People uprooted from Nanaimo (175)

Nanaimo, on the traditional territories of the Snunéymuxw, was established as a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post in 1849. Coal deposits were discovered nearby, and the settlement of Colvile Town developed. After the 1860s, miners started to own farmland, and industries like fishing, logging, milling, and sandstone quarrying developed.

By 1901, Japanese Canadians were living in Nanaimo, working primarily as seasonal farm labourers. They developed herring salteries and boat-building in Stilin’up and Saysutshun (Departure Bay, Newcastle, Jessie, and Protection Islands). In 1918, Nanaimo Shipyards Ltd. was founded by T. Matsuyama and the Ode Brothers, and in the same year, Frank Koyama opened a wholesale fish business called Frank Koyama and Company beside his private wharf residence. He expanded to include a general store and an ice-making plant. From the 1920s until 1940, Nanaimo was the Herring Capital of the World, with forty-three salteries by 1923.

Hammond Bay (also Kujira Bay) served as a rest stop for fishermen. The largest permanent Japanese Canadian settlement formed in the Brechin area along Stewart Avenue, with over twenty-five shops and forty families. The Nanaimo Japanese Language School opened in the 1930s as both a school and community hub.