To Community Members: Please come to a community meeting about the Hastings Park /PNE Redevelopment Plan on Monday, October 18 at 7PM at Tonari Gumi, 511 Broadway. This meeting is to discuss Japanese Canadian historical, cultural and commemorative presentations in Hastings Park and Japanese Canadian community planning input in the Plan.
Some Questions we are asking you to answer:
• What are your thoughts, ideas and recommendations about setting up educational, cultural or commemorative presentations about the wartime detention of Japanese Canadians at Hastings Park?
• What kinds of educational, cultural, commemorative or other displays about Japanese Canadians should be set up?
• Should there be a cultural welcoming gateway or other structure set up at the Momiji Garden area?
• What should it look like?
• Should there be an interpretive centre set up at the Hastings Park Livestock Barns about the 1942 detention of Japanese Canadians? Descriptions of an interpretive centre include:
interpretation centres use different means of communication to enhance the understanding of heritage;
interpretive centre presentations are usually user-friendly and interactive, and often use scenographic exhibitions and multimedia programs;
We welcome any other comments on this matter.
How to provide your feedback:
Send it to The Bulletin, c/o the Greater Vancouver
Japanese Canadian Citizens Association
200 – 6688 Southoaks Crescent
Burnaby, BC V5E 4M7, or
Email it to the GVJCCA—gvjcca@shaw.ca
Attend the October 18 community meeting at Tonari Gumi.
Duplicating many exhibits from the New Denver Internment Memorial Centre developed by the Historic Sites and Monument Board of Canada would be a good start, in the Forum or Livestock Building -
I especially liked the interactive map showing all the sites where our families were separated then sent to.
The New Denver Centre is great but how many Canadians are going to see and learn from it because of its isolated location – precious few.
An exhibit at Hastings Park would go a long way to correct the impression of a white wash.
Dedicate the exhibits to the people who died there including my aunt who was 23 years old then, and to those that committed suicide, etc.
Present examples of other atrocities relevant to the Vancouver multicultural population, as an argument against future wars and the inhumanity of man. Try to keep it non political and no cherry picking.
Relocate the Historic Sites and Monument Board plaque to a more prominent location and easier to read orientation.
While the garden is beautiful and fits in the Orchard District of New Denver, the Momiji garden at Hastings park is a duck out of water and not an essential element of the exhibit, in my opinion – the garden concept has a long history of being used as a polical football in the Vancouver J.C. “community” and should not be assumed to be a “unifying” element.
Propose that Vancouver City acknowledge the major role its councillors played in the destruction of our community and cite New Westminster’s apology to the Chinese Canadian community.