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Friday,run April of 26 • the 2013 season Final for the little ones First all-candidates See Page 20 forum tests hopefuls See Page 2 & 3
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Vol. 5 •search Issue 86 Nelson crew in the spotlight Waldorf students paint See Pages 14-15 Earth Day legacy See Page 26
UPROOTED SS NASOOKIN First of Two Parts
marks a
More than 65 years ago Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes on British Columbia’s coast and brought to internment camps in places like the Slocan Valley during the height of the Second World War. Today those who lived through the ordeal tell stories of struggle, sadness, and forgiveness. Here’s one such tale... GREG NESTEROFF
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Nelson Star Reporter
CENTURY
“Gliding gracefully and majestically ongtime Nelson resident Yosh Tagami mi remembers working for 25 cents an into the waters of Kootenay Lake to hour building internment shacks on n the accompaniment of a the Popoff farm near Slocan City. He was 17 and his family would soon move intoo din of whistles which drowned the one of those houses, which measured 14 x cheering crowd of 2,000, the 25 feet. Nasookin was yesterday launched “The first winter was cold with four feet of snow, and icicles formed inside so we at the Fairview shipyards.â€? put cardboard from boxes on the walls,â€? - Nelson Daily News, May 1, 1913 Thesays. packed SS Nasookin on its maiden voyage on Kootenay Lake in May of 2013. photo courtesy Touchstones Nelson he There was no insulation beyond paper ers built the wooden superstrucnay Lake sternwheeler with four and shiplap, and no indoor plumbing. QUEEN OF THE LAKE GREG NESTEROFF ture under master builder James decks. The bottom level had a Th e Nasookin was part of the Wooden bunk beds lay at either end of Nelson Star Reporter Bulger. large freight area, galley, pantry, CPR’s plans to bolster tourism in the house with a kitchen in the middle. t’s a big boat with a long refrigerator, express room, and West Kootenay. Unfortunately, They used a wood stove for cooking and crew’s quarters. The lower cabin history. the First World War derailed heating. deck included a men’s smoking Th e SS Nasookin, which those plans, but already “Rice was rationed and we made green room, carpeted ladies salon, fi rst kissed Kootenay a magnifi cent hotel had tea from alfalfa leaves,â€? he says. “We had a garden arden and also and long dining room that Lake a century agobought Tues- vegetables openeds at Balfour and an from the DoukABOVE —Even seated 48. day, was the largest hobors and who equally magnifi cent ship, the camee in horse horse-driven driven before World War II, The upper cabin or balcony grandest sternwheeler ever to ply Bonnington, was sailing the wagons.â€? Japanese Canadians deck had men’s and women’s BC’s inland waters, although its Arrow Lakes. Tagami, now 85, was born at observation rooms, furnished heyday as flagship of the CanaNasookin was very like Yosh Tagami Genoa Bay Th oneVancouver Island in heavy oak and wicker dian Pacific Railway’s Lake and similar, but not identical to were ďŹ ngerprinted at Paldi, a sawmill respectively. Both had large River Service lasted less thanand 20 raised the Bonnington, and cost and photographed community near Duncan. plate glass windows. The years. either $161,000 or He $200,000 for identity cards brothers andtotwo staterooms opened onto a Later, it was converted to a had car four($3.3 million $4.1 million when they turned 16. sisters. today), Their father Jirosaku, a ictbalcony that overlooked the ferry and later still portions were depending on confl RIGHT — Thouwas injured in a fall sands of internees dining room. used as a gift shop, bathhouse,millwright, ing accounts. and unable work, so the sonswonwere sent to Slocan The Texas deck, one and finally a private home. Telling Anto Ontario company logging as teenagers. level higher, had more statethe Nasookin’s entire story in a beganthe contract to build the hull,City where they enrooms, a narrow social hall, few hundred words isn’t easy, so which was assembled at the dured primitive living we’ve divided it into two installTh e NaFairview shipyards, based on a Story continues to conditions. ments, beginning with its worksookin is instantly recognizable in Story continues to design by on CPR superintendent ‘Tagami’ Page 3 (Tak Toyota photo) ing career. photographs as the only Koote‘Nasookin’ on Page 12 Capt. John C. Gore. Local work-
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