Category Commmunity

Only a little more than three months have passed since the Tohoku Region of Japan was hit on March 11th by the triple disasters of a 9.0 earthquake, a massive tsunami and a nuclear reactor meltdown.  While the horrific images…

Chuck Tasaka is a retired teacher living in Nanaimo, BC. Growing up in Greenwood during the Internment years he and many other Japanese Canadian children were educated at Sacred Heart School established by the nuns of the Franciscan Sisters of…

After serving Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for the past 85 years, The Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement are leaving Vancouver and moving to their Edmonton convent. In the early twenties and thirties, the Sisters and the Friars served the Japanese community…

The Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement are leaving the Downtown Eastside at the end of August. Presently, many in our community  are getting together to generate ideas to pay tribute to the Sisters for all that they have done and…

by Agnes Li The fourth instalment of the Translation and Interpreting Workshop was held on April 16, 2011. The Japanese Language Interest Group of STIBC (Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia) who organizes the yearly event welcomed both…

Structured as a tribute to the multimedia artist Roy Kiyooka (1926-1994), a man who fearlessly re-created his world through the honesty of his imagination, Identity pays homage to Kiyooka most obviously through its largesse, its richness of visuals, sounds and movements.

On Friday May 6th, a Charity Poker Tournament was held in support of Japanese 2011 Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami Victims. Over 80 players attended the Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament at the National Nikkei Heritage Centre.  We raised $2,417.33 from the…

May 11, 2011—two months after the earthquake/tsunami hit the Tohoku region of Japan. The Ganbare Japan! benefit concert, held Tuesday April 19th at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, was a deeply moving and financially successful event supported by many hundreds of…

When Roy Kiyooka died suddenly and unexpectedly in February 1994, he left behind a legacy of creativity fuelled by a lifelong passion for making art, in all its various guises. Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1926, he grew up…

Identity — Ancestral Memory, a work by Yayoi Theatre Movement, celebrates the life and poetry of Roy Kiyooka. A fusion of two dance forms, noh mask theatre and butoh dance choreographed by Yayoi Hirano and Jay Hirabayashi, the piece will…