Whenever we have visitors from Japan, they always bring us gifts and I’m always in a quandary what to send back with them. I heard they like our Maple syrup since they use it for a lot of their cooking and they were happy, although it was quite heavy.

Hi everyone!
Gee, hasn’t the weather been fantastic! We are so lucky to live on the west coast, able to wake up every day and enjoy the wonderful mountains with the Pacific Ocean close by. During our hot spell I hope all our seniors are staying cool and drinking lots of water so as not to get too dehydrated. Also it is important to wear a hat when in the direct sunlight.
The Powell Street Festival will be taking place on August 2 and 3 and the GVJCCA will be running its …

Unlike North America, where wheat is still relatively plentiful, Japan relies on imported wheat for staples like bread and noodles. So rising price of wheat products is also driving Japanese consumers toward rice.

I am looking a man by the name of Aki. When my husband, Donato Cianci (he was known as Don then) was a young boy in West Vancouver, he had a playmate by the name of Aki. His last name was not important but their friendship was. Together they climbed trees and spent a lot of splendid time together. Aki would have lived at a house at approximately 2609 or 2611 Nelson Street in West Vancouver. My husband remembers the day, likely in December 1941 when he went to call …

By Mike Girard
My mother Doris, along with my uncle Tony and grandparents, Chiaki and Ise Katsuno, were interned at Tashme in 1942. Their experiences and the plight of all the Japanese interned during the War were basically unknown to me. Last summer, I went to the sight for the first time and learned that the place is called Sunshine Valley, a vacation and recreational area. There is no sign of Tashme, no monument or marker of any kind indicating that over 2,400 Japanese were interned and lived there. I walked …

I finally received a call from Minister Weiner’s office at noon on September 21st that the redress announcement would be made the following day. I contacted the members of the Strategy Committee to book their flight to Ottawa and informed community leaders of the great news. It was difficult for all of us to remain silent when we were receiving calls from the community and media about the negotiation meetings.

The dream of Redress for Japanese Canadians began to take shape during the 1977 Centennial year when, for the first time since the wartime dispersal, the community began to coalesce—to come together with common cause and purpose. It was a time of renewed pride and energy and it also marked the rise of the sansei as a force within the community. A generation removed from the internment experience and almost completely assimilated into mainstream society, many sansei had only a vague idea of what their parents and grandparents had been …

From the outside, to those who have never attended the Folk Festival, it can seem like nothing more than an exotic mélange of aging hippies, pierced, tattooed youths and assorted other anti-establishment types squatting in the dirt in front of small stages to listen to music that would never be heard anywhere else outside of the CBC.