Japanese Legacies exhibit showcases Revelstoke’s Japanese Canadian stories

Revelstoke Museum & Archives is highlighting the history of Japanese Canadians in Revelstoke and increasing collection accessibility with the launch of its latest online exhibit, Japanese Legacies. 

Spanning over 100 years of history, the exhibit is the cumulation of project manager Harumi Sakiyama’s hours of work piecing together the various Japanese Canadian stories rooted in Revelstoke.

The online exhibit will also help the museum showcase more of its collection without having to navigate the limited space the brick-and-morter provides.

“We’ll continue to gather material on this topic, so this feels the best way to showcase that material,” Cathy English, lead curator told Revelstoke Mountaineer.

The online exhibit is also part of the museum’s work to make its collections as accessible as possible. Audio tours, accessible language guides, sensory supports and a growing list of online exhibits are all accessibility strategies the museum has been implementing over the years.

The exhibit has been available since late December, and the museum will officially launch it with a celebration Friday, Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. Highlights from the exhibit, some collection stories and more will be shared with the public and Shinji Kawakubo will provide sushi. A Zoom link for the presentation is available by contacting [email protected].

For those unable to attend or folks looking to show off their Revelstoke knowledge, keep an eye out for another round of the Great Revelstoke Quiz. From Revelstoke’s early days to the lesser known lore, all will be on the table.

“We’re not calling it a trivia night because nothing in Revelstoke is trivial,” English said.

Japanese Canadians in Revelstoke

Japanese Legacies was inspired after the launch of Reclaimed Voices, the museum’s exhibit that highlighted narratives often overlooked in Revelstoke’s history. While working on the Japanese Canadian part of the exhibit, museum staff found more material than could be included in Reclaimed Voices. 

“We were getting so much new material and we really felt that it was a big story to tell, one that really was neglected for a long time,” English said.

With new family records and in-person interviews, Revelstoke Museum & Archives’ collection on Japanese Canadian history has grown by leaps and bounds. The museum’s collection of photos alone has expanded from a couple dozen three years ago to hundreds, with some of the photos featured in Japanese Legacies.

With funding from the Community Fund of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society, the museum focused on the families that called Revelstoke home over the decades, even if early city bylaws kept Japanese Canadians from settling in city limits pushing families to the Big Eddy and what’s now known as Southside.

“Families that lived outside [Revelstoke] could engage in farming and selling strawberries, stuff like that,” English explained. “But they couldn’t operate a business unless they owned property in the city and could get a business license.”

Between city bylaw restrictions, the enacting of the War Measures Act and even organizations such at the Revelstoke Legion campaigning against Japanese Canadians integrating into Revelstoke, English said the theme for Japanese Canadian families is resiliency. 

This theme is captured in the introduction of the exhibit, which aims to “pay tribute to the Japanese Canadian pioneers who overcame hardships and lived their lives with dignity in Revelstoke.”

Japanese Canadian history will continue to be made in Revelstoke, English said, with many families still settled in Revelstoke and new generations calling the town home.

“There was still a lot of kindness,” she said when talking about the various oral histories shared for the exhibit. “There were very few mentions of feeling unwelcomed. It definitely happened, but there were moments of wanting them to know they were welcome here.”