A DEEPER DIVE
Many issei found work as labourers in mills and logging camps on the coasts of southern B.C., the Gulf Islands, and Vancouver Island. However, like in the fishing industry, the government began implementing racially motivated laws in the logging and lumber industries. The BC Crown Timber Act of 1913 barred Asians from working on Crown timberlands and threatened to take logging licenses from corporations who hired Japanese and Chinese labourers.
Royston Lumber Company
In response, some issei and nisei began setting up their own logging companies. By 1930, there were 14 independent logging and sawmill operations owned by Japanese Canadians. One of the largest sawmills was the Royston Lumber Company near Cumberland on Vancouver Island. It was owned by four Japanese Canadian families: the Kaminishi, Iwasa, Minato, and Tomihiro families. The majority ownership fell to Koichi Kaminishi, the father of famous Asahi baseball player, Kaye Kaminishi.
Did You Know?
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Fanny Bay Logging Company
Another successful logging company was the Fanny Bay Logging Company. Eikichi Kagetsu initially worked as a labourer in various logging camps until he was able to purchase 160 acres of timber rights in Sechelt, B.C. After losing that land, the resilient Kagetsu bought timber rights above the intake of Seymour Creek in North Vancouver in 1916. In 1919, the B.C. Forestry Law was set up to bar Japanese Canadians from the logging industry, which threatened to stop Kagetsu from running his business. Kagetsu took his case to the Supreme Court of Canada and then to the Privy Council. Their final ruling stated that the “racial restrictions were invalid”; Kagetsu’s logging company was able to continue operating.
After overcoming several setbacks, Kagetsu purchased 3 000 acres of timber in the Fanny Bay area and set up the Deep Bay Logging Company in 1923. Shortly after, he set up operations in Fanny Bay. With 7 000 acres of prime timberland, his company set up its own railroad line to haul logs. Approximately 15 kilometres of rail tracks were spread out from the highway and into the Fanny Bay timberlands. By the 1930s, the Fanny Bay Logging Company was exporting premium Douglas Fir to Japan, the United States, and England. Their business was at its height and it became the largest in the Commonwealth with the increasing demand for lumber at the start of the Second World War. Kagetsu and his family were forcibly removed from the coast and all of Kagetsu’s assets were confiscated by the government.
Etsu Suzuki
Another prominent Japanese Canadian figure in the coastal logging industry was Etsu Suzuki. Etsu was not a logger but rather worked as a journalist, translator, and acclaimed activist. When Etsu arrived in 1918, he was a column writer for the Tairiku Nippo newspaper in Vancouver. He urged both Asian and non-Asian laborers to unite, advocating for their collective rights and standing against the exclusionary practices within unions. In 1920, about 200 Chinese and Japanese Canadian workers at the Swanson Bay Mill, south of Prince Rupert, went on strike to protest unfair wage cuts. Unfortunately, the strike collapsed, but Etsu organised a meeting with 30 Swanson Bay workers who had made their way to Vancouver. He congratulated them for their efforts and encouraged them to form the Japanese Workers Union.
The Japanese Workers Union became the first Japanese Canadian labour union, and Etsu was the chief advisor. In 1926, after gaining more than 1,000 members, the now-renamed Japanese Camp and Mill Workers’ Union was finally accepted by the Trades and Labour Council, officially becoming Canada’s first Asian labour organisation. Etsu continued to advocate for Japanese Canadian workers through the Labour Weekly, a newspaper he edited. He also began his own newspaper, The Daily People, which was especially popular with readers in isolated mill and labour camps in British Columbia.
Legacy of logging
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