When I taught ELL at a secondary school, one of the oral assignments I used to give was to ask students to talk about 3-5 important things they would bring to their new homes. Now as I think about my parents and the evacuation and how difficult this must have been for my family and...Continue reading
Category: Sansei
Returning to Steveston
When I was 11 my family moved from Montreal to Steveston. My father was a fisherman and didn’t want to commute from Montreal anymore. I remember how shocked I was walking down Moncton Street and seeing so many Japanese people. I had never seen so many, it felt like being in a foreign country. As...Continue reading
“Senso no mae”
My grandparents and my parents had a unique timeline. “Senso no mae” referred to their life before the evacuation and somehow, they never really had a word or phrase they used for the evacuation. Painful memories-best to forget??
Steveston property
When I see the house on the corner of 4th Avenue and Chatham I recall the story I was told about my Jiichan who once offered to buy my grandmother that particular house which still stands to this day. Perhaps that was a good call on my grandmother’s part because they would have lost it...Continue reading
The Future
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
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
Topping sugar beets
Words like “topping” and “thinning” were used often when my family would talk about working in the sugar beet fields. I never really thought about what they really meant until I went on the sugar beet trip in 2019. Someone demonstrated how the tops of the giant beets were hacked off using the very large...Continue reading
First winter
My mom’s family are story tellers. Family gatherings and dinners would usually end up with them talking about their past – growing up in pre-war Steveston and then the war years in Turin, Alberta working the sugar beet fields. And their stories would often include some humour which would result in much laughter. I think...Continue reading
My grandfather
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
1 – On Generations
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
2 – On Intermarriage
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
3 – On Education
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
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
How I Identify
If I tell someone I am "Japanese", their picture forms immediately.Continue reading
Incarceration, Dispersal, and Dispossession
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
Family History
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
Family History
My father, Yoshio, was born and raised in Vancouver, the oldest of six children of Arthur Kozo (1887-1957) and Tomeko (1901-1992) Arai. In 1942, after signing an agreement which stipulated that no one in the family would ever ask the government for financial assistance, Dad’s family was allowed to move, intact, to Sunnyside farm, about...Continue reading
Learning About Internment
When I was growing up, I would hear about the internment anecdotally from my father. Sometimes he would say “when we were kicked outta here …” when he was referencing something that happened to him or his family either here in Vancouver or later in Grand Forks. Dad was a young adult at the time...Continue reading
The Impact of Dispersal and Dispossession
The uprooting of the Japanese Canadian community irreparably slashed the social fabric that had previously provided threads of connection between and among friends and families. Formerly strong bonds were severed by time and distance. Many JCs, especially the Issei and older Nisei, sadly never had a chance to see some of their friends or family...Continue reading
Living in Japan and Learning Japanese
Knowing the difficult lives that my grandparents had here in Canada early on made me curious about the country they left behind. In spite of my staunch childhood declaration that I would never have any interest in ever travelling to Japan, I participated in the UBC-Japan Exchange Program, visiting Japan for six weeks when I...Continue reading
Language Classes
I’m sure my parents wanted us kids to learn to speak Japanese in the hopes that we might develop an interest Japanese culture. Growing up, my sisters and I were forced to attend Saturday morning Japanese language classes at Kitsilano Community Centre for about five seemingly extra long years. For me, that was from ages...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