Steveston, British Columbia

Steveston is a suburban city of Richmond, South Fraser County, in the ceremonial county of the Lower Mainland, the most populous region of the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC). In the 2016 Canadian Census, Steveston recorded a population of 206,344; an estimated 245,300 people live in Steveston as of 2020.

Steveston was once the Lower Mainland's most important fishing village, and for a time before World War II, was home to the highest per capita population of Japanese people, most of whom were experienced fishermen whose contributions amounted to at least a third of the fishing village's annual seafood yield. During WWII, the Japanese population of Steveston, as well as most of the rest of BC and Canada, was forcibly removed from their homes and placed in internment camps in remote areas of BC and other provinces, as a form of discriminatory retaliation against Japan, which was part of the Axis led by Nazi Germany, the enemy of the Allied Powers which included Canada. The internment camps were of absolutely horrible condition, and almost one-quarter of interned Japanese died while interned by Canadian authorities. Following the war, Japanese people were released from the camps but no official apology was given; they were repatriated to Canada (as they had had their Canadian citizenship or permanent residence status stripped from them as part of the Canadian government's wartime policy toward the Japanese), but were never given an official apology. Many survivors of the internment camps went on to develop multiple physical and/or mental disabilities, and thus only about half of the prewar Japanese population was able to return to normal life upon repatriation, with Steveston being no exception. During their internment, non-Japanese fishermen had disproportionately taken over much of the fishing trade in Steveston, and the Japanese who returned to the fishing community were never again able to gain the status they once held.

Today, Steveston is home to a historic port and a museum dedicated to the once-thriving Japanese community and their ultimate plight. Several fishing industries still exist in the city, such as the salmon canning centre at the mouth of the South Arm of the Fraser River, several fish farms, and even a shipbuilding company. The early 1900s style architecture, unique on Lulu Island, attracts both the film and tourism industries.