This summer, interpretive signage will be erected on the sites of the Lemon Creek and Popoff  internment camps. Developed by Kaslo’s Ian Fraser (developer of the Langham Museum and the New Canadian  show) with funding assistance from the Kootenay Columbia Cultural Alliance and the Columbia Basin Trust, the signage will be installed along the Slocan Valley Rail Trail—the old CPR Slocan Valley rail spur up the Valley.

Lemon Creek was the largest internment camp in the Slocan Valley from 1943 through 1946. It was located on private, leased land and there is nothing there to hint of its existence. Through the years, generations of Japanese Canadian visitors, including many of the 1800 internees and their descendents, have been disappointed to find no remnant of this major part of their past.  As of this summer, that will change for Lemon Creek and Popoff.  It is hoped that further funding might become available to commemorate Bay Farm and Slocan City interpretation and benches in the future.

While the signage itself is fully funded, the Society is soliciting donations from the Japanese Canadian community to assist in construction of sheltered benches and kiosks along the trail at the Lemon Creek and Popoff sites in commemoration of these internment camps. The attractive long-life structures will be well-designed, multifunctional and Kootenay-made.  Each of the two  commemorative structures are estimated to cost $2500. They will serve to protect the signage from winter weather, provide seating and an educational meditation or rest stop for visitors to the Internment Camp sites and for the many general users of the trail. It is expected that the kiosk/benches and signage will be dedicated in an onsite community event this coming July. Bench and kiosk donors will be recognized with permanent brass plates.

The Slocan Valley Rail Trail is the most popular recreational resource in the Slocan Valley. It enjoys extensive all-season use by hikers, bikers, skiers, birders, equestrians, naturalists and explorers from throughout the Slocan Valley and beyond.  For more information, visit the Slocan Valley Rail Trail website: slocanvalleyrailtrail.ca

Funders of the sheltering bench/kiosks will be acknowledged onsite. If you wish to contribute suggestions as to improvements/revisions/corrections to the interpretive content, please contact Ian Fraser:  email ifraser@netidea.com. If you wish to sponsor a bench or kiosk onsite (opportunities from $500), please contact Slocan Valley Heritage Trail Society President Rory Lindsay: email: rpkl1948@yahoo.ca or ph. 250-355-2397.

Students from Tohoku Gakuin University Photo: BC-JERF-Japan Love/Koichi Saito

By Kozue Matsumoto

BC-JERF had a precious experience this past August when a group of students from Tohoku Gakuin University in the Sendai area came to Vancouver. The primary purpose of their stay was to study English. However, since their hometown was heavily damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in March, they also wanted to share their stories about Sendai as well as thank Vancouverites for their support. Hearing their story, BC-JERF decided to help them to deliver their message to Vancouverites.

A couple of young Japanese groups, JaVan Gospel Choir and Japan Love, also came to support the students from Sendai, who are about their age but having a much tougher six months. These groups are a few of most enthusiastic groups who supported Japan with BC-JERF for the last six months.

This was an opportunity to bring together young people from both sides of the Pacific: the ones who have been supporting and the ones who received the support finally met.

What we did was two street donations at the corner of Georgia Street and Granville Street at the end of August. We were a bit worried how much attention we would be able to receive from the public since it had been almost six months from the earthquake and tsunami. Despite our worries, we had great success. A lot of Vancouverites stopped by and donated their coins and bills. We also had a lot of BC-JERF community members helping us out. Some worked with us, others dropped by to show their support. Many of them stayed with us till the end.

Takaaki Saito, the leader of the group, remembers those Vancouver days, “What I felt the most throughout this activity is the generosity of Vancouverites. They stopped by for Japan, a country on the other side of the Pacific, and I received a lot of kind words from them. I feel that this may be the first time after the earthquake that I was able to feel the warmth of people so strongly. This was such a moment to feel the warmth of people outside of Japan.”

He also shared with me the current situation of Tohoku after over six months: “We have almost finished cleaning the mess after the tsunami, and we are now working so hard for the economic recovery. The issues related with nuclear power plants would take a lot longer time; however, we, the Tohoku people, are trying to go forward into the future.

“Although there will be a huge difference in the time of recovery among each prefecture within Tohoku area, we are planning a steady recovery process from where we can. Harmful rumours are causing huge damages, but we won’t be beaten by such rumours but keep going with our Tohoku spirit and power.”

We raised $2,358.50 in total and handed out 2,800 copies of pamphlets to deliver messages about the current situation of the affected area to Vancouverites during the two days (four hours in total).

by Linda Ohama

January 2012, Onomichi, Japan

“Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu.”

That is what everyone is saying here, the first time they greet you in the New Year.

2011 is now behind us. The year will always be remembered as the year of the Great Tohoku Earthquake for the Japanese.

And 2012 will be a year for Japan to continue the massive clean up and rebuilding of Tohoku and Japan, and for the Tohoku people to carry on rebuilding their lives.

And they will.

After experiencing my first oshogatsu in Japan, I now understand so much more about the culture, the Japanese, myself and even Tohoku. What is the strength and joy that carries a person through time? It has been an amazing experience to feel.

A friend warned me that Christmas would not be that special here in Japan, but to watch out….because on December 26, suddenly everything would shift overnight to an exciting energy preparing for the New Year’s oshogatsu celebrations.

This is true. Christmas in Japan is not like Christmas in Canada. Yes, there are decorations and gifts for sale in the department stores and shops . . . the commercial part of the season, and the line-ups for KFC in lieu of the roast turkey or goose dinner, and the strawberry shortcake in place of fruitcake. Stockings are hung by the young people, but on the whole, Christmas is just another day in Japan as business and lives continue their normal routines.

For me, it was a time when I missed my family the most . . . but I got through it okay with the help of skype (the internet).

This photo is from my July stay in Onagawa when I was traveling through Tohoku. I camped out with the temporary tent shelter families that lost their homes to the tsunami in Onagawa. During the day, I was working with the children who painted pictures and wrote words about what they wanted to say through the cloth letters. The best part was at night when everyone went together to the portable ofuro to bath in the deep hot water. It was set up by the Jieitai: the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force. Even in the sweltering soggy heat of July when it was unbearably hot, the hot ofuro was something to look forward to. Things like that made the Tohoku people stay strong.

During my lectures at universities in Japan this year, I began to realize another thing as we often discussed Tohoku in some of the classes. Listening to the young university students’ (outside of Tohoku) concerns, most times they expressed a feeling of helplessness, even shame . . . and a deep sadness and worry. They could put their coins into the donation boxes at the convenience stores, but they still wanted to do something more.

Initiating action is not a strong point of the Japanese, including the young university students. But once an opportunity is given for them to express themselves, they go at it with all their heart and strength. This is what I realized during this past year.

During the early December lectures, we came up with a small plan for these students to take some action. The plan was to send special gift packages to young people in Tohoku for Christmas. Since the numbers for Tohoku are so large, we chose the young people of a temporary housing community from Onagawa, Miyage prefecture whose town was completely destroyed except for a few buildings on the tops of hills.

Last July, I was in Onagawa working with the young people and the Canada-Tohoku Cloth Letter project. Through a contact at the Onagawa emergency center, I was now able to get the numbers of young people for each age group beginning with 0-3 year-olds, up to 14-18 year-olds living in the temporary housing community.

I posted this information to university classes, with a list of suggested items (handmade or store bought scarves, gloves, chocolates, gum, cookies, treats), my Onomichi address as the gathering point, and a specific deadline for these things to reach me.

As the deadline approached, my living room suddenly became full of boxes and packages from students and professors from all over Japan: Tokyo, Gifu, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Kochi, and Onomichi. It was incredible what these students and teachers did.

There were over 70 scarves, with about 60 hand knit, colorful scarves (‘mufflers’ in Japanese) and the rest from Uniqulo!! (a favorite shopping place for young people). Tons of special chocolates, cookies and treats. 55 lip glosses and hand creams. It was truly amazing to see all the thoughtful gifts and messages.

As my Onomichi friends and I sat through the night in my living room, making up beautiful red ribboned gift packs, we laughed with joy as we imagined all the “Santa’s helpers” that came to be.

The next morning, three large cartons of tagged gifts were couriered to Onagawa for delivery Christmas morning (which turned out to be Christmas noon).

The card in each package was a full sheet of the many, many names and locations of everyone who was part of this little project. Just knowing the number of people and the number of places was awesome and inspiring . . . and surprising . . . this is what surprised the people in Onagawa the most!

Life is amazing. Resilient. Beautiful. Destructive. Forgiving. Simple. Strong. Fragile. Harsh. Gentle. And mostly inspiring.

Life is all these things and more.

This is what I have been learning this year in Japan.

A deep sense of peace takes over as you feel that you are one part of something much larger, as you experience the rituals and celebrations of oshogatsu. This is oshogatsu.

One ritual is to fly a kite. You work hard running against the wind to get your kite to go up in the air over and over again. Finally when it reaches high enough to just drift with a few light tugs on the string that connects it to you, there is a strange sense of peacefulness in the act. This is oshogatsu.

Happy New Year everyone.

May you also experience this feeling of peace and fulfillment.

Linda

Dee Tracey

Megumi Johns

The Changing Tides photo exhibit at the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre in Burnaby showcases the efforts of a group of former teachers who worked in Japan and who are now working to raise awareness and funds following the devastating disasters of March 2011. The former teachers participated in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program and lived in towns, villages and cities across Japan working in public schools and city halls. Some of these places included areas that were struck by the disasters.

Megumi Johns, one of the event coordinators and a board member of the JET Alumni Association of BC lived and worked in Sendai. She says, “Japan, and especially Tohoku, hold a special place in my heart. We wanted to do something to show our support, and also to show the beauty, spirit and character of this special part of Japan.”

The photo exhibit opens January 14 and runs until the weekend of March 10, a day before the one year anniversary of the earthquake. The exhibit features photos from JET participants that highlight the natural and cultural beauty of Tohoku, while other photos capture the chaos following the disaster and the ongoing efforts to rebuild and restore the area. The exhibit also includes anecdotes from former JET participants who share their experiences and connections to their Japanese “home away from home.”

A silent auction event will be held Saturday, February 18, from 6-9pm at the Nikkei Centre to raise funds to support Japanese NGOs who are actively working in Tohoku. Thomas Law, another event coordinator and JETAABC board member explains, “This event will feature live performances, refreshments, and the chance to bid on some amazing items such as a ride-along on a police patrol, unique Japanese crafts and Japanese language classes. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”  Tickets to the silent auction are $10 and can be requested through tickets@jetaabc.ca.

Visit www.jetaabc.ca/changing-tides for more information.

To donate auction items please contact social@jetaabc.ca.

Changing Tides Photography Exhibition
presented by the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET)
Alumni Association of BC
January 14th to March 10th
National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre
6688 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby

Changing Tides Silent Auction
presented by the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET)
Alumni Association of BC
Saturday February 18th, 6-9pm
National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre
Tickets $10 at tickets@jetaabc.ca
www.jetaabc.ca/changing-tides

In Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech, a group of office temps plan a farewell party for a recently laid off colleague. Will a Motsu hot pot restaurant do? Someone is obviously tampering with the climate-control system and it’s getting out of hand. Should the police be notified? A coworker makes her farewell speech. What does it have to do with imaginary penguins and the death of a cicada?

Deadpan dialogue, layered with elaborate gestural vocabulary and brilliant choreography, sheds light on the subtext of professional office etiquette, water cooler gossip and Japanese corporate culture. Marked by distinct musical backdrops that include John Coltrane, Stereolab, and John Cage, each of the three scenes speak to the dark humour and despair of a generation that had been promised a brilliant future only to end up ensnared in fluorescent cubicles.

Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech
chelfitsch (Tokyo, Japan)
Presented by the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival,
SFU Woodward’s and Centre A
January 26-28, 2012  8:00pm
Studio T, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings Street.
Post-Show Reception and Conversation with Toshiki Okada, led by Makiko Hara.
Jan 26, 9:30pm at Centre A (2 West Hastings Street)
Post-Show Talkback
Jan 27, led by Kathleen Ritter

Stylishly idiosyncratic director Toshiki Okada is known for crafting sharp and visually vibrant works of theatre out of the most ordinary of interactions. Founded in 1997, his Tokyo-based company is called chelfitsch, a neologism that evokes a childish deformation of the English word “selfish.” A rising star on the international theatre scene, chelfitsch has presented shows in the major theatre festivals of Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Singapore and New York, returning to Vancouver after the 2009 PuSh Festival favourite Five Days in March.

“Strangely hypnotic… a three-part meditation on death, class, and listening for the sad poetry in the everyday… By creating a jarring juxtaposition between the physical score and the text, the forgettable is remembered, small details speak volumes.” Engine 28

In Japanese with English subtitles.

When Toshihiro Hamanaka came to Vancouver in the early nineties, with his wife and one-year-old daughter in tow, he only intended to stay for three years. Having trained and worked as a landscaper in Japan for thirteen years, he wanted to take the art of Japanese gardening overseas, curious as to how it would be received in Canada. Twenty years later, having sold his house in Japan and been accepted as a landed immigrant, he remains in Canada, running his own business, Toshi Landscaping Ltd.

In addition to his skills as a gardener, Toshihiro brought with him a love of kendo, the Japanese martial art based on traditional swordsmanship, or kenjutsu. He had taken up kendo in Japan while in middle school and had a deep appreciation for the discipline and life-long skills that come with the rigorous training and competition. When Tsuyoshi, his Canadian-born son, was in elementary school and looking for a sport to take up, Toshihiro suggested he try kendo, and he started training at the UBC Kendo Club. Not only did the young boy have initial success and decide to stick with it, his older sister Misato began training as well. Soon, all three were travelling to UBC to train together.

Three years ago, wanting to spend more time practicing kendo, the Tozenji Buddhist Temple, located near their home in Coquitlam, offered them the use of a training room. At first, the three trained on their own, but soon got requests from other kendokas to join them. In January 2010, they formalized under the name Tozenji Kendo Club and joined the Canadian Kendo Federation (CKF) and the British Columbia Kendo Federation (BCKF).

The Bulletin talked to Toshihiro Hamanaka and Tsuyoshi Hamanaka at the Tozenji Temple about their approach to kendo, with Tsuyoshi translating for his father. Misato was in Japan training as a member of the Canadian National Team at the time of the interview.

Interview: Toshihiro Hamanaka + Tsuyoshi Hamanaka

Hamanaka-sensei, were you trained as a teacher in Japan?
Toshihiro Hamanaka: I never trained to be an instructor but when I was practicing kendo back in Japan I was an assistant instructor in the dojo. My rank was high enough to teach but I never had my own dojo back in Japan.

Do you enjoy teaching kendo to young people?
TH: It’s challenging teaching kendo because you have to understand each student’s bad habits and be able to point them out. Also, kendo is a sport that you can’t really have fun in the beginning, unlike baseball or swimming. With kendo you first start off with foot-work—no bamboo sword, no gear. You just practice foot-work for the first few weeks or even a month. So it’s really boring for the beginners to start. I am always concerned about how I can make an environment that’s fun for the beginners even though what they’re doing is really boring. If I start letting them hold the bamboo stick too early then their foundation isn’t too solid and they won’t improve as much as they’re supposed to, so we cannot rush. In kendo the basics are really important. So it’s really hard to balance everything out.

You came to Canada with the intention of returning to Japan after three years—what made you decide to stay?
TH: When I first came my daughter was one year old and then my son was born here and they started growing and entered elementary school. I thought that education in Canada has some advantages, so for our family I thought it would be better for us to stay here. I applied to immigrate and was accepted.

How do you compare the Japanese and Canadian education systems?
TH: In Japanese education, everyone has to be same—the marks have to be average or higher. Students have to be good at everything like science, socials, everything. However in Canada they evaluate and value each individual’s strengths. For example, in Japan when they’re hiring people they will start picking out people based on the highest marks, say the top ten, but in Canada they say okay, we will start looking at people who have an average of 80 percent or higher, and they will start evaluating them based on their individual strengths and interests, not who has the higher marks.

Tsuyoshi: The example that my father always used with my sister and myself was an orthodontist. An orthodontist is judged based on the skill with his hands, but he always says, do you prefer going to the orthodontist who has good knowledge but who cannot even build a Lego robot? or an orthodontist who can build a really great Lego robot? Because he thinks that’s the difference between Japan and Canada’s education system. In Japan they will always take the person who has higher knowledge, even though their skills aren’t that good. But in Canada, they take people with more skills because they can get more knowledge later on. He really appreciates the Canadian school system because they value each individual’s strengths.

TH: Of course there’s good things and bad things about Japan and Canada!

Is there a connection between kendo and gardening?
TH: When a Japanese gardener makes a traditional garden it’s related to kendo because with both it’s really important to have a basic knowledge and to take a long time to train yourself and improve everything. It takes probably thirty years doing kendo to understand the true meaning of it. For people like my children who have done kendo for five or ten years, they can just do kendo based on their reflex—hitting the target as fast as they can. But kendo is known as a sport that you can continue even when you get old. People think that once you’re old you probably won’t be able to compete with the younger people but the interesting part of kendo is if you understand the true meaning of kendo and practice properly, then you can still compete with the young people and be at an equal level or even stronger than them. Stronger doesn’t mean coming first place in the tournament, but having a stronger spirit and having strong, solid kendo. Japanese gardening is also like that, because you cannot just look at a text book and look at the map and just make a garden. You have to understand each yard and what it needs. To know how to make a proper Japanese garden also takes twenty, thirty years of experience and knowledge. That’s my personal thought anyway, other people may not agree!

What is your philosophy of  kendo?
TH: Since kendo is considered a martial art it tends to become like, you have to win with power or you have to attack by being more aggressive or more violent in order to win the match. By doing that, you can probably win in the tournament or match right now, but in the future—five years later, ten years later—you won’t be able to win any more, you won’t be able to compete with other people. So our motto for Tozenji Kendo club is, don’t win with power, win with technique and skill.
Starting this year, we will probably have the new beginners start competing in tournaments. But we don’t want them to think too much about winning or losing the match—we want them to do proper kendo. Because even if you win the match, if you look really ugly, like being aggressive or pushy, then it doesn’t look very nice. But even if you lose, if you were fighting properly, then everyone will be satisfied.

Tsuyoshi: In Canada, there aren’t a lot of people doing kendo, so in Junior—15 years old and younger—boys and girls have to compete together. My sister, she’s really short. And when she was 13 years old she would have to compete with somebody 15 years old who’s a boy, and there’s no way that my sister can win against him with strength. So she didn’t win any matches for the first four years. But my dad kept telling her, don’t worry about losing or winning, just do proper kendo, and then eventually you will win more. Like she does now. When she was 15 years old, the last year of junior, she went to the finals in every tournament. And then once she became 16 years old and older, there’s a category just for women. The number of women competing in Canada is small, so even a girl who is 16 years old has to compete against someone who is in team Canada in the first round. But my sister still didn’t lose because she was doing proper kendo.
My father thinks that it probably takes five years for kendo to become fun. As the instructor he lets students hit him in practice. So say one of the student hits twenty times against him. If there are twenty kids, he can be hit 400 times during a practice. So he gets pretty bruised up. As an instructor, he is sacrificing himself to teach and let all the kids improve, so he’s always telling everyone to take each strike seriously and appreciate it. So that’s one of his policies. It’s really fortunate that everyone in this dojo is really supportive so we’re able to continue our club and have a really friendly environment.

What is the membership of Tozenji Kendo Club?
TH: We have about twenty members from eight years old to 50-something but the majority of the members are teenagers. Many of them are half Canadian, half Japanese.

Would you consider your father a traditional Japanese teacher?
Tsuyoshi: Probably not, I guess. Of course depending on the circumstance, he will put it in the instructor/student situation, but most of the time he’s trying to make it equal so everyone is really friendly and able to communicate more easily. Back when he was practicing in Japan, the instructor was really strict and the seniors in his school were also strict, like a typical Japanese club. And he was trying really hard like everyone else—he would be lying on the ground after each practice. But his question was, was he able to improve a lot? And he didn’t. If the students want him to make it really strict and hard then he can easily do it, because he experienced that and can do it himself. But he thinks the really important thing is to explain things to them verbally not physically. That is how he trained myself and my sister. So far, we’re continuing to improve and it’s really successful. Some clubs, in Canada and in Japan, the parents may think, that is a really Japanese style club, and they put their children in that club but the results may not be good after all. So he thinks that that’s not the best thing, and he himself thinks that he’s not a Japanese-style instructor.

So is this a philosophy he developed living in Canada, do you think?
Tsuyoshi: Even if he was still living in Japan he probably would have had the same thought. When he was in high school he really loved kendo so even after practicing in the high school club he was going to one of the town clubs at night to practice. The high school club was really strict and really harsh about training and practicing but the town club was really good at explaining stuff verbally and so on. So there are two types of instructors, even in Japan. And he thinks that he improved more from the town club.

What have you learned yourself from doing kendo?
Tsuyoshi: Since I was born here and I grew up here, I would have not had the knowledge about respecting elders and so on, compared to the Japanese people who grew up in Japan, so from doing kendo I was able to learn respect for my elders and so on. And also by doing kendo, I was able to become more confident in myself. Even for school speeches and so on, I was able to be confident and not be nervous in front of the public.

Is there a long term goal—ten or twenty years from now for Tozenji Kendo Club, or are you just taking it year by year?
TH: In kendo it’s really important to have a goal for the next practice, for the next month, one year, five years, ten years. It’s really important to have a goal individually and also as a club.

It must be really hard to operate a club, how do you manage it?
TH: We weren’t really intending to start our own club but some parents were really motivating us and they have been really supportive, so that’s how we were able to start and continue on till now. So we do really appreciate the families, and everyone else who supports us with fundraising and in other ways. We really love the situation right now and I believe everyone’s having fun.

Misato is on Team Canada?
TH: Yes. She’s in Japan right now training with the whole Canadian women’s team. Winning is really difficult. She’s still young so she’s still winning with her momentum, her spirit. I thinks that it’s really good experience for her to compete in the world championship.
A long term goal for Tozenji—do not win with the power, win with the skills—is related to the world championships. Right now our space is really limited, so we don’t want to expand our club, we want to keep it small, but have high-quality members. I think that everyone has a chance to try out to be part of Team Canada.

How do they assign rankings in  kendo?
Tsuyoshi: In kendo there are no belts, it’s just a rank that you get, a certificate. In western Canada they have a grading exam twice a year for three Dan and under and once a year for four Dan and up.

TH: One of the difficult parts of kendo is if you try to win in the tournament, then it’s really hard to get a higher rank. The judges doing the ranking are looking for you to do a proper, real true kendo, but in the tournament, as long as you hit the target you do get a point—but that’s not necessarily true kendo. In the tournament, if you get hit then you will lose, so you might end up bending your posture to dodge the attack and so on, which is not good for the true meaning of kendo. So if you get in the habit of bending your body or dodging, or attacking from the side, then in the grading exam you will fail.

So it’s not just that you hit but how you hit?
Tsuyoshi: How you hit, posture, spirit, and so on. So a really fun and interesting thing is that you can get a higher rank, even if you can’t win in the tournament. And some people can win the tournament but may not get the rank—but they still have fun winning in the match.

TH: The ideal is to do true kendo but still do well in tournaments, which is really hard.

www.tozenjikendoclub.com

As Gordon said in 1988, “I never look at my case as just my own, or just as a Japanese-American case. It is an American case, with principles that affect the fundamental human rights of all Americans.”

This  month we say goodbye to Gordon Hirabayashi, who passed away on January 2nd in Edmonton at the age of 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. I met Gordon only once, briefly. It was back in the late eighties, and I was travelling through Edmonton with Kokoro Dance, a dance company co-founded by Gordon’s son Jay. Fittingly, at the time we were touring Rage, a butoh/taiko collaboration based on the Internment and inspired in part by Gordon’s experience during the war.

We are fortunate to have a preponderance of quiet heroes in our community. Gordon was one such hero.

Last month we lost another one of those quiet heroes (although she would have scoffed at the description), and I lost both a mother and a mentor, when Fumiko Greenaway passed away in Nelson, BC, at the age of 82, on December 21.
In the mid-seventies, having lived in Europe and in central Canada, our family moved into a little housing co-op on Union Street in Strathcona, a move that would have an enormous impact on all of our lives. It was here, blocks away from the historic home of the Japanese Canadian community, that Fumiko rediscovered her Japanese roots. She would spend the next several decades immersed in the Nikkei community, working mostly behind the scenes, happy to stay out of the spotlight.

Fumiko had a way about her that earned people’s trust and respect and over the years she built up an incredible network of friends and acquaintances. She was able to maintain a non-partisan stance, refusing to be drawn into the politics of a sometimes-fractious community, preferring instead to move things forward wherever possible. It was a position that served her well.

When she and my father Tod left for Nelson in the late nineties she was missed by many on the west coast. Those who knew her will not be surprised to hear that she quickly became a favourite at the care home where she spent the last few years of her life.

As I write this, a cup I brought back for her from Japan sits by my computer. It’s a simple white cup with her name on it in black type—FUMIKO. For the past two years it sat in a glass case outside her room at the care home. It’s a simple reminder of her that is somewhat bittersweet in that she never made it to Japan herself, even after the Redress settlement gave her the funds to make the trip. It was, I think, one of her few regrets in life.

A celebration of Fumiko’s life will be held in February, a chance for her friends and family to share memories of her and smile. Look for details in the February Bulletin.

Reflecting on the lives of Gordon and Fumiko, and others who have passed away this holiday season, I am reminded again of the importance of family and of community. As someone wrote in reference to Gordon’s passing, “we carry our parents with us wherever we go.” Comforting words indeed in a cold season.

I’d like to wish all our readers the very best for the coming year. May the Year of the Dragon bring you peace, health and happiness.

I’ve always liked actor Michael J. Fox, from long before I moved here from Singapore back in 1997, because of his personality that I perceived in his TV sitcom (Family Ties 1982-89) and movies (e.g. Back to the Future trilogy 1985-90) characters. There was this savvy but personable air about him that I found particularly engaging. It was only after we moved here that I learned not just that he’s Canadian but that he attended high school right here at Burnaby Central. As I made new friends over the past 14 years, I’ve come to realize that Fox’s personality embodied the Canadian spirit of fairness and tolerance toward different cultures.

Down to earth and easy-mannered, people in Canada generally are probably among the easiest to approach of all the countries I’ve known, if not the easiest. Over the years I’ve perceived that quality in actors Donald Sutherland, Dan Aykroyd, Donald Sutherland, as well as in musicians Diana Krall and Oscar Peterson and others.

Michael (if I may so call him) was just another movie star I liked until his battle with Parkinson’s disease began in the nineties when he was around 30. He had the strength to overcome a drinking problem, then went on to go public about his condition in 1998. I could only admire the way he overcame a severe physical handicap that would seriously demoralize any man at the peak of his career to become a strong advocate of research into the disease. People like him make me appreciate how lucky I am to be more or less of sound health.

He became one of the public figures I admired, but it was only recently I found out from a magazine interview that he shared with me a major problem that I hereby confess I’ve had as far back as I can remember. I’d never heard or read anyone put it quite that way before in English or Japanese. It’s about inter-personal communication.

There is a long-running,series of interviews with celebrities in a set Q&A format called “Proust Questionnaire” on the very last page of the monthly Vanity Fair that I particularly enjoy, as it reveals the way the minds of successful people work. In the interview in the December 2011 edition, VF noted that the actor’s Michael J. Fox Foundation had raised over $264 million for Parkinson’s research, and then asked, among other things:
Q: “What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
A: “I’m a serial interrupter.”
Q: What is the trait you most deplore in others?
A: “Serial interruption.”

It made me sit up in my seat. As readers who know me personally can attest, I tend to talk a lot, maybe partly because of my background as a journalist and language teacher. And I’ve been known to cut in, and how. To be quite honest, as far back as primary school, when I only spoke Japanese, my parents were already telling me: “you talk too much, and don’t listen enough.”

But this was the first time I’d heard my problem summed up succinctly as a “serial interrupter” by a celebrity whom I happened to admire. Moreover, he went on to laugh at himself for deploring the very same fault in others.

I can well imagine Michael at Burnaby Central, being just like his sit-com characters: smart-talking, savvy but affable. But if my own experiences are anything to go by, chances are he was constantly being told off at home: “Michael, when someone is speaking, you must let him or her finish.” In Asia, based on my experiences in Japan, Singapore and elsewhere, people seem somewhat more tolerant of garrulous old men if only because of traditional values, but having lived here for 14 years, I’ve come to appreciate that “letting someone finish” is one of the basic tenets of good manners.

The way I communicated as a child, and perhaps still tend to despite efforts to control myself, was that as soon as I had something to say in response to what someone was saying, I would blurt out the words whether the other person had finished or not. Proper conversation must be analogous to throwing a ball back and forth. The other person throws the ball, you catch it and throw it back, in steady tempo. You don’t suddenly snatch a ball in mid air and snap it back fast, or throw another ball while the other person is about to throw his, or even throw two balls at the same time.

I do have a couple of friends who don’t seem to mind my “erratic” way of communicating, who seem to know when to tell me to shut up. To all others I might have offended, or may still offend occasionally, my excuse is still “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” as feeble as it sounds. (Michael might understand.)

What’s the relevance of all this to the Japanese Canadian experience? Just think about the vital importance of verbal communication—not just between, say, Japanese-speaking emigrants who came after WWII and the Nikkei folks in their 5th or 6th generation and beyond, but also among generations of ijusha themselves (do I/we speak English or Japanese?), or among Japanese Canadians (perhaps a subtle “I-know-more-Japanese-than-you-do” one-upmanship now and then?) and even between Japanese Canadians and Canadians in general. Maybe it no longer happens much in long multi-ethnic Vancouver, but I’ve heard conversations like: “You speak English very well.” “Yeah, like I’m Canadian.”

Focusing on this business of interruption, I realized from the time I was a talkative kid in Tokyo that in Japanese—an “agglutinative” language*—you can keep adding phrases on and on, and then deny it all with one negative. So if a speaker is not sure how much he or she is going to say when starting to speak, especially when making an abstract statement or a qualitative judgement, the other person might falsely assume half way through he or she has already finished, and cut in.
In English-speaking and other Western cultures, preciseness and clarity especially in technical contexts are greatly valued. You have to know what you’re going to say, where you’re going to put that final verbal “period,” before you open your mouth, but once you do, then the other person as a rule has to let you get to that finishing point.

In Japan, bad speakers, if they are corporate leaders or top politicians, are too often allowed to dribble on and on, to the derision of the bemused media. In the west, corporate and political leaders know they always have to watch their statements in public because of myriad legal issues and socio-cultural sensitivities involved.

If I were to arbitrarily interpret Michel’s response, in conclusion, it sounds like: “I know I’m full of words and sometimes even mixed up, and I also know I get riled by people like myself…” But the clearest message between the lines must be “Hey, I’m still trying,” and that’s from someone who’s already “made it.” I read he moved back to Vancouver from L.A. some time ago. Wherever you are Michael, I take off my hat to you.

*adding information such as negation, passive voice, past tense, honorific degree and causality in the verb form. Common examples would be hatarakaseraretara (???????), which combines causative, passive, and conditional conjugations to arrive at the meaning “if (subject) had been made to work…” and tabetakunakatta (????????), which combines desire, negation, and past tense conjugations to mean “(subject) did not want to eat.”

Upcoming very quickly is the GVJCCA Keiro-kai, being held on Saturday January 21 from 12 – 3 PM at the Nikkei Centre, located at 6688 Southoaks Crescent in Burnaby, BC. For all of those over 70 years of age wishing to attend, please register through Tonari Gumi (604.687.2172). At this annual event, the GVJCCA provides a special luncheon and entertainment program, honouring our Nikkei seniors. Many of our seniors have graciously provided invaluable support within our Japanese Canadian community for many years especially during the Internment and Redress. Those wishing to volunteer, please contact Shag Ando at 604.922.9226 or email gvjcca@shaw.ca.

For the community at large, this year’s Nikkei Community New Year’s party will be held at Nikkei Centre on Saturday, January 14. Entertainment at the Shinnenkai will be provided by the Okinawan drumming ensemble Yuaikai Ryukyu Taiko. Tickets are still available through the Nikkei Centre and participating local Nikkei organizations.

The GVJCCA will be holding its annual AGM on Saturday March 17 in the GVJCCA office from 2-4pm at Nikkei Centre. This year’s Agenda will consist of many important issues including the 511 Broadway location plus the need to add additional Directors who are willing and interested in helping the community in all areas of community development, social justice, human rights, Japanese immigration and Nikkei community relations. Please attend if you  interested in getting involved in your community. If you would like more information please contact the GVJCCA office at 604.777.5222 or email us at gvjcca@shaw.ca.

Have a great month and year!
Ron Nishimura
President GVJCCA

Mochi – 2 to 3 cakes per person.
Nori — buy the ajitsuke nori — flavoured nori in rectangular shapes.
You can use the big flat sheets and toast it to crisp it but don’t burn it, and cut it using scissors about 2 inches by 4 inches

I use a toaster oven and place the mochi on a small sheet of foil paper sprinkled with flour (to prevent sticking). I toast it twice and it mushrooms up and becomes crusty and a shell is formed. Some charring enhances flavour but don’t burn it. Takes about 5 to 8 minutes, If you don’t have a toaster oven use the broiler in a regular oven and keep it 4 to 6 inches away and watch it closely to the desired doneness.

To Eat: Wrap the nori strips around the hot, broiled mochi, dip it in 2 Tbsp Soya sauce and enjoy.
I add 1 tsp. sugar or brown sugar and mix it with the soya sauce (if you like it sweet).

SWEET POTATO MOCHI

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. mochiko
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1-1/4 cups brown sugar
1 can (13-1/2 oz.) coconut milk
1-1/4 cups water
2 cups cooked and diced sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon black sesame seed
Kinako (yellow soy bean powder)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Grease a 13 x 9 baking pan.
In a large bowl, sift mochiko, baking soda and salt.
Add brown sugar and and mix well.
Add coconut milk and water and mix well.
Fold in sweet potatoes; pour into prepared pan.
Sprinkle with sesame seed. Bake for 1 hour.
Cool and cut into 2 x 1 inch pieces. Coat each piece with kinako. Makes 54 pieces.

Hapa Seafood Chowder

Stock:
½ medium onion, coarsely chopped
½ carrot, coarsely chopped
¼ fennel bulb, coarsely chopped
1 piece kombu, about 3-4 inches long
1 cup bonito flakes, lightly packed
¼ teaspoon peppercorns
1 sprig parsley
½ bay leaf
4 cups water.
Bring this to a boil in a large pot, then lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes, drain and discard the solids.

Cream sauce:
3 tablespoon butter
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
Melt the butter, add the flour and cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Gradually whisk in the stock, stirring quickly and cook over medium high heat until the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for a few minutes. Set aside

The fish:
1 Tablespoon butter
½ small onion, diced to about ¼ inch pieces
1 carrot, cut in ¼ inch dice
1 medium new potato, cut in ½ inch dice
½ pound firm white fish such as halibut, cod, snapper, cut in 1 inch pieces
½ pound sea scallops, cut in 1 inch pieces if needed.
2 tablespoon sake
2 teaspoon light soy sauce
½ cup whipping cream
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon shichimi powder
4 slices bacon, diced, fried until crisp and drained.

Thinly sliced green onions or chopped parsley, croutons
Melt the butter over medium heat and add the vegetables and sauté over medium heat for 4-5 minutes.
Add the seafood and continue to sauté, moving the seafood gently for 2 minutes.
Add the sake, cover and continue to cook over moderate heat until the fish is almost cooked and the vegetables are soft—another 4-5 minutes. Add a few tablespoons of water if it is too dry and sticks.
Add the seafood to the sauce mix, stir in the soy sauce, whipping cream, shichimi powder, salt.
Heat until hot, taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper (preferably white pepper), if needed.
Garnish the soup with the reserved bacon, green onions or chopped parsley, your favourite croutons.