Both my mother and father’s parents immigrated from Japan in the early 1900’s. I’ve focussed a lot of my time on my father’s family because we no longer have any relatives in Japan. This mystery of what happened to them peaked my curiosity. My grandfather Matsunosuke Komori was a second son. We were told that...Continue reading
My father’s family were fisherman before the war. They had several boats and owned property on River Road on Lulu Island when they were forced from the west coast. They spent the war years from 1942-1945 in Taylor Lake, a self-supporting community close to 100 Mile House. They cut jack pine in the winter for...Continue reading
Above photos of my grandparents: Left is Matsunosuke and Haru Komori newly married around 1913. Right is Nisa and Kin Mochizuki taken in Japan in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s. I never met my grandfathers who likely were the most impacted by the racist treatment in Canada. For my grandmothers, this history seemed like just one...Continue reading
The Komori’s did not move after the war when the orders to relocate yet again came down. They stayed in the Cariboo rebuilding their lives. I find it interesting that the government did not seem to worry about the many Japanese Canadians who did not comply with official orders as long as they remained outside...Continue reading
Landscapes of Injustice provided amazing documentation of the Komori properties. The files were hundreds of pages long. They owned two pieces of property on Lulu Island in Eburne: acerage for their house which included a small vegetable garden and fruit trees and the other for a boathouse with rudimentary accommodation for a few renters. They...Continue reading
Growing up, I was not aware of the crazy, hard work my father (pictured above on the left) and uncles undertook to regain all they lost during the war. They wanted an easier life for us and realized that through education we could succeed. I definitely grew up in a different time than my parents....Continue reading
Our history matters. We can still see the same systems, the same attitudes, the same rhetoric in place today directed at other marginalized communities. We can replace “Japs” with racist slurs for Muslims, Indigenous peoples, Blacks and on and on. We personally may not face the same overt levels of racism of our parents and...Continue reading
I’ll pull out the tropes now. Representation matters. I was responsible for marketing the University of Toronto’s Continuing Studies program in the 1980’s. I produced 300,000+ program calendars and distributed them through the Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto. It had pretty wide reach. This was a time before the internet. I would make sure...Continue reading
