Early Immigration and Labour

	Immigrants Arriving Japanese immigrants arrived by sailing vessel at the turn of the century. Most were farmers and fishermen, some were business people, and some were educated and from the aristocratic class. Photo circa 1900, courtesy of the Vancouver Public Library
	Hasting's Mill Hasting's Mill became a major employer of Japanese labourers and was the foundation of Vancouver's Powell Street "Little Tokyo". The man, second left, was the first Japanese to be hired. Photo 1892, courtesy of the Vancouver Public Library
	Logging Giant timber was still standing around the lower mainland new New Westminster, B.C. By 1900, one of four workers in coastal lumber mills was Japanese. Photo circa 1900, courtesy of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
	Miners Copper ore was mined at the Ikeda Bay Mine on Moresby Island, B.C. By 1900, more than 500 Japanese immigrants worked in the Cumberland colliery or other mines. Photo circa 1915, courtesy of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
	Store Interior Small shops like this Japanese gift store on Powell Street supported a growing community. Photo circa 1910, courtesy of the Vancouver Public Library
	Labour Contractors Labour contractors or "bosses" would organize workers in "gangs" and offer labour at rates below prevailing wages for commission. This system provided a feudal form of security, in an alien world. Photo circa 1910, courtesy of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
	Swanson Bay As many as 150 Japanese worked in remote Swanson Bay, a mill town north of Ocean Falls, but labour unrest lead to them being fired in 1919. Photo circa 1917, courtesy of Charles H. Kadota

Settlement in the early 20th Century

	Powell Street after Anti-Asia Riot, September 7, 1907 Powell Street after Anti-Asia Riot, September 7, 1907. In 1907, after a rally by the Asiatic Exclusion League, a mob of 1,000 stormed up Powell Street, smashing windows. Japanese men and women fought back with hands, feet, sticks, and stones. Photo 1907, courtesy of the National Archives of Canada
	Family and First Yama Taxi Japanese immigrants married and settled down, in spite of an 1895 provincial act denying the Japanese, on the basis of race, the right to vote. This denial lead to further restrictions of civil rights. Photo 1909, courtesy of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
	Picture Brides The "picture bride" system involved an exchange of photographs and letters by single men in Canada and women in Japan, brought together for marriage by their families and an intermediary. Photo circa 1910, courtesy of the Japanese Canadian National Museum and Archives Society
	Anonymous Couple A strong desire "to go to America" was characteristic of the Japanese women who came to Canada. A wave of arrivals in 1908 began to transform the Japanese Canadian community. Photo 1915, courtesy of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
	Women in Cannery, Steveston Most women coming to Canada were better educated than their husbands, but some women found life in Canada one of basic existence. Only a few came independently. Photo 1910, courtesy of the Vancouver Public Library