The story of the project

The Japanese Canadian Monument: Honour, Remembrance, and Resilience

Vision

The idea for a permanent monument to honour the nearly 22,000 Japanese Canadians forcibly removed from their coastal British Columbia homes in 1942 first began taking shape in 2020 through a vision sparked by Susanne Tabata. Inspired by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, the Monument would list every uprooted Japanese Canadian by name, and offer a tactile experience: a place where families and descendants could trace the relief of their ancestors’ engraved names—organized by the specific communities where they lived at the moment of rupture.

In 2022, following the creation of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society (JCLS), Yukon-based consulting architect Jack Kobayashi (Kobayashi | Zedda Architects) worked with Susanne Tabata, now JCLS CEO, to expand that vision and develop a visual pre-design study and consultant report. This foundational document defined the project’s scale and cost, helping secure a landmark agreement with the Province of British Columbia.

Research

In 2023, the JCLS hired and gave oversight to the University of Victoria’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC) to compile a comprehensive database of names based on pre-war places of origin. A research team led by Michael Abe spent over a year analyzing 14,500 Library and Archives Canada case files and other primary source documents. The key lead in HCMC was Martin Holmes. The team strove to account for every individual displaced, while a secondary list was developed to honour the more than 3,000 children born into exile and internment between 1942 and April 1, 1949, when Japanese Canadians were granted full citizenship rights, including freedom of movement.

See About the list of names for more details about the research process.

Design Team

Following a national Request for Proposals in September 2024, the Province and JCLS selected architecture firm KPMB, led by founding partner Bruce Kuwabara, alongside landscape architect Kelty Miyoshi McKinnon of PFS Studio. The interpretive design was developed by Susanne Tabata and John Endo Greenaway together with Susan Mavor of Lost & Found.

Build

The final design features a 300-foot-long monument wall constructed from 100 half-ton granite panels situated within a Japanese garden-inspired setting. Engraved on the panels are the names of the nearly 22,000 individuals who were removed from their coastal homes in 1942 along with the names of over 3,000 children born during uprooting.

In addition, there is a group of five engraved boulders each illustrating a milestone in the collective history of Japanese Canadians.

On October 29, 2025, the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations conducted a ground blessing and cedar brushing ceremony on the Monument site, witnessed by Victoria community members, Survivors, and Descendants. Construction progressed through late 2025 and into 2026 as the engraved granite panels completed their trans-Canada journey from the Eastern Townships of Québec to the provincial capital.

The Japanese Canadian Monument stands as a permanent record of both systemic injustice and community resilience. It provides a sanctuary where families can see their loved ones reconnected to the places they once called home, serving as an enduring reminder of the human cost of state-sanctioned overreach and a tribute to the resilience of the Japanese Canadian community.