People uprooted from Ucluelet (197)

Ucluelet was established by non-Indigenous fur sealers as a trading post in 1860. In the 1890s, prospects of road access to Port Alberni drew additional settlers. A whaling station was established in Barkley Sound in 1903. Ucluelet’s harbours were ideal for the April–October fishing season throughout the early twentieth century. Japanese Canadians arrived in the late 1910s and early 1920s, establishing six settlements: Hakoda Bay, Shimizu Bay, Sunahama, Bungi (Gungi) Bay, Fraser Bay, and Spring Cove. Each housed up to fifteen families, with others living on nearby islands and isolated bays.

By 1921, hundreds of Japanese Canadian fishermen based their operations in the Ucluelet harbours. By the 1930s, sixty Japanese Canadian families lived near Ucluelet. The Ucluelet Fishing Company, incorporated in 1935, had fifty-two shareholders, all Japanese Canadian. Shimizu Boat Works in Port Albion Bay was among the region’s best-known builders.

Japanese Canadians often worked seasonally in nearby canneries, including Nootka (1917) and Port Albion (1927). Before 1942, roughly 3,000 Japanese Canadian fishermen, many travelling seasonally from Steveston, lived and worked between Barkley Sound (Bamfield) and Clayoquot Sound (Tofino). Ucluelet was reportedly the only community in BC to officially protest the forcible uprooting of Japanese Canadians.