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
Category: Yonsei
Salmon and Oranges (A Family History)
Whenever my family discusses our history, specifically our immigration from Japan to the West Coast of Canada, food tends to be a central theme. On my dad’s side, descriptions of orange orchards in Japan dominate the conversation while fishing is a topic that comes up most in stories from my mom’s side. My dad speaks...Continue reading
A Slip
My family’s history is a slip tucked under a dress to make self into something else, a thing less driven, less raged less gutted, milked, less ink on the page, some thing to transform being into body, body into subject, subject to sew, a certain seed, to make go, make go like this, to and...Continue reading
Japanese Canadian legacies
To me, the Japanese Canadian story is most meaningful as a story of social justice. Growing up, I often felt alienated from my Japanese ancestry, “less Japanese” than peers whose parents were born in Japan. What eventually made me feel able to claim my identity as a Japanese Canadian wasn’t anything about Japan, but rather...Continue reading
Let me be a part of this community
As a child, most of what I knew about my heritage came to me from my white mother. As far as I am concerned, intermarriage is a non-issue. I think it’s dangerous to think of mixed-race people like myself as any less a part of this community: these types of discussions are alienating to people...Continue reading
I’ve always lived where my family is from
We all grew up in the so-called former “protected zone”. There was no missing piece to my family history growing up. My great-grandfather, a libertarian, sold his own boat. They never lived in the camps. Still, we’re a part of this community. Sometimes, in research, I find one of the names that I’m always watching...Continue reading
Family history
I am the youngest child of the youngest child. My grandparents never spoke about their past with me; I learn about it in bits and pieces through parents, cousins, aunts. As a university student, I studied Japanese Canadian history and kept stumbling across things that looked familiar: Steveston; Buddhist Church. I started to look very...Continue reading
How Do We Identify?
Our history and relationship with our ethnicity is unique because we are both Chinese and Japanese. Especially when we were younger, we felt more defined by the Chinese side of our family history. Since we look more Chinese than we do Japanese, people tend to judge us based on the Chinese stereotypes. This has impacted...Continue reading
Grandma’s Impact on Us
Our grandma, Yukiko, was warm, caring, and loved us unconditionally. She never spoke Japanese to us or talked to us about our roots, but since we were young we thought nothing of it. Our grandma was a product of all that she experienced in her life, and while she took pride in being Japanese, she...Continue reading
Conserving Our Culture
Our grandma passed when we were 6 and 7, and at the time we didn’t realize what we had or might miss later in life. Until recently, we never understood how momentary the Japanese-Canadian culture is. This unique culture, created in such a specific time and space, fades with each generation that passes. If our...Continue reading
Our Family History
Our grandparents were born in the 1920’s in Vancouver BC. Their parents had immigrated to the Canadian West Coast from Gunma, Nagano, and Hiroshima. During the war, our grandmother and grandfather along with their families were interned in Tashme. Both of them were young adults during the time of the internment and had finished high...Continue reading
The Power of History
Why does Japanese Canadian history matter today? To me, Japanese Canadian history matters because it is my history. My family’s history. My great-grandparents moved to Canada and because of that decision, three generations later I call myself Canadian. I carry the language, culture, and legacies of my ancestors inside me. To the community, Japanese Canadian...Continue reading
Reflections on Intermarriage
Photo: my paternal great-grandparents in Moose Jaw, date unknown. From left: George Chohei Endo, Tomie Endo, Dorothy Greenaway, Mel Greenaway. It’s one of the most fascinating things I notice at Japanese Canadian events – there are inter-racial families everywhere! It’s easy for me to believe that within all racialized communities, Japanese Canadians have the highest...Continue reading
Family History
Photo: George Chohei Endo and Tomie Endo with their first daughter, Doreen Fumiko Endo, my paternal grandmother, circa 1931, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan I will start with my grandmother. She was a nisei – her parents moved to Canada from a small town near Sendai in Miyagi-ken, and they settled in Saskatchewan. My grandmother was the...
Learning Kanji
I have been studying Japanese on and off for years now, and I still struggle with the basics. This past summer, I brought home a kanji workbook with 1000 characters that I had traced over the outlines of and tried to commit to memory. Sifting through the stroke order and the onyomi and kunyomi is...Continue reading
Denbatsuke
My grandmother, Connie (Kanako) Komori, is a nisei Japanese Canadian. When I come home to Kamloops for the summer, Connie always asks me how many dozens of jars of canning I can take with me when I go back to school. We pack up boxes of jars after sweating over the canner in the carport...Continue reading
Matsutake
My grandmother, Connie (Kanako) Komori, is a nisei Japanese Canadian who grew up in West Kelowna. Connie used to travel several hours north from our home in Kamloops to Valemount in the fall to pick matsutake. She walked in pine groves towards the hummocks that mushrooms make when they push their fleshy caps towards the...Continue reading
Story about Intergenerational Trauma
In 2019 I went to a pan-American conference of JC communities. It was held in San Francisco, and featured a youth panel which presented discussions and topics from young delegates. We discussed virtual obon, and other ways to connect with each other over distances. An older local attendee criticized the youth representatives about the focus...Continue reading
Thoughts on Intergenerational Trauma
This is not exactly a fresh take, but I think JC communities and families carry a lot of intergenerational trauma. It is common for those who experienced internment, to not discuss it, or brush it off. I don’t blame them one bit for this, many people don’t want to relive memories of pain, of sadness,...Continue reading
A story about dispossession
I wasn’t close to my grandfather, and I didn’t ask much about his internment experience. They had to abandon a lot. They had a chicken farm in Surrey, and a car which they were very proud of. I do know a story about the farm, which I will tell: On the front lawn, there was...Continue reading
My Family History
I’m a mixed race yonsei living in Alberta. I don’t know the account of our family history extremely well. They had a chicken farm in Surrey. Like the other families, that land was stolen and sold off, and the family was moved to work on sugar beet farms in Alberta. My grandfather was the oldest,...Continue reading
Intermarriage and being mixed race
I’m a mixed race yonsei living in Alberta. My dad is Japanese, my mom is white. They were married in the mid eighties, and it was not agreeable to my dad’s parents. As an adult I became involved with the local JC community. At a pan-American conference for JC communities in 2019, the issue of...Continue reading
How loss of language affects me
My father was born in the mid 50’s and hardly learned Japanese, even though both his parents were fluent. There was no Japanese spoken at my home. My parents attempted to enrol me in the local Japanese school when I was young, and though I wasn’t rejected, the principal suggested I may not mesh with...Continue reading
My identity
I am a yonsei, and I identify as a mixed race Japanese Canadian. My great grandfather immigrated from Japan, which means the Japanese side of my family has been in Canada longer than my white side. I am in my mid thirties, I believe I am slightly older than the typical yonsei. I am half...Continue reading