Outdoor Group Photograph of Men at the Thunder River Road Camp on a Bridge

Outdoor Group Photograph of Men at the Thunder River Road Camp on a Bridge

Description

Title Proper Outdoor Group Photograph of Men at the Thunder River Road Camp on a Bridge
Date(s) 1943
General material designation
This item contains a textual record.
Scope and content
This image consists of sixteen men arranged in approximate three rows, on a plank and log bridge spanning Thunder River. The first row is kneeling or crouching, with all the men dressed in work clothes. The man on the far left has a mustache and is holding a hammer in his left hand, and what appears to be a level in his right. The man third to the left is crouching, and has tools in his left hand. The man third to the right is wearing a hat, and holding a saw in his left hand. The second and third rows are both standing, the men are wearing work clothes and most have their hand in their pockets. In the background is a forest and three buildings: one small, one large with wood stacked up beside it, and the one closest to the foreground is small, perhaps a shed with a empty window visible.
Name of creator
Fumiko Kawata was born in 1938 in Cumberland BC to parents Itoko and Yoshitoshi Kawata. Yoshitoshi's parents were Sowa & Kinshiro Kawata from Ehime prefecture. Kinshiro came to Canada as a farm labourer on the Empress of Russia Dec 19, 1922, his nearest relative at that time was Tomi Kawata of Yanazaki Mura, Nishiwa gori, Ehime Ken, Japan. Itoko and Yoshitoshi were born in Japan and remained Japanese Nationals.
Immediate source of acquisition
The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.
This record was digitized in full.

Metadata

Title

Outdoor Group Photograph of Men at the Thunder River Road Camp on a Bridge
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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.