PUBLIC ARCHIVES OF CANADA,
6 | Feature | 12.05.2011
CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM
UBC at war On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbour created a real fear that Vancouver could be next in the line of fire. As military fortifications were built up at UBC, Japanese students were forced out in one of the great injustices in Canadian history.
It is hard to picture the Lower Mainland as a place under serious threat of war. But 70 years ago, after Pearl Harbour was hit in a surprise attack, panic gripped the community. According to Peter Moogk, a UBC historian who specializes in Vancouver’s military history, American war material for the Pacific theatre was often shipped through Seattle, Vancouver and Brian Prince Rupert. In that sense, Vancouver was an even more Platt important target for a potential Japanese attack than the navy base at Victoria. On these pages you’ll find the history of the Point Grey Fort, the base that was built up on the current site of the Museum of Anthropology; it was Vancouver’s primary defence base. You’ll also find an examination of how the war era—and in particular, the shameful episode of Japanese-Canadian students being forced to leave the campus—was covered in our newspaper. On our website is an interview with one of those Japanese-Canadian students, Mits Sumiya, that tells the full story of what happened when he was no longer welcome at UBC.
Features Editor
Fortress UBC: guarding the city Brian Platt Features Editor
As the terminus of two transcontinental railroads and a major seaport, Vancouver was a clear target for any Japanese attack on coastal North American cities. When Pearl Harbour was bombed on December 7, 1941, an attack on the harbours in BC became a frighteningly real possibility. The main base for Vancouver’s defence was located at UBC—right in the spot where the Museum of Anthropology now stands. It was called Point Grey Fort. “Today it sounds pretty loopy that we thought the Japanese posed a serious threat to this coast, but they really did,” says Peter Moogk, a
professor emeritus with UBC’s history department and the curator and archivist of the 15th Field Artillery Regiment Museum. “During the war, the Japanese were torpedoing ships in the mouth of the Juan de Fuca Strait and off the Columbia River. Submarines occasionally surfaced and shelled Fort Stevens in Oregon and also Estevan Point on Vancouver Island.” Point Grey Fort was manned with 250 soldiers and logistics personnel throughout the war. Three six-inch calibre anti-ship guns were stationed there, along with several anti-aircraft gun sites and an independent power supply. Down on the water’s edge, two searchlight towers communicated with a three-level battery
From top: the fortifications where the Museum of Anthropology now stands (PUBLIC ARCHIVES OF CANADA,); the iconic tower on the beach that bears its name (CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM) ; an antiaircraft gun at the UBC fortifications (DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE).
observation tower at the top of the cliff. Any ship entering Vancouver’s harbour had to first stop in an examination area to pass visual inspection; the main worry was that a boat laden with explosives would get past the First Narrows and into the inner harbour, where the shipyards and docks were. If a boat failed to follow security protocol—which happened on a few occasions—a shot would be fired in front of it to force the boat to halt. It’s all a bit hard to imagine now, given the beautiful and serene backdrop of the city. Had the Japanese ever tried an attack, it’s also doubtful our relatively sparse defences would have been able to put up much of a fight. Yet, for a few years during the war, UBC’s land was considered key to Vancouver’s safety.
The military history of campus The endowment land that the university sits on has its origin as a military reserve. In the 1860s, British authorities determined that the tip of the Point Grey peninsula should be
set aside for strategic defence of the harbour. “Most of the major parks in Greater Vancouver trace their origin back to military reserves, rather than nature-minded politicians who are glad to take credit for it,” says Moogk. “Stanley Park, Point Atkinson, Point Grey, Central Park in Burnaby, for example. But it was never used [for military purposes] before 1914.” In WWI, German naval forces based in China were considered a possible threat, so a few temporary gun batteries were set up around Vancouver. As during WWII, Point Grey Fort was built up as the largest base. In 1920, the federal government surrendered the military reserve land on Point Grey to the provincial government in exchange for the Chilcotin military reserve, located near Williams Lake, BC. In the 1930s, as the threat of war loomed, defences were once again built at what was now the UBC campus.
Defending Vancouver During WWII, soldiers rotated
through Point Grey Fort on a regular basis as part of their training. “Most of the people at Point Grey Fort were army,” says Moogk. “But there would be a variety of trades. There’d be military engineers to maintain the engines of the power generators and to run the searchlights, and artillery people to fire the guns. And then there’d be transport personnel, and there was a little hospital there. “One of the war’s first casualties, at least for the Pacific Coast, was a young recruit who was shot by accident at the guard house.” There were three circular emplacements built to hold the antiship guns. Underneath each gun was an underground magazine protected from enemy shelling by a thick concrete pad. A tunnel connected all the magazines with the command post. In the battery observation tower, soldiers scanned the harbour entrance with binoculars that were attached to rotating bases. “The soldier in the tower would survey the area, and the searchlights were coordinated automatically to move with the binoculars,” says Moogk.
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