a journal of japanese canadian community, history + culture
a journal of japanese canadian community, history + culture
by Mary Kitagawa I’ve heard it said that those who have suffered political violence deserve remembrance. As a child of seven, I was one of the 22,000 Canadians of Japanese descent who were victims of political violence. My family, the…
Presentation to the Standing Committee of Council on Planning and Environment: The following is a point form summary of the actions, recommendations and intentions of our Greater Vancouver JCCA steering committee: • We appreciate the following recommendations in the Hastings…
“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. There are many types of…
Growing up in Port Moody BC in the early eighties, Joji Kumagai wasn't particularly interested in his Japanese heritage. The son of Tatsuya and Akiko Kumagai, he saw himself as a typical Canadian kid—playing sports and hanging with his friends. After graduating from Port Moody Senior Secondary School he attended Simon Fraser University, where he majored in ecology with a minor in toxicology. In the summer of 2001 Kumagai travelled to Japan where he was able to get to know many relatives for first time, including his maternal grandmother, to whom he grew attached.
David Suzuki is by training a biologist—a scientist—which to some people conjures up the image of a white-coated rationalist, devoid of emotion and bent on pure experiment. But no human being is really like that, not even economists. Neurologists tell…
By Lorene Oikawa October 26, 2010, North Vancouver As the visitors walked through the front doors of the Squamish Nation’s Chief Joe Mathias Centre, they were warmly greeted with fresh cedar branches waved around them. The sweet cleansing power of…
As we head into the holiday (i.e. shopping) season, some of you are no doubt wracking your brains, wondering what to give that special someone on your list. An iPhone? already have one . . . Snow tires? too practical…
When Jeff Chiba Stearns began creating animated films, he started out small and worked his way upwards. Kip and Kyle, his first film, weighs in at a mere 47 seconds. For all of its brevity, though, it contains the essence…
Kizuna kindled my enthusiasm for other artistic practices. Lately I find myself going to the theatre more, to modern dance, to art galleries. Also, having the opportunity to meet with Natalie, Miyuki and Greg has made me want to explore inter-artistic collaboration more. They say opera is the ultimate synthesis of all the arts, and I agree: if you’re living in Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. I think we have the resources and talent to create something entirely new, something that speaks directly to us, while still honouring our past. And I think once we discover the recipe for this new multi-art form, we’ll kick opera’s ass.
I always dreamed of going to the United States and doing what I wanted to do. If everything worked out, I could even find a rich, tall husband in the States—that kind of thing. The idea of leaving Japan was almost defiant. My family and relatives thought this was a crazy dream, like becoming a Japanese Idol singer, so they didn’t take it seriously, but I did so well in English language class and international politics almost from day one. It was really effortless compared to any other subjects, so I started to say I would like to become a flight attendant, ambassador, or work for international cooperation so I could go overseas all the time. During the economic growth in Japan, Americanized style and pop culture was everywhere around me—we thought it was better and more successful than Japanese traditional style. And now it’s almost all over. It really didn’t take many years. It amazes me that what I was really longing for is failing badly.
The goal of Kizuna, Carter says, “is to start a dialogue and dynamic interchange across generations which provides an innovative, fresh perspective on cultural concerns.” With that in mind, she chose four younger emerging artists based on their diverse perspectives on Japanese Canadian experience, the range of media they represent, their desire to build connections within the community, and the importance of their work in relation to cross-cultural understanding. She invited the four artists to meet with community elders and to delve into the museum collections—photographs, archival materials and artifacts—as a means of inspiring discussion and as a visual inspiration for the artists.
Soda Kazuhiro usually works without a theme in mind when he shoots, finding his premise only later in the editing room. Hence, he almost rejected a commission from a Korean film festival to shoot a short film about peace and coexistence. Fortunately, he accepted the challenge, and what emerged was not a short but an intriguing and delicate feature. Peace was named after the brand of cigarettes smoked by 91-year-old Hashimoto Shiro, a gentleman who dresses in suit and tie even while dying of lung cancer. He receives compassionate care at home from welfare workers (the director’s in-laws), whose pay is so meager that they’re basically working as volunteers. After work, the director’s father-in-law cares for his five cats and one “thief cat” who steals the others’ food and encroaches on their territory. As the stranger cat gains acceptance among the cat community, war is averted and conflict neatly resolved. The matter of resolving human conflict is more complicated, and Kazuhiro’s enduring images leave a haunting resonance and many questions.
