Category Commmunity

It’s How You Play the Game Mel Wakabayashi is our best-known Nikkei ice player. Not because he made the big times, although he did have a brief stint with the Red Wings of Detroit. Products of the southern Ontario junior…

Less “Soba”, More “Sake” In a sober move to reduce the nation’s surplus rice, the Japanese cabinet recently decided to use more sake (rice brew) and rice at its official functions. And Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, a soba (noodle) addict,…

Mt. Manzo Nagano overlooks Lake Owekino near the head of Rivers Inlet some 250 miles north of Vancouver. The peak, named for the first Japanese immigrant to Canada, was designated in 1977 by the federal government to commemorate the Japanese…

As we celebrate the Centenary and rejoice in the fact that we are an integral part of this wonderful province which has rewarded our endeavours abundantly for half a century, let us be mindful that while this citizenship has granted us privileges, it has increased our civic responsibility. Since the J.C.C.A. is the only nationally representative organization for Canadians of Japanese origins, it shoulders a tremendous responsibility.

With the opening of the Kaslo show on the 50th anniversary of the 1st Kaslo issue of The New Canadian in 1992, I was fortunate enough to spend time with Tommy and Frank and got hooked on the "Great Canadian Newspaper Story."

So starting on Monday Dec. 15, the week after the Pearl Harbor attack, I joined the staff in Nihonmachi and learned how a real newspaper was put together from the boss Tommy Shoyama, as well as other staffers such as Yoshi Higashi—original editor Peter Shinobu Higashi’s younger brother—and Seiji Onizuka who was the sports editor.

When The New Canadian began publishing on Kaslo’s Front Street on November 30, 1942, it became the primary source of news for a community that had been exiled from their homes on the west coast.

The Bulletin/Geppo has undergone many changes in these 50 years, from a few type-written pages providing information on local Nikkei community events to one that looks at some of the more controversial issues in today’s global community.

The history of the flowering cherry trees in Vancouver, according to the Park Board, goes back to the early 1930’s when the Board started a series of extensive cherry tree plantings, using mostly saplings that were donated from Japan. In…

A well-known English proverb says “you are what you eat.” I, on other hand, believe that you are what you hear.