Commmunity

I’m always grateful to Jesse for his guidance and inspiration in my filmmaking life. Our relationship changed over the years, notably when I shifted my focus to being a producer instead of a filmmaker. I suspect my decision was bittersweet for Jesse, since it was clear I had taken his beliefs in mentorship and our collective creative future to heart. But it was also true that Jesse himself never gave up on the practice of actually making films, regardless whatever else he was doing as a “job”, right to the very end. I, on the other hand, now only make films vicariously, through the choices of filmmakers and films I produce and support.

For twenty five years during and after the war years, the Japanese cemetery in Cumberland was left unattended and it returned to it natural forest-like state. Also, there was vandalism. In the 1960s, Sensei S. K. Ikuta who was the resident Sensei of the Vancouver Buddhist Temple, with the assistance of the Vancouver JCCA, had a service club in Comox Valley gather the scattered head stones and place them in a memorial monument. Pre-Second World War deceased in the Comox Valley totaled one hundred ninety eight. Only a small number of head stones are mounted in the monument.

On Wednesday January 27, schools in Salmon Arm, BC were closed so that students could attend the Olympic torch relay and cauldron lighting. To...

In 2006, Arts Beatus presented an exhibit by doll artist Tomoka Ike based on The Tale of the Heike, an epic account of the...

When I saw an article in the newspaper—Naoko Takahashi wins women’s marathon after drinking an extract distilled from giant killer hornets at the Sydney Olympics—long after Naoko had won at Sydney, I was struck by the imagery that it conjured up, unforgettable, and I immediately thought of the raspy, buzzing sound of bagpipes as a representative, or stand-in for hornets and taiko for pounding of feet on pavement.

Two Great Traditions. One Great Story. This May, Vancouver audiences will be treated to a unique double bill as City Opera Vancouver presents the...

When Yayoi Hirano arrived in Vancouver in 1992 on a performance tour she was billeted with Roy Kiyooka, an Order of Canada recipient with...

If the younger generations—the yonsei and the gosei—are the future of the Nikkei community, the seniors are the foundation up which the community is...

In October, 2008, I travelled to Japan with my son Derek. It was on our last night in Tokyo, at my older sister Atsuko’s home, that the subject of Takaharu’s death came up. I wondered aloud if the military training that Takaharu underwent in the Japanese Army could have changed him. I could tell that Atsuko was very disappointed that such a thought could ever enter my mind. She was dismayed when she learned that our parents had not told us about the circumstances of Takaharu’s death. She said to me “I don’t understand how our parents could be ashamed of Takaharu. He lived an exemplary, honorable life and I am proud to be his relative.

Do you know there is a genuine Torii Gate from Japan in Canada? The Torii is a common sight in Japan but is unique...

To the editor I just wanted to thank you for publishing Dr. Henry Shimizu’s account of his visit to New Denver and the site...

One lesson that I have learned is that racial bigotry and discrimination is still prevalent in our society. We Japanese Canadian have been accepted as equals as we have integrated with other ethnic groups, but I fear for the backlash against the Chinese and Indo Canadians who live in close-knit communities as in Richmond and Surrey. In Japan I saw discrimination against the Koreans and the “eta” people and I was able to empathize with them because of my own wartime experience.