. Many others were drowned in the river due to the collapse of unfinished bridges. Then the Canadian winter brought another dimension of hardships to the workers. Arriving from a warm climate, none of the Chinese workers were ready for the severe winter of British Columbia. There were few medical facilities and many died from scurvy. The dead were not buried either, instead, they were simply left beside the tracks and covered with rocks and dirt. There is a famous photo of the driving of the Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Ironically, there is not a single Chinese face in the photo even though the contribution of the Chinese was tremendous and the railway would not have been completed without their hard work and dedication.Immediately after the CPR was completed in 1885, the Chinese were unwelcome in the province. From that time on, the government made it increasingly hard for Chinese to immigrant. Those who decided to stay in Canada faced growing racism. Asian children were discouraged from attending school, professional jobs were closed to all Asians, the right to vote was denied to them, and economic problems were blamed on their willingness to work harder for less money. Because of the discrimination and the barring of opportunities, both the Chinese and Japanese formed there own ethnic enclaves where they could support one another financially and emotionally and where their language and cultures could safely be expressed.In 1877, the first Japanese immigrants, called Issei, began to come to Canada. Most that came were young men who were products of poor and overcrowded fishing and farming villages from the islands of Kyushu and Honshu. With skills best adapted to the rural village economy of a society, they had little to offer. The one exception was in the fishing industry, to which some brought skills and knowledge. As a result, the Japanese came to be concentrated in that industry at the end of the 19t...
