As 2009 winds down, it’s time to take a collective deep breath. Just try not to take in any water while you’re doing it—the seas have been rather rough of late. Between the icecaps melting, the economy tanking, and the H1N1 virus spreading like a bad rumour, it sometimes seems that the waves are breaking over the bow faster than we can bail.
Yes, it’s been a tumultuous and sometimes depressing year in many ways, the election of Barrack Obama notwithstanding. While the election of the first African American (well, mixed-race) …

BRRRR! It’s getting chilly outside. Hope it continues for the 2010 Olympics. Judy Nishi sent me her favourite recipe for Christmas and here it is. Thanks Judy.

To the editor
I just wanted to thank you for publishing Dr. Henry Shimizu’s account of his visit to New Denver and the site of some of the other internment camps in the B.C. interior last fall in The Bulletin. I had read the account and used it to help me plan my own first ever trip to New Denver this September as part of the research for my own book. It was a remarkable visit for me as both my mother’s and father’s families had been sent to New Denver …

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizen’s Association and our families, I would like to extend a special Merry Christmas and Holiday Season to each and every one of our members, your families, and the Nikkei community at large. Although this time of year is mainly considered a Christian holiday season, I have always liked to think that in celebrating the holiday season we can support all denominations, whether it’s through special words or gifts of kindness.

Why don’t young Japanese these days want to venture out? Some say it’s because of the economic downturn but then, the Japanese were generally poorer in the old days. The columnist concludes that people would rather go to a hot-spring resort inside Japan where they can relax feeling “mattari.” Having apparently entered general usage about five years ago, the word “mattari” is nowadays even used by elementary school kids.

One lesson that I have learned is that racial bigotry and discrimination is still prevalent in our society. We Japanese Canadian have been accepted as equals as we have integrated with other ethnic groups, but I fear for the backlash against the Chinese and Indo Canadians who live in close-knit communities as in Richmond and Surrey. In Japan I saw discrimination against the Koreans and the “eta” people and I was able to empathize with them because of my own wartime experience.

By Sean McIntyre – Gulf Islands Driftwood
reprinted by permission

Richard Murakami has a poem by Mother Theresa hanging on the wall of his Rainbow Road garage.
It speaks of hard work, modesty and dealing with adversity.
The words pretty much sum up Murakami’s philosophy and character.
Perseverance helped him rebuild his life on the island after the federal government seized Japanese-Canadian owned assets during the Second World War.
Kindness and generosity have encouraged him to help other islanders overcome hardships of their own.
And success has helped him become a member of the island’s business elite.
Of …

As a seven-year-old boy in the Rosebery internment camp, Henry Wakabayashi used to play by the shores of Slocan Lake, which lay just outside the small home that he shared with his family. At seven, Wakabayashi had little concept of the stresses put on his family and thousands of other Japanese Canadians by the expulsion from the coast brought on by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Instead, he remembers an idyllic childhood exploring the woods, filled with deer and moose, and making driftwood rafts on the shore of the …