Chuck Tasaka

Chuck Tasaka

Immigration Faux Pas in Canada

Manzo Nagano is credited with being the first Japanese settler in Canada in 1877, though he was not the first to come to BC. Japanese sailors were rescued from a shipwrecked whaling boat as early as 1834. In Ann-Lee and…

Nisei: Nikkei connection to McLean Mill

Did you know that there was a very small settlement of Japanese Canadians at the McLean Mill in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in the early thirties? Reading the Parks Canada backgrounder article and excerpts from Jan Peterson’s book, Twin…

Mio-Steveston Fishermen Dialect

Whenever you hear of Mio, a poor, small fishing village south-east of Osaka in Wakayama-ken, the name ‘Amerika Mura’ comes to mind. To the villagers, Amerika was Canada and the US. Gihei Kuno’s name became synonymous with the Mio-Steveston connection.…

NISEI: THE GAMES WE PLAYED

Nisei growing up on Powell Streets in the 30s didn’t have that many toys so they had to improvise. Some boys picked chestnuts off the ground and pierced them with a needle with string threaded through to the other side…

Nisei : Summer Jobs

“What? I have to travel 400 km to work all summer? I will call family services!” No, no, that didn’t come out of the mouth of a Nisei. They followed their parents’ orders. The Child’s Labour Code was not discussed…

Nisei: Internment Camp Life

Greenwood was the first ‘internment centre’ and Tashme was the last. In-between, there were Lemon Creek, Popoff, Bay Farm, New Denver, Rosebery, Sandon and Kaslo. Self-supporting camps were East Lillooet, Minto Mine, Bridge River and McGillivray Falls. Other self-supporting camps…

THE NISEI HEP CATS

“The day the music died,” from the song American Pie by Don McLean, referred to February 3, 1959, the days Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper perished in the ill-fated plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. Those who…

How Can You Tell a Nisei?

Issei, Nisei, I Say, You Say The Bulletin is pleased to introduce a new column by Nanaimo-based historian, researcher and author  Chuck Tasaka. Having grown up in Greenwood, Chuck has a special interest in the area, as well as a…