About the Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum
Tashme is one of eighteen Japanese Canadian internment camps in B.C. during
the Second World War. The Tashme Museum is located in Sunshine Valley, 14
miles (22.5 km) southeast from the Town of Hope, off of Highway 3.
Our mission
The Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum is the location of the 1942-1946 Tashme
internment site, exploring stories and values of Tashme and Japanese
Canadians during the internment. The museum and the Tashme Historical
Society is committed to honour, preserve, and share the history and heritage of
Japanese Canadians and the Tashme Internment story; to ensure the
sustainability of the Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum; utilize Tashme as a tool
to teach the lessons of racism, reconciliation and resilience; and to do all such
things as are supportive and align with the above purposes.
Hours of operation
Saturdays and Sundays
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Please note: During Fall and Winter seasons, (October 1 – April 30) reduced
hours may occur due to weather and road conditions.
All vehicles are legally required to have snowflake rated snow tires to travel the
Hope-Princeton Highway starting October 1 – April 30.
The Tashme Museum does not charge general admission to visit the museum,
but will gratefully accept all donations.
History of Tashme
Tashme was Canada’s largest of 10 Internment camps and 7 official self-
supporting sites in British Columbia that Japanese Canadians were forcibly
relocated to during the Second World War.
The declaration of war on Japan on December 8th, 1941 unleashed a series of
events that would forever change the lives of Japanese Canadians. Despite
reports from the Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP stating that there was no
perceived security threat from the Japanese Canadian community, the Canadian
government took drastic actions. Curfews were imposed, Japanese language
schools and newspapers were closed and Japanese Canadian community
leaders were detained. Privately owned homes, businesses, vehicles, and fishing
boats were seized and eventually sold without permission. As a national
security measure, the government established a 100-mile (160 km) ‘exclusion
zone’ area inland from the west coast of British Columbia. All persons of
Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from the ‘exclusion zone’ and sent to
hastily constructed internment sites in the British Columbia interior, to sugar
beet farms in Alberta and Manitoba or to labour camps throughout BC. 76% of
the 23,000 Japanese Canadians living in Canada at the time were Canadian born
citizens.
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Located only 6-miles outside of the 100-mile ‘exclusion zone is Tashme, now modern-day Sunshine Valley (Tashme is the closest internment site from the west coast).
Starting in the summer of 1942, the site was established on a pre-existing privately owned dairy farm 14 miles east of Hope, located in an isolated narrow valley and
surrounded by high mountains. 347 crude shiplap tar-paper covered houses, often called “shacks”, were hastily constructed. Each house measured 16 feet x 24 feet with
no running water, electricity, or insulation. Existing barns were renovated and converted into living quarters, schools, churches, and a butcher shop. Also constructed
were a general store, bakery, post office, mess hall, RCMP detachment, fire station, power station, an administration office, and a 50-bed fully equipped hospital. Tashme
was a primitive yet thriving community with the amenities of a small village and home to 2644 persons at its peak from September 1942 until it was closed and
dismantled in October 1946.
The name, “Tashme”, was created by taking the first two letters of the last names of three government BC Security Commission officers: Austin T. TAylor, John SHirras,
Frederick J. MEad. The Security Commission was the main government agency that planned and administrated the Internment and Dispossession. In August 2016, to
honour and share the story of Tashme, the Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum was established.