My father’s family were fisherman before the war. They had several boats and owned property on River Road on Lulu Island when they were forced from the west coast. They spent the war years from 1942-1945 in Taylor Lake, a self-supporting community close to 100 Mile House. They cut jack pine in the winter for a tie mill that operated in the community. My grandmother apparently learned how to make tofu and sold it to other families. The Komori’s were a very large family of nine children. Their father died in 1945 at age 66 in the Lytton hospital. My uncles say that he died a “broken man” having worked hard his entire life to build a foundation for his family only to have it abruptly taken away.
In 1945, the family moved from Taylor Lake (above photo taken by Hayao (Art) Komori) to East Lillooet, another self-supporting community. The older brothers moved in 1948 to Tin Cup close to Green Lake in the Cariboo to start a logging and sawmilling operation. The business continued to grow and in 1954/55, they moved the mill to 70 Mile House.
My father and brother dangerously close to that saw.
The mill was eventually sold in 1977. The older brothers had all moved to Vancouver and the younger brothers stayed in the Cariboo working for other logging operations.
