People uprooted from North Pender Island (3)

North Pender Island, part of the Southern Gulf Islands, was established as a non-Indigenous settlement in 1849. North and South Pender Islands were originally connected by a land bridge and considered one island, but the canal excavation in 1903. After 1885, some Japanese Canadians became farmhands and domestic workers in the fishing off-season.

In 1895, Captain S. Hayashi purchased land in Otter Bay which brought Japanese loggers and fishermen to the area. Japanese Canadians also produced charcoal in pit kilns to supply nearby canneries and businesses for income during the off-season. There are two known Japanese graves on the island; one, at Razor Point, is for Yoshimatsu Yamada who died in a logging accident in 1897.