People uprooted from New Westminster / Queensborough (1357)

New Westminster, located on the Fraser River, was originally the Kwantlen village of Skaiametl. New Westminster (formerly Queensborough) was selected in 1859 as the new site of BC’s mainland capital and was incorporated as a city in 1860. When the capital moved to Victoria in 1868, New Westminster continued to grow through sawmilling, salmon canning, and agriculture, becoming a major Fraser Valley commercial centre. The Farmers’ Market was established in 1892 and encouraged a market economy, with participants coming from all across the Lower Mainland.

A vibrant Japanese Canadian community emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many Japanese Canadians worked in local fisheries and canneries, while others established businesses, including Monk & Hasebe, Isomura Salmon Saltery; Hasegawa Boat Works; and Hasegawa’s Japanese Confectionary. After arriving in 1900, Mikizo Nishiguichi built a family enterprise on Columbia Street that expanded into a department store, barbershop, taxi service, and steamship agency.

Photographer Paul L. Okamura arrived in 1891, taught art at St. Louis College, and later operated a photography studio until 1931. Following the First World War, the community established a Japanese Language School, and a Buddhist temple opened in 1929. Japanese Canadians participated fully in community life, including a float in the May Day parade and local baseball leagues. By the early 1940s, much of the community lived and worked in downtown New Westminster, with others residing in Uptown and Sapperton.