Editor

by Bryan Tsuyuki Tomlinson It is with great pleasure that I announce the 2015 Japanese Canadian Young Leaders Conference (JCYLC), running August 7 to 9 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This annual conference has been a major forum for the younger generation…

Actively try to create these “once in a lifetime” encounters and connect with people. You never know when the ‘one-time, one meeting’ from volunteering will lead to a full time position or lead you onto a career path you actually want.

On August 1 and 2, this year’s Powell Street Festival returns to Oppenheimer Park with its patented blend of tradition and innovation. Jazz will rub shoulders with taiko, taiko will share a stage with street dance, and it will all…

Community CouncilSummary of the Critique presented on April 29, 2015 The following are the main points from the Community Council’s summary report/critique presented on the final day: 1. Activism or Activist Scholarship? What processes might the project put into place…

During the Second World War, Canada enacted mass displacement and dispossession of people on racial grounds, a collective moral failure that remains only partially addressed. Japanese Canadians lost their homes, farms, businesses, as well as personal, family, and communal possessions.…

Shako Club (or ‘social club’) is a two month long residency project with Vancouver-based artist Cindy Mochizuki and members from Tonari Gumi who will work together over the course of two months to create a social club setting where she…

Julie Tamiko Manning and Matt Miwa first met in 2009 as members of the English Theatre acting company at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre. The two actors share an identity as mixed-race Japanese Canadians and began to compare notes, discovering in…

In 2005, the Vancouver Asahi Team was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. Medals were made for individual players but many remain unclaimed by family members. Last year’s 100th anniversary of the first Asahi team and the film Bancuba (Vancouver) no Asahi produced by Fuji TV brought much excitement and celebration of the legendary Asahi baseball team, not only locally but in Japan and Hollywood.

It is a visually-evocative film, both stark in its contrasts and rich in its emotional detail from the claustrophobic conformist offices of Japan to the almost paralyzing vastness of the American hinterland. The symmetrical composition shots, dead-pan humour, and quirky characters give the film a Wes Anderson feel, but with a deep personal investment that forces us to wonder how far would any of us go to follow our dreams, hopes, and beliefs.

Each night’s class consisted of Yamai-san leading us in utai, chanting, for an hour or so, followed by a short break; the rest of the evening was spent on shimai, dancing.