A Conversation with Julie Tamiko Manning

When I was a pre-teen, I remember a story circulating around the family, about some sort of cabin that they lived in, and how it was so cold that icicles grew on the inside of the walls. At some point I realized that this story was connected to a much larger family history and I realized I must do whatever research I could by myself. I really started to learn about JC history when Rei Nakashima, an active member of the Montreal JCCC, hired me to catalogue interviews that had been done with Issei.

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Ainu and Tlingit Cultural Exchange in Japan

The Tlingit group shared traditional Tlingit dancing and drumming with Ainu and Japanese people. Storyteller Sharon Shorty from the Teslin Tlingit Council shared Tlingit myths. The stories by “Grandma Susie” (Sharon Shorty) grabbed the audience, young and old, everywhere she went. Wayne Carlick, the Master Carver, Dance Leader, and Crow Clan Director from Taku River Tlingit First Nation demonstrated his carving and painting with local Ainu people.

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Wonderful Characters Who Taught Me Important Things

Generosity toward friends, family and anyone else was what I learned from G.T. another unforgettable friend from my university days in Tokyo in the early sixties. I cannot count the number of nights I spent in his rooming house near the campus or his parents’ home in Yokohama after bouts of heavy drinking. As he was born of Hawaiian Japanese American parents, who grew up in Japan, we had many things to share, talk about.

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Fukushima and Tohoku – news from the ground

Here, the town of Otsuchi is flattened, left with mountains of debris, a fish port that has dropped one metre, a train station that is now a mere portion of a platform, and kilometres upon kilometres upon kilometres of temporary housing projects. These projects look very similar to photos that I have seen of the Japanese Canadian internment camps in Tashme, Greenwood and other locations in the BC interior.

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