Michael Tora Speier

According to Carter, very little work was required on her part: “I was very lucky that the exhibits came to me! Before I was hired, Michael made a very kind offer to help the museum. Once I had a chance to meet with him, hear about the work, and also learn about the conference, all the pieces seemed to come together in a very short amount of time. I really appreciate Michael’s and Leslie’s flexibility to work on this tight schedule.”

In Speier and Komori, Carter has two artists that eschew the academic in favour of a more community-oriented approach. Both have worked at a community level in various capacities over the years and this shows in their approach. Says Carter, “When people think of oral history, they often think of a serious, formal interview with a tape recorder and a notepad. These two wonderful and whimsical exhibits can be viewed as another way to inspire and gather memories. Leslie invites viewers to imagine themselves on the streets of Lemon Creek, and she is looking for recollections that are personal, and even humorous. Michael is juxtaposing imagery, symbols and words onto sculptural “monuments” that can inspire new ideas. With a family background in California, he also brings a different cross-border perception to the discussion of the internment.”

While the upcoming exhibit will be on display for the next several months, Carter sees it as part of a larger plan to bring the Museum into clearer focus. “The Japanese Canadian National Museum has extremely important collections and can help tell many significant stories for the community—relating to history, life today and on into the future. I hope we can play an essential role in many collaborative community events, and that we can expand to truly represent the national story of Japanese Canadians. I hope to see lots of activity around the museum in the next few years, with more school groups, public programs, researchers and stimulating exhibits. So keep posted!”

INTERVIEW

In Her Own Words
Leslie komori

I’ve been to Lemon Creek, or the site of where it was anyway, and it’s just a big field now. Yet at one time it was the largest internment camp, when you count Bayfarm and Rosebury. How did you come up with the concept of the Lemon Creek Map Project?

I went up to Lemon Creek with my mom and visited that same field. As you saw, there really is nothing much there, nothing to mark four years of thousands of peoples’ lives. There are depressions that mark the former locations of outhouses and metal spigots. But that’s about it. I was hoping that my mom could locate the location of her house but the lack of landmarks disoriented her.

We went to the adjacent lodge and they had this incredible map. And there in black and white was proof that my mom was really there, 14 Holly, Mochizuki, the street address of her shack. The map said that my mom and her family lived there whereas the cow field yielded very little evidence of their lives there. I figured that the map and all those names contained thousands of stories. I thought a map might function as a good vehicle to collect oral histories of the camp.

What is the Lemon Creek Map Project?
The original map was produced by the 1991 Lemon Creek Golden Reunion group. Mary Ohara, a former Lemon Creeker, spearheaded the project. In the 1940′s, a group called Hakko-kai had produced statistics, listing all the different families and corresponding street addresses. Mary’s brother-in-law translated the document from Japanese to English. The map grew from the lists of those names and addresses.

The Map Project attempts to create a small scale layout of the original Lemon Creek Internment camp. People can walk down the streets. Gildead, Fir, Spirea, and find the location of their old house. There are blank “houses” drawn on the map, with only the address. The intent is for survivors of the camp, or their relatives to write information in the house, with stories, with the names of people that lived there. My hope is that in writing one’s name down, in including a story, people can re-possess the memory of that very difficult time and also mark their presence at the camp. Much has been done to obliterate the presence of the survivors at the physical site of Lemon Creek. Possibly in just writing down your name, writing a short story, the survivors get to re-assert their presence at the camp and say, yep, I was there.

You first set up the project at the Powell Street Festival several years ago—what was the response to it then?
I’m not sure actually. I’ve displayed the map at PSF a few years ago. I also took it to Toronto for the Lemon Creek reunion in 2007. People have been participating, not so much writing stories but usually listing all the members of their families in the houses.

How has the Project changed since its Powell Street Festival incarnation, and what are you hoping will come out of this latest one, considering that it will be up at the Museum for a relatively long time?
I have a bunch of my mom’s old pictures from Lemon Creek. I’m not sure how she has pictures because cameras were banned. I’m going to try to hang the pictures relative to street addresses where they were taken. I’m hoping the pictures will inspire some memories. I hope to encourage survivors to write more stories on the map. I would also like to encourage the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren of survivors to write questions on the map. I don’t know how easy it is to write a story about camp. But when prompted by questions, former Lemon Creekers are good at answering questions about camp.

The upcoming conference, Honouring Our People: Stories of the Internment, is intended in part, as I understand it, to elicit memories and stories from the Internment years. There is a perception that those who were interned didn’t want to talk about it afterwards. What is your experience with that, when it comes to your own family?
First, I want to put in a big plug for the conference. I think this important conference gives an opportunity for people who went through the war to share stories but also the relatives of those survivors to hear stories and maybe even ask questions they have always been afraid to ask. The conference happens September 25 – September 27 at the Nikkei Centre.

Talking to my Sansei friends, I think some families talked about the war and some families did not talk about it. My family did not talk about it openly. My parents threw out all these pieces and echoes of the history but did not tell me anything directly when I was a child. My mom would refer to friends she knew in “ghost town.” My parents would send me up to the Cariboo for summer vacations, where my dad’s side went to a self-supporting camp. I never understood why or how the family moved from Vancouver to 70 Mile. Once I went to the PNE with my uncle and he happened to mention that he stayed at the PNE for a few weeks. That information really confused me. I can’t remember if he mentioned the Livestock Building. But in retrospect, I understood why my mother never took us see the Agricultural exhibits.

My grade three teacher, Janet Vesterback, gave me Shizuye Takashima’s Child in a Prison Camp. That book directly taught me about camp for the first time. My teacher said, this is what happened to your family. I thought, no way. We live in a middle class neighbourhood, and live a charmed middle class life. No way this stuff in the book happened to my family. But then I got more evidence. My sister Lucy, a yellow power hippie in the 1970′s was working on a Japanese Canadian history project with the Powell Street Revue. So through osmosis, I was picking up on our family history through her community work.

About eight years ago, I started to ask very direct questions to my mom. At first she was reluctant to talk. She had always preserved the Japanese value of kodomo no tame for the sake of the children, protecting my siblings and me from the reality of her own history. But I persisted with my questions and at some point she started talking. She talked about the forced removal from Haney, her brief stay at Hastings Park, life in Lemon Creek and the adventure being a repat in Japan. I am very grateful to my mother for sharing her history. It’s not my right or privilege in any way. I don’t think it’s easy to talk about this stuff. For me, her sharing of camp stories is a precious gift.

What does Lemon Creek mean to you? Does it have meaning beyond its historical significance, or is it just a field?
I think that physical places hold psychic and spiritual memory. Even though Lemon Creek is just presently a cow field, I can sense the spirits of the people who live and died there. Lack of historical markers at Lemon Creek site and other sites of wartime camps really pisses me off. In the states, the National Park Service has recognized many former incarceration camps as significant historical sites. I have heard that Roy Inouye in Kamloops heads an effort to have the British Columbia government put up historical markers at the different sites. I hope Lemon Creek gets a marker so all Canadians will remember.

I am pessimistic as I feel that our community’s ugly history will repeat and has repeated itself. I think post 9-11 events, like the illegal deportation of Maher Arar, the delayed lack of habeas corpus or an open judicial process for Omar Khadr, the numerous hate crimes against Muslim and South Asian Canadians, have echoes of our community’s history. However, I posit that the education process about the camps through the redress campaign may have tempered a more potent racist backlash after 9-11. I’m not an academic so I’m not really sure. But I figure the marking and remembering of Lemon Creek may help to foster the “never again”.

Not to compare the actual experience, but some children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors identify themselves as “the second generation” as they inherit part of the legacy of the Holocaust. As a Sansei, I identify with the experience of inheriting a history on a different level. The wartime experience is an important part of Canadian history. On a practical level, I need to remember Lemon Creek and to know the nuts and bolts of this history so I can educate future generations of all Canadians. On a more personal level, I feel the need to understand Lemon Creek because that experience indirectly has shaped me and my world view. It’s my belief that I need to know my family’s history so I can understand how I operate in the world and can change it. Pretty humble eh!!!

Leslie Komori is the youngest daughter of Fuzzy Komori and Kay Komori (nee Mochizuki). She is a third generation Vancouverite, literally born and bred in Oakridge. She is a producer of loud sounds and paradoxically a registered audiologist. She began working in the Japanese Canadian community as a teenager with organizations such as Tonari Gumi and the Powell Street Festival. She has also done community organizing in the East Asian queer community in Vancouver. She would like to express her appreciation to Michael Speier for kicking her off her butt and giving her another opportunity to remount the exhibit and to Beth Carter for her practical help and support.

Prior to last year’s 20th Redress Anniversary Conference, I knew so little about the interment of my parents and the dispersal of approximately 22,000 other Japanese Canadians during WWII. That conference featured some very well-spoken academic speakers but I particularly enjoyed the selection of panelists who shared their firsthand recollections of their internments. Although I only heard a few stories, I was struck by the incredible hardship they endured and their resolve to get through those arduous years. Those individuals’ stories inspired me to learn more and I have since read more stories online but I am especially looking forward to the upcoming “Honouring Our People: Stories of Internment Conference” which will be held September 25-27. This special conference will provide all attendees the chance to share their collective stories and it could be one of the last opportunities for descendants like myself to learn first-hand from the issei and nisei who lived through that historic time.

As a sansei who is involved in the Nikkei community, I was asked by the organizing committee to write some thoughts on my parents’ story of internment. Both my parents were interned during the War yet surprisingly, neither of them actually perceived those years negatively until their adolescence.

My mother, Kumiko Iwanaka (nee Tabata), was only two-years-old and living in Steveston when she was shipped to Kaslo with her family in early 1942. My father, Don Iwanaka, was barely four-years-old and living on Vancouver Island when he was sent with parents and one younger brother to Hastings Park for collection before being shipped by train to the Tashme internment camp around the same time as my mother.

The Tabata family included 11 brothers and sisters and being the 9th child of 11, she was too young to have recollected much of her internment. When the war ended in 1945, she moved with her family to Midway because Japanese Canadians weren’t permitted to return to the west coast. During her early years, she avoided encounters of racism or prejudice in Kaslo and Midway because each town was predominantly populated by Nikkei. She also found that the other Nikkei families supported one another and she felt quite comfortable growing up with others of her kind. It wasn’t until the early 1950’s that she returned to Lower Mainland, where she finally faced some minor incidents of racism like name calling, but even those moments were rare. Throughout my mother’s childhood and into adolescence I believe it was her steadfast positive outlook on everything that kept her out of trouble and I am happy to report that she remembers those years as any other fun loving child.

My father is two years older than my mother but only one significant hardship lingers in his mind. He will never forget the cold winter nights living in interior of BC. He especially recalls my grandmother warming up the iron at night, wrapping it in a wool cloth and then stuffing it into their beds so they wouldn’t freeze at night. By 5 o’clock in the morning my grandfather would have to wake up to light the wood furnace so it was warm enough for the rest of the family to get out of bed.  Despite being more conscious of his internment situation, even my father doesn’t dwell on the difficult times and summarized his experience by stating, “Nobody really felt that under privileged at that time because we were in the same boat,” and “there was no reason to be envious of others because we were all poor.” It wasn’t until after he was in high school in Vancouver that he looked back with some distain on his family’s mistreatment during that time, but according to him, he doesn’t harbour ill feelings for his experiences during the internment and both he and my mother look forward to the upcoming conference.

Derek Iwanaka, a sansei, is currently Chair of Tonari Gumi and of the Legacy Sakura Coalition. He attends Japanese School and his wife is Japanese-born. After becoming involved in the JC community back in 1999, he met people like Tatsuo Kage and Takeo Yamashiro who knew and respected his grandfather, Motoi Iwanaka, and this encouraged him to further connect with and help the Japanese Canadian community. His grandfather was the first elected President of Tonari Gumi back in 1976.

Derek went to University of Northern BC where there were few Asians, yet he spent most of this time with mostly Asians, especially with the Japanese students. He recalled that during his childhood in Coquitlam he was almost always one of the smallest players on any team and in school and was often picked on for his small size. This usually meant he had to try harder than others in sports such as hockey, baseball, soccer and karate. Growing up in the suburbs, he had issues with his Japanese Canadian identity and found that he escaped much of the teasing by trying to blend in with his Caucasian-dominated peer group and trying to be as white or non-Japanese as possible. Today he is aggressively pursuing his cultural roots.

When I think of the internment and relocation, I have mixed feelings.

My grandparents on my father’s side were relocated from Mission, BC, to the sugar beet fields of Taber, Alberta. My family did not talk about what happened to them, and it was much later that I found out what they went through. I was angry that my grandparents and so many others had to endure such hatred, loss, and injustice.

Now, I have slightly different feelings. When I think of Japanese Canadians who went through internment and relocation, I don’t just think of them as victims, I think of them as survivors, as heroes. I am so proud of my grandparents and all the Japanese Canadians who were interned and relocated. For them to come through the war years, and the ensuing aftermath, is a triumph of the human spirit.

My grandfather embodied that spirit. He was always a man with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. Grandpa Miyanaga rarely spoke of when he was relocated, but when he did, you saw a glimmer of sadness pass over his usually happy demeanour. But despite what he felt about losing his property and his logging company, and having to move his family to an unknown place, he never seemed bitter. He lived the belief that you worked hard and then you moved forward. I don’t think I would have been that gracious had the same thing happened to me, so I am proud that in people like my grandparents, I have excellent role models for facing adversity.

I teach elementary school, and sometimes I get the opportunity to teach a series of lessons of what happened to Japanese Canadians during World War II. Through simulations and role-playing, the grade 5 students get an interesting insight about the value of human rights, and what happens when those rights are taken away. Interestingly, the students feel the same rage and sadness that I felt when I first learned of the injustices to Japanese Canadians. Children at that age have a very strong sense of fair and unfair. When they learn about Redress, most of the students have a sense of closure and their negative feelings dissipate somewhat. When I teach these lessons, I try to model the same graciousness that my grandparents modeled for me.

The students learn modern-day life skills in the context of the experience of Japanese Canadians. I try to pass on the three big ideas that I learned from internment and relocation:
1. People (even adults, parents, and governments) will make mistakes. This is why we have rules, laws, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to help guide us from making mistakes or being unfair.
2. It is important that we atone for our mistakes and learn from them. This is why we make apologies, and why we need to learn to solve problems. Hopefully, the lessons we learned from past will keep us from treating people unfairly in the future.
3. Though it is important to acknowledge our failures, it is also important to recognize how far we have come. We learn from our history and will continue to improve. I think Grandpa Miyanaga would have approved: appreciate what you have and move forward. You get a better sense of how far you have made it when you see where you started.

I think this is part of the legacy that survivors of internment offer to our children and our future citizens. This is why I think the internment conference (Honouring Our People: Stories of the Internment) is so important. We need to hear firsthand accounts of surviving internees, so that future generations can learn from them. I would love to be able to use their stories in my classroom.

So how do I feel about internment? The bitterness gives way to pride, pride that my ancestors battled tremendous hardship and came through with heroic dignity. The other feeling that emerges is gratitude. I am grateful that we learned from what Japanese Canadians endured and that I know that my life is better because of their triumph over great adversity.

Greg Miyanaga is a third generation Japanese Canadian.  He helped develop an educational resource package for elementary teachers about the internment and redress called Internment and Redress: The Story of Japanese Canadians. [www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/resource_guides.htm] He lives with his wife, Brenda, and daughter, Beth, in Coquitlam.

Blueberries were so good this summer that I finally tried this blueberry buckle recipe that I clipped a long time ago. It’s a blueberry cake with a buttery cinnamon topping.

BLUEBERRY BUCKLE

1/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, rinsed

Topping:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Cream 1/4 cup butter with 3/4 cup sugar; add egg and beat well.
Into a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Add sifted dry ingredients to butter mixture, alternately with milk.
Fold in blueberries. Pour into greased 9 inch square baking pan.
For topping, combine ingredients and blend to form crumbs.

Sprinkle topping crumbs over batter, Bake at 375 for 35 minutes.

SWISS APPLE PIE (Really a sponge cake)

I received this recipe from Sally Yukawa last year and been using it a lot since it is so easy and good.
2 well beaten eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peeled diced apples
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Beat eggs and sugar well until sugar granules disappear.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt and add to egg mixture.
Stir in vanilla, apples and walnuts.
Pour into greased 9 inch pie plate.
Bake in 350 degree oven 30 minutes or until toothpick – clean.

Her comments:
Great recipe to use wizened but still okay apples.
Can be served warm or cold in wedges.
Can be doubled or tripled in larger pan. Bake longer time.
Freezes beautifully.

If made a day ahead and stored with cake still in the pie plate, in a shallow round tupperware, cake flavour mellows.

MAGIC MORNING MUFFIN

Mix together in a bowl:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp Baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup golden raisin
2 cups grated carrots
1 cup grated apple
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup coconuts

Mix and add to dry ingredients:
3 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla

Fill greased muffin cups or paper cups liner 3/4 full
and bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Makes approximately 18 muffins

This recipe was my favourite a long time ago. It’s really a great muffin recipe!

On August 1&2, the Powell Street Festival was held at Woodland Park, a relocation made necessary by the renovations being done at Oppenheimer Park this year. This change in venue was a real interesting one in that the Powell Street Festival was able to draw not just from faithful attendees but new ones who travelled from Commercial Drive. The park setting offered more shade from trees, more parking, a different demographic as a result of a more residential neighbourhood, and a more relaxed atmosphere.

However the Oppenheimer Park location provides a much more historical connection through Nihon-machi, Japan Town, the main historical home of the local Japanese community prior to World War II before the years of internment and forced relocation. Holding the Powell Street Festival there enables the younger generations of Japanese Canadians to reconnect with their local history.

There are arguments to support both sides of the successfulness of the Powell Street Festival at either location but I think the importance of reconnecting with our history will be the most significant concern. Your views and comments would be greatly appreciated.

The GVJCCA helped support the fourth annual Obon Service and Odori at Nikkei Place on August 5th with Reverend Aoki from the Vancouver Buddhist Temple, Reverend Ikuta from the Steveston Buddhist Temple, and Bishop Fujikawa providing the service for the many who attended. The service is provided for all who are unable to attend the other Obon services and we are always thrilled to provide such a service for our community.

In case you haven’t already read it in The Bulletin or seen any of the brochures available locally and nationally, the National Association of Japanese Canadians and the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association will be holding the conference titled Honouring Our People: Stories of the Internment on September 25 – 27 at Nikkei Place in Burnaby. This conference is very important to all Nikkei as it will pay tribute to those generations of Japanese Canadians who experienced displacement and hardships during and after World War II. This is a rare opportunity to hear their stories and memories so that they can be passed on to future generations. When our elders were interned, they came from many locations along the West Coast and were of many age groups. Where they were interned, and eventually relocated, provide different perspectives from this period. Many of our elders speak about the difficult times but also of the close relations they had with others of their age group at the time. We would like to hear from our elders—not just the difficult times, but also the fun and happy ones. The NAJC and the GVJCCA invite you to share some of these stories that hopefully have been passed on to some of your younger generations. We urge you to sign up and register soon so that we may all share in these stories, especially your grandchildren. Brochures and registration forms are available at many locations locally in the Greater Vancouver area or by calling the GVJCCA office at 604.777.5222 or through the GVJCCA website http://jccabulletin-geppo.ca or Facebook.com Honouring Our People – Stories of the Internment.

The GVJCCA thanks our many volunteers who help us out each year by holding a Volunteer Appreciation Night. This year’s event will be held on November 20th at Nikkei Place, from 6 – 8 pm. This is always a special event for the GVJCCA to thank all its volunteers, donors, and advertisers for the year. We hope you can attend and enjoy seeing your many friends again before getting yourself ready before the busy holiday season in December. We hope to see many of you there!

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

An estimated crowd of 700 or so, young and old, began gathering in front of the Nikkei Centre in Burnaby about two hours earlier. As the royal couple drove up to the Centre entrance, a tension born of a collective sense of respect and indeed awe on the part of some seemed to mount. When it was punctured by a cheerful “Konnichiwa!” from a little child somewhere in the crowd, the atmosphere palpably relaxed. Taking in the two familiar figures in real life, I felt it was almost natural for a Nikkei or Japanese person to be awed by the imperial couple’s presence.

“Please be good to the old folks,” and “thank you for taking care of the old folks” were probably the words they repeated most often. The emperor himself is 76 and the empress 75. The royal couple, who might be old enough to be living in retirement had they been commoners, had come all the way to our locale to express their appreciation to Nikkei and ijusha people— that’s us!—during their grueling Canadian tour on behalf of the entire Japanese nation. If I may get personal, the emotion I felt was somewhat akin to the unforgettable joy I used to feel some years back when my ageing parents in their 70s would come and visit me in Singapore, a long way for them. This I discovered while writing this. (Would I tick off some readers if I were to add that I still don’t think of myself as a “fan of the Imperial family” as such, even though as a writer of miscellaneous items, I may take interest in them?)

I should also mention, especially for our younger readers, that during the era of the Great Japanese Empire up to the end of World War II during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, father of the present Emperor Akihito, it would have been far too disrespectful to casually write “the emperor and empress are this and that” in an open publication like this. Some 60 years later today, as one who has lived “overseas” for a long time, nevertheless, I get a strong feeling that the imperial couple and their family remain the most constant entity in Japan today. The nuance of an idealized “Nippon” is of course there as well.

The first time I became fully aware of the existence of the present emperor was when I was still in primary school and there was a festivity of some kind. So I checked and came upon his coming-of-age and ceremony of investiture as crown prince (rittaishi) in 1952. Cities and towns across Japan celebrated, hoisting up goodwill balloons and such, and the radio aired special programs. I still remember the melody of a song dedicated to the crown prince we had to learn and sing during music class.

Soon thereafter, he went on a tour of Europe and North America, his first overseas trip in 1953, during which he attended the coronation of Her Majesty Elizabeth II in London on behalf of the emperor. I remember well as my uncle happened to be a member of the Japanese media accompanying the imperial contingent. As it had been only been eight years since the end of WWII, his reception was not without tension. Looking at a photo of the then crown prince visiting Canada, carried by newspapers reporting the recent visit, one cannot help noticing the tense expressions on the faces of Canadian officials accompanying him.

In the years to follow, after his marriage to the then Ms Michiko Shoda, subsequently Princess and now Empress Michiko, the imperial couple have diligently fulfilled their heavy responsibilities, despite occasional stress-related illnesses, both at home and abroad. Their overseas trips—and only those after they became emperor and empress in the Heisei era—have covered Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in 1991, China in 92, Belgium, Italy and Germany in 93, the US, France and Spain in 94, Brazil, Argentina, Luxemburg, Britain, Denmark and Portugal in 97, the Netherlands Sweden, Switzerland and Finland in 2000, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria in 02, Norway, Ireland and Saipan Island in 05, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia in 06, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lthuania and the UK in 07 and Canada and the US (Hawaii) this time.

Quite a grueling schedule to say the least. To cite just a single example of Saipan, they distinguished themselves among Japanese “leaders” (in a broad sense of the word) including politicians to cover the island as thoroughly as they did, paying respects at all war memorials dedicated to the Japanese and Korean war dead.

I cannot write much more as it would touch on aspects of history and culture of which I’m pretty ignorant, so allow me to close with the hackneyed but frank words that I am (or we are) “sincerely grateful for all you’ve done for us” and our hope for their continued good health.

The book is the history of the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Association compiled using the monthly newsletters of 1976 to 2007, starting with how we got started, our role in the Nikkei Centennial and Redress Movement and listing the highlights and activities of each of the years. It also lists the Boards of Directors, Merit Award Winners, Nikkei Honour Roll Winners, and Scholarship/Education Award Winners for each of the years.

As we were getting ready to celebrate our 30th anniversary, it was decided to write a book on our history as so many of our adult members were not even born when we formed our organization, and did not know our background. It would let our younger members know how and why we started the organization, and let them know of the many activities we had held and how their parents and grandparents had been involved.  For the older members, it would be a reminder of the many activities that had been organized, and bring back fond memories. I agreed to do the writing. After all, I had edited the monthly newsletters over the last 30 years, and ‘everything’ was in them so it was just a matter of compiling the information, right? Little did I know how long it would take.

The book was to cover the years 1976 to 2006 and was to be ready in the fall of 2007. I started on the book, but there were too many other things to do, and the book writing kept getting put on the back burner. Soon it was 2008 so I decided to include the year 2007, and thus the ‘plus one’. Then, in February of 2008, our Cultural Centre burned down, and again the book writing was put aside. When 2009 rolled around, I knew that writing of the book had to take priority, no more excuses, and the book was completed in mid-May of this year.

I thank the NAJC Endowment Fund for their support in granting funds to cover part of the printing cost, and I hope that our younger and newer members enjoy learning the history of our organization. Our older members will, of course, enjoy being reminded of all the different activities they took part in. I urge other organizations to consider writing their history as it is important that there is a record of all activities and accomplishments so they are not forgotten.

If interested, books are available through the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Kamloops. Cost is $20 (plus postage and handling of $3.50 if mailed).

The script for Henry’s Glasses was awarded a small grant by The Directors Guild of Canada and has been receiving a lot of support by organizations and people such as The National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre and The Bulletin. It is the filmmaker’s goal to make the film as accurate as possible both in its broad scope and in the details that are so important for authenticity.

As an independent production, we are in serious need of financial support to educate people and to preserve this part of Canada’s history and the producers are now looking to the community for assistance in bringing this project to life. As well, we are looking for anyone who is able to donate time and help construct the buildings and sets that will be used during the filming.

For wardrobe, we need help sewing the costumes for the actors. If anyone has clothes left over from that era, and are interested in donating them for the production, that would really help us and would be highly appreciated. We also need to sew some Angler uniforms from scratch. Those were a standard dark blue uniform with a red target on the back and red strip down the side legs. If anyone has first-hand knowledge of those uniforms and would like to help us make sure they are as authentic as possible, we would like to speak with you about that as well.

For any financial donations contributed to the project, your company will receive a professionally made commercial in return for your contributions. As well, we will make sure it is aired with Novus TV to give you a large amount of publicity.

If you are able to help, please contact us asap at
risingsunprojects@gmail.com.
You can also visit us at henrysglasses.wordpress.com

Thank you
Brendan Uegama
Director/Producer
Black Tree Pictures

Nicole G. Leier
Producer
Black Tree Pictures

Tashme Set Construction

Wood: To build walls and roofs for 6 shacks and 1 complete shack for Henry’s home. These shacks will be covered by tar paper.

Other Supplies: Tar paper to cover the shacks

Carpenters: Build the set of Tashme Camp in Sunshine Valley, BC

Other Volunteers: Help carpenters to build the set, help art director to dress the set.

Costume
Wardrobe: Sew 1940s costume for Henry’s Family, Mr. Yamamoto and Angler uniform.

Tailors: Work with the costume designer to create costumes for the actors.

Fabrics: Fabrics in dark colours (grey, brown, etc) and beige would be great on camera.

All individuals’ names will be credited appropriately and be seen on screen at various Film Festivals around the world!

by Agnes Li

After several months of planning, the Japanese Language Interest Group of STIBC held the 2nd Annual J-E • E-J Translation / Interpreting Workshop, co-sponsored by the Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia (STIBC) and the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association (JCCA), Japanese Language Committee, on April 25, 2009 at Nikkei Heritage Centre in Burnaby.

The format of this year’s workshop changed from last year’s seminar style to a more hands-on approach where the participants were asked to choose and translate two of the four given topics and bring their translation to the workshop. Twenty-four participants arrived promptly and the workshop got off to an energetic start.
The workshop opened with a warm-up exercise led by Kumi Hardin in which participants were asked to identify the English equivalents of the “Japanized” foreign loan words written in katakana. As the enthusiastic participants shouted out their answers, Ms. Hardin added interesting trivia behind some of the loan words. By the end of the warm up, the participants were eager and raring to move on to the hands-on translation portion of the workshop.

The translation portion of the workshop began with English to Japanese translation. The participants separated into two groups as determined by which topic they chose to translate. The cultural topic for this workshop was an article on Kodo, taiko performers in Japan. This group was facilitated by Tatsuo Kage. The technical topic was an article on Toyota as a domestic automaker in Canada. This group was facilitated by Yasuko Garlick. The participants in each group gathered close to their respective facilitators and shared their translations. For the next forty minutes, the participants were encouraged to ask questions and share whatever difficulties they may have had in completing the translation.

After a short break, the participants regrouped for the Japanese to English translation workshop. The cultural topic for this workshop was an article on the movie Ramen Girl. This group was facilitated by Yuko Ikegami Lee and Agnes Li. The technical topic was an article on ultrasound imaging of unborn babies. This group was facilitated by Stan Fukawa. Again, the participants shared their translations. An interesting exchange of ideas ensued for the next forty minutes.
This was followed by a fifteen-minute break and networking session. The participants took advantage of this time to enjoy some pineapple buns generously donated by Suzuya and to chat with their peers. There was an excited buzz around the room as participants circulated to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

The pleasant mood of the break and networking session spilled over to the sight translation workshop presented by Masaru Nagashima. Mr. Nagashima peppered his workshop with the right amount of humour to keep the workshop both entertaining and informative. Before launching into the hands-on part of the workshop, Mr. Nagashima declared that his goal was to not only be bilingual, but to be “bow-lingual” as well. The participants roared into laughter as they realized that the next slide of his PowerPoint presentation was that of his pet dog. After grabbing the attention of the participants with this joke, Mr. Nagashima began the sight translation exercise on the timely topic of Tax Free Savings Account.

The final workshop of the day was a special presentation by Masako Sharpe. Ms. Sharpe introduced participants to a voice recognition software that she has incorporated into her workflow to great effect. She demonstrated the use of the software and discussed the software’s pros and cons. The participants listened attentively as they considered the possibility of incorporating the software into their own workflow.

All in all, the J-E • E-J Translation / Interpreting Workshop was a big success. Once again, the Japanese Language Interest Group was able to provide a continuing education opportunity for STIBC members and non-members alike to learn from each other. An initial review of the evaluation form revealed a positive response from all the participants. The workshop met the expectations of almost all the participants. In addition, an overwhelming number of participants expressed a desire to attend similar workshops in the future. Suggested topics for future workshops included a thorough discussion of the grammatical differences between English and Japanese and a seminar on what it takes to make a living as a translator or interpreter. For the hands-on translation workshops, participants suggested such diverse topics as the translation of court documents and hospital brochures.

The evaluation form reflects a healthy interest in and a substantial need for these kinds of workshops in the Japanese language community. The Japanese Language Interest Group feels fortunate to be able to provide such a venue for people to learn, grow and network. Stay tuned for more workshops in the near future.

Agnes Li is a certified translator from Japanese to English and has been a member of STIBC since 2005. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia. While she loves her day job as a graphic designer, she finds intrigue in crafting the perfect translation for her freelance work.

Inevitably, the road trip turned into a mini-history lesson for Emiko and Kaya as they are finally at an age (15 & 13 respectively) where they can conceptualize history and their relationship to it. In Japan they got a taste of their Japanese roots (more about that next month) but on this trip they were able to experience a different part of their heritage as we followed the dispersal route that Japanese Canadians took on their exodus from the coast.

After crossing the new Golden Ears Bridge and passing through the Fraser Valley and Hope, I pointed out Sunshine Valley, site of the former Tashme camp (see article on page 8). I always feel a conflicting sense of claustrophobia and anticipation when driving through the area. On the one hand, the surrounding mountains can feel oppressive as they press in from all sides, while the Hope slide feels somewhat foreboding—the idea of all those tons of rock sliding down the mountain and across the highway gives me shivers. On the other hand, Hope truly is a door to the rest of the province, with a number of roads and routes to choose from as one heads either east or north. As we headed onto the Crowsnest Highway and into Manning Park, memories of my own childhood road trips came back to me. As my father knew, all one needs is a full tank of gas, a good set of tires and a sense of adventure, and anything is possible.

As we’d gotten off to a late start (necessitated by having to buy a rooftop carrier!) we stopped for the night in Osoyoos, where we spent the night in a motel room watching a Russell Peters special on TV. My Bulletin volunteers love him, and I can see why, the man is wickedly funny when it comes to race and culture (which, as he pointed out, are two different things, something I discovered myself in Japan). OK, so it was the uncensored version of his show . . . maybe the girls learned more than they needed too.

The next morning we drove through Greenwood, another former Internment “ghost town.” It’s a postcard-pretty little town, and we marvelled at the beauty of the landscape.

By the time we got to Grand Forks we were seeing the physical remains of Doukhobor structures and communities from the highway, giving rise to another history lesson for the girls. I related the history of the Doukhobors to them (a fascinating and somewhat tragic story for anyone interested in BC history) and pointed out that they were one of the few groups to show kindness and support to Japanese Canadians during the Internment years, perhaps because they themselves had been persecuted.

We arrived in Nelson that afternoon and spent the next few days reconnecting with family and exploring the area, including the Ainsworth Hot Springs. We never did get a chance to visit a real Japanese onsen while in Japan, so this was our consolation prize.

After three nights we said our farewells and headed to Silverton to do some camping. On the way, we passed Lemon Creek (see page 3) and Slocan. I’ve never taken the detour to Slocan City, but I have visited the site of the Lemon Creek camp and find it almost surreal that there is virtually no sign of the thousands of people who called it home for four years. It is like a ghost town without the town—simply ghosts . . . ghosts and fading memories . . .

Silverton proved to have a lovely little municipal campsite, right on Slocan Lake, where we set up camp for a few days. With plenty of shade and water warm enough to swim in (and a fire ban that was lifted the day before we arrived) it was lovely place to relax and spend a lot of time doing nothing.

One afternoon we drove the few kilometres up the road to New Denver and spent several hours at the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre. It was the first time visiting the Centre for Amy and the girls and the perfect way to end our very informal Internment camp tour. Everything we had talked about and seen on our trip regarding the Internment was reinforced by the visit to the Centre, with its well-thought-out exhibits. The NIMC consists of five buildings, three of which are the original shacks built in 1942. Two of the huts are preserved virtually intact and contain furnishings and stoves used by the original occupants.

It is one thing to read about the living conditions in Internment camps, it’s another to see actual dwellings as they would have looked like, and to imagine two families living in it. Both girls were fascinated by the various artefacts and the attempts to make the places feel like home.

Toilet facilities, in the form of a row of outhouses, are also preserved, and help bring home the less-than-ideal living situation in the camps.

After viewing the buildings, we spent some time in the large central hall with its photos, texts and displays, including tents, desks, boxes and other luggage used in the journey from the coast. One item I found particularly moving was a letter written by a group of women in support of their men, many of whom had been separated from their families and sent to road camps and other isolated locations.

The garden that surrounds the buildings was designed by Roy Sumi at the age of 87 and provides a serene setting for the rest of the Centre. Although he died in 1997, his creation continues to bring pleasure to visitors and residents alike.  A visit to the Kohan Reflection Garden proved to be a perfect and restful conclusion to our New Denver experience.

Our trip concluded with a visit with my old friends and colleagues Paul Gibbons (AKA Garbanzo) and Tsuneko Kokubo (AKA Koko) at their beautiful home overlooking Slocan Lake. My mother, sister Rachel and nephew Charles joined up with us there and we spent a pleasant afternoon renewing connections.

Our holiday winding down, we took our time driving back to the coast, stopping in Greenwood for the night and collecting some delicious fruit from Osoyoos the next day before finally making it back to Port Moody in the evening. Although it felt like too short a trip, we knew we would return soon.

Judging by the stories we have been covering in The Bulletin over the past several months, there is a renewed appetite within the community for capturing the stories of the nisei. It is as if there is a collective understanding that before too long it will be too late, providing a send of urgency.  The upcoming conference, Honouring Our People: Stories of the Internment, is an attempt to provide a safe place to share stories and memories from a time that is rapidly fading into the past. I don’t believe it is intended as a forum for rehashing old grievances or injustices, but rather as a place to share and to learn. I hope that many people, both young, old and in-between, will come together in Burnaby to share and learn and connect as people with a shared heritage and legacy.

We can’t live in the past, we can only go forward, but in moving forward we can take some of the past with us, providing a sense of continuity without which we are adrift.

and when the last memory is gone, Lemon Creek will be simply a field once again . . .