Category Featured

Dr. Misao Fujiwara (1915–2010)

Tribute to an Important Nisei Pioneer By Frank Moritsugu Misao Fujiwara (née Yoneyama), who passed away last month in Langley, BC, was a Vancouver-born prewar nisei whose professional and community achievements in Toronto deserve to be better known. As many…

A Lasting Tribute

Children attended school in Cumberland, and also attended Japanese language school six days a week. Over the years a number of Japanese merchants established businesses in Cumberland proper and Japanese women had a traditional tea garden at Comox Lake from 1914-1939.

My Story

In 1942, both of these churches were closed and we were sent to ghost towns in B.C., an action of Canada’s Prime minister and cabinet by Orders in Council. At age 10 then, I was, as one book describes, “A Child in Prison Camp.”

Mixing it up in Canada

If intermarriage was ever an issue within the Canadian Nikkei community itself, it has long since ceased to raise eyebrows among even the most hardened in-laws. And as for the reasons for looking outside the community for love, I’m sure they’re as varied as the individuals involved.

Heiwa Garden Update

On Friday January 15, several dozen people gathered at the Heiwa Garden project on Salt Spring Island for the unveiling of interpretive panels depicting the island’s Japanese Canadian heritage and the planting of a weeping Japanese maple tree. With the…

March 20th Peace Philosophy Salon Report: Foreigners in Japan

by Shoko Hata The Peace Philosophy Centre, established and directed by Satoko Norimatsu in Vancouver, holds a monthly study group called the Peace Philosophy Salon. Based on the principle of the centre—“to provide a community-based place where people of all…

a question of identity

I was nine years old when I first became aware of “identity” as a concept. I remember the circumstances to this day. I was in bed one night while my parents stayed up, playing some records on the Heathkit hi-fi…

Identity/Ancestral Memory

He was quiet and often went to see his friends. At that time, he was in the process of writing Mother Talk. He went to Denman Island to see Mastuki Masutani who collaborated with Roy as a translator. The organizer of the festival said, “You are so lucky to stay with him. He is a one of the greatest Japanese Canadian artists in Vancouver.” But for me, coming from out of town, he was just the same as anybody, he didn’t have an air of importance or anything like that. Thinking back to those days, I really admire him as a real artist.

Editorial

Anyone watching the opening ceremonies would be forgiven for thinking that Canada is a nation of English-speaking, fiddle-playing white people who get along well with the First Nations minority and, oh yeah, have some happy Francophones in their midst as well. There were a fair number of comments following the ceremonies expressing disappointment that our country’s diversity wasn’t better represented. Hopefully, they said, this would be rectified in the closing ceremonies. Silly people.

Seeking memories to support people with dementia

The current exhibit of photographs by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank at the Japanese Canadian National Museum raises intriguing questions. The juxtaposition of those two sets of images is a powerful statement about how the same type of event can…

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