For the week of June 2, 2025.
On June 8, 2007, the Government of Canada designated the Japanese Experience in Alberta a national historic event. Many migrants from Japan settled in Raymond, Alberta, after arriving in Canada in the early years of the 20th century. There, they established a thriving community that helped preserve their culture.
Alberta has been home to people of Japanese descent since at least 1901. The Issei, or first generation, were mostly migrant workers who filled labour-intensive jobs in mining, railway construction, and sugar beet farming. Many went on to purchase farmland in the southern part of the province, near the predominantly Latter Day Saints settlement of Raymond, Alberta. In 1914, members of the Japanese Canadian community formed the Raymond Japanese Society to help newcomers achieve permanent residence and improve their social and economic standing.
In 1929 members of the Japanese Canadian community bought a former Latter Day Saints temple for $5,000 (roughly $88,000 today) to establish the first Shin Buddhist Church in Canada outside of British Columbia. This church became a vital centre of the community, hosting various religious, recreational, cultural, and educational activities. By the 1930s, the Raymond area had the largest Japanese Canadian population east of the Rockies, with a Japanese-language school and mutual aid societies. A co-operative store established within the church compound in 1932 generated revenue to support its activities.
In 1942 Japanese Canadians arrived in the Raymond area after being forcibly removed from the West Coast by the federal government during the Second World War. More than 21,000 people were uprooted from their homes. Most were Canadian born or naturalized Canadians, labelled “enemy aliens” because of their racialized identity. Those who made their way to Alberta faced a hostile welcome from many residents, who shared the widespread fear that all people of Japanese descent, including those born in Canada, sided with Japan against Canada and its wartime Allies. The Canadian Legion and other community groups supported protests against the presence of Japanese Canadians in Raymond and other Alberta communities in the spring of 1942. Japanese Canadians also faced intense scrutiny from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the curtailment of their freedoms, including the prohibition on entering cities.
By 1946, the total number of Japanese Canadian people in Alberta had expanded to about four thousand, with many of the people who relocated to the Raymond area during the war deciding to stay. The Raymond Buddhist Church persevered in the face of wartime discrimination and remained at the heart of the Japanese Canadian community until its sale in 2006.