President’s Message

Hi everyone!
First off, I am a little late in including a special note to the Steveston Japanese Language School who celebrated their 50th Anniversary on May 1. The Steveston Japanese Language School celebrated the day with a bazaar, cultural display that included Japanese dolls, ikebana floral arrangements and origami, and concluding with a dinner. The School, which is located in the Steveston Japanese Cultural Centre, began in 1960 with only a handful of students. Now the school population is over 300 students of varying ethnic backgrounds. On behalf of the GVJCCA I offer my belated congratulations!

Before going to press last month I managed to attend Richard Murakami’s receipt of the 2010 British Columbia Community Achievement Award at Government House in Victoria on April 28. Richard was selected for this honour as a result of his many acts of generosity and kindness on Salt Spring Island. His most notable act was the donation of land for the construction of Murakami Gardens, a recently-completed 27-unit affordable housing project. Murakami Gardens is serving as a template for many new affordable house projects provincially. In total there were 47 recipients of this award, which as presented by Lieutenant Governor Steven Point and Premier Gordon Campbell on behalf of the BC Achievement Foundation.

On May 8, I also managed to get to the Bronze Plaque Ceremony in Cumberland, BC which was unveiled at Coal Creek Historic Park. This Ceremony was attended by over 75 people, including Provincial and Federal dignitaries and many descendants of the over 30 Japanese families who lived at No 1 Town in Cumberland. The Bronze Plaque recognizes the residents who were interned during World Ware II from the No. 1 Japanese Town. On the 40-acre Coal Creek Historic Park site there are also 31 newly-planted Mount Fuji cherry trees representing the families interned, partially funded by the National Association of Japanese Canadian Endowment Fund. This was a beautiful day for such a special event.
It is not too late to register for the GVJCCA Golf Tournament that will be held on Sunday June 13th at Meadow Gardens. Actual final registration date is marked for June 1, 2010 but with our press date being early this month, you will still have a little time. Meadow Gardens Golf course is a highly rated course in North America and can be read about in Golf Digest. Every hole provides its own beauty and challenges, so please contact Shag Ando (phone 604.922.9226) by email shagando@hotmail.com or gvjcca@shaw.ca (or phone 604.777.5222).

Our GVJCCA membership is invaluable to us as a non-profit Nikkei Community organization. Each annual membership assists us in providing programming in support of our day-to-day operation, and most importantly in the publication of The Bulletin/Geppo each month. We encourage our membership to keep their membership up to date and encourage others to become members. Your membership allows us to provide a source of information about current Nikkei stories and events for you. If you would like to be an advertiser through the Bulletin/Geppo please contact Anne at 604.609.0657 or annejew@vcn.bc.ca.

Thank you for all who participated in the translation and interpreting workshop on May 15th. The session was a great success and hopefully we can do this again.

Thanks, Ron Nishimura
President, GVJCCA