A Dialogue on “Blessing in Disguise”
A Dialogue on “Blessing in Disguise”
between Thomas T. Tazumi and Randy Enomoto
The following dialogue is excerpted from correspondence following the conference, Honouring Our People.
Thomas My apology to you if the cliché, “Blessing in disguise,” was offensive to some. As I re-read my own presentation… I realize now that I used the term abruptly at the end without any explanation.
Randy I certainly accept that your intent was not to impose your beliefs on others. I’m not sure if you were present when Satsuki Ine made her comment about “blessing in disguise”? She said it was important to distinguish between two different elements. One was what was done to us, which was a terrible injustice. The other was the courage and the resilience of the issei and nisei who survived the injustice and gleaned strength from the experience.
Thomas Yes, I appreciate what Satsuki mentioned. I agree that the injustices of the government and the result on the Japanese Canadian were two different things. It depends on each individual on how we respond to that injustice.
Randy When you speak of your own experience as a blessing in disguise, I salute your courage in surmounting adversity and coming through the experience without bitterness or rancour.
Thomas I would attribute this to my Christian faith.
Randy However, I resist vehemently the interpretation of apologists who characterized the internment as benign or designed to protect Japanese Canadians because if this version of events had been allowed to permeate the public consciousness, redress would have been impossible.
Thomas I wholly agree with you on this matter. To protect the Japanese Canadian and to protect themselves was just an excuse to get rid of the “yellow peril” as they saw the problem.
Randy A final question: would you look back on your wartime experience as a blessing in disguise if the government of Canada had refused to redress the wrong?
Thomas I lived in Japan during the redress proceedings and really appreciate the fellow niseis and sanseis who took up the cause. From my faith perspective, I had forgiven the Canadian government for their injustice against me and the family, and when I received the written apology of the government I felt that that they had owned up to their wrong and justice was done.
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.
