This site commemorates the 6 Road Camp sites between Revelstoke and Sicamous that Japanese Canadian men were forced to work during the Japanese Canadian Internment 1942-49. The 6 camps were: Solsqua; Yard Creek; North Fork; Taft; Griffin Lake; and Three Valley Gap.
In 1942, deemed a national security threat, over 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly uprooted by the federal government to 100 miles east of the coast. Their homes, boats, cars, businesses and properties were confiscated by the government and sold in order to finance the Internment. Able-bodied Japanese Canadian men, aged 18-45 years, were sent as forced labour to build BC highways while the women and children lived in the Internment Camps.
In 2017 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Internment, the Japanese Canadian community, in partnership with the Ministry of Transportation installed Interpretive signs at the actual Internment and Road Camp site locations so history would not be forgotten where it happened.
During the two years and four months the men worked on the highway, the men improved, aligned and reconstructed various sections of 44.5 miles (71.6km) of the Trans-Canada Highway westward from Revelstoke.
Japanese Canadian History