Building on The Ashes of the Ancestors: Steveston Buddhist Temple's Sanmon Gate and the Afterlives of Internment

This paper will examine the religious dimensions of the internment of Japanese Canadians (1942-1949). By drawing on archival materials, The Landscapes of Injustice Project, and contemporary temple discourse, I will also argue that the destruction of Buddhist temples and other spaces and objects during the internment was intended to erase not just the Japanese community but their spiritual foundations in Canada. As such, I contend that the sanmon gate is a place where memories of injustice, the present, and the future are negotiated. I argue that Steveston Buddhist Temple's newly built sanmon gate functions as a nostalgic reconstruction of Japanese Buddhist—specifically Jōdo Shinshū—space in Steveston, a return to land that was once taken by the state, and as a launch pad for future-oriented projects at Steveston Buddhist Temple. This paper allows us to start building an understanding of Japanese Canadian religious space during the internment, now, and in the future.