Howard Shimokura
Howard Shimokura, who lived with his family in Tashme from 1942 to 1946, is a volunteer with the Nikkei National Museum in Burnaby, British Columbia and currently serves as Tashme Historical Project (THP) committee chair. His interest stems from the absence of a definitive public record of the Tashme internment experience and a life long curiosity about how Tashme functioned as a self sufficient village under the restrictions imposed by the authorities. Howard lives with his wife Jane in Vancouver.
Updated January 2017
Stories from This Author
A Website Captures History of Tashme Internment Camp
Jan. 11, 2017 • Howard Shimokura
In July 1942, the Tashme Internment Camp, the largest in Canada, opened its doors to Japanese Canadians who had been ordered removed from the coast following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Formerly called the Fourteen Mile Ranch, the camp was located 14 miles southeast of Hope, British Columbia (BC), just outside the 100-mile “protected” zone imposed by the government. It covered 1,200 acres and, at its peak, was home to 2,644 internees. Located in an isolated valley between high mountains, …
The Last Living Asahi: Kaye Kaminishi and His Life in Baseball - Part 2
Dec. 30, 2015 • Howard Shimokura
Read Part 1 >> Kaye’s baseball career did not just end with the disbanding of the Vancouver Asahi. Kaye and his mother were evacuated to East Lillooet, one of the first self-supporting internment camps. Internees in self-supporting camps received no government support. For the first year, life was very hard, as the internees had to build their own homes and households in very primitive camp conditions. Camp internees were restricted from entering the town of Lillooet, which was across the …
The Last Living Asahi: Kaye Kaminishi and His Life in Baseball - Part 1
Dec. 29, 2015 • Howard Shimokura
Much has been written and celebrated about the resurrection of the remarkable story of the Vancouver Asahi baseball team of 1914-1941. This retelling of the Asahi story, beginning with the publication of Pat Adachi’s book, Asahi: A Legend in Baseball in 1992, was followed by the release of Jari Osborne’s National Film Board film Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story in 2003, the induction of the Asahi baseball team into Canada’s Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003, and most recently, …
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