NEYS and THE WAR MEASURES ACT

Tak: Interview for Nipigon Historical Museum 2006:

"The Second World War began in 1938 and in 1942, while pregnant with me, our family was interned under the War Measures Act at Hastings Park."

"My mother was sent to Vancouver to give birth to me, and was only there for 3 days and was then sent back to Hastings. The Camp at Hastings was originally a horse ranch, so people were given blankets and the horse's stalls became the sleeping quarters for us."

"The Internment Camps included : New Denver, Lemon Creek, and Tashmee ( to which my parents were sent for a short time)."

"Later we were Interned at Angler and then at Neyes (near Marathon, Ontario)."

"Pigeon Timber was logging that way and so some of the men went to work in the bush camps. Some of the families were at different logging camps that were numbered: Camp 56 and Camp 72."

"My father worked in the camp for three months and then would come out for three months."

"Before my parents had been Interned, they owned a large farm situated in the Fraser Valley (Delta). The farm produced fruits such as strawberries, vegetables and also had chickens and cows for further food production."

"We moved to Nipigon where my father lived until three months short of his 110th birthday."

2006  Nipigon Historical Museum Interview with Mike:

"There were 50 Japanese families at Neyes Park. We stayed for a couple months and then my father and my older brother got jobs cutting pulp and on the river drives. So that's when we parted from the government. We were under the B.C. Security Commission, and that was just after the war, in 1945, so I would say we left in 1946 or 47."

"All those big families had an average of six or eight children and they couldn't afford to go to the city. The government gave every family $500 to part with them. That's what we started with, that $500 and we were to move to Nipigon but we didn't have the money to buy a house or anything so we decided to work in the bush for a couple years, which we did, for about two and a half years I think it was. Then we moved to Nipigon in 1948. "

"There were seven in the family and my younger brother and sister went to Public School here and High School in Red Rock and then went to University after.. And my father worked in the old Brompton Mill."