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
Tag: Effect of Incarceration on Family
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??
Impact of the incarceration on the family
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
Loss of community
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
Property dispossession
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
Intergenerational trauma
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
Child rearing
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
Intermarriage
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
How the children / grandchildren relate to JC culture and traditions
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
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
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
Affect of the war years and racism
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
Post War Life
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
Incarceration, dispersal and dispossession
I believe that the collective response by the Japanese Canadian elders was to forget this painful part of history. In some way they may have felt that they must have done something to deserve such unjust actions of the Government. I think this is the primary reason no one spoke about internment growing up in...Continue reading
Education was important
I remember, I wanted to be a nurse. I applied to VGH. My mom didn’t say anything then. But Mr George, the principal, called me in and said: “Nursing is three years. It takes three years to be a nurse. This is the last year they are going to offer one year teacher training. Why...Continue reading
Values passed on from parents
My parents were poor and they lost everything. I know how important things were to my mom. We only had a few ochawan [bowls]. Not like now. We have so many things. Before we only had so many rice bowls and so many plates. We had to be very careful that we didn’t drop the...Continue reading
Parents never spoke about the internment
We never talked about what happened to us. We just played our little games, went to school. We slept; we ate. If we asked our parents, they always said: “You don’t need to know. Just study. Get a good education. Get a good job.” We were told: “It’s finished. Just think of something else. Think...Continue reading
How the Incarceration Affected Family
Yosh's siblings were still in school when they were removed from Vancouver to Grand Forks. They ranged in age from 8 to 18. The eldest daughter Fumi was just a month shy of high school graduation. The school sent her her graduation diploma.Continue reading