When Katari Taiko celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a concert at the newly refurbished Cultch (formerly the Vancouver East Cultural Centre) on November 1, it will mark three decades of dedication to not only the art of drumming, but the community that gave birth to the group.

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.

Although the Asahi were the best-known of the Japanese Canadian teams, there were many others up and down the west coast that provided Japanese Canadians—both players and fans—with much-needed recreation and enjoyment. Baseball in Japan also has a long history. It is extremely popular throughout the country and has produced many outstanding ballplayers, several of whom have been recruited by American major league teams.

Susanne Tabata sits on the back deck of her South Vancouver home looking at the ten DVDs stacked in front of her on the table. As she flips through them, she sighs as if suddenly remembering the process that brought them into being. The DVDs form a set titled Ohanashi – The Story of Our Elders. Filmed by Tabata over a three-week period and produced by the Japanese Canadian National Museum, Ohanashi collects the memories of ten Nikkei elders, all spanning the pre-war, internment and post-war years.
A long-time film maker …

” . . . hearing the taiko beat here in Canada always gives me chills, goosebumps, sometimes I get tears in my eyes. It must be something that my DNA is feeling without me noticing.”

My hope is that people will recognize that there is a pride in being of mixed race, that being a mixie is a specific identity. AND this may sound cheesy, but that we are all the sum of our parts, whatever those parts may be. Whether we identify as mixed-race, mixed culture, mixed gender, mixed education, mixed emotion, mixed parts, mixed nuts, whatever the mix is—it creates a 100% whole-grain person.

The Nikkei Fishermen’s Reunion Committee was formed at the turn of the new millennium by three sons of fishermen who had recently lost their fathers to Alzheimer’s and death. Realizing that the way of life that their fathers and grandfathers had experienced was fast disappearing, they resolved that the sacrifices and hardships that they had endured must be acknowledged and commemorated.

A big step in this evolution to a deeper connection to community came after our son Montana was born in 1990. We began to do less international touring, and began the Strathcona Artist at Home Festival. This festival opened a huge and very rich vein—the history, culture, struggles and story of this area.

Illustration by Cindy Mochizuki
“It was a problem of communication. My father read Japanese language newspapers, he could not read English. I read English language newspapers, Japanese newspapers were too difficult in spite of my years at the Japanese language school. Reading a newspaper printed in Japanese required a mastery of 2000 Chinese characters. Few Nisei read the Tairiku Nippo or the Canada Times. My father’s world consisted mostly of Japan, community activities and life in British Columbia, especially discrimination against Orientals. When he and his friends got together, I could …

Tatsuo Kage has the appearance and manner of an absent-minded professor, but this façade belies a fierce determination to follow his principles, whether they are popular or not. Over the past 30 or so years, he has been an integral part of the Vancouver Nikkei community, sitting on numerous boards and committees, and championing a number of human rights causes.
Born in 1935 in Utsunomiya, Kage was the son of a military officer. The family moved frequently until setting in Tokyo in the early forties at the outbreak of World War …