Masakichi Saito

Role: Miner and logger

Date of birth: 15 Jan 1882

Date of death: 07 Jan 1936

Cause of death: Logging accident

Age at death: 54

Masakichi Saito was born in the Amori Ken region of Japan, and immigrated to Canada in 1909-1910. He worked in the No. 4 mine in Cumberland until 1935, then for various logging companies in the valley. He and his family (his wife Chise and their 8 children) lived at 2203 Comox Lake Road in Cumberland, which is known as the Saito house, and is the last remaining original building in the No. 1 Japanese town site. The Saito family lived on the property until the internment of British Columbia's Japanese communities in 1942. After 1945 the Saito family settled in Toronto.