East Vancouver in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia — Canada’s West Coast (North America)
Photographed by Adam Margolis, October 14, 2023
1. Manzo Nagano Garden Marker
Manzo Nagano (1853 - 1924). Manzo Nagano Garden. From Kuchinotsu, Japan, Manzo was the first known Japanese immigrant to Canada. In March 1877, at age 24, he left Japan for North America aboard a British steamer, arriving in May in British Columbia. He fished near Rivers Inlet and eventually settled in Victoria, where he ran a number of businesses, a hotel for Japanese migrants, a Japanese curio shop as well as one that sold supplies to prospectors headed to the Klondike. In 1977, to commemorate 100 years of Japanese in Canada, a mountain, Mt. Manzo Nagano in British Columbia, was named in his honor. . This historical marker is in East Vancouver in Metro Vancouver British Columbia
From Kuchinotsu, Japan, Manzo was the first known Japanese immigrant to Canada. In March 1877, at age 24, he left Japan for North America aboard a British steamer, arriving in May in British Columbia. He fished near Rivers Inlet and eventually settled in Victoria, where he ran a number of businesses, a hotel for Japanese migrants, a Japanese curio shop as well as one that sold supplies to prospectors headed to the Klondike. In 1977, to commemorate 100 years of Japanese in Canada, a mountain, Mt. Manzo Nagano in British Columbia, was named in his honor.Significance and Commemoration: In 1977, 100 years after his first arrival, Canada named a peak for Manzo Nagano in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, near Rivers Inlet where many Japanese pioneered the coastal commercial fishery.(Submitted on November 23, 2023.)
Nagano was the first of many Japanese immigrants to Canada. By 1914, about 10,000 people of Japanese descent had settled in Canada, most of them young men. However, Japanese immigrants faced overt racial discrimination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; by law, they could not vote in provincial or federal elections, and they were denied employment in several occupations, including mining and the civil service. In Vancouver in 1907, a rally of the Asiatic Exclusion League turned ugly when the mob converged on Chinatown and “Japtown,” smashing windows and throwingrocks — there was even gunfire. After a Japanese force attacked Pearl Harbor during the Second World War, over 20,000 Japanese Canadians were removed from their homes and detained in camps. They regained their freedom and received full civic rights after the war’s end.Photographed by Adam Margolis, October 14, 2023
2. Manzo Nagano Garden Marker
There are now over 100,000 people of Japanese descent in Canada, most of whom live in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Japanese Canadians have contributed to Canadian society in many fields, including the arts, science, politics and sports.