Description of Historic Place

Hastings Park is the City of Vancouver's second largest park, a 62 hectare site bounded by Renfrew, East Hastings and McGill streets and Highway 1 in the eastern part of Vancouver, B.C. The park is home to the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), a non-profit organization operated by the City of Vancouver which manages and maintains the buildings, facilities and public park areas.

The historic place consists of six sites within Hastings Park, including the Livestock Building, PNE Forum, Rollerland and the Garden Auditorium (1929- 1940), all are buildings associated with the PNE; the Hastings Park Internment Commemoration Plaque (1989); and Momiji Gardens (1993).

Heritage Value

Hastings Park has historic, cultural, social and aesthetic value through its direct association with the World War II internment of almost 22,000 Japanese Canadians from the west coast of B.C., its relationship to other internment sites across the province, and its association to apology and redress that came later. Hastings Park is provincially valued as a physical testament and reminder of the trauma and fear suffered by Japanese Canadians through the experience of evacuation, internment, the separation of families and repellent living conditions.

Officially called the Hastings Park Manning Pool, the site has historic value because it was expropriated by the Department of National Defense and the BC Security Commission in April 1942 to house detained Japanese Canadians. The site operated as a detention centre for about 8,000 Japanese Canadians living inside the Protected Area but outside the Lower Mainland prior to their relocation to internment or work camps in other areas of B.C. and Canada.

Hastings Park is a reminder of the myriad acts of humiliation, confusion and fear experienced by Japanese Canadians, such as internees' daily removal by train to internment camps or work projects, the direct supervision of all of their movements by the RCMP and the Canadian Army, or the use of the Hastings Park grounds to collect and store Japanese Canadian impounded vehicles.

While the site, buildings, plaque and gardens together have overarching significance because of their relationship to internment and their representation of racist cultural and social institutions, each has a level of individual value within the site's wider context.

The Art Moderne-style Livestock Building, which housed women and children, is representative of the poor conditions and unsanitary living quarters at Hastings Park despite the B.C. Security Commission falsely reporting that the camp was kept scrupulously clean. The Art Deco PNE Forum was used to separate men and boys aged 12 to 17 from their families prior to being sent to road and work camps.

The Art Deco Rollerland became a dormitory and education space for up to almost 200 teenage boys under the supervision and guidance of Reverend Yoshio Ono from the United Church of Canada. A former dance hall, the Art Moderne-style Garden Auditorium is notable for its use as an educational facility for Japanese Canadian children and teenagers during their internment at Hastings Park.

Established in 1993 by the Vancouver Japanese Gardeners' Association, Momiji Garden symbolizes peace, good will and good relations between Japanese Canadians and other citizens of B.C. A first step in the greening of Hastings Park, the Garden is significant as a celebration of the history, culture and contribution that Japanese Canadians have made across the province.

Created in 1984 by Parks Canada, the Commemoration Plaque is significant for its acknowledgement of the internment as a significant national event by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. The re-placement of the plaque within Momiji Garden in 1993 is an important integration of these two gestures of apology and cultural recognition.

The Internment Commemoration Plaque and Momiji Garden together have social and spiritual value for being representative of the eventual recognition of the trauma of internment, of apology and redress, and of the resilience of Japanese Canadian culture in B.C. They provide a reminder of the importance of understanding, knowledge, and good relationships between communities.

Hastings Park is valued as a reminder of the social costs of the Japanese Canadian incarceration, both through the demoralization of daily life, the cruel separation of families and the poor living conditions, but also as a representation of the resilience of the human spirit.

Character-Defining Elements

Not applicable