NELSON STAR Br e a k i n g n e w s at w w w. n e l s o n s t a r. c o m
Bre a k i ng n e ws at n el s on st ar. c om
'ĿĜĹĎņ 0İŠğįIJĿ ƉĆ? t ĆŠĆˆĆ‰Ćˆ FREE
280 Baker Street Nelson BC (250)Street 280 Baker 354-4089 Nelson BC valhallapathrealty@telus.net (250) www.valhallapathrealty.com
354-4089
valhallapathrealty@telus.net Early Bird Season Pass Sale! www.valhallapathrealty.com
7ğĚ Ć‹ t *ŀŀłIJ ĆŠĆ?
Final of1 •the Friday,run March 2013 season for the little ones Mt. Page Sentinel See 20 hoops capture emotional title See Page 18
PM41537042
Vol. 5 •search Issue 70 Nelson crew in the spotlight Cranking up volume for Seethe Pages 14-15 the Kootenay Music Awards See Page 3
UPROOTED the lost
In search of...
More than 65 years ago Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes on British Columbia’s coast and brought to internment camps in places like the Slocan Valley during the height of the Second World War. Today those who lived through the ordeal tell stories of struggle, sadness, and forgiveness. Here’s one such tale...
Cody 69 LCemetery GREG NESTEROFF
POWDER$
Everest-Style PLUS 1st &Ski-a-Thon 6th day FREE REGISTER ONLINE
ON SALE OCT. 1 www.slopesforhope.ca/whitewater
T: 250.354.4944 Toll Free: 1.800.666.9240
w w w. s k i w h i t e w a t e r. c o m 250.354.4944 •1.800.666.9420
Buying or Selling a Home?
Nelson 250-505-2101 Castlegar 250-365-2111 Nakusp Laura Salmon 250-358-2347 Cell 250-551-8877
E-mail Laura@LauraSalmon.com Website www.LauraSalmon.com
RHC Realty
Each office independently owned & operated
Ted Allen’s Since
Jewellery 1961
Get To Class On Time . . .
Nelson with a sporty 250-505-2101 new watch Castlegar 250-365-2111 • Watch • Ring • Necklace Nakusp Repairs-Sizing-Claws 250-358-2347 431 Baker Street , Nelson, BC Phone: 250-352-5033
Nelson Star Reporter
ongtime Nelson resident Yosh Tagami mi remembers working for 25 cents an n hour building internment shacks on the Popoff farm near Slocan City. He was 17 and his family would soon move intoo one of those houses, which measured 14 x The Star looks for a Slocan Valley 25 feet. “The first winter coldbeen with four feetin over cemetery that was hasn’t used of snow, and icicles formed inside so we century.from Though itsthe exact location putacardboard boxes on walls, â€? he remains says. unknown, the tales of those There was no insulation beyond paper fading sign is one Greg Nesteroff photo buried there are an ode to a Kootenay This and shiplap, and no indoor plumbing. of the few remnants of the mining town of Cody, a few kilometers due east lifestyle forged byataeither rugged landscape of Sandon. During the mid-to-late 1890s, it was at the epicentre of the Silvery Slocan rush. Wooden bunk beds lay end of the house with a kitchen in the middle. partner Sim Tabor left the conness to each death, but none was paining him, but by the utmost They a wood stove for cooking and GREGused NESTEROFF fl uence of Carpenter and Seaton offi cially recorded and they have exertion he descended the mounNelson Star Reporter heating. tain a distance of about a mile to a creeks to see a recent mining never before been enumerated. “Rice was rationed and we made green omewhere in the discovery about three miles away. prospector’s camp,â€? Harris said. tea from alfalfa leaves,â€? he says. “We had a garden arden and also THUNDERBOLT WITH Afterward, they continued up Cody Creek valley Almost 100 men camped in bought vegetables from the Douks CARELESS TREADABOVE —Even above Sandon lies a the area went up to find Tonkin, the mountain, planning to come hobors who camehe horse-driven e incemetery’s horse driven odd location cemetery few have whose body had rolled a short before World downWar the II, opposite side. Near wagons. â€? — on the trail to the Fredheard of and fewer ways down the mountain. The the summit, they were caught in Japanese Canadians born at die was Lee mine — was an still have seen. AtTagami, now 85, lighting bolt struck him over the thunderstorm and sheltered like YoshaTagami on Vancouver right temple, leaving a black spot, accident based onIsland where its early least six peopleGenoa are Bay under a small tree. were ďŹ ngerprinted and raised at Paldi, a sawmill scorching his beard, and burning deaths occurred and the diffiand cultyphotographed buried there, including a prospec“They were there only a few near Duncan. He nearly his entire body. His hat had the bodies. tor, two miners, a woman andcommunity two of removing minutes when lightning struck for identity cards had four brothers twowas that ofwhen they a small hole in the rim, his clothes The firstand burial children, claimed by lightning, theturned tree under which Tabor was 16. Their father Jirosaku, a deathRIGHT were torn down the back, and a Tonkin, whose was —sitting, avalanche, and disease over a fisisters. ve- William killing Tonkin and knockThoumillwright, was injured fall Morpiece of his pants ripped out. A reported in detailinbya John year stretch in the 1890s. ing Tabor senseless and burning sands of internees to work, the sons button on the ground was partly gan Harris, thesofather of Sandon, Only one grave is known to and unable him severely, â€? Harris wrote. were sent to Slocan melted and his shoes were nearly a dispatch to the Coeur d’Alene have been marked — with a po-beganin Tabor awoke to fi nd himself logging as teenagers. City where they entorn from their soles. Miner of Wallace, Idaho, from etic epitaph, no less — while the nearly paralyzed and Tonkin dured primitive living whence both men came. others may never have received missing. Th e tree they’ d been sitStory continues to conditions. According to Harris, such attention. ting under was split open. Story continues to ‘Tagami’ on Page 3 on June (Tak Toyota“Every photo)muscle and leader was 13, 1892, Tonkin and prospecting Newspaper accounts bore wit‘Lightning’ on Page 8
S
T
Home Owners helping home owners