By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

By this fall, Wilson Park in Farnham will host a memorial to the Japanese-Canadian internment camp survivors who were sent there in the years following the Second World War. The Quebec chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians recently received a grant from the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) to organize an opening ceremony for the memorial, which they hope will take place this fall. 

Montreal-based theatre artist Julie Tamiko Manning, the grandchild of survivors who was born in Cowansville and grew up in Farnham, has been working with the municipality for the past year and a half on the design of the project. “We are going back and forth with the municipality about what they can maintain, but we’re hoping to have it done by the end of the summer.”

Manning said the memorial will feature a Japanese-style rock garden designed by Montreal-based artist Stephen Kawai, also the descendent of survivors, a bench for contemplation and a tree – most likely a crabapple tree. Manning explained that the crabapple tree is a symbol of resilience for survivors and their families. “Cherry trees wouldn’t grow in this climate, so families planted crabapple trees instead, because they also flowered beautifully in the springtime. There are still cherry trees on my parents’ property in Farnham.”

Manning’s grandparents were among the 22,000 Japanese Canadians, mostly living in British Columbia, who were sent to internment camps during the Second World War. In 1946, they were allowed to leave, given the choice between returning to war-ravaged Japan or being resettled east of the Rockies. (Japanese Canadians’ right to free movement within Canada wasn’t restored until 1949.)

Her grandparents left the camp later than many other families because her grandmother had just given birth. “My assumption is that my family would have gone elsewhere, but because they left the camp so late, a lot of cities weren’t accepting Japanese-Canadian [ex-internees] anymore,” Manning previously told the BCN. “Farnham is where people were sent who didn’t have family or sponsors or a job offer in Montreal.” Eleven families settled in Farnham, although once freedom of movement was restored, most left for Montreal or other parts of the country. “We would love to bring families back for the opening ceremony,” she said.

The project has received support from QAHN, the municipality of Farnham and the Japanese Canadian Legacy Society. The project is “about having something for community members to feel seen and remembered, and about telling the story more broadly,” said Sara Hanako Breitkreutz, manager of the Farnham Nikkei Memorial project at the NAJC Quebec chapter. “Other Japanese Canadians don’t necessarily know about this side of the story, let alone the broader Québécois population.” She added that the organization recognizes that the dispossession of Japanese Canadians happened on land that had already been stolen from Indigenous Peoples. “That’s another connection we want to make, both with the history of colonialism and the ongoing impact on Indigenous Peoples.”

“What jumped out at me about Farnham was that so many people, myself included, do not realize there was a Japanese-Canadian history in Farnham,” said Julie Miller, project co-ordinator of the SHARE (Supporting Heritage Awareness, Recognition and Engagement) grant program, administered by QAHN and funded by Canadian Heritage. “I think people are generally aware of what happened if they are placed in camps but many people aren’t aware that they were relocated as far as Quebec. It’s an important story.”

The Farnham Nikkei Memorial Project was one of ten living history projects across the province that received SHARE grant funding, and one of two in Estrie, along with The Hut in Lennoxville.

 Submissions are open for the second round of SHARE grants administered by QAHN. If you represent an organization and have questions about the grant, contact Julie Miller (julie@qahn.org). For more information on the Farnham Nikkei Memorial, or if you have relatives who were resettled in Farnham after the Second World War, contact Sara Hanako Breitkreutz at NAJCQuebec@gmail.com.