My paternal grandfather died in 1924 when my dad was 4 years old. My dad, his parents, and his younger sister were living in a small fishing community in Canoe Pass in Delta, BC with several other families from their village of Ibusuki in Kagoshima. My grandfather had been a fisherman and died at sea....Continue reading
Defining Nikkei as Issei, Nisei, Sansei has its challenges. My maternal great grandfather Takejiro Toyota came to Canada in 1907, and was joined by his wife, Hama and their 13 year old son, Shoshichi in 1910. Can two generations have the same designation?Continue reading
Since first hearing about my family and the Japanese Canadian experience during the war from a reluctant father through a Grade 8 Social Science assignment, I have always been curious to learn more about my heritage, including learning the language and studying Japanese creative and martial arts. Although I expected I might glean stories from...Continue reading
It was difficult to learn about the forced uprooting and internment of the Japanese Canadians growing up because it was not taught in Ontario when I was in school. It is not much better for my kids even here in BC today where it is an integral part of their history. It is great to...Continue reading
My father, Saijiro Miyasaki, came from Amakusa, Kumamoto and my mother, Mitsuye(Soga), came from Otsu, Kumamoto. I’m not sure what year my father came to Canada but he was born April 30, 1886, so it was early in the 1900’s. My father was employed as a house boy where he learned to speak and write...Continue reading
I don’t have many memories from that time. However, I remember my mother saying that she had to take me to the sugar beet fields with her. I can kind of remember those days when my sister and I were left under the shade of trees. Many of the sugar beet workers came from the...Continue reading
I was four at the time. My sister Naomi was two. We don’t remember much of that time. Like many of the Issei, our parents never spoke about the evacuation so we didn’t know too much about it or how it affected our parents and family. My father never spoke about it. All that I...Continue reading
I feel that had we stayed on the farm, my father would have been healthier and had a better quality of life. He was an entrepreneur in his early years. Both my parents worked hard and achieved much to have it all suddenly taken away. My father worked until he was at least 75 and...Continue reading
When the war ended, my family was already east of the Rockies in Winnipeg. The Japanese community was not large in Winnipeg. We all knew each other. After a while, many of my mother’s former neighbours from Mount Lehman and her very good friends left Winnipeg to go to Ontario where opportunities for work were...Continue reading
NOTE: Janice is Jean’s daughter Janice: I think my dad would have been so much better off if he and his family had gone into internment camps. He would have had community. I think all the families would have done better being together with other Japanese families. Jean: When I first went to school in...Continue reading
In Mount Lehman, my parents built the farm from scratch. They had a two storey, eight room house. Plus they had a picker house and barns. They also had chickens. They owned a truck to transport fruit to the Empress jam factory. Before they were forcibly removed, my father rented the property and sold the...Continue reading
Certainly, I think the treatment of Japanese Canadians had an effect on families. We knew we were expected to be better, to excel in what we were doing and try to fit in as much as possible, which we tried to do. Schooling was very important. Raising our own children, we probably expected more from...Continue reading
Question: We hear nisei quite often tell their children: You have to be better and you have to do your best. Do you feel that you passed those kinds of values on to your children? Jean: I hope I did. Certainly their education was very important to them as well as to us. I don’t...Continue reading
We did not have many conversations relating to these times. However, my grandchildren have studied Japanese Canadian history in school and through this, the questions and conversations are coming out. I am trying to explain our experiences as I remember them, but I was so young. I think it’s very important that they learn this...Continue reading
I know my parents and certainly my husband’s parents didn’t want us marrying “out.” They were quite happy that both my sister and I married Japanese. But when it came to our children, my parents never said anything. I don’t know what the future is going to bring. I don’t know why there is such...Continue reading
Jean: The food mostly. I take them to the Buddhist Temple for special occasions like Obon and Shotsuki (Memorial) services. I think it’s important to introduce them to as many Japanese experiences as possible. Also, the Nikkei Centre is very helpful in this way. Janice: I think the food for my kids. Also, they all...Continue reading
Being in Manitoba with few Japanese in those days, I stood out and sometimes I was made to feel different. I haven’t experienced many racist acts, but certainly you can feel it. It doesn’t have to be said or acted on. You sort of feel it. We tried so hard to be accepted. I believe...Continue reading
Jean: I identify as Japanese Canadian Janice: I would say the same. I think for me growing up in Winnipeg, I identified more as Japanese and I was different from my friends and classmates. Jean: There weren’t many Japanese people, especially in school. We were the only Japanese or Asian people in school. Janice: We...Continue reading
A yonsei in the Canadian prairies, reclaiming and preserving Japanese heritage was a principle I grew up with, but it often felt external and performative; how I am seen, as opposed to how I see; what I learned to do with my community rather than what I knew to do at home. Being mixed race,...Continue reading
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
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
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
If I tell someone I am "Japanese", their picture forms immediately.Continue reading
My family is from Kumamoto (on my Dad’s side) and Fukuoka and Hiroshima (on my Mom’s side). They then moved to New Westminister (on my Dad’s side), Pitt Meadows, and Maple Ridge (on my Mom’s side). Eventually, they ended up on farms around Lethbridge. My grandparents definitely did not talk about what happened. On my...Continue reading
I don’t know many details about my family history. What I do know is that my family on both my mom and dad’s side were put on farms and not in camps — that’s how we ended up in Southern Alberta. Our history is pretty fuzzy for a couple of reasons: people didn’t want to...Continue reading
