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
Tag: Steveston
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
Growing up, parenting, and family relations
I do not believe that my parents or grandparents impacted the way we were raised. We did not experience any racist actions in school as we made up approximately 30—50% of the school population. Also when I returned home, my neighborhood was comprised of primarily Japanese Canadian families and so my social circle did not...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
Return to Steveston
I grew up at Pacific Coast Camp until we moved in 1967 to a home on Gilbert Road, in Richmond. Pacific Coast Camp – Cannery house in top right of the picture with the sloping roof is No. 12 where I grew up. Growing up in Steveston, I was not aware of the internment of...Continue reading