Well it’s been a great summer so far. As you know, we’ve been honoured with a visit of Their Imperial Majesties Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan, who were in Canada from July 3 to July 14. Their visit to Canada, marking over 80 years of diplomatic relations with Canada, took them to the cities of Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria, and Vancouver. The Province of British Columbia also proclaimed that 2009 be known as “Japan-British Columbia Friendship Year”, which marks 120 years since Japan opened its consulate in Vancouver. Events and ceremonies will be held throughout Canada and Japan to help commemorate this auspicious year.

The visit to Canada by His Royal Highness Emperor Akihito is the first since 1953, when he was a 19-year-old crown prince and travelled by train across Canada, making this visit very special. His visit was special for me as it was a great honour to meet Japan’s 125th Emperor. I would never have dreamt that this would have been possible in my lifetime.
In Ottawa, Their Majesties, The Emperor and Empress of Japan, met her Excellency the Right Honourable Michelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, Mr Jean-Daniel Lafond, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Speaker of the Senate Noel Kinsella, Minister of Foreign Affairs Christine Donoghue, Ambassador of Japan Tsuneo Nishida, and visited the University of Ottawa and Carleton University.

In Toronto, Their Majesties, The Emperor and Empress of Japan had an audience with Lieutenant Governor of Ontario David Onley and Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty. They also visited the Hospital for Sick Children, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, and the Momiji Senior’s Centre.

In Victoria, Their Majesties had an audience with Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Steven Point and Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell. During this visit they met with some Canadian people and the Institute of Ocean Sciences.

During their visit to Vancouver, Their Majesties attended a reception co-hosted by the Ambassador of Japan Tsuneo Nishida and Consul-General of Japan in Vancouver Seiichi Otsuka at the new Vancouver Convention Centre. They also visited the University of British Columbia, Richmond Olympic Oval, and Nikkei Place, where Their Majesties were met by several hundred Canadians who wanted to catch a glimpse of Imperial couple. While on route to the reception at the new Convention Centre, Their Majesties visited the Vancouver Japanese Language & Japanese Hall in the old Japantown area of the Vancouver Eastside. The Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association and its membership thanks Their Majesties Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko for visiting Canada. We wish them good health and happiness in the coming years.

On a special side note I would like to invite all individuals to come and participate in the upcoming August 5th Obon Odori at Nikkei Place and the Honouring Our People: Stories of the Internment conference on September 25-27 at Nikkei Place in Burnaby, BC. Brochures and registration forms are available online now at the Bulletin/Geppo website and in hardcopy at various locations in Vancouver.

Hopefully we will see everyone at the Powell Street Festival on August 1-2 at Woodland Park.

See you soon,
Ron Nishimura, President, Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian
Citizens’ Association

JACKSON FAMILY RICE CUSTARD

2 cups cooked rice
1 cup milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp. vanilla
Dash nutmeg
Whipped cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees.F.
Combine rice, milk, eggs, brown sugar and butter in 1-quart casserole or baking dish.
Place casserole in baking pan. Fill pan with enough water to go halfway up side of casserole.
Bake 350 degree F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven.
Stir in raisins and vanilla. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Return to oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
Serve hot or chilled, topped with whipped cream.

6 to 8 servings.

It concerns a first-year female college student who went from Tokyo to a remote mountain village in northwestern Thailand as a volunteer worker taking part on a grass-roots volunteer program for Japanese and Thai university students. The episode occurred about two years ago. I went to the same mountainous region about 15 years ago and as pastoral and peaceful as it looks, life in these villages, vaguely reminiscent of Japanese mountainside villages about half-century ago, is not easy. To go there from busy Tokyo would be virtually like travelling back 50 years in a time machine.

Helping to dig a hole to install a large tank underground, the student was scooping up the excavated dirt into a suspended bucket at the bottom of the hole. She was not used to the work and was a little weak with fatigue, causing the work to slow down. One of the villagers said to her, “I can take over that work, so why don’t you come up and help with the work of throwing away the dirt?” But she could not respond, turning her face away. “I came all the way from Japan to help the village, but I end up holding up the work. What am I doing in this village if that’s all I’m good for?” That was her hopeless state of mind.

The experienced leader of the volunteer program, the widely-known expert Prof. Tasuhiko Kawashima of Gakushuin University’s Economics Department, then spoke some apt and poignant are the words to the girl. “It is necessary to be shinken (serious, in earnest) but not necessarily to be shinkoku (grave).” Some time later, the student said to the professor, “Thanks to those words of yours, I was able to change my mindset and free myself of the utter helplessness that had been torturing me.” As a matter of interest, she decided to study the Thai language seriously and spent some time brushing up on the language while working part-time in a Thai restaurant in Tokyo. She eventually passed a test to qualify for a student exchange program and is now studying at Chulalonkorn University in Thailand.

These words, according to Prof. Kawashima, actually are from his mentor, the late Prof. Genpachiro Konno. I’m struck by how useful they can be for Japanese who go overseas for the first time with big dreams. I looked them up in a dictionary (Daijiten, Kodansha), and found that, among other meanings, shinken is defined as “addressing matters in earnest, tackling matters seriously,” while shinkoku is defined as “being deeply depressed in perceiving a situation to have reached a critical and helpless point.”

In Japan, when one is set a task to achieve it is usually in the framework of one organization or another, so there’s always the added weight of “sekinin” (group responsibility). Even if it’s a personal objective, there are always friends and acquaintances one has consulted or parents who help out, so that it is easy to perceive situations as having “reached a critical point” and sub-consciously paint oneself into a corner. If one is inside Japan, there are also “buffer mechanisms” to soften social dynamics that soften the pain of failures and breakdowns so one usually does not reach the point of desperation. But living in an unfamiliar foreign culture, one might not be even able to gauge the reaction or assessment of those around him/her. Based solely on one’s own judgement and criteria, one may despair, thinking “I’m at my wit’s end” or “I’ve caused irreparable damage.”

Several years ago, I was on a Japan Airlines flight from Vancouver to Singapore. At breakfast time, I heard a Chinese lady sitting nearby complaining loudly to a flight attendant. Pointing to an old lady sitting next to her, the woman said something like “This is my grandmother, you know. She can’t eat bread so she’s asking for some rice, and you say you haven’t got any. In the first place, this food really sucks . . .” in that recognizable staccato rhythm of “Singlish.” At that point, I couldn’t help cutting in (though I should have known better) to say “Everyone’s eating, so can you keep it quiet?”

“You sit out of it, old man,” the woman blurted out, but eventually the two of them moved to other available seats. Good riddance, I thought. A few moments later, the flight attendant involved came to thank me, graciously apologizing for “causing all the trouble.” A bit taken aback, I was nevertheless favourably impressed by her sincerity. But when I looked at the young woman’s face, I noticed she was crying. It must have been stressful in terms of her relationship with her superiors too. I did think it would be easier for her if she did not blame herself so much, if she was not so grave. I suppose she had to endure such trials on her way to becoming a true professional.

The flip-side of becoming “grave,” is becoming giddy in some private fantasy land of Japanese atmosphere and context one has dragged along with him/her on a trip overseas. The following is a true story I heard over 30 years ago when was working as an interpreter for the youth department of the then pro-Moscow Japan Socialist Party during an international event. A group of young leaders from a pro-JSP labor union were visiting Moscow, the capital of their perceived “utopia” USSR, for the first time at the invitation of their Russian counterparts. One day they set out from their hotel, each with camera in hand, on foot to visit the famous Red Square nearby. When the party passed by a flower bed, water suddenly gushed spring-like from a sprinkler installed in the ground. That’s when one of the men blurted excitedly “Are they doing that to welcome us?” He was so giddy with excitement that he had momentarily lost the objectivity of common sense, like how long the underground water pipes must be, how difficult the timing, etc.

Born in 1945, the year WWII ended, I used to hear many stories about the “mental strength of the Japanese” bandied about during the war years. One of them was that “there is no way Japanese solders fighting desperately can be defeated by these loosely-disciplined, gum-chewing American GIs more interested in going to dances.” The GIs were obviously not shinkoku in their behavior, so surely they can’t fight seriously, went that line of reasoning. Having suffered the devastating defeat of their nation thereafter, and having become more familiar with Western culture through movies, TV and so on, the idea that it’s more advantageous to fight with mental reserve, even with some humor mixed in, has gradually taken hold. Be that as it may, the national trait of going into the serious/grave mode when undertaking a big project whether as a group or personally dies not easily change. Taking things seriously can also be a strength of the Japanese people, so it would be nice to acquire, on top of that, the mental resilience to be able to enjoy living in a foreign culture. That said, many young Japanese people nowadays, especially young women, seem quite “resilient” in that respect. (And I don’t mean to offend.)

By the way, the project mentioned at the start, called Gakushuin Overseas NGO Volunteer Activity Programme (GONVOGA) in a magazine article (Bungei shunju, July 09) involves other interesting ideas. To share with you just one practical idea, “recommendation of looseness” could also be of use to Japanese people going overseas.

With projects in the mountain village, it’s difficult to set up precise work schedules as, among other things, delivery of materials is delayed due to treacherous mountain roads or unpredictable weather changes like sudden squalls. So from time to time worried students would come up to the professor saying things like “the plumbing project will not be completed as we planned” or “please draw up a clear plan of action for tomorrow.” Prof. Kawashima likes to deliberately throw them off by saying something paradoxical like “wouldn’t it be interesting if we could set up a plan that is free of plans.” Even when facing an unfamiliar culture or context, if one can retain a mental reserve of certain looseness, one can handle situations flexibly and eventually achieve the objective in one way or another. That’s what he wants them to experience.

I was looking at a website “chat room” for young Japanese company employees working in Singapore, and was amused to see that their work-related gripes hadn’t changed at all from those of Japanese company guys there 30 years ago. Materials or merchandise that was to have been delivered in an hour to a client doesn’t get there. You phone the local delivery service repeatedly but all you get is “it’s on the way, it’s on the way.” In the end it took several hours and you have to apologize to the client (more often then not another Japanese company). Today as it was 30 years ago, things don’t get done the same way as back in Japan. Better to have some reserve of looseness.

We can hardly compare ourselves to a mountain village in rural Thailand. But it would seem a certain amount of “reserve of looseness” might be handy in getting along with in the multiracial society of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, which probably has as many different racial minorities and cultures as anywhere.

As complex and intriguing as the question of what the differences between Canadian and other Nikkei people and Japanese people are, one general difference must be that the former are used to the cultures of North or South America whereas the latter aren’t. Young Japanese who come to these shores to learn English must surely want to also pick up some of that “knowhow” in the form of familiarity, just as the first Japanese immigrants of yore must have.

If there are things Nikkei people can impart to the “potential immigrants” who have just come from Japan, one of them must be the “knowhow” that one can be shinken without becoming shinkoku. Probably many readers who have the opportunity to spend time with them as host families and fellow volunteers are doing just that.

However, it might be a good idea for all of the participants to hear what happened in January and February 1942 when the War Measures Act was invoked. My Issei interviewees and contributors (30 to 40 People) are mostly deceased. I wonder who will tell their unheard stories to the younger generation at the Honouring Our Past event?

One of the problem of listening to the stories of surviving relatively younger Niseis is that many of them tend to think that they were contented and life in the ghost towns were enjoyable. In other words, they were young enough to be well looked after by their older siblings and carefully protected by their parents.

I am translating a book titled, Teaching in Canadian Exile, written by the ghost town teachers’ committee. In reading this book, I was moved by the tremendous effort those older Niseis and parents made for the younger Niseis during the time of the ordeal.

On the other hand, whenever I hear comments from 70ish Niseis who say that their memories of the ghost towns were positive or that the evacuation released us from the ghetto and pushed us into the mainstream society, I feel troubled. When I hear that it was a blessing in disguise, I feel like telling them to think of their parents’ struggles in trying to hide the misery of their lives from them. Although I am an Ijusha who did not experience the evacuation, I know how difficult it is for the Isseis to settle and raise children in a foreign country.

I am willing to be a facilitator or a panelist and will help in any way.
Best,
Yusuke Tanaka
Managing Editor, Nikkei Voice

Open Letter

Their Imperial Majesties the Emperor
and Empress of Japan
c/o Consulate-General of Japan in Vancouver
800-1177 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC, V6E 2K9

July 9, 2009

Your Imperial Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan,

We are writing to you as some representatives of groups of Canadians that make up the rich diversity of this country: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and European. We hope you enjoyed your visit to Eastern Canada, and we would like to extend you our warm welcome to Vancouver, Canada’s gateway to the Asia-Pacific region.

With so many immigrants from all parts of Asia, we believe that Canada is an ideal place from which to promote peace and understanding among the Asia-Pacific nations. For example, Japanese-Canadians, along with people from other cultural heritages, have been working to raise awareness of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. Here in Vancouver, one of the first Article 9 groups outside of Japan raised funds to send Canadian delegates to the world’s first Global Article 9 Conference held in Chiba, Japan.

As Canadians with Asian connections, we also work together to heal the wounds of Japanese aggressions in the Asia-Pacific region before and during the Second World War, and to learn from the history of devastating wars to create a peaceful future together. For example, every year a group of Canadian educators travels to China and Korea to learn about the history of the Asia Pacific War (1931-1945), including the Nanjing Massacre and Japan’s military sex slavery system. A group of Canadian students also travels to Japan every summer to learn about the history of atomic-bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and these educators and students share their learning with the wider community when they return. Our aim is never to foster bitterness toward a specific country or group of people; instead, our goal is to create an environment for open-minded learning that transcends national borders and cultural differences.

While our educational activities have been well-received among communities in Canada, Asia and beyond, we have witnessed many non-reconciliatory responses from Japan to the global community’s efforts to help bring healing and justice to the war crime victims of this tragic chapter of history. The Japanese Parliament has yet to pass a resolution that fully admits and apologizes for Japan’s responsibility for the loss and suffering of the victims of the Asia-Pacific War, or to pass laws that stipulate compensation to those victims.

Canada is among the nations that are concerned with these issues. On November 28, 2007 the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed a motion urging the Japanese government to take full responsibility for the involvement of the Japanese Imperial Forces in the system of forced “comfort women”, to offer a formal and sincere apology to these women, and to continue to address those who are affected in the spirit of reconciliation. Although Canada as a nation has not been perfect in addressing its own past wrongdoings, one of Canada’s achievements in this regard has been the compensation of Canadians of Japanese ancestry who were interned during the Asia-Pacific War. We would also like to see such redress offered Japanese government to the Canadian POWs captured in the Battle of Hong Kong and to the victims of China, Korea, the Philippines, and all the other countries and regions where Japan’s military committed war crimes. We would also like to see Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution remain as it is, as we and many people in Asia see Article 9 as Japan’s pledge to the world never again to engage in wars of aggression.

Your Imperial Majesties, we are aware and appreciative of how much you have demonstrated a commitment to peace and history issues. For example, your paying tribute to the Korean victims’ monument when you visited Saipan in 2005 was considered a gesture of reconciliation. When you visited China in 1992, you also expressed regret for the suffering that Japan brought to China during the Asia-Pacific War. Your words were a positive step toward healing a historical wound. Your 1993 visit to the Okinawa sites where tens of thousands of civilians died in the war was also appreciated by many people throughout Japan and beyond. We would like to appeal for your continued efforts to help bring healing and justice to the victims of atrocities committed by Japan before and during the Asia-Pacific War, and for your for support of the endeavours to keep Article 9 intact in the spirit of peace.

Thank you for your attention to our letter, and again, we would like to sincerely welcome you to Canada’s West Coast. We hope you will enjoy the beautiful sunshine, ocean and mountains of our land, and the rich and dynamic communities of our multicultural society.

Yours faithfully,

(Signed by the following organizations)

Thekla Lit
Co-chair, Canada ALPHA (Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia)

Tatsuo Kage
Member, Human Rights Committee of Japanese
Canadian Citizens Association

Fernando P. Salanga
President, Philippine War Veterans
& Ex-servicemen Society of BC

Jane Ordinario
Chairperson, Migrante-BC

Satoko Norimatsu
Founding Director, Peace Philosophy Centre

Ellen Woodsworth
President, Women’s International League
for Peace & Freedom, Vancouver

Beth Dollaga
Chair, Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights

Kevin Sung
Director, Korean Drama Club Hanuree

Within the Vancouver Japanese Canadian community, the Asahi baseball team is legendary. Established in 1914 by Harry Miyasaki, who was determined to build a team that could be competitive with the senior baseball teams in the Province, the Asahi soon became the toast of the community.  Recognizing that he needed an edge in order to compete, he emphasized ‘smart ball’, which used speed, bunts, and stolen bases to complement their hitting and pitching.  Miyasaki ‘s vision was fulfilled in 1926 when they won their first Terminal League Championship against bigger and more powerful Caucasian teams. Faced with racism, discrimination and financial hardship in their daily lives, come game day it was a different story. On the baseball field the rules were fairly applied and the umpiring was generally fair, so the Asahi’s were able to play on a level playing field.  That first championship proved to be a harbinger of greater things and the team won many more championships in the years leading up to 1941 when the Second World War and the forced removal of the Japanese Canadians from the west coast broke up the Asahi baseball team.  Despite being dispersed, the former Asahi players continued to play and coach baseball in the internment camps and in their new home towns after the war.

Although the Asahi were the best-known of the Japanese Canadian teams, there were many others up and down the west coast that provided Japanese Canadians—both players and fans—with much-needed recreation and enjoyment.
Baseball in Japan also has a long history. It is extremely popular throughout the country and has produced many outstanding ballplayers, several of whom have been recruited by American major league teams.  These days it is not unusual to hear about the exploits of Japanese ballplayers such as Daisuke Matsuzaka (Dice-K) and Ichiro Suzuki in the same breath as other stars like Roy Halladay and Jason Bay.

In Vancouver, we have our own local team to cheer for. The Vancouver Canadians have always been popular with sports fans in Vancouver and the current owners have spruced up the venerable Nat Bailey Stadium, making it even more comfortable and inviting, while still able to retain its title as the prettiest little stadium in baseball.  The Vancouver Canadians have had a few Japanese players on their roster including Lenn Sakata and Kurt Suzuki, who is currently with the Oakland A’s.

They also have a few Japanese staff and interns including Teppei Fujino. Teppei played baseball in Japan for many years and decided that he would like to stay involved with the sport, if not as a player then as a staff member. He joined the Canadians last year as an intern and although he returned to Japan at the end of last season, was asked by the Canadians to return to a paid staff position for 2009 as part of the grounds crew as well as working in community relations. Talking with Teppei, one cannot help but catch his enthusiasm for baseball and for the Canadians, making him a perfect ambassador for the team.

The Canadians have continued to enhance and expand their collaboration with the local community in an effort to make baseball accessible to as many fans as possible. On Monday, August 3rd at 7:05pm, Japanese and Canadian baseball will come together at Japanese Heritage Night at Vancouver’s Nat Bailey Stadium. This special event, sponsored by the Vancouver Canadians, will feature a game between the Vancouver Canadians and the Yakima Bears. Doors open at 6pm and the evening will feature many Japanese and Japanese Canadian-related activities including booths featuring Japanese toys such as origami and kendame (cup and ball), a Vancouver Asahi photo exhibit, sushi eating contest, watermelon breaking contest (suika-wari), and staff in traditional Japanese clothing.  Fans can also enjoy sushi at the permanent Japanese food kiosk.

Japanese Heritage Night, which is supported in part by the Consul General of Japan, National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, National Association of Japanese Canadians, Powell Street Festival Society and Vancouver Japanese Language School, is a wonderful opportunity for fans to enjoy some of the antics and excitement that occur during Japanese baseball games. In a nice touch, the opening pitch will be thrown by former Vancouver Asahi player Kaye Kaminishi

Come out to support your Vancouver Canadians on Japanese Heritage Night and have fun:
Vancouver Canadians
versus the Yakima Bears
Monday, August 3, 2009
7:05 pm (gates open at 6pm)
Nat Bailey Stadium
4601 Ontario Street, Vancouver

If you require more information, please contact Teppei Fujino, the Japanese Heritage Night Coordinator  by phone at 604.722.6138 or email at  tfujino@canadiansbaseball.com

Baseball fans who want to take part in a fun community baseball game are also invited to participate in the fourth annual Powell Street Festival baseball game the day before on Sunday, August 2 at Woodland Park, just prior to the second day of the Festival. The game, co-sponsored by the Japanese Canadian National Museum and Carnegie Community Centre, celebrates the Vancouver Asahi baseball team’s legacy and is a chance for Nikkei baseball enthusiasts and Asahi fans to play a fun game while paying tribute to the team that once played at PSF’s traditional home at Oppenheimer Park. Please contact the Japanese Canadian National Museum for more information or to sign up to play. Join in the fun at this free public event, or just come and watch! Youth, adults, seniors and families are all welcome.

PSF Baseball Game
Sunday, 10:30am, Woodland Park
Contact Japanese Canadian National Museum
jcnm@nikkeiplace.org or 604.777.7000 ext. 109

INTERVIEW

In his Own Words
Teppei Fujino

Tell me a little about your background please Teppei.
I was born and grew up in Yokohama, which is a sister city to Vancouver. I have played baseball since I was seven years old because baseball is very popular in my city. Daisuke Matsuzaka, the present Red Sox pitcher and World Baseball Classic MVP, graduated from a Yokohama high school in my city.

Have you always been interested in baseball?
Yes, but although I like to play and watch baseball, I am not only interested in baseball. I mean if I do have a choice, I will definitely choose baseball because I am more familiar with baseball than other sports. But I like to watch all other sports including football, basketball and hockey.

Were you involved in baseball in Japan?
I used to play baseball in Japan and was a catcher on my team. I also played baseball in an American collegiate summer league in 2004 and this experience had a great influence on my career. I saw how the owner ran our team, and some interns, almost all of them college students, helped our team be successful on the business side.

How did you come to be working for the Vancouver Canadians?
I came here as part of a project which a Japanese organization launched called the “Hoshino Dreams Project.”  It was started by Senichi Hoshino, a former baseball player and manager who had a dream of a system of developing sports in Japan through internships with professional or semi-professional teams in North America (www.hoshinodreams.com/english/index.html). They sent me to Vancouver to intern with the Canadians, to learn how to manage professional sports teams and bring people to the stadium efficiently.

You’re a baseball fan who is now working with a baseball team – that must be exciting. What is your role with the Vancouver Canadians, and what is your favourite part of working for the team?
My job this year is on the Grounds Crew. Almost every day I cut the grass, water it and drag the field to make it look good for the fans coming to Nat Bailey Stadium. People who are not involved in the sports industry ask me what I do all day, every day.  They don’t know how much we care for the field. The field has to look good as well as be a good, safe playing surface for the players.

My favourite part of the job is that I do Japanese community outreach. I feel the Vancouver Canadians are not popular enough within the Japanese and Japanese Canadian communities in Vancouver. This was a shock to me, since Japanese people traditionally love baseball and there is such a large Japanese community in this city. I want to inform them of the Vancouver Canadians and bring them to Nat Bailey stadium. I definitely think they will like our ball game and have a fun time. So that’s my favourite part of the job!

Baseball is very popular in Japan . . . why do you think that is?
This is a very interesting question. I have no idea why baseball is so popular in my country, actually. But if I had to guess, I think it would be affected by two major newspaper companies, the Asahi and Yomiuri. Asahi held the high school national championship for baseball to increase a circulation of their newspaper. Baseball was a great news item Japan in the 1900s. At the same time, Yomiuri launched a Japanese professional baseball league to increase their circulation. So I think the present popularity of baseball in Japan is due to the competition between two major media companies.

Do most Japanese players dream of playing in North America, or are players happy to play in Japan?
I think it depends on the player’s goal. These days, although it is easy for all Japanese professional ball players to transfer to a team in North America, some players want to stay Japan, like Yu Darvish. He is half Iranian and half Japanese. He grew up Japan and has played in Japan since he started to play baseball. He thinks we need some star players in the Japanese professional baseball league for people, especially kids, to look up to. If all players left Japan, why would the fans keep watching? He doesn’t want to play in the MLB because he does not want Japan to lose a star player. That’s why I think it depends on players’ aim and surroundings.

Do you follow Major League Baseball in North America. What is your favourite team? Who is our favourite MLB Japanese-born player?
My favourite team is the Atlanta Braves. I don’t know why, but they are. I think it’s because they have cool jerseys.
My favourite player is Hideo Nomo. He was a pioneer and paved the road to the MLB for Japanese baseball players. I doubt Ichiro would be in the MLB right now if it was not for Nomo’s success

I guess you were rooting for Japan at the World Baseball Classic!
Of course, I did!! I was screaming at my house when I saw Japan beat South Korea in the final!

Tell me about the Japanese Heritage Night. How did the idea come up?
Japanese Heritage Night is a theme and community night. This idea came to me when I was thinking of how to bring Japanese and Japanese Canadian people to the stadium. As you know most Japanese people do like baseball. For Japanese Canadian people, baseball is kind of a special matter because of the Asahi and the history of that team. I want to let Japanese people know about the Asahi baseball team that has such history in this city and at the same time let people know about the Canadians.

What do you think of Canada?
Awesome!! There are beautiful mountains, beaches, sports and so much more.  I like it here. The people are so kind and generous. There are so many majestic natures here. I also like the way people spend their holidays by biking, boating, camping, etc… Although I think it may be difficult for baseball to root its popularity in this city because of hockey, I still feel that this is the best place to live in the world.

Whatever the reason, I never paid much attention to the game until 1993, the year that the Toronto Blue Jays made a run for their second consecutive World Series. My in-laws were visiting at the time and my mother-in-law, who is indifferent to all team sports except baseball, was watching the games. Maybe it was the fact that it was a Canadian team (in fact the Canadian team) playing that piqued my interest, but I sat and watched a few games with Bonnie and Joel, both ex-pat Americans. It certainly helped that Bonnie was able to answer any questions I had about the seemingly arbitrary things that were occurring on the field (“why is he able to score after a fly ball is caught but the other guy wasn’t able to?” “How come the pitcher can’t come back once he’s left the field?”).

Over the course of the series I gained an appreciation for the subtleties of the game and the various strategies that come into play not only during the game itself, but off the field as well. Having watched hockey since I was a small boy, the much slower, more deliberate pace of baseball was a refreshing change. Even when my in-laws left to go back home I continued watching the series. When Joe Carter hit that towering home run to win the series, it was electrifying.
I can’t say that I’ve become a fervid baseball fan. In fact, I have yet to attend a real game (although I hope to catch a Vancouver Canadians game one of these days), but I sometimes sit down to watch a few innings when I need to relax if the Blue Jays or Mariners are playing.

The whole Japanese connection to baseball is fascinating and makes perfect sense, given that strategy and finesse play as great a role as brawn, making it unlike most team sports. I don’t have to remind anyone of the storied Asahi and their role in bringing pride and respect to Japanese Canadians at a time when it was in short supply. That the Asahi continue to be honoured today, including the yearly tribute game at the Powell Street Festival, is a testament to their place within the community.

In this month’s lead story, I talk to Teppei Fujino, a Japanese baseball fan working for the Vancouver Canadians. His mission? To get Japanese Canadians back into baseball. Perhaps not at the level of pre-World War Two Asahi (although wouldn’t that be something?!), but at least in greater numbers than now. With players like Ichiro and Daisuke making their mark on the major leagues, maybe it’s time to take someone you care about “out to the ball game.”

As I write this, I am preparing to leave for Japan for a two and a half week trip with Chibi Taiko. Unfortunately, I will miss the Powell Street Festival for the second year in a row. Have some yakitori for me, and I’ll see you in September!