A Nagaya in Vancouver by Kiyoshi Shimizu
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NIKKEI IMAGES Japanese Canadian National Museum Newsletter ISSN#1203-9017 Winter 2002, Vol. 7, No. 4 Nikkei Week 125th Anniversary Dinner Address by Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Consul General of Japan in Vancouver Mr. Before the first European Explorers arrived, Ozawa, honoured guest, Reverend Nagano, President some 10 millennia of human history had been lived here Hayashi of the National Nikkei Heritage Society, Mr. Continued on page 2 Fukawa President of the Japanese Canadian National Museum, Mr. Paul Kariya, Coordinator of the Fishermen’s Reunion Project Committee, Honoured fel- low British Columbian Women and Men of Japanese descent. I am delighted to greet you in Nikkei Week as you celebrate and remember a number of important an- niversaries. First, we join in this gala welcome for the Reverend Paul Nagano of Los Angeles on this 125th an- niversary of the arrival of grandfather, Manzo Nagano in British Columbia. Young Manzo Nagano set sail on a foreign ship, landing in New Westminster in 1877, just five years after B. C. had joined Confederation. He fished on the Fraser for a few years then returned to Japan, only to journey back a second time, locating in Victoria, where he became a man of property, owning a successful busi- ness on Government Street that prospered until destroyed by fire in 1922. The British Columbia of a Century ago was a hard and difficult place for almost everyone. With a whole vast array of humanity from all over the world seeking new lives, people were too busy surviving to be hostile to each other in those early days. They all wanted a bet- Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo addressing guests at ter life for their families and worked furiously toward the Nikkei 125 Celebration Dinner. (Roy Hamiguchi photo, that goal. Although it has turned out to be a long and 2002) tortuous route, I think we can safely say now, that the Contents better life they all sought has been more or less attained. Nikkei Week 125th Anniversary Dinner Address 1 We know British Columbia today as a thriving JCNM President’s Report 4 community of many peoples. I think we are in a moment UVic Conference 7 right now when a transition from our pioneer ethic to a Early Japanese Canadian Community in Tofino 7 global one is in full swing. The land we share has AL- A “Nagaya” in Vancouver 10 WAYS been home to a surprising variety of human dif- 50th Anniversary of the Steveston Judo Club 11 ferences. Contrary to our customary assumptions on the A Perfect Gift for the Holidays at the Museum Shop 12 matter, this province is NOT 200 years old, but is an- Roy Miki Wins 2002 Governor General’s Award 12 cient beyond belief. How Long Was Amerika’s Five Years 13 Memories of East Lillooet 14 1 by the First Peoples. The human fam- fishing industry and convinced it was ily that evolved here had lived in en- a world that would always exist! The Announcements closed valleys, along the many hos- Cannery was structured on the Colo- pitable Riverbanks and in protected nial model with a carefully segre- JCNM & NNHC Mochitsuki pockets and coves on the rugged gated strata of white bosses, blue National Nikkei Heritage Centre Coast. A densely forested land bor- collar whites, Japanese men who Kingsway and Sperling Ave., Bby. Dec. 29, 2002, 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. dered by a wild and unpredictable fished and Japanese women who mochi, manju and lunches for sale Ocean kept most people from know- were prized hand-canners, and Chi- ing each other. There was little need nese and Aboriginal workers. We all Shinnenkai to communicate because the land and lived in careful demarcation from Japanese Canadian Community waters so abundantly supplied their each other, our tiny temporary houses New Year’s Celebration needs for food, shelter and clothing. were calibrated to demonstrate our National Nikkei Heritage Centre, Jan. 18, 2003, 5:00 - 8:30 p.m. Over the centuries numerous 1st Na- status, and each located in a separate $30 adults, $20 children, tions and Aboriginal Peoples devel- enclave. We shopped at the Company includes buffet dinner. oped a host of different languages, store, using Company Coupons or cultures, traditions and beliefs that ‘Scrip’ instead of money adding to a were sustained until the terrible new total purchase that was deducted diseases began to take their appall- from our annual wage at the end of ing toll. By 1862, the population was the Fishing Season. My first friends on the way to being a tiny fraction of were Japanese and Aboriginal, we what it had once been, and the great went to school together and we diversity of cultures with all their worked together but at the Cannery Nikkei Images is published by songs, dances, languages and arts we were discouraged from playing the Japanese Canadian nearly died too. together, although we always found National Museum To those Aboriginal People ways to do so. (I began work in the who remained, a very cosmopolitan cannery at age 10 for 42 cents an hour Editorial Board: mix of settlers were added, includ- and suspect that some of you might Stanley Fukawa, Grace Hama, ing German, Portuguese, Scots, En- have too.) Frank Kamiya, Mitsuo Yesaki, glish, Hawaiian, Chinese and even U. Following the bombing of Carl Yokota S. citizens and starting with Mr. Pearl Harbour and the US entry into Manzo Nagano: the Japanese. In the World War 11, the internment of Ca- earliest days there seems to have been nadian Citizens of Japanese Heritage Subscription to Nikkei Images little evidence of antagonisms be- to the Camps began in the spring of is free with your yearly tween them all and a special ‘Rain 1942 when I was nine. The Navy and subscription to JCNM: Family $25 Language’ called Chinook was de- the RCMP arrived at the little Can- Individual $20 veloped to communicate across the nery in the early Spring with instruc- Senior/Student $15 complexity of languages of the time. tions that were followed to the letter. Senior Couple $20 In those earliest days there were The resulting upheaval was forever Non-profit Association $50 many examples of cooperation and coupled in my mind with the coinci- Corporate $100 good fellowship across racial and dental removal of Aboriginal chil- $1 per copy for non-members ethnic lines, but as the numbers of dren from their homes to Residential new citizens increased, the face of Schools. These two events have in- racism was unmasked and visible fluenced my personal philosophy and JAPANESE CANADIAN minorities began to be excluded from actions ever since! NATIONAL MUSEUM 6688 Southoaks Crescent, the good life they sought. I witnessed the great flotil- Burnaby, B.C., V5E 4M7 One of those exclusions con- las of Japanese owned Fishing Boats, Canada tinues to trouble our society through lashed together and towed down the tel: (604) 777-8000 succeeding generations. My father river to disposal points, where they fax: (604) 777-7001 worked for Anglo-BC Packing Com- were purchased at cut-rates by non- [email protected] pany at North Pacific Cannery on the Japanese Fishers so that their own- www.jcnm.ca Skeena River. So like some of you, I ers could pay for their incarceration! was a Skeena River kid, born into the I remember the great Custodial build- 2 ings packed to overflowing with con- country most had never seen or not Our National Conscience fiscated furnishings and precious being allowed to return to the Pacific demands that what happened to Ca- personal possessions of Japanese Coast until 1949. Not surprisingly nadian citizens of Japanese descent neighbours and friends, who were many never returned to this province. sixty years ago does not ever happen obliged to travel to the Camps with a Even when redress was finally won again. As we leave it to history, the minimum of hand-baggage. I remem- and an Apology accepted, none of us 20th Century is beginning to come ber standing on the dock and later have forgotten, and few have for- into focus; many of us believe it will beside the train tracks, watching my given ourselves for what occurred. be remembered as 100 years of blood childhood friends and their families There were many after-ef- and injustice. If this new 21st Cen- depart against their will, with tears fects of the internment: friendships tury is to be remembered for some- on both sides! Even now, Sixty years were ended, major employers were thing other than continued bloodlet- later there remains an unresolved lost, schools were closed. There were ting and darkness, it is up to every apprehension among many of us who some voices of defense and support, citizen to work toward global human witnessed the sad exodus. It was a a newspaper article of the time states rights and balancing the existing Glo- grand occasion this past May, when that Japanese Canadians are “cour- bal Economy with a just Social and I assisted the Mayne Islanders as they teous, civil, hospitable and of excel- Environmental ethic and rule of law, dedicated a splendid Japanese Gar- lent community spirit toward their that is capable of benefiting all den to the memory of the families fellow citizens”. Christmas letters people, not merely we privileged who had been interned, and then from internees to their neighbours Westerners whose good fortune con- linked it to all the other Island resi- often contained maps to hidden trasts starkly with a world of people dents from now on. caches of sake and other elements of in need.