| title | Camp 72 Reunion collection |
| general material designation | [textual and graphic material] |
| extent | 2 booklets and 2 photographs |
| date | 1996-1996 |
| scope and content |
The collection consists of two series.
The first series consists of a booklet titled, "Memories" and inside is a history of Camp 72 followed by page long recollections of individuals who lived in the camp. These people are David Akagi, Ruth Mori, Miyeko Nakagawa Sugwara, Sam Kawazoye, Gloria Sato, Edith Sakai and George Yutaka Motomura. The second booklet is the formal reunion book titled, "Camp 72 Reunion 1946-1948, July 27, 1996, Momiji Centre Scarborough, Ontario. Inside is a list of the attendees.
The second series consists of two photographs: a group portrait of the reunion attendees and an image of a model of the camp. |
| biography | Of the twenty-five prisoner of war camps in Canada, three were located on the northern shore of Lake Superior. They were Red Rock, Angler and Neys. Angler, which formerly held UK POWs became the home to over 700 Japanese Canadians internees from June 1942 to July 1946. Neys, which once held German POWs became another type of camp where the Pigeon Timber Company, under the Prisoner Employment Program, maintained several logging camp sites using prisoners as labourers.
When the first group of Japanese Canadians were released from Angler in 1943, several found employment with the Pigeon Timbre Company and worked alongside the German POWs.
In April of 1946, the National Defense closed the Neys POW Camp but almost immediately it opened as a holding centre for the many Japanese Canadians who were forced out of BC. This Neys 'hostel' was a stopping place for those who were looking for resettlement in Ontario and Quebec.
During the late summer of 1946, over twenty families from this hostel, many with small children, chose to take the offer of the timber company to go to one of their pulp lumber camps. The hostel that held the lumber camp employees and their families became known as Camp 72.
- Information taken from the Memories booklet. |
| number | 2012.47 |
| organisation | Nikkei National Museum |
| access | Open |