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
Tag: Loss of Language
How do you self identify? Issues around language
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
identity: the struggle is me
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
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
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
Intermarriage
Since the internment and subsequent dispersal of the JC community greatly served to weaken cultural and language bonds, and integrate JCs into the larger, English-speaking Caucasian population, it’s no surprise that there is such a high out-marriage rate among JCs. When I was growing up, there were hardly any other JCs in my high school,...Continue reading
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
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
When a Language Dies
“When a language dies. We lose cultures, entire civilizations but also we lose people. We lose perspectives, ideas, opinions, most importantly we lose a unique way of being human.” Trevor English: “What Happens When a Language Dies and is Forgotten” It’s only been in the recent past, since Redress mainly, that I’ve been looking seriously...Continue reading