Japanese internment exhibit visits Fort Steele

British Columbia internment camp for Japanese Canadians, June 1945 -- location unknown. (Photo by Jack Long / National Film Board of Canada)

Until Apr 23, Fort Steele –

Fort Steele Heritage Town is showcasing a new traveling exhibit entitled ‘Two Views: Photography by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank‘. Of great interest to British Columbians, the exhibit will illustrate a troubled period in our country’s and our province’s history.

Created by the Japanese Canadian National Museum in Burnaby, BC, ‘Two Views‘ is a collection of black and white photographs taken by these two celebrated artists during the internment of Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians during the early years of World War.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the governments of both Canada and the United States relocated about 142,000 men, women and children of Japanese descent who were living in the 100-mile ‘security zone’ coastal areas of both countries, to internment camps which were called ‘holding areas’. In the US 120,000 and in Canada 22,000 individuals were affected by this measure. They were given only twenty-four hours to pack a suitcase and were sent by train to Vancouver’s Hastings Park where they were herded into horse stalls which had been hastily converted to bunk rooms. Families were separated, their homes, their businesses and their possessions were auctioned off to the highest bidders and the proceeds were used to finance the internment.

The consequences of this ‘security measure’ were far reaching and have had a lasting effect in both countries. Ever since that time, there have been debates and dilemmas about civil rights, national identity, nationalism and state security. And in the 21st century world we live in today, it is imperative that we reflect upon and take counsel from our history.

Each artist approached the historical period from a different perspective. Ansel Adams focused on the resilience, the vitality and the fortitude of the people. He said, regarding his perspective, “The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and despair by building for themselves a vital community in an arid, but magnificent environment.”

In contrast, Leonard Frank’s photographs, which were contracted by the BC Security Commission, offered a more clinical documentation, shining a light on the institutional forces at work at this time.

The photographs will be on display daily until April 23rd. Hours are from 10am to 4pm and admission is by donation.