Tamura Family

Toyoshige Tamura [1897 – 1979]

Shizuko Tamura [1920 – 2020]

Hideho Tamura (nee Hashida) [1918 – 1998]

Toyoshige Tamura was born on January 17, 1894, in Kochi-ken, Japan, to Jujiro and Mineo (nee Hashimoto). He came to Canada in 1913 and was a self-employed fisherman in Steveston, BC. He married Hideo Matsuoka and had two children: Shizuko and Yoshikazu. After Hideo died in 1924, the children were returned to Japan to be raised by family in Japan. Yoshikazu likely died at a very young age, and Shizuko was there until she returned to Canada in the late 1930s or early 1940s. 

Shizuko married Hideho Hashida on October 4. 1941, in Steveston. Hideho took his wife’s surname and became known as Hideho Tamura. They had four children: Kimiko June, Akiko (both born in Canada), Yutaka, and James (both born in Japan).

In 1942, the family were forcibly uprooted to Hastings Park, where their first child Kimiko, was born, then the family moved to Tashme, BC, where their second child, Akiko, was born.

After the war ended, the family returned to Japan in August 1946, and Yutaka and James were born in Japan. The family returned to Canada once again, likely in the early 1950s, then moved to Revelstoke in 1958.

Shizuko worked many jobs until she gained full-time employment at the old Queen Victoria Hospital, located on First Street. When the present Queen Victoria Hospital was opened in 1971, she worked in the kitchen until she retired in 1985.

Toyoshige Tamura passed away on September 14, 1979, in Revelstoke, at the age of 82.

Hideho Tamura passed away on June 22, 1998, in Revelstoke, at the age of 80. Shizuko Tamura passed away on February 2, 2020, in Revelstoke, at the age of 99.

Yutaka Tamura passed away on June 30, 1997, in Revelstoke, at the age of 48.

One of Hideho and Shizuko’s grandchildren and her family are still living in Revelstoke as of 2025.

From The Revelstoke Review, May 6, 1981.