Written by Sam Frederick
The Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre is nearing completion of our 2025-2026 digitization project, Tomoni: Living with Ability, Atsu’s Story, with support from the Uyeda Family estate and the BC History Digitization Program. This project will make available materials from the Uyeda Family of Nakusp collection, which includes photographs, journals, books, and objects that showcase the lives of Yonezo and Yukiye Uyeda and their children, Masayuki, Teruko, Atsushi, and Michiyo.
The Uyeda family originally lived in New Westminster, BC before they were forcibly uprooted during the Second World War and interned in Kaslo and New Denver. As wartime restrictions were not lifted until April 1, 1949, the family was prevented from returning to the coast after the war. Following a job offer from a family friend, the Uyedas decided to settle in Nakusp, BC in 1947 where Yonezo worked in the logging industry. The family remained together in Nakusp for many years, sharing meals and holidays together.
As we have previously shared, Yonezo was a skilled member of the Kokonoe Kai chrysanthemum society but he was also an avid gardener. Many photographs in the collection depict the family’s garden in Nakusp. In addition to flowers, they grew daikon, squash, shiso, carrots, peas, and tomatoes to name a few. Yonezo’s daughters, Michiyo and Teruko, assisted with gardening tasks, drying herbs for food and medicine and gathering the harvest for family meals often cooked by their mother Yukiye.
The Uyedas also enjoyed foraging for matsutake or pine mushrooms in the woods around Nakusp. The ideal season for foraging was around September, especially if the previous months had a lot of rainfall. The pictured harvest in these photographs was particularly good, with over 200 mushrooms picked by the family! Once the harvest was collected, the Uyedas prepared the mushrooms by washing, slicing, and laying them out to dry. Some of these mushrooms would be used by the family while others would be sent to their relatives in Japan or given away.
These photographs and the stories that accompany them are treasures in our collection as they allow us to engage with the family’s daily practices and hobbies, building a fuller picture of the Uyedas’ lives. We are grateful for the donor’s support in sharing their memories of the Uyedas with us, which made this article possible.
We look forward to sharing the completion of our digitization project in the spring. If you have your own stories or memories of the Uyeda Family of Nakusp that you would like to share, please contact the Collections & Archives Team at [email protected].
Explore more treasures from the museum at nikkeimuseum.org.
