Japantown

Metadata

PlaceName	Japantown
Desc	Vancouver's Japantown, also known as Japan Town, Little Tokyo, or Paueru-gai, was an old neighbourhood of Vancouver located east of Gastown and north of Chinatown. After WWII, it was marketed as Railtown.

Data

Names (1)

Places (15)

Collections

Oral Histories (9)

Blair Baillie, interviewed by Heather Read, 20 April 2015

Howard Shimokura, interviewed by Carolyn Nakagawa, 15 March 2018

Tom Matsui, interviewed by Heather Read and Elena Kusaka, 07 April 2015 (1 of 2)

Yoshiko Hasegawa, interviewed by Kyla Fitzgerald, 17 October 2015

Kaye and David Hayashida, interviewed by Heather Read, 26 November 2015

Hiroshi Fudge Fujino, interviewed by Tatsuo Kage, 01 January 1991

Tom Matsui, interviewed by Heather Read, 11 August 2015 (2 of 2)

Jean Ikeda-Douglas, interviewed by Heather Read and Elizabeth Fujita, 20 April 2015

Tom Shoyama, interviewed by Ann Sunahara, 27 August 1990

Other Archival Files (28)

November

Conversion of Japtown into Heavy Industrial District is Suggested

December

Shipyard Factory Workers Eager to Rent Evacuated Jap Homes Here

July

A Year Later in Jap Town

Survey Discloses Japanese Homes Unfit For Humans

VS 1943

'Whites Already Taking Over Evacuated Homes In Japtown

City to Go Ahead On Little Tokyo Problem

Clock Has Stopped For Little Tokyo

City Wants To Raze Japtown Blocks Of It

Vancouver News Herald

VS 1942

Little Tokyo Renovation Czar Urged

May Take Over Japanese Area

December

VNH 1942

Police Uncover Japs Lulu Island Hoard

Vancouvers Little Tokyo and Other Coast Centres to Be Cleared

Japtown Doomed as Ottawa Orders for Nipponese Curfew and Seizure of All Cars

March

January

Bylaws To Be Enforced In Japtown

December

Can Little Tokyo Solve City Housing Problem

Jap Homes To Be Utilized For Whites

Vancouver Sun

Terminology

Readers of these historical materials will encounter derogatory references to Japanese Canadians and euphemisms used to obscure the intent and impacts of the internment and dispossession. While these are important realities of the history, the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective urges users to carefully consider their own terminological choices in writing and speaking about this topic today as we confront past injustice. See our statement on terminology, and related sources here.