File MSC-140-0-0-0-0-5 - Jasper

• Textual records

4 cm of textual records

File consists of correspondence and related records of W.J. Wishart, Supervising Foreman, Japanese Nationals Camps, Red Pass Junction, mainly with J.H. Mitchell, Senior Assistant Engineer, Jasper (and later Red Pass). The file includes records pertaining to road camps at Albreda, Yellowhead, Tete Jaune, Lucerne, Grantbrook, Rainbow, Red Pass, Thunder River, Black Spur, Gosnell and Lempriere.

The records in the file reflect a variety of areas of concern in the administration of the camps. Included are records pertaining to the ordering of supplies, equipment and food for the camps and the hospital; the care of sick road camp workers; the management of non-Japanese Canadian staff such as foremen; restricted access of Japanese Canadian workers to the railways; and the granting of permissions to workers to travel to other areas. The file also includes correspondence and related documents pertaining to the reunification of Japanese Canadian family members, for instance the transfer of a father to his son at Red Pass, and the British Columbia Security Commission’s granting of authority for some Japanese Canadian men to rejoin their families in Vancouver in preparation for relocation as a family unit to other projects. Other correspondence documents reported difficulties with the Japanese Canadian road camp workers, including refusals to work. The file also includes Wishart’s April 6, 1942 report on a trip to Tete Jaune and the status of camp operations, as well as his April 9, 1942 report of an “inspection trip of the camps in the Blue River – Albreda division,” which provides updates on the progress of camps at Blue River, Red Sands, Thunder River, Lempriere, Gosnell, Black Spur and Albreda.