A wooden shack that was once used by the government to intern Japanese Canadians during World War II will be restored after a local initiative to preserve New Denver history helped move the entire structure to a new location, saving it from demolition.

Local history preservationist Bob Inwood told KCR News that the structure is intact and remarkably well preserved, despite being built on a mass scale to house Japanese Canadians who were forcibly taken from their homes and put in internment camps in the B.C interior in the 1940s. The history of the particular shack, known as "House of Joyful Tidings," plays a role in the history and community that locals and Japanese nationals, who remained in the area beyond the war years, shared.

"It functioned as a meeting place for the Japanese-Canadian community in the United Church, and at the same time also allowed for some intermingling between the Japanese and Anglo-community" - Hear the story by KCR on the New Denver building below: