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Nikkei 日系 ...Anyone with One Or More Ancestors from Japan, Or Who Self-Identifies As Nikkei

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Nikkei 日系 ...Anyone with One Or More Ancestors from Japan, Or Who Self-Identifies As Nikkei Nikkei 日系 ...anyone with one or more ancestors from Japan, or who self-identifies as nikkei. EXHIBIT BRIEF XI COPANI Eleventh Pan-American Nikkei Conference 2001 JULY 2019-2020 Nikkei 日系 Copyright © 2019 Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre This publication accompanies the exhibit by the same name at the Nikkei National Muse- um & Cultural Centre, July 2019-2020. Cover: Mr. Yataro Arikado with Rev. Saito and group; Steveston (NNM 2010.31.5) Exhibition Video: Adam PW Smith, Cindy Mochizuki and Video Out Distribution, Library and Ar- chives Canada, Tonari Gumi Exhibits team: Asa Mori, Doug Munday, Great Northern Way Scene Shop Graphics team: John Endo Greenaway, Kay- la Isomura, Tabata Productions and Big Wave Design Printing: Rayacom Visual Systems NNMCC team: Carolyn Nakagawa, Dave Bergen, Karah Goshinmon, Linda Kawamoto Reid, Lisa Uyeda, Nathan Yeo, Nichola Ogi- wara, Roger Lemire, Sherri Kajiwara Publication designed by Kayla Isomura, edited by Sherri Kajiwara Nikkei 日系 Pronunciation: nee-kay Literal translation: of Japanese ancestry Definition: Anyone with one or more ancestors from Japan, and/or anyone who self-identifies as nikkei (XI COPANI ELEVENTH PAN-AMERICAN NIKKEI CONFERENCE 2001) Introduction The term nikkei originated in mixw), Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilwətaɁɬ), Rare heritage film footage from Japan during the Meiji imperial and Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm) First the Tomojiro Inouye family restoration, beginning in 1868, Nations on whose territory we collection is projected 14ft tall, to identify Japanese immigrants stand. Japanese Canadians his- offering a portal into early and their descendants residing torically suffered harsh discrim- nikkei life in Canada. in foreign countries. ination on the basis of race, but were also settlers on this unced- A contemporary interpreta- Today, it is widely used within ed land. tion of historic correspondence the Japanese diaspora world- from Muriel Kitagawa is show- wide but often requires explana- In this exhibit, you will find cased in a visually luscious video tion outside of Japan where the stories by and about Japanese installation titled Sue Sada Was label is most relevant. Canadians drawn from the Nik- Here by artist Cindy Mochizuki. kei National Museum’s archive. We are grateful to share the Meet the people behind sto- Objects and stories will be heritage of Canadians of Japa- ries of arrival, the resilience rotated during the run of the nese ancestry on this beautiful of community, and the expe- exhibit, with Phase 1 from July traditional and ancestral land rience of generations through 2019 to January 2020 and Phase of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), the intersections of migration, 2 from February to July 2020. Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwu- racism, identity, and belonging. DETERMINING THE Intersections of Arrival GENERATIONS Stories of nikkei settlers to It was further curtailed in The first to immigrate Canada are as varied as the 1928 and halted completely Issei: from Japan individuals who arrived from in 1941. Canada embraced Nisei: Second generation, first the late 1800s to those who multiculturalism in 1967, its born outside of Japan make their homes here today. centennial year, and race-based Sansei: Third generation, child restrictions were replaced with a of nisei After the 1907 Anti-Asian riot point system. Yonsei: Fourth generation, child in Vancouver, immigration of sansei policy restricted arrivals from Gosei: Fifth generation, child Japan to 400 per year plus of yonsei family members of previous im- Rokusei: Sixth generation, child migrants. of gosei Cross-hairs of Racism Early arrivals from Japan found to the injustices that Japanese done for their benefit, as in a themselves targets of racial in- Canadians struggled to endure. true evacuation; moreover, the justice and growing economic government tried to make this jealousy. Dominant newspapers, docu- so-called evacuation perma- ments, and speech from the day nent by pressuring Japanese Unable to vote, nikkei were ex- was filled with inaccurate terms Canadians to leave BC after the cluded from public office and that were accepted without supposed threat of the war was many professions. Available question. over. jobs were found in logging, fish- ing, mining, farming, and small Many Japanese Canadian Ghost towns refers to aban- business enterprises. But hard survivors of this time peri- doned towns including many work and cooperation led to od still use these terms to de- former mine sites in BC which excellence in whatever they did; scribe their experiences, but were used as internment camps. further fueling fear and compe- human rights activism during In the 1940s, since the Cana- tition, placing the community in the Redress movement and dian government only used the the cross-hairs of racism. beyond has sought to replace term ‘internment camps’ to re- euphemisms with more accurate fer to prisoner-of-war camps, Departure, exile, forced remov- terms for the situations they these sites of forced detainment al, incarceration, internment, describe. were called ‘ghost towns’. dispossession, detainment: These are some of the words that Evacuation/Evacuees describes Repatriation means to send describe the situation of over a temporary extraction from an someone back to their own 22,000 Japanese Canadians area for the removed individu- country. Almost 4,000 Japanese from 1941-1949. al’s personal safety. Canadians were exiled to Ja- pan under this term, but more Terminology These terms were used to justify than half of them were Cana- the removal of people of ‘Jap- dian-born, and many had never anese racial origin’ from their been to Japan. Language used in the 1940s homes. But what happened to was euphemistic and inaccurate Japanese Canadians was not Japanese or Japanese Cana- dian/American? Honouring those who faced the Departure, exile, brunt of racism in the country they were born, naturalized forced removal, incarceration, internment, into, or chose to live their lives dispossession, detainment in, it is important to refer to citizens and residents in North These are some of the words that describe the situation America as Japanese Canadian of over 22,000 Japanese Canadians from 1941–1949. or Japanese American and not Japanese. CAMP LOCATIONS It is also important to recog- Internment Camps Self-Supporting Camps l1 Tashme s1 East Lillooet l2 Greenwood s2 Bridge River nize that forced uprooting was l3 Slocan City s3 Minto l4 Lemon Creek s4 McGillivray Falls l5 Popoff s5 Christina Lake both a Canadian and Ameri- l6 Bayfarm l7 Rosebery Road Camps l8 New Denver u1 Hope-Princeton can action, not a Japanese one: Harris Ranch u2 Revelstoke-Sicamous Nelson Ranch u3 Blue River-Yellowhead l9 Sandon so-called Japanese internment l10 Kaslo or incarceration was the act of the Canadian and United States governments each detaining 3 thousands of their own citizens. 100-MILE RESTRICTED ZONE Preferred terminology in Cana- da and the United States some- Revelstoke times varies due to some differ- Port Hardy 2 2 3 Kamloops ences of conditions for Japanese 4 1 Pemberton Vernon Nakusp Canadians and Japanese Amer- 7 8 9 10 Kelowna 3 icans. Below are some recom- Vancouver 6 Island 5 4 mended terms for Canada and Nelson Penticton Hope Vancouver 1 the United States, as specified Grand Forks 2 by the Nikkei National Museum 1 5 and Densho respectively: Victoria Internment* Incarceration* / ** Internment camp* / ** Concentration camp** Second World War* Map from exhibit showing internment and relocation sites in BC World War II/WWII** (originally designed by John Endo Greenaway) *Japanese Canadian history **Japanese American history GR2.1.1-1 Forced Exile (now the NDP) with Angus and POWER OF WORDS Grace McInnis were great al- Words commonly used in At the outbreak of Canada’s lies. Since many Japanese Cana- the racist climate of early to war with Japan, all persons of dians marked for exile to Japan mid-twentieth century Canada Japanese ancestry were forced were Canadian-born, it became were a powerful tool to margin- to relocate outside BC’s 100- a constitutional debate. alize entire communities. mile restricted zone from early 1942. After years of racially Finally, in 1949, after the Inter- “Jap/Japs” is a derogatory and motivated rhetoric by outspo- national Bill of Human Rights xenophobic truncation of ‘Jap- ken politicians in BC, the mass law was enacted in 1948, Can- anese’. dispersal of Japanese Canadians ada revoked the War Measures to internment camps was akin Act, lifted all restrictions on Jap- “Yellow peril” is a xenophobic to ethnic cleansing. Even after anese Canadians, and granted belief fueled by rhetoric that them the right to vote. “Asians—especially Chinese, the war ended in 1945, a second Japanese, and South Asians— uprooting scattered Japanese Canadians east of the Rockies The New Canadian, October were inassimilable aliens who 17, 1942 brought economic competition, or exiled them to Japan by disease, and immorality,” ac- restricting their return to the cording to Asian American his- coast for another four years. “To the future great- torian Erika Lee. In Canada, this attitude manifested in a number Property of Japanese Canadi- ness of Canada and of government policies includ- ans, originally held in trust, was the part of the Cana- ing the Chinese head tax in sold without owners’ permission 1885; the Chinese Immigration beginning in 1943. Adminis- dian-born Japanese in Act in 1923 which cut off Chinese tered by the Custodian of En- immigration almost entirely; emy Property, forced sales con- this future we pledge and the forced dispersal, exile, tinued into the 1950s. and second uprooting of Japa- our sincere effort and nese Canadians in 1942-1949. Protest our endeavor.” “Fifth column” is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as Despite the hardships of war, —Editors of the New Canadian, 1939 a ‘clandestine group that un- internment, and dispossession, dermines a nation’s solidarity Japanese Canadians organized By its final edition from Van- by any means at their disposal.’ themselves as early as 1943 to couver, the majority of Japanese As early as March 1937, the continue the fight for full citi- Canadians has already been up- Department of National De- zenship and voting rights.
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