InFocus Magazine

Calling like the blossoms on the cherry tree are the leaves of the pages of the history of the Comox Valley.  It is a history most profoundly connected with the multi-cultural heritage of the original community of any substance: Cumberland.

And it is apt that it is in Cumberland where members of the community are diligently working to restore historic ties with cultures seemingly forgotten, with perhaps the most poignant tale concerning the members of an ethnic group that was literally driven away in the name of a misbegotten patriotic fervor combined with the bigotry of the day. That day came in the months following the attack by Imperial Japan on Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941. Among the victims of an unrepentant bias on the part of both the Canadian and provincial governments were the Japanese of Cumberland.

“When the people were finally obliged to leave they were driven to the wharf in Royston and loaded on a freighter destined for Vancouver,” says Ray Iwaasa (sic), whose uncle owned the Iwaasa Store in No. 1 Town in Cumberland.  “Nobody came out to wave goodbye.”

Fortunately, however, there are those living in Cumberland and elsewhere that are not about to let this bit of cultural legacy die out completely. They are the members of the Coal Creek History Park Advisory Committee and they, along with assistance from the Village council and the Cumberland Museum, are continuing with their plans to complete a heritage park that includes the old Japanese No. 1 Townsite.

Ray Iwaasa never actually lived in Cumberland in the years before World War Two—he came later, he says as a “curiosity seeker.”  Although by the time of his birth his father had moved on to Alberta, he does have a connectedness with No. 1 Townsite, and the legwork he has done has proved invaluable, says Coal Creek Committee chair, Grace Doherty.

His connectedness lies in the fact that Cumberland was his father’s first Canadian home. His uncle was the first in the family to arrive, and his father followed the uncle in 1898.

When Iwaasa arrived in Cumberland in March 2004 he was asked by Mayor Fred Bates and the Village administrator if he would be interested in getting involved with the study commissioned by the Village to establish a plan to develop the Perseverance (Coal) Creek Historic Park site.  He notes that he was the only visible Asian to be so involved. The irony of that being that the parksite would encompass the area that once contained both the Chinese and Japanese communities of Cumberland, equally vibrant in their day.

Specifically, they wanted him to develop a vision for the No. 1 Japanese Townsite. Iwaasa agreed, but with obvious reservations arising from the fact, as stated, he’d not been born there, nor had he ever lived there.

In those early days Iwaasa was put in contact with George Penfold who was in the process of completing his report: Cumberland Chinatown Japanese Settlement Historic Park Plan (released in August 2004).  In that report Penfold expressed disappointment at the paucity of input from the former Asian communities. Needless to say he was delighted to be contacted by Iwaasa, and ultimately, following the release of the report an ad hoc committee was formed.  That report was accepted in principle by the council in September 2007, and the members of the advisory committee, including by this point a more extensive representation from the former Asian communities, began meeting regularly in early 2008.

Members include: Grace Doherty (chair), John Leung, Ray Iwaasa, May Gee, Joyce Lowe, Marie Lowe, Bernice and Katsaoki Takahashi, Tats Aoki (whose father was the principal of the Japanese language school, and whose mother was a teacher there), Josephine Peyton, Florence Bell, Carol Snaden, Dwayne Rourke, Tako Kiyono (who was briefly a resident of No. 1 Japanese Town), Imogene Lim, Donna Le May, Mas Aida and Lillian and Doug Tosoff.

Iwaasa confesses that he “came in starry eyed” at the concept of the project, and was a little blindsided by how complex the political scene was in Cumberland.

“I was eager to embrace all, but realized there were some issues between individuals and groups that were not easily surmounted,” he says.  “At the same time, however, despite disputes over other issues, almost all of the people I dealt with were well-meaning and intelligent.”

Determination to not let the matter die or be pushed aside lies in the diligence of Grace Doherty.   “I made a commitment to be vigilant,” Doherty says.  “I made a point of literally attending all council meetings just to make sure the concept didn’t evaporate.  We may have seemed impatient but the reality was that many of the people involved were not of an age to wait.”

At times, she says, she felt they were being stonewalled and it seemed that the park vision might never be realized if they didn’t get the support needed.  Then former mayor Bronco Moncrief came into the mix and his input on the matter of the parks was of huge import to the park proponents.

According to Doherty, Moncrief told her he had walked down to the old Chinatown area and was struck by the beauty of the natural setting and told her he had come to the conclusion: “Why fool around any longer?”  Moncrief had earlier told Iwaasa that he had lost a number of good friends when the Japanese were exiled in 1942, and he was motivated by their memory.