My maternal grandmother Tabata passed away from cancer in 1980. Grandfather Tabata passed away before I was born and unfortunately I never learned much about him. From what I know, both of my Tabata grandparents were from Wakayama and immigrated to Canada in the 1910’s. Grandfather Tabata was a fisherman and the family lived in...Continue reading
Tag: Family History
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
family historian
My great grandparents passed away while my father was still young, so I had little idea what kind of people they were, or what relationship they had with their nisei children. For a long time, to me, they were just “the ancestors from Japan”. I think it was similar for my Dad and his siblings,...Continue reading
Family History
Every time I think about my family history, I come to realise just how much I’m missing. What I do know comes largely from questions put to my grandmother when I was an adult, and so much of my grandfather’s life remains a mystery. My grandmother was born in Vancouver, where her parents owned a...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
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
Family History
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
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
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
Getting to gosei
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
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
How My Father and Mother Got Together
When it comes to family history, what I think of immediately is how my mother and father got together. My father had a store in Steveston, on Moncton Street, a grocery store, and of course, he couldn’t… he was first-generation Canadian, so he couldn’t speak English that well, and he did have—well, they were called...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
Wakayama to Vancouver to 70 Mile House
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
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
The hard work to build back
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
Impact of family history on my choices
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
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
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
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...
The War Years and Beyond
When the war began in 1941 both my parents were attending the University of BC. Their parents were busy and successful in their respective work in the sawmill industry and retail business.Continue reading
Family history
My grandfather Saiichiro Nagata Higo was born June 17, 1876 in the ninth year of the Meiji era. He emigrated to Canada in 1904 but later returned to Japan to marry Yui Higo (born September 30, 1886) in 1912. Both returned to Canada, residing at Acme Cannery on Sea Island, and Grandfather Higo became a...Continue reading