My Nikkei community – do you remember your outrage, your parents or grandparents outrage when you were forced from your homes and shuttled off into deplorable living conditions or to war-ravaged Japan? Do you remember how you felt when your family was torn apart? When the uncertainty of their wellbeing kept you up at night?...Continue reading
Author: Kenji Tokawa
We are still lost
I don’t speak Japanese. The war took the urge from my grandparents to pass it down to my father, and to me. I am mixed-race. The war discouraged my father’s parents from settling in neighbourhoods with other Japanese. His stories of internalized racism are not mine to tell. But they are no less real. We...Continue reading
Barrel of shiner eggs
When she and I visited Ucluelet for the first time since 1942, my Bachan told me so many stories. One I would like to share is about her job. She was only about 14 when the evacuation order came. She had been working at a cannery for “shiners” as she calls them, beheading and gutting them for piece-meal pay.Continue reading
Getting to gosei
My great grandparents were the most recent generation to have lived in Japan. On my Bachan’s side, my great grandmother had to eat sweet potatoes because the family couldn’t afford rice, despite it being their livelihood crop. She braved coming to a foreign country alone, without the language, to make a life with the husband...Continue reading