The Adventures of Bean-chan by Emiko Newman

Wakumi’s World by Alexis Rae Wakumi Seyforth

Hi everyone!
Last month we participated in the Powell Street Festival at Oppenheimer Park and would like to thank everyone who attended for another great festival. The GVJCCA thanks the many volunteers and appreciates all donations for the salmon barbeque, vegetables for the Human Rights Committee booth, and books for the Nihongo Committee. Thanks also go to volunteers at the GVJCCA human rights and community booth. This year was a special challenge as we were uncertain as to whether we would be able to have a salmon bbq due to the …

Here in Canada, and in British Columbia in particular, turning nineteen comes along with a great deal responsibility. Whisked away so suddenly from minor-hood into adulthood, this is the age when children are, legally at least, sent off for their first taste of the “real” world.
The right to buy Lotto tickets (scratch and win BINGO tickets, finally!), the right to enter into a binding contract (for example, getting your very own cell phone), the right to purchase and consume alcohol (…hmm…), the right to purchase and consume tobacco (although the …

What a wonderful July—so many hours of sunshine! Writing this in early August so I’m hoping the summer weather continues over this month.
I would like to share my favourite zucchini bread with you. One year my husband planted three zucchini plants and I had zucchini coming out of my ears. I baked 75 loaves that year and of course they were for family, friends, neighbours and bake sales and meetings. It is so moist and delicious! Being a chocoholic, I love it.
CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI LOAF CAKE
3 medium eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup …

When the Japanese Canadian Redress settlement was signed on September 22, 1988, I was 29 years old. Although the settlement had no direct impact on me, there was one way that I did benefit directly. A short time after the cheques were mailed out, I went on tour in Europe with Uzume Taiko and Kokoro Dance. As I was going to be overseas on my birthday, my mother gave me $310 in honour of the 31st birthday I’d be celebrating in Frankfurt. We never had much money to spare as …

Takashi Yamada and Natsuko Fukushima are long-time members of the Vancouver Kendo Club. Both were recently chosen to join the Canadian National Team and will compete in the 14th World Kendo Championships to be held a year from now in Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 26-31, 2009.
Takashi Yamada was born in Japan but immigrated to Canada with his family when he was five years old. At the urging of his mother, who did kendo in Japan, he and his two younger sisters took up the sport. Currently, Takeshi, his mother, and …

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement
By Tatsuo Kage

Although he passed away in 2006, Mr. Jack Rose is an unforgettable person for me. The impression I had of him was of a gentle Canadian, and it was hard to imagine from his reserved and quiet personality that he actually experienced severe maltreatment during his captivity as a prisoner of war under the Japanese military. Although he faced a strong backlash from his former fellow prisoners-of-war, he was an earnest supporter of the Redress movement, …

The history of kendo in the lower mainland goes back to the early 1900s when Kentaro Tsuzuki established the Yoki Kan dojo in Steveston. By the time the internment forced Japanese Canadians from the coast in 1942 there were at least six kendo dojo in British Columbia—in Vancouver, Steveston, New Westminster, Sunbury, Whonnock, and Woodfibre.
The specialized equipment came directly from Japan, a suit costing upwards of $100, a great deal of money in those days. Visiting instructors from Japan would pass through occasionally, supplementing the instruction of the local instructors, …

A VISIT TO THE FORMER INTERNMENT SITES IN THE INTERIOR OF BC

July 28 To August 1, 2008
This year is the 20th anniversary of the Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement of September 22, 1988. It‘s been 62 years since my family and I left the New Denver Internment Camp and moved to Edmonton Alberta. Our move had been part of the federal government’s resettlement program, removing all people of the Japanese race from BC. Dick Nakamura, Roy Katsuyama and I planned to celebrate this 20th anniversary by taking a car trip and …

MIYAKAWA SENSEI CHANTS FOR PEACE ‘MAY PEACE PREVAIL IN OUR WORLD’

Sensei Yasuhiro Miyakawa, Resident Minister of the BC Interior Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temples (Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon), held a 12-hour Continuous Chanting Marathon at the Kamloops Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple on August 6, 2008, to commemorate the tragic loss of life that resulted from the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima on that date, 63 years ago and also the victims of Nagasaki three days later.
Surrounded by thousands of tiny paper cranes, Miyakawa Sensei sat cross-legged on a pillow on the hardwood floor …