Photo of Denise Fujiwara by Sandra Zea

In the year 2045, Vancouver will have concluded a sea change. By that time, half our population will be of Asian descent. The present majority culture will become the minority. How will the city handle this? With fear, or with fortune?” Charles Barber

The Sumida River, or Sumidagawa, flows through Tokyo, Japan, ending its 27 kilometer journey by emptying into Tokyo Bay. The river gives its name to a well-known 15th-century Japanese noh play by Kanze Juro Motomasa. Sumidagawa belongs to the kyojo mono or “madwoman” subgenre of noh, where the source of madness is loss of a loved one, most often a child. Elsewhere in this repertoire, the woman finds her child alive and is freed from distraction by their happy reunion; Sumidagawa is tragic, the woman discovering that her child is dead.

During a visit to Japan in 1956, British composer Benjamin Britten attended a performance of Sumidagawa and was captivated, attending twice in one week. What enthralled him, apart from the poignant story, was the dedication and skill of the cast, the mixture of chant, speech, and song, the intense slowness of movement, and the economy of forces.
Long fascinated by challenges of economy and having already achieved amazing sonic and dramatic resonance with limited forces, Britten created a chamber opera version of Sumidagawa in 1964, re-titling it Curlew River and setting it in mediaeval East Anglia.

Essentially using the same narrative, although from a Christian, rather than Buddhist perspective, Curlew River also echoes technical features of Sumidagawa: he employs an all-male cast, mimics the stylized entrance of the players with a procession of Christian monks, and matches the ritualistic formality of the music.

The noh original of Sumidagawa was the inspiration for yet another adaptation, this time by internationally acclaimed butoh choreographer Natsu Nakajima, a student of the founders of butoh, Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata, and one of the first women in butoh. In 1994, Nakajima created the spellbinding solo Sumida River for Toronto dancer and choreographer Denise Fujiwara. Nakajima says of Sumidagawa, “For its Japanese audiences, the play is so well-known that a few simple references to the place, the season of the year, the boat, the boatman, and the distraught mother (perhaps only seeing the performer carry the bamboo that denotes her anguished state of mind) are sufficient to clue them into what they are seeing.”

Of her reinterpretation she comments, “The choreography does not attempt to narrate the story, but rather has sought to approach the core of the dance in a contemporary way through image and metaphor. We find the woman in the midst of a long, arduous and so far, fruitless search for her son. Her mind has been deranged by her anguish and the difficulty of her journey.”

Fujiwara’s performance of Sumida River was named the Best Dance Performance of 2000 by Toronto’s NOW Magazine.

When Vancouver’s City Opera set out to pair Sumidagawa with Curlew River for their 2010 season—a feat that had only been undertaken twice before, once in London and once in New York City—the intention was to mount the original noh version of the piece. In the process of finding a noh company that could perform the work, they discovered the existence of Nakajima’s butoh interpretation and made the decision to bring in Denise Fujiwara to perform it.

Charles Barber is a cofounder of City Opera and serves as both conductor and artistic director. He is excited about the upcoming performance on many levels.

“It’s a first in our country,” he says of Sumidagawa/Curlew River, “it crosses five centuries and two cultures in one narrative. The music is gorgeous, and the light design (by the extraordinary Robert Gardiner) is stunning and unique. And wait until you see what Robert and stage director John Wright are doing with the supertitles. I have never heard of such a technology before. It will be amazing, and very beautiful.

“I adore Britten’s music. He writes for the human voice as well as any composer I know. It is always an honour to give his music. Everything he writes is so wise, so alert, and so touching. Even by the standards of Benjamin Britten, great as he is, Curlew River is a masterpiece. The choral writing is unsurpassed. Members of the Vancouver Cantata Singers are our chorus. They make a stunning sound. So do leads John Minágro, Sam Marcaccini, and Joel Klein, all accompanied by a professional orchestra.”

Beyond the performance itself, though, he believes that the fusing of the two works is representative of a changing paradigm. “It speaks to the Vancouver we are becoming. If we get it right, at the end of the evening, our audience will discover what we share in suffering and beauty. Together.”

Barber believes that the arts have a role in examining societal shifts and helping to make sense of them. He also is determined to move beyond the safe and the expected to find new challenges. To that end, last year City Opera presented the BC premiere of the only opera known to have survived the Nazi camps, Der Kaiser von Atlantis. It played to rave reviews, five sold out houses and turnaway crowds, all in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. He sees this new venture in a similar light.

“As a conductor, I always like doing work no one has done before. Here, we offer a double bill in a musical, visual and aesthetic bridge that has never been seen in Canada. I am extremely proud of our company, and our many partners, for taking it on. I am also proud that Vancouver understands and welcomes the importance of such a bi-cultural project. As I say, by 2045 half our population will be of Asian descent. We have to get it right, or we end up like Alabama.”

These grand words and concepts would remain just that however, without the artists capable of pulling it off and Barber believes that the performers he has pulled together will more than do justice to the works. Asked why people should make the trek out to the Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC, he answers with four words: “Denise Fujiwara. Isaiah Bell.”

In Denise Fujiwara, they have the butoh version of Madwoman. As Susan Walker writes in the Toronto Star: “There’s never a move that’s made, not so much as the blink of an eye, that’s without significance. The concentrated energy that she brings to her dance heightens details, so that each short solo is like a full-length drama. Employing butoh dance principles, she’s an ever-evolving expressionist painting in which hidden emotions rise to the surface and an inner life is briefly glimpsed.”

Tenor Isaiah Bell, who will play the role of Madwoman in Curlew River, is a rising star in the opera world. Raves Barber, “He is a phenomenally gifted young tenor. Years ago I was accompanist to tenor Richard Margison many, many times, and knew that one day he would sing at The Met, Covent Garden, and La Scala. Today, I know the same about Isaiah. He is THAT good.”

When asked how he sees the two disciplines, butoh and opera, coexisting in a performance, Barber is unequivocal: “They complement each other magically. The first half is butoh: all face, all movement, all grace and agony and visual eloquence in the telling of a great story. The second half is opera, telling the same story, but now all music, all light, aural eloquence in the same telling. Vancouver has never seen anything like it.”

With files from Harvey De Roo

Sumidagawa & Curlew River
May 26, 27 and 28 at 7:30pm. May 30 at 2:30pm.
Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC
$40.00 general, $26.00 student ID
www.ticketstonight.ca
or in person at Sikora’s Classical Records
432 West Hastings Street.
www.cityoperavancouver.com

Notes Barber: Last year, many people left it too late, and could not get a seat at The Emperor of Atlantis. If you want to avoid that mistake, order your tickets now.

Sumidagawa & Curlew River is co-produced by City Opera, UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre. It is co-presented with support from explorASIAN, The Bulletin, the Japanese Language School and Hall, Nikkei Place, the Powell Street Festival, the Vancouver Cantata Singers, Accent Inns, and UBC’s Asian Studies and Alumni Association.

Most Canadian Nikkei families have pre-war roots on the west coast, is that the case with your family? Can you share some of your family background with us?
My father’s family is from Vancouver. They owned real estate around Japan Town. During the war, he was sent to work camps in northern BC. My mother’s family, Toyota, lived near Duncan on Vancouver Island. They were interned at Lemon Creek in the Slocan Valley. My parents met there when my father was allowed to visit his family there.

You helped found Toronto Independent Dance Enterprise but when you founded Fujiwara Dance Inventions, it was as a solo repertory dance company. I imagine it must be incredibly challenging to work as a solo dancer. What pushed you in that direction?
I trained and competed intensively as a gymnast since childhood. It’s an individual sport and I think that conditioned me to the discipline and mindset of working as a soloist.

You moved from gymnastics to modern dance and then to butoh. Was that a natural evolution for you and what attracted you to butoh?
After many years as an elite athlete I came to realize that one of the thing I loved about gymnastics was the dance. When I retired from competition, I decided to pursue dance because of its potential as a medium where ideas could be expressed artistically. I pursued butoh because of what I saw in Natsu Nakajima’s work: sophisticated dance theatre that was complex, mature, emotionally moving and life affirming.

You commissioned Nakajima to create Sumida River for you, the piece you’ll be performing here in Vancouver. What was it like working with her, and what was the most important thing you took away from the experience?
Working with Natsu Nakajima changed my life. Because butoh is a different paradigm from western forms of contemporary dance, I really had to start over from zero. I had to go to a ‘beginner mind’ and body. This was a terrifying and wonderful process. Butoh uses concepts like ma, a term for which there is no satisfactory English-language equivalent. There is no easy translation because the concept is complex and not acknowledged within a Eurocentric dance paradigm. Developing an understanding of the term, and then learning to apply and embody it in the creation and performance of the dance was a difficult and rewarding process.  It broke me down and then taught me the most amazing things about performance, choreography, art and life.

You’re on tour at the moment, what show are you touring and what cities are you hitting?
I just premiered a new solo, Lost and Found. It was commissioned by four Canadian presenters: Toronto’s DanceWorks, Live Arts in Halifax, Public Energy in Peterborough and Neighbourhood Dance Works in St John’s and I’m touring it to those centres now. We’re also touring NO EXIT, inspired by the play by Jean Paul Sartre.

We’ll have the opportunity to see you perform Sumidagawa back to back with Britten’s Curlew River. What does Sumidagawa mean to you?
The story of the Sumida River is the universal tale of the loss of loved one. I have had the privilege of performing this work on four continents and people have understood it and been moved by it everywhere it has toured. It is portrayed through the body, through visual metaphors and I believe that anyone who has loved someone can relate to it.

Have you visited the Sumida River?
Natsu-san took me to the banks of the Sumida River and to the shrine where it is said the boy in the story was buried.

Do you have plans for the future? Any new ideas you’re exploring?
I am planning a new ensemble work inspired by Christan Bok’s Gryphon Award-winning epic poem, Eunoia. It contains five chapters, each based on one vowel each, and each consisting solely of words that use that one vowel. It is incredibly rigorous,obsessive and witty.
We’re developing touring of the new solo, Lost & Found and for NO EXIT. Hope we can bring them to Vancouver soon!

Among the many VMs in Canada, at any rate, the ratio of couples in inter-racial marriages, or more generally “mixed unions,” is reported to be the highest by far among Japanese Canadians. It is one of the findings in a report entitled “A Portrait of Couples in Mixed Unions” recently released by Statistics Canada based on the 2006 Census (National Post, 21/4/2010). The percentage of mixed-race marriages and similar “relationships” among Japanese Canadian couples stood at a remarkable 74.7% – or three out of every four married Nikkeijin – compared to VMs with low mixed union rates like 12.7% for South Asian (Indians and others) couples. The very high ratio for Nikkeijin stands out in comparison to the next highest at 47% for couples in the somewhat vague category of “Latin American.”

Why is this? An analyst with Statistics Canada pointed to long duration of residence and the fact that at 29,700 couples (where one is or both are Nikkei), the Japanese Canadians were a much smaller VM than, say, Chinese Canadians with 321,700 couples and South Asians with 327,200 couples. It could be that it’s a very small group, so that the chances of meeting someone outside of the group are much greater, opined the analyst. (The report apparently does not dwell on such details as the distinction between, say, a marriage between Nikkei and Caucasian Canadians and that between a Japanese and a Caucasian Canadian.

Prof. Audrey Kobayashi, who studies multiculturalism at Queen’s University, gave another explanation for the Nikkeijin’s high intermarriage rate – the destruction of their social infrastructure during the 1940s. “If you look at the social situations in which people find partners, it’s very often in community events, churches, educational institutions . . . For Japanese Canadians, those were destroyed, and you saw an immediate rise in intermarriage,” she pointed out.

There is another trend that characterizes Japanese Canadians’ marriage patterns. Along with Filipino, Korean and Chinese Canadian women, Japanese Canadian women were more likely to be involved in mixed unions than men from the same VM. This contrasts with such VMs as South Asians and “black” people, another vague category, in which more men than women choose partners of different races. Why do Japanese Canadian women and, presumably, migrant Japanese women (apparently all grouped together under the VM “Japanese” in the report) show this tendency? There have been various studies on this by sociologists, psychologists and others, and I daresay there may well be readers out there with knowledge and insight into this important subject. It is both important and serious, I suspect, precisely because it’s one of those topics rarely discussed in “public” (i.e. open to both sexes).

I’m certainly no expert, but it has to be one of the factors behind the high ratio of mixed marriages and unions among Japanese Canadians in general. It must have been over 40 years ago that I first heard or read about the high ratio of mixed marriages among Nikkei women in North America. The situation was then described as something like “Nikkei women are not really fussy about the race of their potential partners, whereas many of the men think “I hope I can marry a Nikkei girl.” As I was writing this, I realized one more thing.

“I want my future partner to be such-and-such (Nikkei and other conditions)” . . . is this not the way men everywhere, not just Japanese Canadian, have traditionally thought? And “I don’t care what race (and other conditions) the person is (has), as long as the person really loves me” . . . is this not the way women everywhere have traditionally thought? Or is that an illusion of a 60-something wallowing in the refrain of the good old days? “In this day and age, women regardless of race are obviously much more realistic,” admonishes a voice from somewhere afar . . .

C’est la vie. Be that as it may, the aforementioned 2006 Census shows that couples in mixed unions, who make up 3.9% of the total 7.4 million couples in Canada, marks a big increase over the 2.6% recorded 15 years previously. So, to conclude, Nikkei/ijusha women are trendy where marriage is concerned.

In Chez D (May 31, Gudrun Tasting Room, Richmond), writer, broadcaster and musician Margaret Gallagher will join a unique roster of artists trading their artistic tools for chef hats to create a tantalizing feast for the senses. In this event commissioned by the Powell Street Festival, artists will plate delicacies in a five-course menu that pays homage to ethnic roots, migratory paths (the ‘D’ stands for ‘Diaspora’), new lands, family restaurants and neighbourhood survival foods. Chez D artists include Open Sesame (Michael Speier), Komodo House (Gallagher and Angela Wan), Patrick Tubajon (Gudrun Tasting Room), Ari Tomita, and Cynthia Low & Leslie Komori.

Gallagher chatted with The Bulletin about her lifelong love affair with food, her rich cultural heritage, and how she uses food to tell a story.

Describe your previous chef experiences?
Most of my jobs in university and just after were food-related. I was a baker at Cheesecake Etc for years, and worked in delis and as a waitress. I do a food column for the CBC Radio’s Early Edition, and I used to host a national food show for CBC with Fred Lee. As for Angela Wan and myself, we’re both largely self-taught home cooks. We’d been friends for a long time when we decided to start cooking up SE Asian feasts for friends, and we moved into catering Asian Heritage Month events and the occasional “guerilla restaurant” experience where we took over friends’ spaces for music/food events.

How is cuisine creation different from your other artistic outlets? How is it similar?
It’s different because it’s tactile and visual. As a writer/broadcaster and musician, I work with sound and words. They are similar to cuisine in that they all tell a story, and in the case of live music and radio transmissions, like food they are consumed by the senses, and then gone except for the memory.

How will your dish reflect the event’s theme of migration?
Through ingredients, culinary techniques and presentation, we promise to tell a story that draws on our own roots from SE Asia and from here. It’s interesting to think about the roots of personal migration now, since I have a new child whose roots are spread all over the world (her father is also a hapa, with roots in the Middle East and Europe). I think a lot about how her family cultural history will be transmitted to her, and food is such a part of that.

Chez D takes place at Gudrun Tasting Room (150-3500 Moncton Street) on May 31, 2010. The doors open at 7:00pm and the tasting commences at 7:30pm. Tickets are $35 – $40 and can be obtained through advance purchase only. For tickets or more information, call 604.683.8240, email gm@powellstreetfestival.com, or visit http://www.powellstreetfestival.com.

In Cumberland, BC, on May 8th, there will be a Bronze Plaque Ceremony, which will be unveiled at the Coal Creek Historic Park. Cumberland had one of the largest Chinese, Japanese, and African populations prior to WWII and was best known as one of BC’s biggest coal mining operations from which the coal was shipped world-wide. Before the Internment there were more than 30 families of Japanese descent who lived at No. 1 Town. Miners there were paid at half the level of Caucasians for the same jobs. The Bronze Plaque Ceremony is to recognize the residents who were evacuated from No. 1 Japanese Town during World War II. At the 40-acre Coal Creek Historic Park, that was eco-gifted to the City of Cumberland in 2002 by Weldwood of Canada, there are 31 Mount Fuji cherry trees representing the 31 families  who were interned from Cumberland. The planting of the trees in October 2009, was partially funded through the National Association of Japanese Canadians Endowment Fund. Future plans include the establishment of an Asian-styled bridge, traditional Torii gate, plus boardwalks and benches. The plaque dedication will be held at 2211 Comox Lake Road.

The Month of May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada and explorASIAN  (www.explorasian.org ) in Vancouver will be celebrating their 14th anniversary. Members of the Japanese Canadian community will be participating in its many venues and events. The Canadian Government in 2002 officially recognized the long and rich history of Asian Canadians and their contributions to Canada and the world. Here in Vancouver, we are blessed with our rich diversity of Asian cultures, enriching us socially, culturally, and economically. We hope that you will participate and enjoy many of the events. If you would like more information, The Bulletin is previewing some of the events, or check out their website for a full schedule.

The Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association will start taking applications for the following positions for the summer dependent on funding from Human Resources Development of Canada: Administrative Assistant; Special Projects Co-ordinator; and Historical Research Archivist. Please email your resumes to romini@shaw.ca or gvjcca@shaw.ca or fax 604.777.5223.

On Saturday May 15th, our Nihongo Committee will be hosting a hands-on translation and interpreting workshop at the Vancouver Japanese Language School. This workshop is intended for those who have a little experience or who are studying translation but all who are interested are welcome.

The GVJCCA Golf Tournament will be on Sunday June 13th at Meadow Gardens. Golf Digest has rated Meadow Gardens Golf course is one of the best places to play in North America. Every hole provides its own beauty and challenges, so we hope you will be one of many who enjoy its splendour. If you are interested please contact Shag Ando 404.922.9226 or call Alison at the GVJCCA office 604.777.5222.

Have a great month of May!

Thanks, Ron Nishimura

My strawberry rhubarb plants are getting to be long enough to make this muffin and it’s really good!

PRIZE WINNING RHUBARB ORANGE PECAN MUFFINS
2 cups all purpose four
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 large egg
2 tsp. grated orange rind
1 1/4 cup finely chopped rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. soda
3/4 cup nuts
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup orange juice

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In medium bowl beat egg. Add oil and juice.
Add flour all at once and stir in just until batter is moist.
Stir in rhubarb and nuts. Bake for 25-30 min.
Makes 1 dozen.

UBC TEA SCONES
I have been baking this for over 40 years from the Sun paper and it’s still my favorite standby.

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 cup milk

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Cut in margarine until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Combine egg and milk. Stir into dry ingredients.
Turn dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead very lightly about 10 times.
Pat or roll dough into a 1/2 inch thick circle.
Cut out scones with a 2 1/2 inch round floured cutter.
Place scones 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 450F for 12 to 15 minutes.
Makes 18 scones.
Variations: One cup of raisins or grated cheese may be added to the dough.

TROPICAL SCONES
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
5 Tbsp. butter (cut up)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup pecan
1 cup fruit mix
1/4 cup coconut
3 1/2 oz. white chocolate,  chopped

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter together.
Mix the milk, egg and vanilla and add to the dry mixture.
Add the pecans, fruit mix, coconuts and chocolate pieces.
Roll dough onto a floured surface and divide into 3 balls,
Flatten each ball with hands to 7 inches round and cut into 8 pie shaped pieces.
Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 F for 20-25 minutes.  Makes 2 dozen.

CRAB DIP
I went to my niece’s (Helen Kita’s) daughter’s wedding shower and there were so many goodies on my first round and when I went back for the second time, the bowl was empty (it is so tasty, she says it disappeared so fast) she gave me the recipe and it is so easy, I am adding it to my column.

1 can crab
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese
2 Tablespoon chopped green onions.

Mix all together and bake in 325 oven for approximately 20 minutes.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Of course there is the long process of petitioning for new names and going through the motions of the various agencies.  Federal and provincial departments will have to give their approval for any name changes, and this could take a while.  Nevertheless I think this is a worthwhile cause and should be pursued no matter how long it takes.  A committee should be organized within the Greater Vancouver JCCA to take up the matter.

On another topic, some Japanese Americans were upset that the Vancouver hot dog stand Japadog was mentioned on the American TV show Today.  Since “Jap” is considered a racist slur in the United States (and in Canada too, I hope), they were angry that there was even mention of that name.  I’m surprised that Japanese Canadians haven’t protested the name.  Since people from Japan aren’t that fluent in English and have almost no knowledge of Japanese Canadian and Japanese American history, they are often unfamiliar with the inflammatory word “Jap,”  They should be informed and be willing to use a more acceptable word than Japadog.

Ed Suguro
Seattle, WA
USA

Vimy Ridge Day at National War Memorial

It was indeed a great honour and privilege for me, a World War Two veteran, 89, to be able to attend the Vimy Ridge Day at the National War Memorial on April 9th to mark the end of an era following the passing of Canada’s last First World War veteran, John Babcock, 109.

It is most significant to note that those veterans who fought at Vimy Ridge, France in April 1917, took the ridge where Germans had controlled it using a network of trenches after 150,000 French and British soldiers had died trying to take it back.
Having planned meticulously for months, the Canadians had full-scale replicas of the Vimy terrain built to rehearse unit commanders on what to expect both from the enemy and from Canadian units on either side. Five kilometres of tunnels were dug in to move Canadian troops and ammunition up to the front without being seen by German observers.
The withering artillery barrage provided a screen for Canadian troops to hide behind. Every three minutes the 850 Canadian cannons would aim a little higher, advancing the row of shellfire forward by 90 metres. The troops had to advance strategically, falling behind would make them clearer for German guns mounted higher up the ridge, and getting ahead of the artillery would put them in danger of being blasted by their own guns.
In four days, 3,500 Canadian soldiers died, another 5,000 were wounded. The battle was hailed as the first success of the long war.
The Canadian victory elevated our country to a nation of its own and no longer considered a colony of the British Empire.

Jack Nakamoto

GPS systems are quite popular in Western Europe as many towns are a maze of streets going in every direction. To make it worse, a street often changes name every few blocks as there is obviously an amazing number of once-famous historical figures. The buildings numbers are quite often not in a logical sequence either. People give directions on how to go to their home based on local landmarks rather than secondary streets names. In other words, this is somewhat similar to Japan.

The first time I used a “wossuretto” in Japan was in the mid-1990s. I was overjoyed as, since I moved to Canada, I dearly miss the bidets that are commonly found in most European homes. And yes men do use them. Duravit, a German company, makes a European version. TOTO washlets are sold in Metro Vancouver by the way, unfortunately one needs to do some plumbing and electrical work. Several friends of mine, both male and female, came back from Japan saying that it was the most amazing thing they had seen and used in Japan, especially the ones, operated by a remote control, that play music to cover bodily noises.

Re Identity:
There were a few articles recently in several Vancouver newspapers about the invisibility of non-Caucasians in the local media. This is true enough, but it appears that many recent immigrants aren’t aware that all Caucasians aren’t created equals. Until relatively recently, European immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were definitely not considered as good as those from Anglo-Saxons areas . . .

I never thought as myself as a Caucasian when I was growing up in Southern France, and it wasn’t because we all had the same origin. Lots of French people have ancestors born in other parts of Europe. Others were born in the colonies that France had all around the world.
A fair number of my schoolmates were from immigrant families while others were from Overseas France.
(France is made of Metropolitan France—the European country—and Overseas France, scattered on three oceans. People born in the Overseas regions are full-fledged French citizens)

Those of us whose families have lived in Southern France for at least 300 years only became French as a the result of a succession of wars within what is now Metropolitan France. We don’t look like the stereotypical French person (blond and blue eyed according to French history manuals) and speak a non-standard French that is liberally sprinkled with words from our regional native tongue

(2/3 of the people in Metropolitan France did not speak French at the eve of the 19th century and quite a few still didn’t speak French by WWI).

You could say that we are First Nations of France, especially considering that the ancestors of the “true” French, the Franks, were a Germanic tribe that came to what is now the Parisian region around 500 AD.

It is only when I came to Canada—40 years ago already—that ethnicity became a concern. For the first time in my life I was asked if I was Caucasian (I found later that a Canadian immigration bureaucrat had assigned me the Catholic religion on my immigration papers without even asking me. My family is in fact Protestant).

At jobs interviews I was condescendingly asked if we had real houses and real schools in France. I had to explain that the town where I was born was destroyed and rebuilt quite a few times through the centuries so most of its buildings, made of solid stone, were not very old as they only go back to the 18th and 19th centuries, save for several big medieval churches and a handful of medieval and renaissance buildings. As for the local University it is barely 500 years old.

Twice in my life a manager at work (one in Toronto in the late 70s, one in Vancouver in the late 1990s) told other workers and I—all immigrants—that “you people can’t understand the white man ways” . . . then, pointing at me, said to my colleagues from visible minorities “he isn’t white, he is European.” In other words to these managers “white” meant only a North-American English-speaking person.

In both workplaces a few workers from Asia, Africa, the West Indies etc. were cold towards me (while others were friendly from day one). After the manager remark, these “cold” colleagues actually hugged me, expressing their shock and amazement . . .They had assumed that I was a supervisor only because of my skin colour.

To tell the truth, I thought that the attitude of these managers was hilarious. They only showed their ignorance and pettiness.

Being less and less shy with age, I like to remind those (few) English-speaking Canadians with UK roots that have a tendency to put down all others, that Normand-French became the official language of the English Crown from 1066 to sometime around the 1400s and that the UK monarchy still use French in its coat of arms.

Not to mention that the Celts originated in Eastern Europe and slowly settled in various parts of Western Europe, eventually ending in the British Isles and Ireland. As for the Anglo-Saxon culture, like all other European cultures it owes everything to the Greeks and the Romans.

According to some popular North American guidebooks, France is not a multicultural country at all. Yet an amazing number of famous French people (artists, scientists, politicians) have foreign blood. Edith Piaf mother was an Italian whose own mother was from Algeria. Charles Aznavour’ parents were both from Armenia. Jeanne Moreau, the movie star, had an English mother. Yves Montand was Italian, so is Pierre Cardin, and so on. It would take a thick book to list them all.

Hardly a few months goes by without another famous French person “coming out” has either being an immigrant or having immigrant parents. This not new. Michel de Montaigne, the famous Renaissance philosopher, was the son of a Spanish-Jewish mother. He was born in Bordeaux, my birthplace.

One last bit of rambling . . .
I started travelling outside my native region of France, and even outside France, in my mid-teens. After high school I had the opportunity to study for a whole summer in Finland then did my (then compulsory and unpaid) military duties in what was then West Germany.

There is a huge difference between being a tourist in a country and an immigrant. In the first case you are welcome—especially if you agree that the host country is definitely the best place on earth. In the second case you are stealing jobs from the natives and whatever education and skills you have are not worth much. This is not even a matter of language. I knew a UK architect who wasn’t allowed to practice in BC. Luckily for him, his wife had a good job but they did have to live on the cheap while he was going back to school full time.

Of course the reverse is likely true for a Canadian trying to immigrate to Europe or Japan, the more the pity.

I must add that, in the long run, living in Canada has been great for me. Not necessarily financially, but emotionally and personally. I was able to find myself, without the shackles of “what will the neighbours say” and to build friendships with people that like me for myself, not because I am from such and such town and family. Growing up, my brother and I felt that we were generic children. Especially after we found out we were expected to marry girls we didn’t even know! (yes, in 20th century France). What we really liked, who we were, didn’t matter. That—not fame or fortune— was my reason for coming to Canada.

Mr. J-L Brussac
Coquitlam

P.S. why do I read The Bulletin? I have always fascinated by Japan, even as a child, and became friends in Vancouver with a couple of Japanese guys.

By Frank Moritsugu

Misao Fujiwara (née Yoneyama), who passed away last month in Langley, BC, was a Vancouver-born prewar nisei whose professional and community achievements in Toronto deserve to be better known. As many know, Dr. Misao Fujiwara became an obstetrician/gynecologist in Toronto. And her husband Dr. Wesley Fujiwara, who predeceased her in 2000, was a pediatrician. And both became strong activists in the Japanese Canadian community.

(Although wife Betty and I were fortunate enough to get to know Misao and Wes, most of the details that follow came from the meticulously detailed An Evacuee’s Memoir, written by Misao’s brother Harold Yoneyama, published in 2008. Other sources include Japanese Canadian Redress: The Toronto Story, published in 2000.)

Misao Yoneyama was born in Vancouver on July 20, 1915, the oldest child of Rikizo and Yone (Kataoka) Yoneyama who immigrated to Canada from Kanagawa-ken.

Misao was followed by sisters Yachiyo in 1917 and Mitsue in 1920, and brother Harold in 1924. The latter two were born in Haney, BC where the Yoneyamas farmed until the 1942 mass expulsion from the BC coastal area.

In the enforced wartime move, the family decided to go to an Alberta farm near Edmonton because Misao and Yachiyo were studying at the University of Alberta. The other sister Mitsue was at the University of British Columbia and boarding with the Shimokura family in Vancouver. So she went with the Shimokuras to the Tashme family detention camp, the only Yoneyama to stay in British Columbia at the time.

In Edmonton, Misao got her medical degree in 1943 and moved to Toronto to serve her internship at Women’s College Hospital. Yachiyo got her dentistry degree the following year and became the resident dentist at the Lamont, Alta, hospital. Meanwhile Mitsue, left Tashme to join the family in Alberta and studied optometry in Edmonton.

Eventually, the entire family moved to Toronto where the three sisters opened practices in their specialities. And that was in an era when female doctors were unusual anywhere in the country.

In 1950, Misao married Wes Fujiwara and two years later, daughter Joan was born.

Meanwhile, brother Harold got his Civil Engineering degree at the University of Toronto in 1951 and became an Ontario government civil servant. He quickly rose up the ranks and in 1968 became an executive director at the Department of Labour as head of the Safety and Technical Services Division. At that time, becoming an executive director meant that Harold Yoneyama was the highest-ranking Japanese Canadian in the provincial government service. He later moved to the Ministry of Consumer and Social Services as executive director of the Technical Standards Division.

So all four children of Rikizo and Yone Yoneyama became successful professionals, a proud achievement in that immediate postwar era when resettling into new lives was the goal of displaced Japanese Canadians.

Then in the 1980s, as campaigning for redress took hold of Nikkei in Canada, as it was doing in the US, Misao and Wes Fujiwara became actively involved in the Toronto campaign movement. And in the early years—like engineer Stan and dentist Marjorie Hiraki had done before them—the Fujiwaras opened their home to many meetings of those nisei and sansei attempting to steer the campaign for official apology and redress in the right direction.

As part of the strategy, because of a general disagreement with the so-called National JCCA redress committee, Wes Fujiwara organized the North York Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC). Its name came from the Toronto suburb where a large part of the JC community resided. Subsequently it became the Greater Toronto Chapter of the NAJC with Wes Fujiwara as president. And supporting him all the way was his doctor wife Misao.

Then in 1987, as the redress campaign was reaching its climax (although no one knew it at that time), Wes Fujiwara led the movement to create a new Japanese Canadian national newspaper that would give fairer reports of what was going on than the existing Canada Times and The New Canadian. Titled Nikkei Voice, it took form with Wes Fujiwara as publisher. He also purchased the computer systems which introduced the newly developed technology to the newspaper staff. Again, he could not have achieved that without Misao’s support.

And it has turned out that both the Greater Toronto NAJC Chapter and Nikkei Voice became successful projects which still carry on today.

In 1990s, Misao and Wes, having retired from their practices, moved back to Vancouver where their daughter Joan had her medical practice at Surrey. And naturally they became a part of the West Coast JC activities such as the development of the Japanese Canadian National Museum. Wes passed away in 2000. And now Misao has left us to join him.

We Japanese Canadians, young and old, have benefited a great deal from the forthright leadership and generous efforts of Misao and Wes Fujiwara. We were so fortunate to have them as part of us.

reprinted by permission The Nikkei Voice

By Ian Lidster

Dedicated to creating a park out of the No. 1 Japanese Townsite: Dwayne Rourke, Ray Iwaasa, May Gee, Florence Bell, Carol Snaden, Imogene Lim, Lillian Tosoff, Grace Doherty, Meaghan Cursons, Susan Grandfield at the No. 1 Townsite. This group and others helped plant 31 cherry trees in memory of the families who lived at the site in 1942. Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Calling like the blossoms on the cherry tree are the leaves of the pages of the history of the Comox Valley. It is a history most profoundly connected with the multi-cultural heritage of the original community of any substance: Cumberland.

And it is apt that it is in Cumberland where members of the community are diligently working to restore historic ties with cultures seemingly forgotten, with perhaps the most poignant tale concerning the members of an ethnic group that was literally driven away in the name of a misbegotten patriotic fervor combined with the bigotry of the day. That day came in the months following the attack by Imperial Japan on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Among the victims of an unrepentant bias on the part of both the Canadian and provincial governments were the Japanese of Cumberland.

“When the people were finally obliged to leave they were driven to the wharf in Royston and loaded on a freighter destined for Vancouver,” says Ray Iwaasa (sic), whose uncle owned the Iwaasa Store in No. 1 Town in Cumberland. “Nobody came out to wave goodbye.”

Fortunately, however, there are those living in Cumberland and elsewhere that are not about to let this bit of cultural legacy die out completely. They are the members of the Coal Creek History Park Advisory Committee and they, along with assistance from the Village council and the Cumberland Museum, are continuing with their plans to complete a heritage park that includes the old Japanese No. 1 Townsite.

Ray Iwaasa never actually lived in Cumberland in the years before World War Two—he came later, he says as a “curiosity seeker.” Although by the time of his birth his father had moved on to Alberta, he does have a connectedness with No. 1 Townsite, and the legwork he has done has proved invaluable, says Coal Creek Committee chair, Grace Doherty.

His connectedness lies in the fact that Cumberland was his father’s first Canadian home. His uncle was the first in the family to arrive, and his father followed the uncle in 1898.

When Iwaasa arrived in Cumberland in March 2004 he was asked by Mayor Fred Bates and the Village administrator if he would be interested in getting involved with the study commissioned by the Village to establish a plan to develop the Perseverance (Coal) Creek Historic Park site. He notes that he was the only visible Asian to be so involved. The irony of that being that the parksite would encompass the area that once contained both the Chinese and Japanese communities of Cumberland, equally vibrant in their day.

Specifically, they wanted him to develop a vision for the No. 1 Japanese Townsite. Iwaasa agreed, but with obvious reservations arising from the fact, as stated, he’d not been born there, nor had he ever lived there.

In those early days Iwaasa was put in contact with George Penfold who was in the process of completing his report: Cumberland Chinatown Japanese Settlement Historic Park Plan (released in August 2004). In that report Penfold expressed disappointment at the paucity of input from the former Asian communities. Needless to say he was delighted to be contacted by Iwaasa, and ultimately, following the release of the report an ad hoc committee was formed. That report was accepted in principle by the council in September 2007, and the members of the advisory committee, including by this point a more extensive representation from the former Asian communities, began meeting regularly in early 2008.

Members include: Grace Doherty (chair), John Leung, Ray Iwaasa, May Gee, Joyce Lowe, Marie Lowe, Bernice and Katsaoki Takahashi, Tats Aoki (whose father was the principal of the Japanese language school, and whose mother was a teacher there), Josephine Peyton, Florence Bell, Carol Snaden, Dwayne Rourke, Tako Kiyono (who was briefly a resident of No. 1 Japanese Town), Imogene Lim, Donna Le May, Mas Aida and Lillian and Doug Tosoff.

Iwaasa confesses that he “came in starry eyed” at the concept of the project, and was a little blindsided by how complex the political scene was in Cumberland.

“I was eager to embrace all, but realized there were some issues between individuals and groups that were not easily surmounted,” he says. “At the same time, however, despite disputes over other issues, almost all of the people I dealt with were well-meaning and intelligent.”

Determination to not let the matter die or be pushed aside lies in the diligence of Grace Doherty. “I made a commitment to be vigilant,” Doherty says. “I made a point of literally attending all council meetings just to make sure the concept didn’t evaporate. We may have seemed impatient but the reality was that many of the people involved were not of an age to wait.”

At times, she says, she felt they were being stonewalled and it seemed that the park vision might never be realized if they didn’t get the support needed. Then former mayor Bronco Moncrief came into the mix and his input on the matter of the parks was of huge import to the park proponents.

According to Doherty, Moncrief told her he had walked down to the old Chinatown area and was struck by the beauty of the natural setting and told her he had come to the conclusion: “Why fool around any longer?” Moncrief had earlier told Iwaasa that he had lost a number of good friends when the Japanese were exiled in 1942, and he was motivated by their memory.

“In the fall of 2007,” Doherty says, “the plan was approved in principle. And in 2008 it was formally recognized and a council resolution set the parameters for the mandate.”

In essence it is a 40-acre park with the Chinese townsite at the east and the Japanese to the west, with both elements to be connected by an Asian-style bridge across Coal Creek.

Yet, what was it like in its glory days? At its high point up to 36 homes plus the two stores made up the community that was bounded by Coal Creek, the coal slagheap and the Wellington Colliery Railway. There was also a baseball diamond in the open space.

Children attended school in Cumberland, and also attended Japanese language school six days a week. Over the years a number of Japanese merchants established businesses in Cumberland proper and Japanese women had a traditional tea garden at Comox Lake from 1914-1939.

Yet, it wasn’t an easy life for the Japanese residents. The miners were paid at half the level of Caucasians in the same jobs and were the first to be let go when economic times were tight. Furthermore in what can be seen as nothing short of overt discrimination by officialdom, provincial legislation forbade them working in the pulp and paper mills, and the Oriental Exclusion Act of 1923 prevented them from working underground. In 1940 provincial legislation closed all Japanese schools, and this all culminated in 1942 when No. 1 Town (and No. 5 Town, to which many of the residents had moved when No. 1 mine was closed earlier) were evacuated to ghost towns in the Kootenays. At that time Japanese residents were forbidden to move closer than 300 miles from the west coast. This prohibition was to continue until five years after World War Two was over. Meanwhile, provincial authorities never returned the possessions and property of the Japanese who had been exiled.

Ultimately, Weldwood of Canada, the later owners of the site, eco-gifted a 40-acre parcel of land, which included the No. 1 Japanese Townsite, to the Village of Cumberland in 2002. This was the first step in bringing the historic park into being.

And fortunately, not all vestiges of the old town were completely eradicated. There remains the ‘Saito House,’ despite the earlier destruction of all the other structures. This is the original home of the Saito family. “The house is a historic treasure,” Doherty says. Built in the 1920s, it is destined to become the interpretive centre for the park.

Meanwhile, Iwaasa points out that even though the structural devastation is nearly 100 per cent, there remain elements of the original settlement that are to be cherished, including 57 heritage fruit trees. Unfortunately, people, being as people are, had been dumping yard waste on the site, so that all had to be cleared away.

Looking back in time, in it’s heyday there were 31 families, totaling 132 people, living at No. 1, with many in transition at any given time, as they moved on from the original site to other areas in the Comox Valley, such as the sawmill on Royston Road and Washer Creek in Union Bay.

The Royston Lumber site still contains some of the original buildings and in its heyday was home to a small village. Much of the motivation for moving away from No. 1 was that the mine had shut down, and the settlers of the town were forced to find employment elsewhere. Some completely left the area—including Iwaasa’s father, who decamped for Alberta in 1908. His father had arrived in the area in 1898, some eight years after the original settlers. The Iwaasa Store was one of the two general stores at the settlement.

The original Japanese settlers, Iwaasa says, came under a contract between the Dunsmuirs and the Japanese authorities. “There was much more individualized migration with the Japanese than there was with the Chinese,” Iwaasa says. “They were more organized than the Chinese, and while the Chinese came from a country torn by internal strife and warlord rivalry, the Japanese in Cumberland had a consular office in Vancouver to look into their concerns.”

As a consequence, he adds, the Chinese were treated much more poorly than the Japanese residents. That the Japanese had a big impact on the Cumberland community over the years goes without saying, Iwaasa notes. And in the years before the diaspora that came after Pearl Harbor fully a third of the population of Cumberland school was Japanese. There was also competition-winning Japanese baseball team.

Living with his family in Alberta and not subject to relocation in 1942, Iwaasa wasn’t fully cognizant of the impact of what took place in coastal BC until an uncle from Cumberland and four of his children came to live with the family in Alberta.

“It’s still painful to remember an older cousin and what happened to her,” he says. “She was a 19-year-old young woman whom I regarded as an older sister. She could never adjust to having been removed from her home. After some time with us she committed suicide—she drank lye. That happened in our home, and I’ll never forget it. I am sure there are many other similar stories.
“When I was a kid, Cumberland could have been the moon,” he says. But, then, at a later date, he happened upon his father’s diary, which was meticulously kept and includes entries from his decade in Cumberland, from 1898 to 1908.

“My father managed one of the stores. He also wanted to be an integral part of his new country, so he took his education at night school and when I was a child, even before I went to school, he was fluent in English,” he says.

Iwaasa, now an integral member of the advisory committee, says that once the mandate of the group and the project had received its official sanction, things moved on in a productive manner. He adds that the committee now boasts excellent relations with the Cumberland Museum, an important factor in their quest to complete the park.

The Cherry Tree Project, which culminated in the ceremonial planting of 31 flowering Mount Fuji cherry trees on October 24, 2009, was the first symbolic manifestation of bringing No. 1 Japanese Town to life. The 31 trees represent the families who still lived at the site in 1942, and came about thanks to a grant by the National Association of Japanese Canadians Endowment Fund, as well as donations by former residents and their families. The process was set in motion by Manabu Doi, a former resident, who made the initial application for the grant.

The next part of the ceremony is to come on May 8 with the Bronze Plaque Ceremony. The plaque will be unveiled at 1:30 pm on that date. The site is at 2211 Comox Lake Road, about 1.5 kilometres from downtown Cumberland.

For more information on the ceremony, please contact Grace Doherty at 250.336.8921, or email gdoherty@shaw.ca. For more about Cumberland visit: cumberlandbc.org or cumberlandmuseum.ca

reprinted by permission from inFocus Magazine
www.infocusmagazine.ca