Join Vancouver New Music on Sunday, February 10, 2008, from 4 pm to 5:30 pm in the lobby of the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (1895 Venables Street) for an open conversation about Roy Kiyooka’s life and work with family and friends.

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A Happy New Year—Akemashite omedet? gozaimasu—to you all. Like many readers, I was lucky enough to be able to share moments of joy with family and friends in a few get-togethers through Christmas into the New Year (o-sh?gatsu). As usual, the final week of the old year flew by in a flash. As soon as the hectic pre-Christmas shopping days and Christmas passed, or so it seemed, we were already ushering in the year 2008.

As for New Year’s Eve, I went to a casual “Western-style” party which climaxed, per custom, with the countdown of the final ten seconds up to midnight followed by lots of cheering, glass-clinking, hugs and handshakes. I also imagined people back in Japan going through the traditional rituals, starting on the eve with toshikoshi (literally “carrying-us-over-from-one-year-to-the-next”) soba, usually slurped while listening (mostly via TV or radio nowadays ) to the sound of gongs at Buddhist temples struck 108 times slowly. This is to free one and all from the “108 earthly desires”, or hang-ups, in order to start the new year refreshed. Many people young and old flock to big Shinto shrines to pray and receive hamaya (arrows to ward off evil).

Our family celebration of o-sh?gatsu has been reduced to the bare minimum—having o-zoni for the very first meal of the new year on January 1st. Being the only Japanese of the family, I prepare the traditional rice-cakes-in-soup fare, of which there are infinite regional and familial variations. My o-zoni is roughly based on my mother’s family recipe, some kind of a Kyushu variation, made up of soup of the standard seaweed and bonito shavings stock, leafy spinach, bits of pre-fried pork and plenty of grated daikon.

In Canada, I suppose most of the Nikkei/ijusha community celebrate Christmas along with other Canadians and many, I would guess, must also celebrate o-sh?gatsu with family and relatives in one way or another. Probably only those with access to the few Buddhist temples and maybe shrines can listen to the gong or receive hamaya. I almost forgot the internet, which probably enables us to listen to the gong on some Japanese website.

In my own perception, this week or so of festivities and get-togethers get rolled up into one giant celebration. Of course, I appreciate the special significance Christmas has for Christians, and that of o-sh?gatsu for Japanese people. At the same time, archaeologists, astronomers and other scientists point out that mankind since pre-historic times has been celebrating winter solstice, the time when days start getting longer, or the harbinger of long-awaited spring, I also feel that both the Christmas message of “Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Men (& Women)” and the spirit of collectively welcoming the auspicious arrival of a new year are so universal that it would be a pity if they’re not shared with non-Christian and non-Japanese people as much as possible.

What with so many immigrant and mixed families in Metro Vancouver, there must be myriad combinations of Christmas and Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and other non-Christian festivities celebrated by such families. My family happens to be quite mixed, my wife originally being a Singaporean of Indian extraction and I being three-quarters Japanese and one-quarter Finnish. While our children might be considered quite an exotic mix in some other countries, it does not seem as big a deal here, where mixed marriages relatively fairly common.

Religion wise, my wife and two children are Roman Catholics while I was raised a Lutheran and now consider myself Buddhist. Celebrating family Christmas still comes naturally to me because of childhood Yuletide experiences. My wife and kids attend Christmas services at the local parish church, and at home we put up the tree with decorations including many brought from Singapore ten years ago. On Christmas day we open presents and then and then sit down to a Christmas “dinner” which is really a late lunch.

We have also evolved a “tradition” of sorts. Every year we have a get together, inviting old friends as well as recent acquaintances, particularly people like foreign students who are away from their family, as well as our children’s school friends so we get a good mix of the young and old. We also make sure those who can play music bring their instruments.

Vancouver being such an international city, this year we happened to have people from Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, the UK, the US, Poland, Peru, Guyana and Sweden as well as Japan and Canada (not that anybody particularly cared about nationality) and enjoyed playing and singing Christmas carols and other tunes.

A few days later I came across an op-ed piece in the Vancouver Sun, that said the whole point of Christmas was about passing on to our children they way we used to celebrate it with our own parents. It must be the same for o-sh?gatsu. True enough, it was my mother who liked to invite foreign visitors to Christmas and other festive gatherings, and it was my father who liked to make music on such occasions.

By around 2030, I hear, London’s population will be made up of about equal proportions of various major races, so that the city will no longer have one predominant national culture. Dame Shirley (Goldfinger, Hey Big Spender) Bassey, the 74-year-old doyenne of diva songstresses, recently complained to the media that Britain today is no longer the place she grew up in because “no one speaks English any more.” Some Britons claim that London is already “THE capital city of the world.”

Our Metro Vancouver seems headed in the same direction. Our population already has the highest percentage, around 60%, of new immigrants (i.e. those who speak a language other than English or French at home) of all Canadian cities.

With all the inevitable interaction and mixing between the many races and cultures, traditional festivities like Christmas, one that Canada’s founders brought with them, and o-sh?gatsu, one that Nikkei people as a small minority brought over, are bound to evolve, undergo metamorphoses. Buddhists, Taoists and Muslims joining in on Christmas celebrations? European- and Chinese-Canadian friends dropping in to celebrate together the start of a new year? Why not?—It’s probably no big deal already for many of the readers

In closing, allow me to share with you the best present I received this season—something that money can’t buy. My wife, daughter and I were having lunch in a Japanese restaurant when we noticed a Japanese-speaking family at a nearby table with a cute little girl. Her smiles were so infectious that my daughter waved at her, and she waved back. The next thing we knew, the little one trotted over and handed my daughter something—a tiny octopus she’d folded with a paper napkin. That little present for my daughter made my day.

January will be another busy month. If you haven’t registered for the GVJCCA Keiro-kai which will be held at Nikkei Place on Sunday January 13 from 12 – 4 pm please do so as soon as possible. This annual community New Year’s celebration for seniors over 70 years of age is going to be another excellent event with a full program. To register, please contact Tonari Gumi at 604.687.2172.

Shinnen-kai, the annual Nikkei Community New Year’s party will also be held at Nikkei Place on Saturday January 19. Tickets are still available, so please contact Nikkei Place at 604.777.7000.

The GVJCCA will be holding a Valentine’s Day Dance on Saturday February 16th at Nikkei Place. This will be our first dance and fundraiser for 2008. There will be prizes, snacks and DJ music. Tickets ($25) and information are available through the GVJCCA at 604.777.5222 or through Board members. The aim is to help raise funds for the GVJCCA so that we can provide information through workshops and sessions on various aspects of human rights, social justice and other topics pertinent to the Nikkei community.

The GVJCCA will be holding its annual AGM on Saturday March 29 in the GVJCCA office from 2-4pm. We are always looking for individuals who are interested in helping the community in all areas of community development, social justice, human rights, and Nikkei relations. Please come and attend. If you would like more information please contact our office.

During 2008, Japan and Canada will be celebrating 80 years of diplomatic relations. Canada was one of three countries that Japan established diplomatic ties with, the others being the United States and the United Kingdom. The Government of Japan is planning to celebrate the past eight decades of friendship and cooperation with Canada as a way to look ahead to the future in building stronger bilateral relations. Events supported through the year will be in various areas such as economics, science & technology, academics, culture, sports, arts, and tourism. We hope that community organizations can participate in this 80th anniversary year and bring the Nikkei community even closer together.

Have a great month.

Ron Nishimura
President GVJCCA

John Endo Greenaway
editor@bigwavedesign.net

A Renegade Nisei
January 4, 2008. I’m editing a story on Roy Kiyooka while watching Michael de Courcy’s short film Voice: Roy Kiyooka on his website www.michaeldecourcy.com. Today is the 14th anniversary of Roy’s death, and there he is on my computer monitor, unmistakably himself and very much in context—at the Western Front for his 66th birthday/retirement party surrounded by friends: Takeo, Linda, Minoru, Paul Gibbons, Themba Tana, Jim Munro, Rhoda and Trudy . . . His face, his mannerisms, his voice are so familiar, it’s almost painful to watch.

Although I knew Roy as a family friend growing up in Toronto and Montreal, it wasn’t until we moved to Vancouver in the late sixties (at his urging) that I got to know him a little better. He lived down the street from my parent’s place in Strathcona. One summer he hired me to help him build a darkroom in his basement. He bummed cigarettes off me and bought me my first donburi at Aki’s on Powell Street. He explained that it was the Japanese version of a sandwich. I thought that was pretty weird at the time. I remember printing the images for The Fontainebleau Dream Machine in my father’s darkroom in these oversized developing trays that Roy bought specifically for that purpose. It seemed really extravagant at the time. But that was the kind of thing Roy did. I think he hand-coloured the prints afterwards.

Years later he and I were part of a gang that played poker at Mas Funo’s place in Kitsilano. He wasn’t a great poker player, but he more than made up for it with his verve, his sense of style and his sheer enthusiasm. I used to see him riding his bike around Strathcona and Chinatown, his right trouser leg rolled up to avoid getting grease on it, wearing the ever-present down vest and bandana tied around his head. He seemed so deeply imbedded in the neighbourhood that it was impossible to think of it without him.

When he died so unexpectedly early in 1994 we put out a call for tributes to be printed in The Bulletin. Responses immediately began flooding in from across Canada. He had a great many friends and admirers within the arts community. What was so striking about the tributes we received was the immense affection and respect that everyone held towards him.

The premiere next month of Vancouver New Music’s Marginalia: Re-visioning Roy Kiyooka, under the direction of Giorgio Magnanensi, reminds us that Roy Kiyooka had an impact far beyond the body of work he left behind. He was a renegade nissei, an intellectual without pretensions, an artist who refused to be pigeonholed, a wonderful teacher, an adventurer and good friend. That he continues to inspire and engender respect speaks, I think, to his indomitable individuality.

“One of the wonderful things about Roy, actually, was that he got so much joy out of the things he did, you know, the music he played, whatever he did. Poker – he was a terrible poker player, a terrible poker player – except the night he was lucky . . . I wasn’t there, but apparently, every time he’d get a good hand he’d fall on the floor laughing and everyone would just fold.”
Linda Uyehara Hoffman, February 1994 issue of The Bulletin

“I can’t really say that I knew Roy as well as a lot of people did, but I knew him for a long time. To me he will always be the family friend who called me Sam well into my teens—a childhood name that I had discarded at age five. It wasn’t a purposeful mistake on his part, it was simply how he’d known me as a baby. Eventually, of course, he came around. He always did. Roy, you filled our houses with smoke and laughter—there was no one like you.”
from the Editorial, February 1994 issue of The Bulletin

Farewell to Mary Takayesu
On December 8, the JCCA and The Bulletin lost one of our most loyal volunteers, supporters and friends. Mary Takayesu was 82 years old and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, so her death was not completely unexpected, but all of us who knew her were deeply saddened by her passing.

For as many years as I can remember, Mary and Frank devoted a great deal of time to ensuring that the JCCA membership list was kept updated. They had a system of envelopes and cards that they meticulously updated every month. I don’t think they ever fully trusted the computerized system that eventually became necessary, perhaps with good cause. When Frank passed away in 2004, Mary was already dealing with the reality of her illness, yet she remained fiercely independent as long as she could. Our deepest condolences to her family. We shall all miss her.

The Bulletin Goes Virtual
In 1958, The Bulletin was launched by the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizen’s Association as a means of communicating with the community members who had begun to return to the coast following the eight-year exile brought about by wartime fears and racist government policies. Over the past 50 years, the content has changed to reflect the ongoing evolution of the community itself, but the purpose remains the same—to serve as a link and a vital tool for communication. As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Bulletin we look back with respect and gratitude to those that came before us and look ahead to a future that promises its own challenges. We look forward to continuing to serve the community to the best of our abilities.

Long overdue, we are pleased to announce the launch of The Bulletin online version. The beauty of the web is that everything is in a continual state of flux and our site promises to change and evolve over time. We are already looking at the possibility of expanding our content to reflect the global reach of the internet. Stay tuned!

To those of you who tried the brined turkey, I would appreciate your feedback. I really think it’s worth the extra effort and is the tastiest, tenderest and most delicious way to cook turkey. You can try this method on chicken too.

TURKEY SOUP
Simmer up a joint-boosting broth, boil leftover carcass of turkey to make soup.

Bone broths are easy to make. Begin with bones from fish, poultry, lamb or pork. The bones can be raw or cooked and they can be stripped of meat or still contain meat remnants and skin.
Dr. David Williams, a leading authority on natural healing says he adds leftover eggshells because the membrane that separates the white from the shell contains four joint boosting nutrients, Hyaluronic acid, glucosamine, condroitin and collagen.

Place the bones and eggshells with water in a pot and add a couple of tablespoons of one of the following per quart of water: apple cider vinegar, red or white wine vinegar or lemon juice. Gently stir and let it sit for about 30 minutes to let acid go to work.
After 30 minutes, bring the pot to boil then cover and simmer for 4 hours. Once it’s done, strain it immediately and sip it as soup. I would add vegetables and make a nourishing soup. Dr. Williams says this will free you from stiff aching joints.

YOSENABE
Seafood and Vegetables in Broth

Yosenabe means “a gathering of everything,” and as in all nabe cooking, other vegetables other than specified may be used.

12 large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
2 medium carrots cut obliquely, in triangle shape
3 ounces harusame ( cellophane or transparent noodles)
1/2 lb. of white-meat fish cut into 1″ pieces
12 clams, shucked
8 scallions, including at least 3” of the greenstems -2″ pieces
3 cups chicken broth, fresh or canned
4 inch piece of konbu (dried kelp) washed under cold water
I added 5 pieces of chinese black mushrooms
Nappa cut into 2 inch lengths (any amount)
1 cup of bamboo shoot
1) Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan, drop in carrots and return to boil. Drain the carrots in a sieve and run cold water over them. I just microwaved them for two minutes.
2) Soak the harusame in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes until soft and cut into 2″ lengths
3) Soak the black mushrooms in hot water immersed for 15 minutes.
4) Arrange the clams, shrimp, carrots, mushrooms, nappa, noodles, fish chunks and bamboo shoots attractively on a large platter.

TO COOK
Place 3 cups of the chicken broth and the piece of konbu in the cooking utensil and bring it to a boil.
Lower the heat so that the broth simmers constantly throughout the meal. Traditionally, each diner selects and cooks his own food.
None of the ingredients in Yosenabe needs to be cooked longer than a moment or two.
Serve with small dishes of dipping sauce.

DIPPING SAUCE
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoon of Mirin (sweet sake)
Serves two

I tried this last night and my husband loved it so much that he asked for another half cup of rice when he is a steady 1 bowl rice person.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT “Wealth is the realization of the idea of bringing happiness to others.” Words of Wisdom from Truth of Life.

Three “extraordinary unsung heroes who have influenced the way we think, feel and live as a community” were spotlighted. John Endo Greenaway was selected for the Arts and Culture category, along with Mr. Nick Noorani for the Business and Professional category and Professor Henry Yu for the Community Service category. The night started wonderfully with an inspiring speech from VDP Chief Constable Jim Chu as the keynote speaker.

John was honoured for his work, including in his capacity as the Managing Editor for The Bulletin, playing an invaluable role in preserving Japanese Canadian heritage. He did the Nikkei community proud by providing a reflective speech on how the different stages of his life impacted his career path and successes and providing practical and down-to-earth advice in response to the audience’s questions. He reflected on his past 14 years with The Bulletin, covering many unsung heroes in the JC community, and highlighted the new book Nikkei Fishermen on the BC Coast: Their Biographies and Photographs (Masako Fukawa, editor) that he designed.

Undoubtedly John’s words of wisdom motivated the audience, especially the younger aspiring members. Great going, John!

By Craig Natsuhara

Every biography in the book has a story to tell well beyond what was possible in the book with 767 biographies.

Fujio Egami was born in Steveston, received his education in Japan, and returned to Nanaimo at age 15. He attended Brechin Elementary and learned to speak English. Fujiko told the visitors that on one of their cruises, they sat next to a couple who turned out to be his former teacher at Brechin Elementary School in Nanaimo!

As a young man Fujio worked for Frank Koyama Enterprise delivering fish – cod and salmon – to restaurants and fish and chip shops in the city. In 1942 Fujio was shipped to Hastings Park and on to Slocan and Toronto where he worked in restaurants. During the internment years, his family was separated. His mother and younger brother were in Japan while he and his father were in road and internment camps.

Fujiko Kurita was also living on Vancouver Island. In 1942 she was relocated from Port Alberni to Hastings Park and on to Spuzzum. At Hastings Park, she remembers stacks of bread and a can of jam on each table at breakfast and wondered “where’s the butter?” She didn’t know at that time that Fujio, her future husband, was working in the kitchen “stirring the pot.” They met in Vernon and married on Jan. 11, 1951. Soon afterwards they returned to the coast to Vancouver. He returned to fish for BC Packers on the Skeena and the Queen Charlottes until 1991 when he suffered a stroke and was forced to retire.

Retirement did not slow down Fujio. It gave him more time to hone his gambling skills. He’s a master at the craps table and can frequently be seen with his winnings at River Rock Casino in Richmond.

Not only at Oppenheimer Park, but all the internment camps in Canada should have some kind of monument, however modest, placed at those locations. In the States, except for two camps, we have a monument at each of the camps; and it will only be a matter of time before we have some kind of monument at the two that don’t have one since our government has declared all of the camps national historic monuments and each camp will receive federal funding to restore, landscape and commemorate them. So the Canadian government should also provide some kind of similar funding if only to have some kind plaque or marker at the site to indicate that internment camps existed there. Or maybe the internees of each of the camps can raise the money for such a marker or plaque.

On the subject of internment camps, the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles is planning a conference in Denver, Colorado on July 3-6, 2008 commemorating the twentieth anniversary of our redress bill and will examine the World War II experience and its connections to historical and contemporary issues dealing with democracy and civil rights. There will be a whole slew of panels and workshops that will deal with such subjects as: finding your roots, a question of identity, preserving your family history, looking like the enemy, how children’s writers make books relevant to Japanese American youngsters, resistance to government orders, health care concerns of Japanese American elderly, hapa identity, how to conduct oral history, the Japanese American experience in the Southwestern and Mountain states, the preservation of the last three remaining Japantowns, etc. Those are just a few of the subjects that will be covered.

Since the programs are still tentative, I’m thinking of suggesting to the Japanese American National Museum to include a panel of Japanese Canadians to tell about their experiences during World War II. Perhaps there could be one panelist who went to the interior settlements; another who went to a self-supporting site; another who went to a sugar beet farm in the prairies; another who went to a road camp; one who went to Angler; and an expatriate to Japan. Japanese Americans don’t know too much about the Japanese Canadian experience, so this would be a good opportunity for you to educate us. It would be nice if some representatives from the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre could be at the conference.

Aside from the panels and workshops, there will be banquets, luncheons, speeches and a pilgrimage to the Amache internment camp in Colorado. Headquarters will be the Hyatt Regency Denver. Mr. Yoshin Tamaki of K. Iwata Travel Service, Ltd. at 774 Thurlow St. in Vancouver is listed in the conference brochure as the representative for making arrangements in Canada. He should have the brochures and the information regarding this conference.

Ed Suguro
Seattle, WA
USA