and produced about ninety percent of its crops.