In the last two years, I was fortunate enough to be able to participate twice online in the Japanese American pilgrimages to incarceration sites. There were 9 weeks of insightful videos, movies and online experiences of the concentration camps as well as healing circles to participate in. I shed many tears as I journeyed through...Continue reading
Author: Ellen Hayakawa
What is your family’s history from your perspective?
My ancestral lineage is rooted for centuries in the lands of Shizuoka and Hiroshima. I’ve visited both of those lands and felt those deep roots in Japan. I felt and can still feel that those roots are ancient, strong and steeped in family, cultural, and religious traditions. Whereas my families’ attempts to root in Canada...Continue reading
The Present
Question from Tsunagu: In recent years (particularly since the arrival of COVID-19), we have seen a rise in anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-Asian hate crimes. We see a disproportionate number of racialized people, too, enduring homelessness, criminalization, police violence, and other forms of struggle. Do you see a thread of connectivity between these conditions and what...Continue reading
What is your perspective on this high rate of intermarriage?
I feel that that the partnership of two souls who resonate and/or who feel that they have a destiny together is what works in marriage. I don’t think that there is or should be any issue about intermarriage. However given the past traumatic history of Canadians of Japanese ancestry, it’s possible that trauma had an...Continue reading
Growing up, parenting and family relations
The impact of the violence my grandparents experienced and my parents experienced growing up, definitely impacted the way I was raised. There were words of advice that like mantras were repeated over and over: Get a good education so you can get a good job. Others can take away your material possessions but no one...Continue reading
Do you see trauma showing up in your family, if at all? How?
I don’t feel that I can speak on behalf of other family members about any trauma that they may or may not have or experienced. But I will speak about my own, including how it relates to ancestral trauma. The first time I was a target of racist remarks was when I was old enough...Continue reading
How would you describe your relationship to the 1940s incarceration, dispersal, and dispossession of Japanese Canadians?
My relationship to the 1940’s incarceration, dispersal and dispossession has changed, deepened and evolved over time. My mother spoke about being “evacuated” from the Coast and “interned” for as far back as I can remember in dinner time conversation. I didn’t ask all the questions of my parents that now, I wish I had. Their...Continue reading