On Saturday, July 31, 2010, a ceremony will be held at the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre in New Denver to mark its official designation as National Historic Site. The event, which is open to the public, will run over the weekend and includes commemorative events, entertainment, workshops, and the annual Obon Ceremony.
The Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre bears witness to the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War and the history of internment camps located in the interior regions of British Columbia.
Located at the heart of one of the …

On November 7, 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, as the Last Spike was driven home in Craigellachie, not far from Revelstoke, British Columbia. In the process of building and maintaining this ribbon of steel that created a corridor across Canada, the lives of many people from different nations were lost.
In early March of 1910, a severe storm lasting some ten days lashed the western areas of North America, resulting in a number of massive avalanches. On March 1 of that year, 96 people lost their lives at Stevens …

One of my most prized possessions is an old wooden box. It’s about the size of a shoebox that a pair of size 16 shoes might come in. It’s got a hinged lid with an old-fashioned handle bolted to it, the kind that one might find on a very old chest of drawers. It was made by my father as his everyday tool box – the one he would carry around the house to fix things that were too heavy to carry to his workshop. Inside there is a collection …

This video installation was inspired by Susan Sontag’s writing about cancer, the terminology and language that’s used, how war terminology is used by oncologists when talking about cancer and treatments. Aiko then relates this to the second world war, pointing out the irony in the fact that the chemotherapy she was receiving, you know, contained mustard gas and other chemicals that are, or were used in warfare. So that’s what the whole exhibition was about, and I think that was her way of processing and coming to terms with the disease, her own involvement in it, and the victimization one feels as a cancer patient: you’re out of control of your body, and the medical system is basically controlling you.

A few weeks back I was driving my daughter Kaya to school. Normally she takes the school bus, but given that it was her birthday and that she would also be graduating from middle school that same night, I drove her. As she was getting into the car, I plugged my iPod into the dash and scrolled to a song I know she likes by Josh Ritter called Bright Smile. The first few lines of the song filled the car—now my work is done / I feel I’m owed some …

The Japanese Language Interest Group of the STIBC, with the Japanese Language Committee of Greater Vancouver JCCA as a sponsor, held the 3rd Annual Translation/Interpretation Workshop on May 15, 2010 at the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall on Alexander Street. The event enjoyed a great response from the community and we saw more than 30 people registering, including S.T.I.B.C. members, students and other language professionals. We also received a request from a Japanese community paper, Vancouver Shinpo, to cover the event.
The three-and-a-half-hour event had three components: a health …

A gathering of the representatives of three Asian community groups—Chinese, Japanese and South Asian—plus the Musqueam First Nation and the Vancouver Labour Council, who had formed the Anniversaries ’07 Steering Committee, marked the achievement of a major objective of the organizers in commemorating the centennial year of the Vancouver Anti-Asian Riot of 1907. The Vancouver Riot took place in Chinatown and Japantown over a few days beginning on September 7, 1907 but it had gained impetus from an Anti-South Asian Riot in Bellingham, Washington just across the Canada-US border on …

As a Japanese Canadian Mormon, I was always conscious of being a minority within a minority and, therefore, I was always a little different. As a Mormon, I was different from many of the other Japanese within the community, as most of them attended the Buddhist Church. As a Japanese Canadian, I was one of only a small group within the Mormon Church. However, it was something that I got used to and was able to bridge a number of different cultural, ethnic and religious divides.

Salt Spring Island’s Richard Murakami was among forty-seven British Columbians representing 32 communities throughout the province who were honoured at the seventh annual BC Community Achievement Awards ceremony held at Government House in Victoria on April 28, 2010.
Lieutenant Governor Steven Point and Premier Gordon Campbell presented each recipient with a medallion on behalf of the BC Achievement Foundation.
“These forty-seven individuals exemplify the characteristics and accomplishments of British Columbians who have helped shape our province,” said Premier Campbell. “They are citizens from all over the province whose contributions, leadership and inspiration …

I know I’ve been over this territory before on these pages, but it never hurts to revisit some things, such as the idea that real heroes are found, not in the sports section or on Entertainment Tonight but under our own noses.