Tofino Mayor Josie Osborne issued an apology on Monday to Japanese-Canadians forced from the west coast during the second World War.
Osborne said local families were given just 24-hours to pack-up and leave Tofino in 1942, and forced into internment camps in the BC Interior – their homes, boats and possessions seized by the government and sold off.
In 1947, Tofino Council introduced a resolution, prohibiting Asian Canadians from owning property or opening businesses – a resolution that remained on the books for 50 years until it was discovered and rescinded in 1997.
She told the story of John Yoshio Makodoro, whose home on Campbell Street and fishing boat was seized, and while he returned to the west coast as a commercial fisherman years later, he settled in Port Alberni, as he couldn’t bear to return to Tofino.
Osborne formally apologized to all 22,000 Asian-Canadian families affected by the forced removal and internment on behalf of all people in the District of Tofino.
