"G" is for Graveyard

Our Central Cemetery. Located behind Central Hall, it contains a lot of Salt Spring history. The graves seen here are part of the Japanese-Canadian history. A dark part of our history.

On the eve of World War II, there were seventy-seven Japanese Canadians living on Salt Spring. And if you want to learn more about these people, you'll find it just about impossible. One reason for this is that the Canadian government, fearing an attack from Japan and possible collaboration between Japan and Japanese Canadians, forced these people to move to internment camps in the interior of BC and other Canadian provinces.

Their wartime experience was extremely painful to Japanese Canadians. Few ever returned to the BC coast. One reason for this was that the Canadian government forbade them to return. But they had nothing to return to anyway, since in 1943 their houses and all their belongings had been seized and sold off without their consent by government agents, acting on orders-in-council made under the provisions of the War Measures Act.

The lack of support from many former friends and neighbours, some of whom profited from their losses, added to the sorrow of Japanese Canadians.