An archival photograph from 1942 shows a man holding a parcel up to a train window during the forced displacement of Japanese Canadians from the B.C. coast. The people pictured have not been identified as members of the Kondo family, and the train is not documented as bound for Grand Forks.
Photo credit: Province Newspaper / Vancouver Public Library Historical Photographs
GRAND FORKS — A commemorative album assembled by Japanese Canadians living around Grand Forks in 1946 has been reproduced in a new bilingual book examining their forced relocation during the Second World War.
The original album contains photographs of 56 of the 90 Japanese Canadian families who lived in the area between 1942 and 1946, according to the Nikkei National Museum. Published in 2026, Trans-Pacific Reflections on the Grand Forks Japanese Canadian Commemorative Photo Book (1946) includes a reproduction of the album, essays by researchers and community members, a resident list and historical maps.
Records compiled for the University of Victoria’s Japanese Canadian Monument identify Tokukazu and Setsue Kondo among those forcibly uprooted from Steveston to Grand Forks. Tokukazu, whose occupation was recorded as a fish collector, had lived near the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. The couple’s seven children included Fujikazu Kondo, later known as Ben.
Yoneko “Yon” Tanaka also came to Grand Forks through the wartime displacement. According to an obituary published by her family, the Tanakas were forced from their home in the Port Essington area on the Skeena River in 1942. The Tanaka family returned to the coast after the war, but Yoneko remained in Grand Forks and married Fujikazu Kondo on January 31, 1948.
The family’s account describes the Kondo home as a gathering place for relatives, where younger generations learned traditions that included gardening and preparing Japanese pickled foods. Another record of the couple remains in the Boundary Historical Society’s 2018 Report 17, which lists an anniversary photograph of Yon and Ben Kondo on page 41.
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