Born in a Camp

The photograph on the back cover is a picture of the barn in the internment camp Tashme, British Columbia, taken in 2019 during a family visit to Tashme by the author and family. This is where the author spent the first two years of his life. Hence, the title to this book.

In the years of World War II, based on unfounded and racist fears of Japanese spies, the federal government of Canada and the provincial government of British Columbia ordered Japanese Canadians be displaced from their homes and interned in camps across the West Coast.

Born in Tashme, one such camp, Kenneth Taguchi generously shares his family's story, including his parents' arrival in Canada, the history of the camps and his family's experiences of them, and the rich, accomplished lives he and his family led after the camps closed and they moved east to Montreal.

Featuring numerous photographs as a companion to the text, Born in a Camp is a powerful work of autobiography, a story of survival and success, as well as a necessary look at the history of anti-Japanese racism in North America.