a journal of japanese canadian community, history + culture
a journal of japanese canadian community, history + culture
“When our parents, Katsuyori and Kimiko Murakami brought the family back to Salt Spring Island in 1954 after being expelled in 1942, the first place they took the family was to the cemetery,” said Rose. “In the twelve years in which we lived in exile, we found that terrible things had been done to the Japanese Canadian graves."
the river organizes itself around/the ring fingers of the city planners// walking is an exercise in becoming/the rivulets criss-cross down the stairs// no strident social voices can equal/the equanimity of the touristic gaze// all fallow hands on deck are heard/melodies through the megaphones// of the fluted stories no longer echoed/in the camouflage of ochre embankments
For me, it is still unreal that all the letters are finally back in Vancouver after two and a half years of growing bigger on the road. These cloth letters have traveled to over 50 locations in Japan already – many places in Tohoku and all over Japan – and they continue to travel as they have crossed back across the Pacific to exhibit across Canada and the US.
"The Pole will remind us to be more vigilant when signals of distress and injustice surface. We, as a community, cannot continue to blame victims; victims who succumb to injustice. The cause of the circumstances which led to situations to which there are such victims needs to be examined. Our society must be alert to the misguided mores under which we currently operate….
During the Second World War, when the Japanese boats were seized and the families moved inland from BC’s coastline, Emma’s mother, Mary, cried to see Jack and Mitsue’s house empty – all their belongings left inside and covered!
The lessons of the Nishga Girl and the November 10, 2010 ‘Too Asian’ article in Macleans magazine and other similar events from the past, teaches us to be relentless in our vigilance and united in our demand for inclusion.