The fonds consists of diaries (1913-1915, 1917-1935, 1938-1940), letters, newspaper clippings, photographs and negatives, receipts, postcards, hand drawn plans, mathematical notations, personal notations, medical inspection notices, church publications and other miscellaneous documentation.

Fonds consists of correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, pamphlets, academic papers, poems, research material, notes, transcripts, reports, submissions, agreements, minutes, programmes, photographs, and other material. Records relate to Miki’s writing and editing activities, his academic career, his involvement and support of the Japanese Canadian Redress movement, his participation in various literary and cultural events and projects, and his personal life.

Fonds has been arranged into the following ten series: Teaching and Academic Records (1971-2004); Interview and Sound Recording Project Records (1981-2005); Literary and Cultural Events and Conferences Participation Records (1987-2017); Japanese Canadian Redress and History Records (1942-2009); Personal and Miscellaneous Correspondence (1974-2022); Writing and Editing (1912-2015); General Files (1962-2015); Awards and Honours (1990-2018); Ephemera and Memorabilia (1957-2015); UFFI action association (1982-1983).

Fonds reflects Minoru Kudo’s involvement within the Japanese Canadian community both before and after World War II as well as the Kudo family’s experience of forced removal and its impacts on their lives moving forward. If offers insight into the actions taken by the British Columbia Securities Commission during the process of the forced removal of Japanese Canadian families from B.C. and the advocacy work of Japanese Canadians, as individuals and through groups such as the National Association of Japanese Canadians, to receive redress following the end of the war, both through the The Royal Commission on Japanese Claims(the Bird Commission) and outside of it. In addition to these materials, the fonds also illustrates the work of younger generations of Japanese Canadians to uncover and reconnect with their history. The fonds contains research files from the Kudo family, who worked to document and bring together recollections of the Mission City Japanese community as it existed before the war and where families were for forcibly removed to during it, as well as the Kudo family’s history specifically. A significant portion of the fonds is the translation work done by Kathleen Merken on Minoru Kudo’s diaries.
The materials are arranged into three series, reflecting the different time periods and purposes in which the documents were created. The Minoru Kudo diaries and correspondence series contains the original diaries and correspondence of Minoru Kudo as well as photocopies that were made by Kathleen Kudo for reference and preservation purposes. The translations series contains records relating to the translation of the diaries by Kathleen Merken, research files were used to add context to the translations, and the translations themselves. The family records series contains genealogical research files, files documenting the deaths of various members of the Kudo family, and some personal records of Kathleen Merken that speak to her academic history and work.

The fonds consists of the incoming correspondence to Joan Gillis from a group of young Japanese Canadians she met while attending Queen Elizabeth Secondary School in Surrey. The fonds includes 149 letters and 10 small photographs, referred to colloquially as ‘snaps’ in the letters, sent from a total of 13 different correspondents. The majority of the correspondence took place during 1942 to 1946, with different friends writing from farms and work camps in Northern British Columbia, Manitoba, and Alberta. The letters provide insight into the Japanese Canadian internment, which occurred against the backdrop of a larger cultural context. Since the early 1900s Japanese immigrants and persons of Japanese descent living in Canada were subject to racially targeted legislation, including limits on immigration, limits on fishing licenses, and being denied the right to vote based on racial status.

In the spring of 1941 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) fingerprinted and registered all Japanese Canadians over the age 16, who were required to carry identification cards until 1949. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941, Canada declared war on Japan. The Royal Canadian Navy impounded the fishing boats of the Japanese Canadian fishing community, and within two months 1,200 Japanese Canadian owned boats were sold. On February 24th 1942 the federal government authorized the removal of all persons of Japanese origin, and gave the RCMP the power to search without warrant, to impose a dawn to dusk curfew, and to confiscate all cars, radios, firearms, and cameras. Mass forced dispersal and dispossession ensued, with all Japanese Canadians being sent to internment camps, to work on farms, and perform other forms of hard labor, living in very poor conditions through the much colder winters of Canada’s interior.
The letter-writers discuss their day-to-day life at the camps, living and working conditions, their new schools and teachers, and ask after Gillis’ life in Surrey and the on-goings at Queen Elizabeth (Q.E.) secondary school.
Gillis kept the correspondence bound in twine or ribbon, which is also included in the fonds. A government censor opened and read many, if not all of the letters, and many of the envelopes bear a sticker or stamp marking this. Many of the letters are hand-written, some are typed, and some are written on postcards. Listed at the file level is the full name of each correspondent and his or her specific geographical location.

The collection consists of diaries (1909-1922, 1924-1961), notebooks, copies of sermons, and miscellaneous materials related to Shimizu’s religious work and personal life. Many of the documents reflect his involvement with church congregations and Japanese-Canadian relations.

The fonds consists of minutes and membership rolls (1911-1925).

The fonds consists of thirteen series of records pertaining to the activities of Thomas Berger, including two series of files arranged with reference to file classification schemes, related to party politics and to the Sardar Sarovar Projects Independent Review, as well as eleven series of subject files generally arranged alphabetically, related to the Royal Commission on Family and Children’s Law, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, the Advisory Commission on Indian and Inuit Health Consultation, a proposed United Nations Environmental Programme inquiry on whales and whaling, Japanese Canadians’ redress, the Alaska Native Review Commission, the Canadian Judicial Council and its investigation concerning Berger, the University of British Columbia President’s Ad Hoc Committee on British Columbia Native Indian People and Communities, the Simon Fraser University J. S. Woodsworth Chair committee, speeches given by Berger (arranged by event in subseries of two to seven year periodic groups), and subject files related to aboriginal peoples, the Arctic and the north in general.
There are also files related to his resignation from the Supreme Court of Canada in 1981. The files were used by Berger when he wrote his autobiography <em>One Man’s Justice: A Life in the Law</em>.

The arrangement by the records’ creator of series and file order within series has been respected. Several series contain files housed in multiple folders, indicated by notes where applicable.

This fonds consists mainly of records assembled by McPherson over the course of his professional career. Material documenting McPhersons wartime activities predominates. The fonds contains two sous-fonds. One of these includes a scrapbook and from McPhersons father, Ewan. The other contains research, correspondence and interviews conducted by Kay Alsop in the mid 1990s. Alsop, a prominent Vancouver journalist, intended to write a biography of McPherson but was never able to find a publisher for the book. Alsop therefore decided to donate some of her research files as part of the McPherson fonds. The Alsop Sous-Fonds contains important records which McPherson had given to her, particularly those documenting the decision to intern Japanese-Canadians.

The fonds consists of textual records, photographs, and audiovisual materials, spanning the period 1905-2001, related primarily to Gordon Goichi Nakayama’s career with the Anglican Church of Canada and missionary work, religious and secular research and writing projects (the latter primarily related to Japanese internment and the Japanese Canadian community), as well and his personal and family life and administrative affairs. The fonds is arranged by function and documentary form. The fonds consists of eight series: Personal and administrative records and correspondence; clippings and ephemera; photographs; writings and publications; diaries; notes and notebooks; church and missionary work records; and audio-visual materials

Records related to Nakayama’s roles with the Anglican Church in Vancouver, B.C., and Coaldale, Alta., and his global missionary work include travel documents and itineraries; incoming and outgoing correspondence; church financial records and reports; church publications and parishioner lists; licenses and certificates; conference materials; clippings and ephemera; diaries; notes and notebooks; and other materials.

Records relating to Nakayama’s religious and secular research and writing projects include manuscript and typescript drafts, as well as final published versions, of religious and biographical / autobiographical works, non-fiction works on the Japanese Canadian / Issei community, and poetry, as well as supporting materials, such as publishers’ contracts and correspondence and research materials.

Records related to Nakayama’s personal and family life and administrative affairs includes incoming and outgoing correspondence; address books and directories; maps; photographs; calligraphy and paintings on shikishi; medical records; travel documents and citizenship records; pension records; records and correspondence related to redress; legal documents; certificates, licenses, and membership cards; property and real estate records; banking and financial records; educational records; biographical information; clippings (many related to Joy Kogawa’s writing career), ephemera, and scrapbooks; notes and notebooks; and other materials.

Audio-visual materials consist of two films on three 16 mm film reels on the subject of World War II and Japanese culture.

The fonds reflects Bernard and Jean Webber’s functions as leading members of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, teachers and education administrators, and advocates for local arts, history and Indigenous cultural regeneration. The fonds is comprised of 4 series; Political Papers series, Correspondence and Biographies series, Education and Employment Records series, and Community Activities series. Materials related to Indigenous arts, education and reconciliation are found throughout the fonds. Correspondence is its own series and is also found throughout, including copies of outgoing business correspondence.

Record types include newspaper clippings, correspondence, articles, scrapbooks, speeches, notes, drafts, reports, teaching materials, subject files and other material.

The fonds consists of minutes of the Canadian Japanese Young Men's Christian Association (1931-1942).

The fonds consists of records created and received during the period that the donor worked in the Slocan Valley and later. The fonds consists of a scrapbook and photographs documenting the lives of Japanese Canadian internees in the Lemon Creek internment camp during World War II and their reunions after World War II.

The fonds consists of photographs and textual records which belonged to the Inouye family. The records are related mostly to the father, Zennosuke Inouye and his involvement with the Surrey Berry Farmers Cooperative and his youngest daughter, Kiyooki (Beverly) Inouye. The fonds has been arranged into the following series: Surrey Berry Farmers Cooperative records, correspondence, ephemera, land records, photographs, military records, financial records, and voting records.

The fonds consists of legal documents collected by John Keenlyside over the last thirty five years. The documents give insight into the formation of British Columbia's legal system when it consisted of two colonies. The legal records (including writs, testimony, judgements, and other court documents) were produced by judges, magistrates, defendants, claimants, and other relevant parties. Some figures of historical significance who created legal records in this fonds are the first judge in BC, the first Attorney General, and BC's earliest clergy, businessmen, and other prominent figures from the colonial period.

This fonds also consists of documents related to the British Columbia Provincial Police force and various Japanese-Canadian and civil rights groups.

Fonds consists of materials documenting the activities of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) during four general time periods: the pre-redress period (including records by the National Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association before it became the NAJC), the birth and development of the redress movement in the 1980s, the implementation of redress following the September 1988 settlement (1988 – 1992), and the post-implementation period (1993-present). The fonds has been arranged in the following seven series: NAJC Presidents, NAJC Business, Conferences and Other Events, Finance, Communications, Community Development, and Reference Material.