Nikkei Images National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre Newsletter ISSN#1203-9017 Summer 2005, Vol. 10, No. 2

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Contents

Continued on page 2

To the adventurous, the vastAmazon1 region with its thick junglesand rainforests of towering trees andabundant wildlife is as compelling asthe sea to a sailor.

The Amazon River, the greatestin the world, is a system of rivers withmore than a thousand tributaries thatare like the veins on a leaf. Pulsing,roiling and eddying, it spills 6 millioncubic feet of water every second intothe Atlantic Ocean, enough to colourthe sea a turbid brown more than 100kilometers from the coast. It is aparadise for botanists andentomologists. Of an estimated 5million to 10 million plant, insect andanimal species in the world, 1 millionare located in the Amazon Basin. Theriver contains more than 2,500species of fish, the largest of whichis the pirarucu, 4 meters in length andweighing 200 kilograms.

The Amazon is home also to thepiranha, one of the world’s mostterrifying fish. Up to 60 centimeterslong, piranhas hunt in packs amongthe shoals and can attack even amuch larger animal and strip theflesh.

There is no place on earth likethe Amazon! Superlatives abound,but my pen must take another channelin order to tell my story.

To this vastness, Japaneseimmigrants were absorbed, comingfrom half a world away to a hostileand unknown region. The first trickleof emigration to the Amazon Regionof Brazil began in 1929 when 43

The Call of the Amazon by Anne McVety (Uchida)

families with a total of 189 personscame to Tome Acu. Satoshi Sawada,who was 11 years old when hearrived, said that initially the Japanesetried their hand at planting rice andcocoa beans. Conditions wereadverse. Many died, victims oftropical diseases endemic in theregion, like malaria.

Between the years 1935 to 1942

some 276 families abandoned thecolony. Only the persistent or thosewho were unable to move stayed on.They were isolated. A trip by boat tothe capital city of Belem took 20hours.

The situation of the colonyimproved dramatically after WorldWar II with the arrival of blackpepper plants from Singapore. In1933 a Mr. Usui, who wasresponsible for taking a group ofimmigrants to the Amazon, had anunexpected stop in Singapore due toa sickness on board. Usui tookadvantage of this stop and picked 20slips of black pepper. Of the 20 slipsonly 2 took, but through these 2 slipsthe fate of the Japanese immigrantschanged. The first “boom” of blackpepper occurred in the years 1935 to1955, in the Acara Valley of whichTome Acu was the principal town andbecame the largest exporter of blackpepper in the world.

An era of prosperity called the“epoch of the black diamond” wascelebrated. The colonizers utilizingnew methods became almostexclusively occupied with the planting

The Call of the Amazon 1The Koyama Home and Four Lanterns 5Shirley Takako Inouye - Ocean Inspired Artist 8Dr. John Stanley (Stan) Rowe (1918-2004) 9The Thomas K. Shoyama Papers at Library and Archives Canada 12The Little Town That Did: The People of Chemainus and the Japanese 13Glencoe Sugar Beet Camp, May 29th-November 12th, 1942 15The SUIAN MARU Centennial Celebration 20Kushiro Sister City Delegation to Burnaby 21Worth a Thousand Words 21Japanese Canadian National Museum Report 23Request for Information 23

Anne, missionary to her kinsmen in theAmazon. (Anne McVety photo, ca.1979)

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of black pepper, with great success.Huge new homes were built, eachcomplete with an electric generator,truck and tractor. Brazilians thatmoved into the area provided thefarm labour.

But, the colonizers paid a heavyprice for mono-cultivation. In the1960s there appeared signs ofdisease in the black pepper plants,which in time decimated plantsextensively in plantation afterplantation. Coupled with this outbreakwas the instability of black pepperprices on the world market. TheJapanese were forced intodiversification, producing cocoabeans, guarana2, passion fruit andother regional fruits. Recently, whilein Tokyo, I was amazed to receivefrom a Brazilian-Nikkei working inJapan the meat of cupuwacu3 fruit,frozen in neat packages from TomeAcu! Jam was readily made for myenjoyment in Canada.

Pages can be filled telling storiesof the deprivations, cultural shocks,reversals in fortune, loneliness,disease, and back-breaking labourunder the tropical heat and humidity

of the Amazon. But the colonizerspersevered, in fact, there was noother recourse open to them. Theirresilience is noteworthy. Soya sauceand miso, the main stay of Japanesecuisine, were home-made so thateven today the Tome Acu miso isreputed to be better than what isimported from Japan. In primitiveconditions and with few amenities,they worked from sunrise to pastsundown, 365 days of the year withlittle semblance of any respite, noteven on New Year’s Day.

In the spring of 1964 afterhaving completed 4 years at thePrairie Bible College and two yearsof intensive language studies inTokyo, I made my way to Belem,Brazil, a city located at the mouth ofthe Amazon River. It is known as thegateway to the Amazon. Belem is thejumping off place to the vast AmazonBasin.

What took me to the Amazon ofall places? Was it the call toadventure that compelled me? Toanswer this question I will have toreturn to the relocation center of NewDenver, B.C. There at the age of 15I sensed an inward struggle forassurance of my destiny. Havingbeing exposed since a child to theBible, I knew wherein the answer lay,not in religion or philosophy but in thePerson of Jesus Christ who said, “Iam the way and the truth and the life.No one comes to the Father exceptthrough me”. What succinct,unequivocal, authoritative words thesewere!

The invitation of the Lord JesusChrist was compelling and personal -to invite Him into my life. I rememberso clearly. It was a clear, sunny Junemorning just before the school bell wasto ring at the Lucerne Junior SeniorHigh School that I said “Yes” to theperson of Jesus Christ. The peace,assurance and joy that filled my beingwere unmistakable ... and they remainto this day.

Mr. and Mrs. Ishii picking blackpepper. (Anne McVety photo, ca.1965)

JCNM Lecture Series, NNMHC Friday June 10, 2005, 7:00 PM

Ted CoxThe Toledo Incidence of 1925: Three Days

that Made History in Toledo, Oregon

Saturday June 11, 2005, 2:00-4:00 PMTed Ohashi, Yvonne Wakabayashi

Introduction to the Tasaka Family History

Things Japanese SaleJune 4, 2005, 10:30 AM-2:30 PM

NNMHC

COPANI XIIIPanAmerican Nikkei Assoc. Convention

July 7, 8 and 9, 2005Vancouver, BC

http://najc.ca, http://www.pana.cl

COPANI XIII Internment TourJuly 11-14, 2005

For information call:Mamoru Yanagishita@Jalpak:604-689-1213

http://www.jalpak.com/e/tours/jp special pkg2005copani.htm

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Later came the realization thatGod has a foreordained plan for my lifeand it was up to me to line up with it. Itmeant the foregoing of my own plansand accepting unconditionally Hisblueprint for my life. In doing so therewas a sense of well-being, anticipationand assurance.

Translated into a phrase, it wasthe CALL OF GOD that took me tothe Amazon. This was coupled with alove for the struggling immigrants andtheir children and a strong convictionof the reality and power of the messageof Jesus Christ.

My first assignment upon arrivalwas immersion into the study ofPortuguese, plus acculturation. Whata contrast from closed Japan where thebud of a flower is considered beautiful.Here was a culture, a wide open rosein its interpersonal relationships, happy,friendly and tolerant. The Japaneseimmigrants had a culture of their own,coming from various prefectures ofJapan, many of whom were repatriatesfrom mainly Manchuria and Korea. Intime there evolved a beautiful mixtureof the two cultures, Brazilian andJapanese, influencing greatly everyaspect of their lives, even to theircuisine. Totally saturating myself intothis unique society, my identity hasbecome very Brazilian-Nikkei.

Upon completion of my formalstudy time of Portuguese, my mission,CrossWorld, assigned me to live in theJapanese colony of Coqueiro, 30minutes from Belem. There I beganmy missionary work.

Coqueiro had suffered a severe

reversal of fortune. Expecting a bumpercrop of black pepper, the whole colonywas excited with the prospects of fillingtheir pockets and returning to Japan.Then came the rainy season, fromJanuary to the end of June. It rained intorrents for months, and the roots ofthe pepper plants rotted. When harvesttime came, the vines had wilted alongwith their dreams and hopes. All thatwas left was discouragement anddespair. Into this situation came themissionary from Canada.

Finding living quarters where therewere no apartments for rent and everyhome filled to capacity seemed out ofthe question. But God wonderfullyopened the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ishiiwho lent me a room in the corner oftheir home and a shared kitchen.Moving from the bustling city of Belemand from the happy extended family ofour language school home, at nightfall,I found myself alone in the silence ofmy room with the flicker of a lampcasting shadows that only deepened mysolitude.

Then all of a sudden there arosea crescendo of sound, a chorus in unisoncalling out, “koi, koi” that continued intothe night. “Koi” in Japanese means“come.” To the comforting words ofwelcome, “koi, koi”, I fell into deepslumber to find the following morningthat the noctunal chorus belonged tofrogs!

The “boot camp” training of theearly relocation days in Rosebery, B.C.prepared me well for most situations.But not for the art of pulling water outof a well, or going through deep mudholes full of fire ants on my bicycle. Orcooking on a primitive mud packedcharcoal stove. Or 6 months of rain thatsaturated everything, and theoppressive heat and humidity that leftone limp. Siestas, how welcome theywere! This was to become home forthe next 27 years.

The Ishiis consented to a weeklyBible study. So every Tuesday the threeof us gathered around a crude table to

see what the book of John in the NewTestament had to say to us. Unknownto me, the soil of their hearts was wellfallowed to receive the seed of God’sWord and they respondedwholeheartedly to the claims of JesusChrist upon their lives.

However, Mr. Ishii was a chainsmoker of 40 years. The insistentbegging of his wife to quit met withrebuff. He said later that when timeswere hard he would go to the farmhand’s shed, collect the cigarette buttsand re-roll them. God was toinstantaneously set him free before oureyes, as he yielded to Jesus Christ.

This dear couple went on toabandon their farms to becomemissionaries of this Gospel messagethat transformed their lives. They sawchurches planted in four differentcolonies.

With the acquisition of a vehicle,our work expanded to other colonieswithin a radius of an hour. So in timewe were having house meetings in fiveplaces. Once a month, taking the longboat ride of 20 hours to Tome Acu wevisited the small group of Christiansthere.

After three years, we held our firstbaptismal service by a clear streamsurrounded by tall towering trees. Allnature joined with us as eight baptismalcandidates, including two couples, sangfrom a full heart, “wonderful change inmy life has been wrought since Jesuscame into my heart...”

They were to form the nucleus ofthe Amazon Evangelical Christ Church,the largest Nikkei church in the Amazonregion. That church continues to thisday. They are seeking to reach out tothe Japanese communities throughvaried activities and sports in their hugegymnasium and also through dormitoriesfor the student population from theinterior. Pastor Josue Hisamitsu, aBrazilian-Nikkei and his wife Susanna,are at the helm of this ministry.

It has been my joy and privilege

Taking the children home on ourRural Willys. (Anne McVety photo, ca.1971)

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to visit most of the colonies scatteredover the vast Amazon Basin by bicycle,jeep, canoe, boat and plane, going upand down the mighty Amazon Riverfive times. The 1,450 kilometer tripupriver to Manaus usually takes fivedays by boat. In January 1976,burdened for the colonizers in andaround Manaus, I spent a year visitingthe humble farm homes and teachingthe Christians.

On one of these trips, we werereceived warmly by a Japanese familyin Santarem, which is located on theAmazon River half way betweenBelem and Manaus. We were anunlikely team of three, Mr. Essashika,having lived for years in the upperreaches of the Amazon was veryknowledgeable of the “mysteries” ofthe Amazon and my co-worker, IreneWeber (Bakker), a Canadian ofGerman descent whom the Japanesecalled my “bodyguard”. She was aformidable presence. After a full dayof travel by boat, we were happy forthe “comfort” of the bed, which turnedout to be a narrow bed of boards withno semblance of a mattress. With nomosquito netting, we were attacked allnight by the buzzing mosquitoes. WhenIrene moved, I had to move in concertwith her. Finally out of sheer exhaustionwe fell asleep only to have Mr.Essashika yell, “Sensei, sensei, can youhear the howler monkeys?” From the

nearby jungle the grotesque, gutturalroar of the howler monkeysreverberated through the air, a soundthat would make your hair stand on end!These trips took us to isolated colonieslistening to the stories of the people’ssufferings and sharing the Gospel ofJesus Christ.

As was to be expected, there waseventually a move from the interiorcolonies to the city of Belem. Alwayseager for their children’s education, theJapanese made sacrifices to place themin the best of schools to ensure asuccessful passage to university. Torespond to this need, from 1981- 1991,I relocated to the city of Belem to reachout to the scattered Japanese populationin the city. God brought together a team

of co-workers and two Japanesefamilies that formed the nucleus ofour pioneer efforts. The work grewrapidly and in time it was decided thatwe merge with the church inCoqueiro.

In 1991 after 27 years in theAmazon, God directed my path toJapan to accompany the thousandsof Brazilian-Nikkei who were makingtheir way to Japan to work in thefactories as blue-collar workers.There are 280,000 Brazilian-Nikkeiin Japan, the largest concentrationsof which are found in Shizuoka, Aichiand Kanagawa prefectures. Thework in the factories is arduous andlong. The open, free Latin cultureclashes with the Japanese culture,and the inability to communicate inJapanese becomes poignant.

In their distress and need, manyseek out the missionary. I foundmyself serving as interpreter for aBrazilian incarcerated for rape,accompanying others to hospitals, themotor vehicle center, visa center, etc.I ended up serving as liaison betweenthe Japanese companies and theBrazilians who were looking foremployment.

Nilza suddenly lost her husbandwho was hit by a car as he attemptedto cross a busy street. Her bosscontacted me and I rushed to the

Our first baptismal service. (Anne McVety photo, ca. 1967)

Brazilian-Nikkei in my home in Toyobashi, Japan. (Anne McVety photo, ca.1991)

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emergency ward. But Nilza’shusband was already dead. Sheasked if she could stay with me thatnight. Understanding her difficulty ofreturning to an empty apartment, Iconsented, though I had not met herbefore. She ended up staying with meseven months. Today she is remarriedto a fine Christian man.

Existential needs had to be metand many were the opportunities togive comfort and share the Gospelof Jesus Christ. The “Vida NovaChurch,” the work I was involved in,continues stronger than ever underthe leadership of Elisa Kiyan, adedicated Brazilian-Nikkei.Outgrowing their facilities, a newchurch is being constructed atpresent.

Unknown to me, God had asurprise awaiting me, somethingfabricated in heaven as it was onlyas I looked back did I realize thedetailed intricacies that brought KenMcVety, the founder and long timeCEO of the Word of Life PressMinistries in Japan, into my life. Wewere married on March 23, 1996.Marriage to Ken expanded myhorizons to include India, Nepal,Mongolia and China where we havea ministry of Bible seminars.

The sunset is visibly before usbut we look up with a sense of joyand gratitude to our God whoCALLED us. ❁

1 The Amazon Basin - the Amazon isone of the world’s great rainforests. Thevast Amazon basin covers more than

Marriage to Ken McVety. (Anne McVety photo, 1996)

Changes/New Beginnings tookroot when Shirley Inouye visited herparents’ birthplace, Mio village,Wakayama-ken, Japan, sister city ofRichmond in 1996. She had taken thetrip with her mother and sister andhas since been carrying the seed ofthat experience with her, waiting for

The Koyama Home and Four Lanterns by Nan Capognaits germination.

To hear Inouye talk about hervisit to Mio, one gets the impressionshe has just returned; it is that freshin her mind and in the enthusiasm inher telling of it. The Mio sheexperienced has changed very littlesince the late 1800s; the

two and a half million square miles,more than any other rainforest. Itspreads across much of SouthAmerica. Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela all haveAmazonian regions. Nearly 40 percentis in the Brazilian Amazon.2 Guarana - is a berry. The taste ofguarana is distinctive and unique, andthe main reason for its success in Brazil

is as a soft drink. The main ingredientis guaranine, which is chemicallyidentical to caffeine.3 Cupuwacu - the cultivated trees ofthe cupuwacu are 6 to 10 meters talland its fruit weighs from 1 to 1.5 kilos.The meat is light yellow with a sourtaste and a peculiar aroma. It isdelicious made into a jam, juice and icecream.

passageways are still narrowbetween the clay-roofed homes, theproperties are attended to eventhough they may be without residents,there is support and care shownamongst neighbours. During her visit,Inouye stayed in the home in which

Artist/Craftsman Series No. 6

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her father was born. The Koyama(Inouye’s maiden name) homeappears as it was; cared for by heraunt with a garden that is thoughtfullytrimmed, it is typical of the homes inMio. Inouye walked over the floorsher father had walked on and lookedout from the window at the view herfather had grown up with. Themagnitude of this experience for herwas profound and moving.

It was in her father’s homeInouye discovered the four woodenboxes that housed the paper lanternsonce used to light the way beforeelectricity came to the village.Opening the boxes and mindful thatthe collapsed lanterns might

disintegrate in her hands, she wasenchanted with her find. The paperlanterns offered her the form andmetaphor for Changes/NewBeginnings.

Migration, exile, internment

Though Inouye was born inCanada, visiting her ancestralhomeland was, in a sense, a returnto home. It had the resonance of aplace one was a part of and attachedto. For the Koyama family and otherJapanese Canadians, the meaning ofhome evolved within the context ofmigration, exile and internment.‘Home’ was re-located.

In the early 1900s one third of

the residents of Mio village emigratedto Steveston, B.C. to becomefishermen. The first immigrant fromMio was Gihei Kuno in 1887. Fishingflourished and he encouraged othersfrom his village to follow him. At theage of twelve, Inouye’s father,Fukujiro Koyama, left Mio forSteveston, B.C. Fourteen years laterFukujiro married Chieko Hamade,also from Mio village. Inouye notesthe similarities and special relationshipbetween the fishing villages of Mioand Steveston, where her parents andfamily later moved to after theirinternment during WWII.

Shirley Inouye (TakakoKoyama) was born in Port Alberniand lived in the fishing village ofUcluelet until 1942 when her father’sfishing boat was confiscated and thefamily relocated to an internmentcamp in East Lillooet. Landing in themiddle of sage brush country, theylived in tents until their small tworoom house was built. Otherinternees followed and a small self-sustaining village developed; with theassistance of an engineer in the groupthey developed an irrigation systemfrom the river to grow vegetables.The industrious new community grewtomatoes and started a co-operativethat supplied a local cannery.

View of Mio-mura taken from Hinomisaki. (Shirley Inouye photo, 1996)

Toshie (left) and Chieko (mother) Koyama with family paper lantern. (ShirleyInouye photo, 1996)

Akari #2 - lantern handmade bywirecutting a mould of paper clay.(Nan Capogna photo, 2003)

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Looking back on her childhood,Inouye remembers with fondness thenovelty of her father at home and notat sea. Now as an adult she is deeplyaware of how difficult it must havebeen for her parents and otherJapanese Canadians during this darkperiod.

InfluencesChanges/New Beginnings is a

new body of work for Inouye. Apotter for twenty-five years, her claywork continues to evolve but itsaesthetic remains firmly grounded inher Japanese ancestry. She isprimarily a functional potter, verymuch influenced by the Art ofKenzan of the 17th century andMingei (folk) potters of Japan.Mingei, the Japanese word for ‘folkart’ was a response to theindustrialisation in Japan in the 1920s.Followers of Mingei sought a returnto and recognition of the beauty foundin traditional Japanese craftsmanship.Also an influencing force in Inouye’swork is the reduced sculptural formsof modernist, Isamu Noguchi.

Akari

Clay work is physicallydemanding. This is part of its allure,and for Inouye, this is certainly true.She has heard the statement: “InJapan you learn with your body, notyour head”. After years of pushingaround what now must be tonnes ofclay, she realizes that it “involves thesoul”- a complete and continualabsorption. Her devotion to traditionand craftsmanship underlay herpersistent exploration of forms andnew meaning within her work

For the Akari works, Inouyeused ‘paper clay’1, exploring variousmanifestations of the lantern form.The surface of these works ripplesand retracts; striations in the clayfluctuate in intensity and small holesand slits puncture the surfaceallowing light to pass through. Small,

sea animal forms stud the surface andwe are reminded that Inouye is afisherman’s daughter. She hasdescribed herself as a ‘child of theFraser’, so much of the river hasoverflowed into her life. In Akari, theJapanese word for light, therelationship between Inouye and herancestors is illuminated. Though lightmay be fleeting, Inouye’s connectionwith her ancestral homeland is firmlytethered.

Shirley Inouye with “Akari I to VI” at the “Changes/New Beginnings”Exhibition at the Richmond Art Gallery. (Nan Capogna photo, 2003)

BiographyRichmond resident, Shirley

Inouye has worked in clay fortwenty-five years. She is a long timemember of the Richmond Potters’Club and the Potters Guild of B.C.She was an instructor to children andadults from 1982 - 1993 at theRichmond Arts Centre and thePotters’ Club, respectively. She hasrecently retired from the City ofRichmond and can now, with the giftof time, devote her full attention toher work. ❁

1 Finely ground paper fibre is addedto clay giving it different propertiesthan pure clay Nan Capogna is the CulturalProgrammer of the Richmond ArtGallery.

StatementI am a Richmond resident who

was born in Port Alberni, B.C. Afterdiscovering clay works in 1979 andtaking private throwing lessons withBarbara Baanders, I completed myceramics program at Douglas/Kwantlen College. On graduatingfrom this program, I enjoyed being

Sea basket - wheel-thrown with handpulled handle. Multi-fired stonewareclay. (Ken Nagai photo, undated)

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an instructor of children clay classesat the Richmond Arts Centre andadult classes for the RichmondPotters’ Club from 1982 to 1993.While teaching these classes, I tookadvanced fine arts programs at EmilyCarr College of Art and Designduring the summer months. As ofApril 2003, I retired from myemployment with the City ofRichmond and now have the gift oftime to enjoy the freedom of playingwith clay.

Basically I am a functionalpotter who enjoys making one of akind pieces. Often my forms arethrown and altered, wire cut, carvedor chattered to give variations oftexture and colour in stoneware clayand fired to cone 8 or 9 in my 8 cubicoxidation kiln. I have always felt theneed to challenge myself and pushclay to its limit. I have discovered theflexibility of working with magicalpaper clay. My need to explore hasbeen met most recently with the

opportunity to fire in a 60 cubic woodand soda kiln, which I find mostchallenging. Often in forming, glazingor in the firings, my experimentationleads to disappointment. However,when an experiment works, I amgratified in expanding the knowledgeof my craft.

Living my entire life by the

water’s edge and with my tinysunroom studio overlooking thegarden, my clay work takes anorganic direction. The meditativenature of working with clay has beenmy way of life. It has given me somuch joy, I am blessed!

Shirley Inouye

“Sea Escape” an exhibition of Shirley Inouye’s pottery at the Gallery of BCCeramics on Granville Island (Graphic design by Todd Inouye). (Bryan Melvinphoto, 2004)

I first met Shirley Inouye in June2004 when I was looking for localclay artists to show in the StevestonVillage Gallery. I was struck by howjoyful and natural her pottery is. Her

Shirley Takako Inouye - Ocean Inspired Artist by Tamaka Fisher

pieces have a calming effect on me.From the undulating waves of sandon the side of a wood fired vase tothe seashells and starfish on thesurfaces of her large clay lanterns –

the pieces are graceful and strong intheir silent beauty.

Shirley was born TakakoKoyama in Port Alberni , B.C. andspent her childhood in Ucluelet andlater in an internment village in EastLillooet. Her father, FukujiroKoyama, a fisherman, and hermother Chieko Hamade were bothoriginally from Mio Village inWakayama-ken.

As a child, Shirley spent wholedays down at the river in Lillooet withfriends and she still remembers theshapes of leaves, plants and thesparkle of the water where shepassed the time swimming. Even asa child she was sensitive to themiracle of nature and it is a recurringtheme in her work.

Shirley originally got into potteryby accident in 1978. She, her sister,and a girlfriend were walking alongMoncton Street in Steveston andlooked in a window, saw a pottery

Shirley with granddaughter in her studio. (Laurie Inouye photo, 2004)

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studio and signed up for a class. Shestill remembers the place was so cold,the clay was frozen, although shedidn’t know enough about pottery atthe time to know that was why theclay was so difficult to work with!Shirley’s sister and friend stoppedpottery shortly after that class butShirley kept going. She kept goingthrough marriage and 3 children aswell, continuing to learn and then laterteach others.

When her daughter was youngShirley took her figure skating atMinoru skating rink in Richmond.Shirley would use that time to hangout at the potters studio at theRichmond Arts Center. One day thechildren’s pottery instructor wasunable to teach and Shirley wasasked to step in. She continued toteach there for the next 10 years!

Shirley is striving for perfection.She enjoys the challenge of creatingunique forms and the soothing,meditative act of creating with clay.She says clay has seen her throughdifficult times and she feelscommitted to the process. Herchildren are grown now and Shirleygoes to the gym to keep up herstrength so she can continue workingwith clay into her later years.

Shirley has exhibited at theGallery of B.C. Ceramics andCrafthouse on Granville Island, andthe Richmond Art Gallery inRichmond as well as being a regular

exhibitor at the Steveston VillageGallery. She has also studied at LaMeridiana Ceramics in Italy, InstitutoAllende at the University ofGuanajuato in Mexico, MetchosenInternational Summer School of Artsat Pearson College, Emily CarrCollege of Art and Design andKwantlen College, in the VancouverLower Mainland.

Shirley’s work is a perfect fit forthe Steveston Village Gallery whichis located in a new development onthe Fraser River waterfront. I openedthe gallery with the dream of raisingthe profile of local artists, here athome and abroad while alsopromoting peace. Shirley is now one

of 90 such artists including myself,whose beautiful work graces thetables and walls of the gallery. Everymonth we have new shows ofpaintings and every week we receivenew pieces of local pottery includingShirley’s. The combination ofselection, convenience, and excellentcustomer service have kept peoplecoming back and has drawn newpeople to our door.

I invite you to come to ourgallery to see Shirley Inouye’samazing pottery and sculptural piecesinfluenced by nature and her heritage.

The Steveston Village Gallery isat #125- 3900 Bayiew St., Richmond,B.C., V7E 4R7 ❁

Dr. John Stanley (Stan) Rowe (1918-2004) by Wakako IshikawaJohn Stanley Rowe was born in

Hardisty, a small town southeast ofEdmonton, on June 11, 1918, thesecond child of Rev. Arthur HerbertRowe, a Methodist missionary andhis wife, Nora.

As a result of Rev. Rowe’scalling , the family lived in many smalltowns in the grassland region ofsouthern Alberta, explaining Stan’slifelong interest in grassland ecology.1

One of Stan’s memories about hischildhood was of shooting and killing

an innocent rabbit. He never toucheda gun again.

Stan attended high school inGranum and High River, and went onto the University of Alberta inEdmonton. He graduated with aB.Sc. in 1941 in botany and ecology.

In the spring of 1941, Stanrefused military service because ofthe influence of his passionately anti-war parents. He was not initiallyaccepted as a true conscientiousobjector but was treated as a draft-

dodger. Imprisoned in FortSaskatchewan for three months,appeals from J.S. Woodsworth andother churchmen resulted in hisreceiving CO status. He was sentto work in forestry camps in B.C. fortwo years.2

On September 5, 1942 GwenSuttie, a United Church missionary,arrived at New Denver, where someJapanese Canadian detainees hadstarted to arrive on May 21, 1942.3

Continued on page 10

Steveston Village Gallery on Bayview Street. (Tamaka Fisher photo, 2005)

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By November, 1,500 evacuees hadmoved into New Denver. In thesummer of 1943, Suttie went toVictoria to meet Dr. S.J. Willis, theBritish Columbia Superintendent ofEducation, in order to organize akindergarten in New Denver andnearby Rosebery and a high schoolin New Denver, because thegovernment provided the Japanesechildren only with elementaryschooling. Willis promised threeconscientious objectors as teachersfor the United Church high schoolsin New Denver, Lemon Creek andTashme. Suttie’s first choice wasStan, because of his degree from theUniversity of Alberta. Willis askedthat the Church not pay the COsmore than $25 a month in addition toroom and board.3

During the war, New Denverhad three main religious groups:Roman Catholic, Protestant andBuddhist. Only the Catholics andProtestants had the resources to setup schools, though Stan recalled theBuddhists probably had a school aswell. Separation along religious linesseemed so ridiculous as the goal ofeveryone was education. Gwen Suttiethought it possible that staff andaccommodation might be combined,but these were the days before theecumenical movement. The RomanCatholic Sisters replied pleasantly, butfirmly that they could not co-operate.The local school authorities thoughtit better to keep the Caucasian andJapanese races separate. 3

During this period, Stan lived inNew Denver. He co-op housed withtwo United Church missionaries, EllaLediard and later Margery Rempel,and a teacher, Mildred Fahmi. Theyshared a big house a couple of blocksfrom Lakeview Collegiate School inthe Turner United Church. Stan’supstairs room was “heated” throughthe winter by a hole cut in the ceilingof the kitchen, above the cookingstove. It was not warm enough and

for the first and last time in his life,he suffered from finger and toechilblains.

Stan taught mathematics andsciences at Lakeview CollegiateSchool. He also taught music, and notjust singing! He and Helen Lawson,a missionary, wanted to teach music,especially to boys, who arenotoriously hard to interest in melodicthemes. They scraped up the moneyfor a couple of dozen tonettes, cheaplittle black plastic flutes, with amusical range of a couple of octavesat most. Stan and Helen wrote outthe harmonies in two or three partsfor common songs, such as RedRiver Valley, and even a few hymnsbecause these had the harmoniesalready worked out. With a bit ofmusic reading instruction, they soonorganized a tonette band. All wentwell for a while but one day, all theboys in the band politely refused toplay. Stan never found out why, butsuspected that maybe their non-musical peers made fun of themplaying toy flutes. The girls continuedon with the band and choir for a yearor more.

As a teacher at LakeviewCollegiate School, he wrote an articleentitled “Peace on earth, Goodwilltoward all men” in the 1944Christmas issue of The NewCanadian. “….. we persist inbelieving that human problems canbe settled on a non-human level,namely on the level of technology.Someday, much as a scientist in hislaboratory discovers a newelement by fortunate experiment-ation, some men will discover andpresent to a delighted world theKey to Peace – a simple formula,use as directed, guaranteed not todisturb the most delicateconstitution. Probably a post-warplan, requiring only the setting upof a Nations’ Assembly and anexecutive Council, of coursebacked with sufficient force – or

by all means with teeth. …. All menwant peace, but few desire thethings that make for peace. Thenring out sweet bells and carols andgreetings of Christmas, and remindus of those things which make forpeace”.

Afterwards, he rememberedthat the nisei had been great, “Theywere so glad to have a school thatthere were few discipline problemsif any (none came to my attention).They were bright, cooperative,good students. We had lots of funin classes and out. The supervisorof the detention camp schoolsystem, Hide Hyodo, used to visitNew Denver frequently with herfriend, Terry Hidaka”. Stan kept afew photographs of them picnickingon the beach of Slocan Lake, just 100metres from where he last lived.Rev. Kosaburo Shimizu found thatStan was without good books, so hegave Stan half a dozen from hislibrary. Stan kept the signed booksuntil his death.

Though he lived and taught inNew Denver, Stan also taughtmathematics for Japanese studentsat Lemon Creek High School onFriday evenings and Saturdaymornings from late 1943. Heremembered giving a talk to the highschool students at Lemon Creek onthe history of jazz, illustrated withseveral 78-r.p.m. records. In thosedays, all the young people listenedweekly to the radio’s Hit Parade ofthe top ten jazz tunes. He was askedtwo years later to write something forthe 1946 El Cee Hi school annual.He wrote, “… We look before andafter, and sigh for what is notmeanwhile missing the pleasurearound us, failing to appreciatewhat we will sigh for several yearshence. …Some day (believe me)you will be saying, “Ah, the goodold school days – how I’d love tobe back. …” That day will come,and sooner than you think”.

11Continued on page 12

When the war ended, all theteachers felt a great sense of reliefthat it was over at last. They had afarewell party. According to THENEW CANADIAN4, the niseifamilies hosted an evening of socialfellowship at the Bosun Hall in NewDenver on November 15, 1945. Theydecorated the Hall withchrysanthemums and invited 25Canadian guests. Stan led the singing,K. Nakanishi and I. Kakunoperformed a shakuhachi (bambooflute) duet and Kakuno gave anaccordion solo. Margery Rempel, amissionary, sang three Japanesesongs and Ken Soga played a trumpetsolo. Stan played clarinet alongsideKen Soga’s trumpet and Lakeviewstudents, Art Okumura and hisyounger brother Tats joined them. Intheir picture, taken by Dr. HenryNaruse, the quartet looked likeprofessional musicians and someoneasked Stan years later if they hadmade any recordings.

The significant dates in Stan’slife tell the story of a life ofcommitment …

1946 – hired by B.C. ForestService as a Forest Ranger on ArrowLakes.

1948 – M.Sc. in Botany at theUniversity of Nebraska. Thesis onprairie vegetation.

1948 – Canadian Forestry Serviceecologist in Winnipeg.

1952 - Stan met Julia MaryMcQuoid. Stan and Julia weremarried in 1953. Their son Johnwas born in 1954 and daughterAndrea in 1956.

1956 – Ph.D. in Botany from theUniversity of Manitoba on TheVegetation of the Boreal Forest inSaskatchewan and Manitoba.

1957 - Forestry Service posted himto Ottawa from 1957 to 1967.

1967 - Secretary of the EcologySection of the Canadian BotanicalAssociation in 1967-68 and electedas Chair of the Association the

following year.1967 – 1985 Professor of Plant

Ecology and Crop Science at theUniversity of Saskatchewanwhen he retired as a professoremeritus.

1990 - Stan moved back to NewDenver in November and divorcedJulia.

1991 - he met Katherine Chomiak,who became his companion until hisdeath.

1991 - Honorary Doctor of Lawsdegree from Trent University inPeterborough, Ontario.

1994 - won the prestigious J.B.Harkin Conservation Award for hissignificant contribution to protectingCanada’s parks and wilderness areas.

1995 - one of the four foundingmembers of the Slocan Writers Guild,who meet monthly. The Clubmembers read their own works andalso old Japanese haiku, includingBuson, Kijo Murakami and Basho.

1996 - the Canadian BotanicalAssociation (Ecology Section)established the J.S. Rowe EcologyAward for the best student paper onplant ecology for the year.

1997 - Stan and five others stoodin front of a bulldozer and werearrested for trying to preserve thequality of the water by preventing alogging road from being built.

He continued to write, andpublished a number of articles and abook from New Denver. In HomePlace: Essays on Ecology publishedin 1990, he says, “If the speciesHomo sapiens is to survive, thenhuman ecology should also meanthe working out of rightrelationships between people andthe land”.

Stan’s view of the unity of theearth’s ecosystem was rooted in hisknowledge of prehistory as well asecology. He once said, “the closestrelatives of Japanese trees are ineastern North America and manyof the trees of southern Ontario

have their nearest relatives inJapan. Their common ancestrygoes back millions of years, whenall the continents of Earth formedone super-continent”.

Surrounded by nature in NewDenver, he was happy with littlethings such as bicycling, walking inthe woods and swimming in the lake.A Lemon Creek camp reunion washeld in Toronto on June 7, 2003. Stanregretted he could not go, but hopedthat Tad Oyagi would say hello to anyLemon Creek students who mighthave remembered him.

He wrote then, “Old agedoesn’t bother me, not yet. As youget older you get slower, but aslong as food tastes fine and sleepcomes easily, it’s a good life.Probably everyone welcomesdeath when all the simple joys ofthe senses go dull, and that’s notyet”.

In July 2003, “…. I bicycled tothe [New Denver] Nikkei Centrelooking for Nobby but he wasaway in Nelson. So I gave theattendant a copy of the story aboutthe Asahi baseball club for him. Ihad heard that Nobby played semi-pro baseball but didn’t know he’dbeen [a] bat boy for the club. …over in the Orchard I tried to findPauli Inose but she wasn’t home”.

Stan and most of his friends hadgiven up on the “Christmas” mythsand preferred to go back to the wintersolstice celebrations that hadpreceded them, celebrating the year’sshortest day and the middle of winter.He said, “You might say we’re tryingto be Earth-aware pagans, …onthe 21st of December, we go downto the lakeshore and burn candlesto welcome the return of the sun,which seems most appropriate forus Earthlings. I shouldn’t besurprised if we aren’t closer tosome of the old Japanese customsthan to those of Jerusalem?”

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News of note for students ofJapanese Canadian history: ThomasKunito Shoyama has donated hispersonal papers to Library andArchives Canada (formerly theNational Library of Canada and theNational Archives of Canada). Mr.Shoyama and his partner, HazelMorris, officially made the donationin 2003 after being approached byarchivist Gabrielle Nishiguchi. It hastaken some time for these materialsto be processed, however, theyshould be ready for public access ina few months.

Mr. Shoyama has been a leaderand distinguished member of theJapanese Canadian community sincethe Second World War, when he waseditor of THE NEW CANADIANand an eloquent spokesman againstinjustice. He served from 1945 to1946 in the Intelligence Corps of theCanadian Army. Following hisdischarge, Mr. Shoyama became aneconomic advisor to theSaskatchewan government beforejoining the federal civil service in1964. He is perhaps best known tothose outside the Japanese Canadiancommunity for his term as Deputy

The Thomas K. Shoyama Papers at Library and Archives Canadaby Yuri Shimpo

Minister of Finance: a position he heldbetween 1975 and 1979. Afterleaving the civil service, he sharedhis knowledge with the youngergeneration as a Professor of PublicAdministration at the University ofVictoria. He retired from teaching in1992. Mr. Shoyama has receivednumerous honours including theOrder of Canada, the Order of theSacred Treasure (Japan), andmultiple honorary doctorates.

The Shoyama fonds (archivalcollection) contains approximately 2.7linear metres of textual records andcirca 2,000 photographs. One of thehighlights of this fonds is a substantialamount of correspondence fromJapanese Canadians and othersduring and after the Second WorldWar. As an editor, Mr. Shoyamaoften received letters from membersof the community who wrotecandidly about their situations as wellas their thoughts and feelings on theinternment. Many of the letters area moving testimony to the strugglesfaced by Japanese Canadians at thetime. Similar correspondence fromafter the war sheds light on thedispersal of the population and the

activities of Japanese Canadians ineastern cities such as Toronto andMontreal. Letters from well-knownfigures such as Roy Ito, MurielKitagawa, George Tanaka, and IreneUchida are included. This earlymaterial is complemented bynumerous photographs – mostlyblack and white snapshots of bothidentified and unidentified subjects.

Later materials include businesscorrespondence and subject filesfrom Mr. Shoyama’s years inSaskatchewan, Ottawa, and Victoria,as well as personal correspondencewith friends, relatives, andacquaintances. There are also somefiles relating to the JapaneseCanadian Citizens’ Association andthe redress movement. Some filescontain sensitive information andhave been restricted or closed fordesignated periods of time.

The website of Library andArchives Canada can be found atwww.collectionscanada.ca. To checkfor availability, search the Archivianetdatabase on the website using thekeyword “Shoyama” in the title field.❁

Stan liked the Shinto idea thatthe gods were in our midst—thecaves, streams, rocks, trees, etc, arehere on Earth as guardian spirits andnot in some transcendent unearthlyplace. He found haiku poems bypeople like Basho to be more religiousthan the Bible.

When he had a stroke on March13, 2004, Stan was rushed to thehospital in Nakusp and then toVernon. When it became apparentthat his chances for recovering a lifeof any quality were nil, he asked thatno further measures be taken toprolong his life. He was moved to thePavilion in New Denver, which hadbeen originally built as a sanatorium

for Japanese Canadian tuberculosispatients in 1942, where his partner,Katherine, and daughter, Andrea,stayed with him. He requested novisitors and eventually asked to betaken off IV life support. After a fewdays, he passed away on April 6,2004. He was the last survivingteacher from Lakeview CollegiateSchool in New Denver.

Stan is survived also by a son inNorth Carolina, a daughter in Quebecand three grandchildren.

The memorials for Stan after hisdeath reflected the “nesting boxes”of his life. The Slocan Writers Guildrenamed its annual creative writingaward, the Stan Rowe Literacy

Award, to be presented to a seniorstudent at Lucerne Elementary-Secondary School in New Denverand the University of Saskatchewanflew its flag at half-mast for a week.❁References1 John Stanley Rowe. Home Place:Essays on Ecology. Edmonton.NeWest Publishers. 1990.2 Nancy Knickerbocker. No PlasterSaint. Vancouver. Talon Books. 20013 Gwen Suttie, ed. Dorothy BlakeySmith. With the Nisei in NewDenver. N.d.4 THE NEW CANADIANDecember 23, 1944.

13

The small town of Chemainusis located on the southeast coast ofVancouver Island, 80 km. north ofVictoria. The west side of the townabuts a mountain covered withevergreen trees such as cedar andfirs. The east side of the town facesthe beautiful Georgia Strait, where thesea is always calm and there aremany fish. So, many people come tosee the whales here in spring.

Caucasian people appearedinitially on Vancouver Island about200 years ago. After the NationalBoundary Agreement was signed in1846, British Columbia and especiallyVancouver Island developed quickly.There were three main industries onVancouver Island including mining,forestry and fishing. The HudsonBay Company, given a monopoly byQueen Mary for trade anddevelopment, established the furtrade with the First Nations onVancouver Island. An Indian showedthe presence of coal to Hudson BayCompany personnel, whicheventually led to the development ofthe coal mining industry onVancouver Island. Copper depositswere also discovered and mines wereopened. Gold was also discovered inthe middle of the 19th century on themainland. Many miners came toBritish Columbia from Europe, theUnited States and later from Chinaand Japan.

Mines are closed once themineral deposits are exhausted. Onthe other hand, the forest industry isalways renewed because cut treescan be replaced by planting youngtrees. There are many trees morethan a thousand years old onVancouver Island. The tallest treenear Chemainus was more than 300ft. high and 45 ft. in circumference.Unfortunately, a gust of wind fell thistree in 1913. The road was closedfor three days while the tree wasremoved.

The Little Town That Did: The People of Chemainus and the JapaneseAccording to the local Indians,

the area around Chemainus wascalled, “Cowichan”, which means thewarm place. They are members ofthe Coast Salish tribe, a very gentlepeople because of the abundance offood such as wild animals, fish andedible berries.

There were 30,000 First Nationspeople and 1,000 Caucasians insouthern Vancouver Island in themiddle of the 19th century.Caucasians started the forest industryon Vancouver Island in 1858. Thefirst sawmill powered by a water millwas opened in Chemainus in 1862.

The forest company inChemainus prospered because of thegood harbour for exporting lumber.The town was also connected to anisland railway and highway.However, the company sufferedwhen the export market for lumberand chips collapsed and it announcedthe closing of the sawmill two yearslater. The people who lived inChemainus got a serious shock whenthey heard about the closing of the120-year old sawmill. They had toattract another industry, otherwisethey would have to abandon andleave their lovely hometown.

At that time, a 21-year oldimmigrant, Carl Schulz, fromHeidelberg, Germany arrived inChemainus. He worked as amechanic, carpenter and sometimesas a businessman. He had a long-term plan, which he presented to theChamber of Commerce ofChemainus in 1971. He suggestedthat the walls of the buildings in thetown be decorated with largepaintings that recounted the historyof the town, from the First Nationspeoples to scenes of the forestindustry. He maintained that paintingswould attract tourists to the town. Hegot this idea from frescos painted onwalls of a monastery in Moldavia(Romania) that he once visited.

For 10 years, Schulz patientlypromoted his plan to the people of thetown. Finally, the Mayor ofChemainus agreed to his proposal in1980. A Chemainus TownDevelopment Committee wasformed, under Schulz’s leadership, tocoordinate the project theme ofbridging the pioneer era with thepresent period.

Five murals were painted in thefirst year, depicting scenes of theforest industry. The first mural wasof the “Steam Donkey”, which wasinvented in 1882. This machine wasused to pull large trees and removelarge obstructions. Manpower orhorsepower did the heavy workbefore this machine was invented.

Seven murals were added thefollowing year with several additionsin each of the ensuing years. Theseincluded the following, “The daughterof the Native Chief watching thearrival of English sailing boats”, “OneSunday in the logging camp”, “Thewarship which came to investigate amurder case, year of 1863”, “Julia,the first Caucasian baby here in1871”, and “American millionairesRockefeller and Carnegie who visitedChemainus in 1900 and the hotel inwhich they stayed”.

Initially, the painters of themurals were BC artists, but laterpainters were invited from all overthe world, including USA, Europe,South Africa and China. One inviteewas a Japanese American.

Ten years later, there are now38 murals. Among them are picturesexplaining the history of the FirstNations and the Japanese peoplewho worked in the forest industry. In1996, the mural “The Chinese boy’smemories” was added tocommemorate the Chinese peoplewho contributed to the town’sdevelopment. 400,000 tourists nowvisit Chemainus every year. There is

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no charge to visit the largest open-air gallery.

There is a connection betweenthe Japanese and Chemainus.Japanese have lived on VancouverIsland and in the western part of BCsince the early 20th century and inthe 1930s there were about 300Japanese in the Chemainus area.They worked hard, were wellbehaved and more or less stuck tothemselves. However, anti-Japanesesentiments existed and resulted inracial discrimination.

Japanese Canadians werediscriminated against for a long time,but were finally accepted into theCanadian community. The service ofJapanese volunteer soldiers whobravely fought in Europe in WWI(1914-1918) contributed to theacceptance of the Japanese. Twohundred Japanese Canadian soldiersfought in Europe, 54 of whom werekilled in action and 97 were injured.The number of casualties wasabnormally high. A stone monumentstands in Stanley Park, a famous parkin Vancouver. The status of JapaneseCanadians was elevated by theirsoldiers’ blood.

However, after England andFrance declared war againstGermany in 1939, the Allied countriesbegan applying increasing restrictionson Japan, an ally of Germany. Theunexpected Japanese military attackon Pearl Harbour was the death knollof the Japanese Canadiancommunity. All of the 300 JapaneseCanadians who lived in Chemainuswere sent to the interior of BC.During the war, the Japanesecemetery in Chemainus wasbulldozed and the gravestones usedfor fences around houses in town.

After the war, the redressmovement by Japanese Canadiansresulted in the Government ofCanada issuing a formal apology in1988. The pastor of the ChemainusAnglican Church found 5 JapaneseCanadian gravestones and rebuilt theJapanese cemetery in 1988. On asummer day in 1991, many formerJapanese Canadian residents from allover Canada returned for a reunion.Ever since on Obon day in August,a remembrance ceremony iscommemorated.

A book, “O-bon in Chimunesu”,was written by Catherine Lang. Thebook tells the stories of 10 Japanesefamilies that lived in Chemainus. Twomurals portraying the Japanesecommunity in Chemainus have beenpainted. The “Winning Float” paintedin 1991 refers to the 50th anniversaryof the forest company, when theJapanese entered a beautiful floatdecorated with flowers, lanterns andseveral girls wearing pretty kimonos.This float won a prize accounting forthe title of the mural.

The other mural, “The LoneScout”, is a portrait of Shige Yoshidawearing a Boy Scout uniform. Shigewas interested in the Boy Scoutmovement and asked to join the localtroop, but was refused for no knownreason. Consequently, Shige appliedto a correspondence course in theU.S. and studied to be a scout. After5 years, he qualified and worked hardto organize a scout troop of sixJapanese Canadian boys in 1930.This was the first Japanese scouttroop in Canada.

Shige was evacuated to TashmeCamp in the BC interior when WWIIbegan. There, he organized a BoyScout troop for Japanese Canadian

boys. This movement bolstered themorale of the boys who lost hope inthe camp. The troop had 110members in 1944 and in the followingyear, 200 members paraded holdingUnion Jack flags. It was the largestBoy Scout troop in the BritishCommonwealth at that time. The twomurals dealing with Japanese themeswere painted by Japanese Canadianartists and were commissionedbecause of “the plentiful and valuablecontributions of the JapaneseCanadians to the local community”.

There is another connection withJapan and Chemainus in addition tothe fact that many JapaneseCanadians lived here. In June of1942, the Japanese Army occupiedAttu and Kiska Islands in the AleutianIslands, USA. The U.S. Army landedin Attu Island in May 1943, and therewas a violent fight so that all ofYamazaki’s soldiers and officerswere killed. The First Torpedo BoatGroup miraculously evacuated theremaining 5,200 Japanese soldiersfrom Kiska Island under heavy fogon July 29th, 1943. The Allied Forcesof USA and Canada gatheredsecretly in Chemainus in early July1943 to mount an attack of KiskaIsland. On August 13th, the AlliedForces began an attack of KiskaIsland, but found it deserted. In thebook written by Olsen, there is apicture of soldiers boarding a ship onthe lumber company wharf inChemainus.

The town of Chemainus hasrevived and has many links withJapan since the war. ❁Kay Minami’s essay appeared inthe Japanese magazine “Kouzan(Mining)”, April 1998 and wastranslated by Sakuya Nishimura.

Glencoe Sugar Beet Camp , May 29th - November 12th, 1942by Yon Shimizu

Those of us from Camp Black,who volunteered to work in the sugarbeet fields of southwestern Ontario,

were trucked to the train station inSchreiber where we joined up with agroup of men from the Schreiber

Camp. I was surprised to read fromthe archival documents that weboarded the train at 3:30 am on the

15Continued on page 16

Crystal Palace, the exhibition building for the Glencoe Fair. (Yon Shimizu photo,1942)29th of May! We must have had toget up really early because we weresix miles back in the bush fromSchreiber and there really wasn’tmuch of a road yet. On our way tothe sugar beet camp in southwesternOntario, the train made a stop at theJackfish Road Camp, which wasapproximately 20 miles southeast ofSchreiber and was the easternterminus of the unfinished, futureTrans-Canada Highway. There, wewere joined by some Jackfish Campmen who had also volunteered towork in the sugar beet fields. Therewere now 135 men on the train whowere headed for a new adventure onthe sugar beet farms of southwesternOntario. I think that most of us whovolunteered were looking forward toseeing another part of this new andhitherto unknown province ofOntario. None of us knew what ourultimate destination was to be, exceptthat it was in a part of the provincewhere farming was the mainstay ofthe economy and we were asked tohelp the farm economy in whateverway we could.

As we traveled fromnorthwestern Ontario, we could seethe scenery change from the rocky,stunted growth, which ischaracteristic of the north shore ofLake Superior, to a more pleasant,

grassy, hilly terrain. Past London, theland flattened out considerably, withlush looking green fields on both sidesof the train. I can recall beingoverjoyed by the sight, because thegreen fields at this time of the yearreminded me of the home I had leftbehind in April. We must havestopped in Toronto on our way, but Ican’t remember. I don’t rememberthat I got off the train for any reason.We may have been given sandwichesto eat on the train, but except for mymemories of the changingcountryside, my memories of that tripare very vague.

The train finally stopped at theGlencoe station, which is about halfan hour from London. The Mountiewho was accompanying us, told ourhalf of the coach to get off here asthis was the end of the line for us.According to the archival records,there were 58 of us who were in thiscamp as of June 25th, 1942 and 55 atthe Dresden Camp, which does notadd up to the 155 that another recordshows left the road camps in the firstgroup. There must have been sometransfers out of the Dresden Camp.When I began my archival research,I learned that the other Japanese menon the train went on to Thamesville,another small town about half an hourfrom Glencoe. From there they were

trucked about 15 miles northwest toa camp at Dresden, which is onlyabout 12 miles from Wallaceburg.

We were met at the station by acouple of trucks and a delegation ofpeople including ministers of some ofthe churches in town. The truckstook us to our new home, the CrystalPalace, which was the exhibitionbuilding for the Glencoe Fair. Thechurches welcomed us with a mealprepared by the ladies of thechurches and we really appreciatedthe home-cooked food they servedus, after the road camp fare we hadbeen eating since we first arrived inOntario. We soon found out that theJapanese man, who was our cook forthe camp, had been the cook for theHotel Georgia in Vancouver, and hisbrand of fare was much more refinedthan the meals served to us at CampBlack. I recall that I really enjoyedhis meals, although one of our Victoriafellows told me that he didn’t like thefancy hotel type of sandwiches hegave us for lunch. On Sundaymornings after we had settled in fora few weeks, he served us a gruellike rice dish which was calledchagai, which we ate with fish. Thiswas a real treat for the fishermen inthe camp who were ecstatic the firsttime we had it and they really lookedforward to Sunday breakfast. I hadnever had this before, but I like rice,even to this day.

Our facilities consisted of themain building, which had beenconverted by the Ontario FarmService Force into a kitchen and messhall downstairs and dormitory-typeaccommodations upstairs withdouble-decked bunk beds and roomto spare for a few tables. One of thetables became a permanent pokertable from the first night we werethere, and I believe there were somemen playing poker every night. Wehad with us a group of fishermenfrom Tofino and Ucluelet on the West

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Thinning. From left; S. Miyashita, Y. Madokoro, S. Kawahara and J. Hemmy.(Yon Shimizu photo, 1942)

Coast of Vancouver Island. Theyappeared to have considerable moneyin their money belts and they werevery much into poker playing. Theyplayed serious poker, there wasalways lots of folding stuff in the pot,and I remember once when one ofthe men showed me how someonein the camp had marked the deck toget that extra advantage. I don’tbelieve they ever identified the culpritand there never was a fight over acard game. I didn’t know there wassuch a thing as a money belt forsafekeeping of valuables because ofmy youth and only $24 in my pocket.

Just behind the main buildingwas a wash/shower-room withlavatory basins and showers with hotwater. How we loved this, becauseat Camp Black there were nolavatory basins or showers! Out back,beyond the wash/shower-room wasthe outhouse, a six-holer as I recall.When I first examined the outhouse,I noticed that it had a concreteholding basin. There was no way foranything to escape from the basin.The first problem we had with theouthouse was an infestation of somekind of creepy, crawly, small,caterpillar-like creature with a tail. Itwas a terribly disconcerting,uncomfortable situation knowing thatthere were these critters crawlingaround below your bottom while youwere answering the call of nature.We got rid of them completely withthe use of lime, thank goodness! I hadnever seen anything like them beforeor since. Later in the summer, theouthouse had to be cleaned out. Iwasn’t aware that this was to bedone, but one day when we werereturning to the camp on the opentruck, which was used to take us tothe different farms, we were met atthe far end of the town by a mostmalodorous scent. As we progressedthrough the town the scent becameworse, until when we arrived at thecamp it was obvious that we had

arrived very near to the source of theodour. We were told that two menhad taken on the job of cleaning outthe outhouse and had spread thecontents on the farmland immediatelybehind the campgrounds. In order todo the job, we were told that the mendowned a 26er of liquor and werepretty drunk by the time they finished.It was horrible as I remember, andwe tried closing the windows to tryto lessen the stink while we had ourdinner, but it didn’t help at all. Weeventually had to open the windowsand doors, because in this part ofOntario, it was hot, hot, in the summertime. And if it was humid, there wasno way one can exist without aircirculation, and in those days therewas no air-conditioning. Being a citybred boy, I had never been subject toanything like this, but living here inWallaceburg, we are subject to thestink from farms. Whenever thescent of pig manure is waftingthrough the air around here, whichdoesn’t happen often, thankgoodness, my mind shifts back intime to that day in Glencoe and the“honey-dippers”.

The camp had a wire fencearound it, about 3 ft. in height andthere was a guardhouse at theentrance. There was a RCMPconstable stationed there for a fewweeks together with a couple of WWII veterans for around the clock

surveillance. We were told that onlythree of us could leave the camp inthe evening after work and that wehad to sign out and check in with theguard on return. We had not expectedthis, it was our understanding that wewould be much freer away from theroad camp and this caused somegrumbling at the start, but we weretold that the numbers could beincreased as the towns-peoplebecame familiar with us. It did nottake long for that to happen, thepeople had no idea what we were like,and were very surprised that wespoke English.

On Saturday, May 30th, 1942 theLONDON FREE PRESS printed ashort article on our arrival. Thereporter described our arrival inGlencoe and how we were pleasedwith the reception we received fromthe people who were waiting at thestation for us. He also mentioned that50 men had arrived at the Dresdencamp. As the story says, that nightwe had a really bing, bang, dilly of asummer lightning, thunder and rainstorm, the likes of which most of ushad never seen before. We all stoodat the windows of the upstairssleeping quarters just amazed at thepyrotechnics of a summer storm inthis part of Ontario. I remember, asa youth in Victoria, standing inBeacon Hill Park, along thewaterfront in the summer months,

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Second hoeing. Front, from left; J. Hemmy, H. Omori, G. Uyede and Y. Madokoro.Rear; Y. Shimizu, J. Szuz, R. Hoita and M. Baba. (Yon Shimizu photo, 1942)

Continued on page 18

Second hoeing. T. Hoita. (Yon Shimizuphoto, 1942)

looking to the east and seeing thelightning flash over the mainland,never hearing the thunder, but beingfascinated by the light show so faroff! The torrent of rain, which fellwasn’t good for the beet farmers.Apparently, they had quite a bit ofrain already, and the ground wasgetting packed and the clay soil in thearea wasn’t going to make the“thinning” or “blocking” easy whenit dried out enough for us to startworking. Here, I should explain forthe benefit of those not familiar withthe cultivation of sugar beets thatthere are three basic operations,which had to be done after the seedssprouted.

1. “Thinning” or “blocking” wasperformed with a short handled hoeabout 18 to 20 inches long. Theseedlings had to be thinned out sothere was only one seedling per foot.The short handle of course requiredone to bend over to “thin” with onehand and separate the leaves of theseedlings with the other. Was thisever hard on the back! If you weregood at “thinning”, you stayed in thisbent position until you got to the endof the row. The thing I hated most,was when I couldn’t see the end ofthe row when I started. It turned outthat ground conditions that springwere one of the worst they had for“thinning” because of the rain andclay soil. This was our baptism to oneof the harder farm jobs in this part ofOntario. We were supposed to beable to make up to $5 per day,working the fields on contract. As itwas, because of the adverse

conditions and our inexperience, weall ended up working for 25¢ an hour,which was guaranteed by thegovernment for all three operations.

2. “Second hoeing” was doneabout a month or so after “thinning”,to get rid of the weeds growingbetween the plants. This was not badas we used regular long-handledhoes, which did not require bendingover. I remember once a lightning boltflashed down and hit the wire fencearound the field where we wereworking. I felt the hoe jump and asort of tingling in my hands. Therewere some cows in the next field andnothing happened to them, so wewere not afraid. Today, I would headfor the nearest ditch!

3. The last operation was called“topping”, when the leaves and a thinslice of the top of the sugar beet werecut off. First, the farmer with histractor and an implement loosenedthe beets from the ground. We pickedthe beets from off the ground with amachete-like knife, fitted at the endwith a curved hook. After “topping”,the beets were thrown into piles onthe ground and manually loaded ontoa wagon, then transported by truckor rail to the sugar beet refinery ineither Chatham or Wallaceburg. Agood friend from university days wasworking in the Wallaceburg refinery

in June 1948 and was instrumental inmy coming to Wallaceburg to workafter graduation. I was having troublefinding a job, because Japanesegraduates were not readily acceptedsoon after the war.

On Monday June 1st, 1942 theLONDON FREE PRESS ran alonger story on us. James E. Bowes,the staff reporter, described ingeneral our backgrounds, oureducational levels and that we spokemostly English. He also described ourdining, sleeping and bathing facilitiesand how our general welfare wasbeing looked after. The reporterwrote about the cook, George, whowas the only fat man in camp. Thereweren’t too many fat Japanese inthose days, although there was afellow who was a little on the pudgyside. The reporter’s reference toexercising may be due to a high barthat someone had installed betweenthe back of the main building and theshower room. There was one man incamp who could really perform onthe bar. I don’t know where helearned his routine, but I alwayswatched him because he was reallygood at it.

On Monday morning, a farmerwas looking for men to help him planttomatoes. I believe his name was

18

Sunday treat by the bath house. From left; T. Madokoro, A. Hama, N. Morishita,M. Sakauye, T. Tosa and K. Morishita. (Yon Shimizu photo, 1942)

MacLaren. Families of Scottishdescent populated the town ofGlencoe and the surrounding area.Our paperboy, who delivered theLONDON FREE PRESS and theTORONTO DAILY STAR, wasnamed Alex MacFarlane. I got hisname and wrote to him fromKapuskasing after I left Glencoe inNovember. He sent me threepictures of himself which I still havein my album. Anyway, I quicklyvolunteered to go and so did mybrother Stum, and a couple of otherfellows from Victoria.

Tomato planting was easy work.Two of us had to sit close to theground on each side of the plantingrig. This rig punched evenly spacedholes in the ground and squirted waterin the holes. We placed tomato plantsinto alternating holes and the rig thendrew dirt back around the plant. Atractor pulled the rig up and down thefield. The other two fellows workedon another rig for planting. This wasmy first ever farm job, and I felt goodabout it. We were paid 25¢ an hour,and I believe we worked most of theday and completed the plantingbecause we did not go back. I didnot go back to pick the ripe tomatoesand can’t remember if anyone elsein the camp did either.

By Tuesday morning the groundwas dry enough to go out into thefields, and we worked until all thesugar beets had been “thinned.” We

went out in groups of five to ten to afarm, depending on the size of thefield and the demand for our labour.I have no idea how much acreagewas on an individual farm, but mostfields seemed to be huge, and neverending. This was most discouragingto most of us. Many of the menwrote back to their friends and toldthem not to volunteer for work on thesugar beet farms because of thebackbreaking work and the poorwages. The Ontario Farm ServiceForce and the Canada and DominionSugar Company had wanted 500 menin the summer of 1942. Ourunfavourable work experience,scuttled any chance for this quota tobe met. A. Maclaren, the Director ofthe OFSF, reported in a letter onDecember 1st, 1942 to A.MacNamara, Dominion DeputyMinister of Labour, “372 men wererecruited for the season, of whomabout 25 were sent back to Schreiberas unfit or unwilling to do the work.However, the balance who did work,were, I should say, about 85 percentsatisfactory. Many of the farmerswere perfectly satisfied with the workthese men had done.”

It was just not possible for menexperienced in fishing, logging,lumber and paper mill work, wherethey had made fairly good wages, toaccept low paying farming work. Asa recent high school graduateunfamiliar with any real kind of work,

I found the beet work hard. Buteverything else we worked at wasn’tbad, except for preparing corn forensilage. In this process, corn stalksare cut, tied together in sheaves, takenby wagon to a shredding machine andthe shredded material carried on aconveyor into a silo. The sheaveswere heavy because they were greenand tossing them with a pitchfork ontoa wagon was a heavy job for me.

A week later on June 6th, 1942another short article appeared in theLONDON FREE PRESS. Thereporter described how well we wereadapting to the work required of us.On Monday, June the 8th, anotherstory was printed in the same paper.In this article, the reporter wrote ofwanting, “to set at rest the rumoursof incipient race riots and possibletroubles” and described us as,“orderly, well-spoken and nicelymannered”. He went on to write ofa farmer’s appraisal of our work, ourwages and the restrictions imposedon us. He dealt into amisunderstanding about our access tothe local theatre, which the theatremanager quickly resolved. He endedhis story by stating that in the courseof one week the Japanese Canadianshad earned the admiration andsympathy of the whole community.

I think that it was sometime inOctober that the Fox theatre showed“Holiday Inn”, in which Bing Crosbyintroduced the song “WhiteChristmas”. Most of us went to seeit once, but one of the fellows fromVictoria went to see it every nightthat week. He sang it in thebunkhouse all the time, trying toimitate Bing!

We were lucky to have beenassigned to Glencoe, because oncethe townspeople got to know us, wewere accepted. Other camps inChatham and Essex had realproblems, especially in Chatham. Thecamp in Chatham had to be movedfrom within the city limits at the sugar

19

Picking tobacco. From left; E. Ono, T. Kuwabara, unknown and T. Shimizu. (YonShimizu photo, 1942)

Continued on page 20

factory to a farm a few miles fromthe city. The people did not want themen in town at all, although thefarmers were desperate for help.This was resolved when the meninsisted that they would not stay andwork where they were not welcome.The OFSF was not supposed to locatefarm workers in an area where thepeople were antagonistic towardsJapanese Canadians.

After the “thinning” wasfinished, we worked at pickingcucumbers for the Lealand PickleCompany in West Lorne which was20 to 25 miles southwest fromGlencoe. We picked small gherkinsinitially and later the largercucumbers. We would periodicallystop to rest and if it was nearlunchtime, the talk would inevitablyget around to the good old chop sueyhouses in Victoria or wherever wecame from. There we were in a fieldof cucumbers, some of us chewingon one we had just picked and peeledwith a knife. One day, another fellowfrom Victoria and I climbed up to thehayloft in the barn for a snooze afterlunch. No one bothered to call usdown when they returned to resumeworking in the field. The “straw-boss” missed us 15 - 30 minutes later,came to the barn, banged on thewalls and shouted to wake us. I wasin a deep, sound sleep, but duty calledand we walked sheepishly out to thejeers of our fellow workers. Ourcamp had a Japanese head foremanwho assigned the workers to thefarmers and a “straw-boss” tooversee each farm gang. This bosshad three sons in camp and was thelargest family group in the camp. Theyoungest was 17 years old. He didn’thave to be in camp, but came alongso the family males could staytogether.

In late July we had to help withthe wheat harvest. This was a jobwhich all of us enjoyed, for at leastthree reasons. It was not the

backbreaking toil of “thinning” andwe were paid 35¢ an hour.Furthermore, we didn’t have to packa sandwich lunch because thefarmers welcomed us to eat withthem and the other labourers. I wasquite overwhelmed by the welcomingattitude of the men, as well as thewomen who came to help preparethe tremendous meals served to allof us. The meals were either roastbeef or pork with mashed potatoes,gravy, vegetables, and always pie fordessert. Of course there was tea andcoffee as well. We had been drivenby racial prejudice from BritishColumbia, where we were reviled anddespised by the bulk of the population.On the other hand, in the farmlandsof southwestern Ontario, we werewelcomed as equals and saviours bythe farming population. Later, wehelped harvest the ripened oats andbarley. Between “second hoeing”,harvesting of grains, suckering,harvesting tobacco and other oddtasks, we had enough to keep usworking through the summer months.

I remember an incident duringthe lunch hour at a wheat harvest,which is always remembered with ashudder. This farmer killed a pig ortwo, and we watched. He killed thepig by slitting its throat, and then

letting it run around the barnyard, untilit dropped and died from loss ofblood. The pig’s laboured breathingthrough its flapping slit throat was themost disturbing for me.

One of the other farm jobs wedid was hoeing weeds in cornfields.One hot, muggy day in late August,we were working in a field where thecorn was taller than I was. I was ina row working by myself and bentover to clear some weeds right nextto the corn stalk. I had just grabbedthe weeds when this snake rose upout of the weeds, hissing and flaringout its hood at me. I screamed,dropped my hoe and headed for thehills, thinking it was a cobra! Theother fellows came running to me, asdid the farmer, who was watchingunder a shade tree. I told everyonethat this snake that looked like acobra hissed at me when I went toget some weeds. The farmer laughedand said that I must have seen a puffadder. I have never liked snakes andthis one had scared the hell out ofme! I haven’t seen another since.

During a holiday, probablyLabour Day, the Ridgetown All Starsasked us to play a softball game withthem. They must have read about us;that we liked to play and were prettygood. We had a pretty good pitcher,

20

The SUIAN MARU Centennial Celebration by Stan FukawaThe SUIAN MARU Centennial Celebration Committee invites all interested persons to join in recognizing the

contributions made by Jinsaburo Oikawa and his fellow immigrants from Miyagi, Japan to the history of BritishColumbia. The Celebration Dinner is tentatively set for Sept. 16, 2006.

The Japanese Canadian National Museum is understandably very eager to add to its collection of documentsand photographs and would like to obtain additional information on the Don and Lion Island communities, theirsubsequent dispersal to the surrounding districts of Delta, Richmond and New Westminster, and later, further afielddue to the internment. Committee member Kiyoo Goto, whose grandfather was on the SUIAN MARU has beencollecting and making maps and lists of the two islands and their inhabitants. Those with information are asked tocontact Kiyoo at 604-528-9717.

The committee encourages local historians and others interested in the research on the history of the Miyagiimmigrants to become involved in the research of the voyagers and the colony. Contact have been made with some

but he wasn’t up to his usual game.His arm failed him and we got thepants beaten off us. It got so bad thateven yours truly was asked to pitch,and I don’t pretend to be a goodpitcher! I can’t remember the score;it must have been so horrible thatI’ve blocked it out of my memorycompletely.

On October 6th, we had a littleflare-up in the camp. I had completelyforgotten about the incident, but readabout it in the archives. Twenty menrefused to go to work. Theircomplaint was “if they were notpermitted to return to their familiesafter the sugar beet season, theywould not continue to work.” Piphercame to the camp, threatened themen with detention and promisedthem no black listing if they wouldreturn to work. There were sixVictoria men involved in this incident;one of them was Jack Henmi fromthe Class of ’42. At the 50-yearreunion we had in Victoria in 1992, Iasked one of the men mentioned asbeing one of the dissenters about thestrike. He could not remember theincident. In 1994, I met Jack Hemmy(that’s how he spells his name now)in Toronto and he could notremember anything about it either! Itwas not that big a deal.

On October 14th, a Mr. Macfieof Appin wrote to Mr. Reek, theAssistant Deputy Minister ofAgriculture that, “complaints weregoing abroad because of waste and

extravagance in the Glencoe Jap.Camp. ... the man who gathers thegarbage has stated different timesthat partly used portions of food arebeing thrown into the can - partialroasts of meat, rolls of bologna etc.These may be exaggerated but I thinkthis reported waste and the conditionsshould be investigated. ... if theserumours are baseless they should becontradicted ... .” Reek sent thisinformation on to Garner, theAgricultural Representativeresponsible for some of these camps.His reply was that he had eaten atthe camp twice, and that the mealswere good but not extravagant andhe had seen no “wasteful practices.”Another supervisor McPherson, “hasbeen there on several occasionsduring meal time and at other timesunannounced and he has seen noindications of wasting of food.” Hecommented, “on a recent meataccount that they purchased turkeyat 38 cents a pound and there mayhave been some comment regardingthis purchase. However, if wecompare this with the retail price ofany reasonably good cut of beef, itcan hardly be termed undueextravagance.” He closed with, “Ifthe party or parties who haveregistered this complaint will supplyspecific information it would facilitatematters here a great deal.” I neverheard a thing about this complaint, soI guess the issue died a natural death.

By sometime in October, the

only crops left to harvest were thecorn and sugar beets. I did take partin harvesting corn for ensilage, butnot too often, thank goodness, as itwas a hard job for me. By lateOctober, the weather had turned, andwe were working in quite coldtemperatures, with the odd snowflurries. Harvesting the beets was notas backbreaking as “thinning.” Butsome of the beets were so huge theyhad to be “topped” by resting themon one’s raised leg, holding themsteady with one hand while choppingthem with the beet knife. I wasalways extremely careful, because asyou can guess, I wasn’t about to pokethe pick in my leg, or to slice it! Onone of the fields we were harvesting,the train tracks were very close butraised up so the other side couldn’tbe seen. I was curious to see whatwas on the other side, so I climbedup the embankment and saw a fieldof popping corn. The corn was ripefor picking, so some of us went intothe field and picked some ears. Wepopped the corn on New Year’s Daywhen we were in the bush camp. Thecorn popped quite well and tastedgood; because it was the first timeany of us had ever picked corn andpopped it. Ours was the last of thesugar beet camps to close. The beetharvest was completed in theGlencoe area on November 11th, anda group of us left for Kapuskasingon the 12th. There were snow-flurries the day we left. ❁

21Continued on page 22

Iwate Prefecture:Chiba, Masa (43)Sugawara, Unkichi (27)

Kanagawa Prefecture:Inouye, Hisao (32)Komazawa, Hirokichi (40)Ono, Kobe (45)Shibuya, Saijiro (33)Tsuyuki, Jizaburo (41)

Miyagi Prefecture:Abe, Sanji (22)Abe, Suekichi (26)Asano, Yoemon (29)Chiba, Eikichi (26)Chiba, Gensaki (48)Chiba, Matsutaro (32)Chiba, Torakichi (41)Endo, Iwao (37)Fujiwara, Tarobe (21)Fujiwara, Yoshiharu (30)Fujiwara, Yuhei (38)Goto, Bunji (24)Goto, Chuzo (26)Goto, Kimpei (18)Goto, Kosaburo (43)Hatakakeyama, Takanori (21)Hatakeyama, Riemon (28)

Hatakeyama, Sosuke (42)Horiuchi, Heizo (33)Igarashi, Takeru (24)Inage, Shinshiro (35)Ito, Harusaburo (40)Iwabuchi, Chosaburo (32)Iwabuchi, Shitagoro (22)Kumagai, Chusasuke (29)Kumagai, Ichisaburo (22)Kumagai, Kunibei (41)Kumagai, Taiji (24)Kumagai, Toyomatsu (46)Kumagai, Yojuro (43)Miura, Dainosuke (23)Numakura, Magobe (36)Oikawa, Chiyomi (22)Oikawa, Goroji (33)Oikawa, Harujiro (27)Oikawa, Ichiji (29)Oikawa, Jinsaburo (53)Oikawa, Oon (16)Oikawa, Ryoji (30)Oikawa, Seiichiro (22)Oikawa, Seitaro (38)Oikawa, Terajiro (29)Oikawa, Toyo (25)Oikawa, Usaburo (28)Oikawa, Yojiro (42)Oikawa, Yonishin (25)

Passenger List, SUIAN MARU, Voyage of 1906Source: Kiyoki Shudo, Canada Mikko Monogatari – reprinted in Roy Ito, Stories of My People

Oikawa, Yoshizo (29)Onodera, Gizo (27)Sasaki, Sakae (19)Sato, Juzaburo (26)Sato, Kibinosuke (48)Sato, Kichiemon (24)Sato, Kikuji (21)Sato, Kuraji (21)Sato, Kuroji (31)Sato, Seiichiro (29)Sato, Shigejiro (33)Sato, Shinkichi (21)Sato, Sozasaburo (36)Sato, Tatsusaburo (26)Sato, Tokujuro (36)Sato, Yaezo (39)Sato, Zensuke (25)Shima, Kenzo (48)Sudo, Eiji (36)Sugahara, Jinzaburo (22)Sugahara, Takeyoshi (19)Sugawara, Kumakichi (24)Suzuki, Gennosuke (28)Suzuki, Hisayo (22)Suzuki, Jogo (25)Suzuki, Seinosuke (29)Tadano, Tatsusaburo (31)Taira, Ichinojo (41)Takizawa, Yoshio (18)

In celebration of their 20 year-old sister city relationship, a largedelegation from the Hokkaido city ofKushiro is visiting Burnaby at the endof June, 2005. The delegation willbe visiting the National NikkeiMuseum and Heritage Centre duringtheir stay and members of theNNMHC and local Nikkeicommunity will be actively involvedin welcoming the representatives ofthe northern Japanese city.Translators can help immensely ininternational exchanges.

Kushiro Sister City Delegation to Burnaby by Stan FukawaKushiro is a city of 200,000,

slightly larger than Burnaby, situatedon the east coast of Hokkaido. It issimilar to many B.C. cities in that themajor industries include fisheries,paper mills and mining. It is alsofamous for the conservation workthat has brought back the red-crowned crane that was at the edgeof extinction.

Visitors to Burnaby MountainPark cannot miss the totem pole-likesculptures which were a gift toBurnaby from their sister-city in

Japan. They were done by sculptorsNoburi and Shusei Toko, a father-sonteam and represent many creatures,both mythical and real, frolicking inthe Playground of the Gods.

Burnaby has been spearheadingan “eco-sculpturing” style oflandscape decorating and has hosteda Kushiro Parks Representative to athree-day workshop in preparation forthe gifting of a special eco-sculpturedcrane to Kushiro to celebrate thetwenty-year relationship. ❁

of the known descendents of those who were on the voyage and who lived in the colony and these will be expanded.Support has been expressed by local leaders and these should increase as we approach the date of the celebrations.

Worth A Thousand Words by Reiko TagamiThis month, I present to you a

beautiful image from the JapaneseCanadian National MuseumPhotographic Collection. An

inscription on the back of thephotograph indicates that the photowas taken on January 18, 1910 tocelebrate the birth of Sumiko Inata,

born 28 days earlier. Sumiko is thebaby in the centre of the photograph,in the arms of her proud father, Eiju

22

Celebration of daughter’s birth, Vancouver, B.C., January 18, 1910. ArikadoStudio. (JCNM collection)

Inata. One of the men seated to theleft is Dr. Tokutaro Kinoshita, andone of the men seated on the right isstore-owner Washiji Oya. The othermen in the photograph are sawmillworkers, who likely would have beenemployed at the nearby HastingsSawmill. A separate inscription statesthat this particular copy of thephotograph was presented to a Mr.Fukuda.

Fading into an aged sepia tone,the photograph is riddled with spotsthat could be water damage or thetraces of other spills. It is adhereddirectly to a cardboard “frame” whichprovides physical support to thephotograph and has helped to keepthe photograph intact through itsalmost 100 years of existence. Theacidity of the cardboard, however,has probably accelerated theyellowing and fading of the image.Our records show that thephotograph was found in a buildingat 657 Powell Street in December1988. The photograph was given toMr. Tsuneharu Gonnami, who wasthen the Japanese Librarian at theUniversity of British Columbia. Mr.Gonnami sent the photograph to theJapanese Canadian HistoryPreservation Committee, now theJapanese Canadian NationalMuseum.

At the time the photograph wasre-discovered, Sumiko Inata, if shewere still alive, would have beenalmost 80 years old. We do not knowthe history of the Inata family, if anyfamily members are still living, or ifthey even live in Canada. But thislack of knowledge does nothing todetract from the many stories waitingto be told in the faces anddemeanours of the men, woman, andchildren facing the camera.

Above the door of the building,for instance, is a small sign that reads“E. Inata, Japanese Goods”. Weknow that Washiji Oya, also in thephotograph, owned one of the

buildings on the north side of PowellStreet in the middle of the 400 block.The building in the photograph is verysimilar to Oya’s building, which is stillstanding. This similarity leads us tobelieve that the photograph wastaken in front of Oya’s building, withthe ground-floor rented to Mr. Inatafor his “Japanese Goods”. If this isthe case, how was the businessrelationship established between Mr.Inata and Mr. Oya, and what werethe “Japanese Goods” marketed byMr. Inata?

Hanging from the sign is alantern, on which is printed both theJapanese Hinomaru and the BritishUnion Jack. This is a symbol of thefriendly relations between Japan andBritain at the time, but also showsthe efforts of the Japanese Canadiancommunity to bridge the gap betweenthe two cultures.

The photograph is dominated bymen, and includes only one womanand two children. The woman,standing behind and to the left of Mr.Inata, is unidentified, as is the childstanding at the bottom right of thepicture. Is the woman Yo Oya, thefirst known Japanese Canadianwoman immigrant and the wife ofWashiji Oya, or is she perhaps

Sumiko Inata’s mother? If she is notSumiko’s mother, then where is themother of the baby, and why is sheabsent from the photograph? Themother’s absence may speak to thelength of recovery from labour andchildbirth at that time. Overall, theabsence of women and childrenserves as a reminder of the natureof Japanese immigration to Canadain the late 19th and early 20th

centuries. Immigrants were mostlysingle men, and families were a rarityin both the rough-and-tumble worldof working-class Vancouver, andindustrial and heavy-labour jobs suchas railway work, fishing, logging, andmining that employed so manydekasegi labourers.

Looking at this photograph, I amcertain of three things. First, theremust have been similar photographstaken in Japanese Canadiancommunities all over B.C., withgrowing frequency as once-transientlabourers married and put down rootsin the province. I can only imaginethe pride and relief felt bycommunities as they celebratedwomen and their children survivingchildbirth. Second, someone readingthis will have a better knowledge ofthe facts or the stark reality of

23

Request for InformationI am currently doing some research on Japanese workers and their families that resided at Britannia Beach

and Britannia Mines from the early 1900’s to the early 1940’s. Very little has been documented about their livesand work during this period and none has been from their perspective. Many have passed away and much of thisimportant and rich history has been lost.

In the hope that parents and grandparents shared their stories with their children and grandchildren, Iwould be very grateful if they could contact me. It is my intention to document the important history of theJapanese community in Britannia Beach for future generations, by including their names and historical informationin a memorial register at the BC Museum of Mining and National Historic Site at Britannia Beach. Family namesinclude: Asano, Kakutani, Shinohara, Takahashi and Utsunomiya.Marilyn Robb, E-mail: copper47top@yahoo.ca, Phone: 604-939-8076, Mail: #205-515 Foster Avenue,Coquitlam, BC, V3J 2L5

everyday life in a Japanese Canadiancommunity in 1910. If so, please tellme – this is how staff and the widercommunity expand our knowledge ofJapanese Canadian history andexperience. Third, this photographraises more questions than it provides

answers. Who are all of the othermen, the woman, and the toddler;what are their stories; and whathappened to them? Such is thebeauty and ever-present conundrumof working with the rich, varied and

growing artifact and archivalcollections at the Japanese CanadianNational Museum. The more you see,and the more questions you answer,the more you realize is still to bediscovered. ❁

Coming very soon to the JCNMgallery is the much anticipatedexhibition “Leveling the Playing Field:The Vancouver Asahi BaseballTeam,” curated by Grace EikoThomson. The museum gratefullyacknowledges the many supporterswho have generously donatedmaterial and funds to help realize thisproject. Members of the communitywho attended the April 9 Asahiexhibition meeting or the April 28banquet and April 29 celebrationhonouring the Asahi induction in theB.C. Sports Hall of Fame will haveseen the impressive exhibition modelthat has been on display. Theoutpouring of support and pride forthe Asahi team members at theseevents was very moving, and theirlegacy will be made known throughthis major touring exhibition that willtravel across Canada.

In the museum gallery, theexhibition “Reshaping Memory,Owning History: Through the Lensof Japanese Canadian Redress” iscontinuing to draw strong audienceinterest. The exhibition is featured inthe popular “Taiken” school visits

Japanese Canadian National Museum Report by Tim Savageprogram that has seen a largenumber of groups this past spring.After gaining a high profile withthousands of visitors at the RoyalB.C. Museum in Victoria, theexhibition “Shashin: JapaneseCanadian Studio Photography to1942” moved to the University ofVictoria Maltwood Art Gallery, whichwill host a reception, symposium andguided tour by the show’s curator,Grace EikoThomson, on theafternoon of May 18. “Shashin” willtour to six venues in B.C. in thecoming years, next at the LangleyCentennial Museum June 30 toSeptember 25.

Donations to the archives andartifact collection continue to streamin, with much new material relatedespecially to the Asahi baseball teamand other sport history. Reiko Tagami,our archivist, has undertaken asuccessful conservation pilot projectwith a large panorama photographprint that will be the model forconserving further panoramas in thecollection. An archival arrangementand description project wasundertaken by Randy Preston,

working with the photographs ofMarie Katsuno and MasanobuKawahira. Another UBC graduatestudent in archival studies ispreparing a facility analysis lookingat storage, lighting and other needsas part of our collaborative researchcentre professional experienceprogram.

This spring a number of publicprograms were hosted at the NationalNikkei Heritage Centre by theMuseum, including the first Jan KenPon Japanese Heritage Games andToys Day on March 19, the monthlyMuseum Lecture Series events, and“The Gull: the Steveston Noh TheatreProject” on May 7 after its two weekworkshop at the Centre. TheMuseum and Centre are preparing toreceive international delegates onJuly 8 for the COPANI XIIIconference hosted this year inVancouver. For more conferenceinformation visit the NationalAssociation of Japanese Canadianswebsite www.najc.ca.

Look for the new, updatedversion of the Museum website soonto launch at www.jcnm.ca .

24

Mr. & Mrs. Robert & Kazue K. AbeMr. & Mrs. Yoshimaru & Yoshi AbeMrs. Shizuka AkuneMr. & Mrs. Tats AokiMr. & Mrs. Tsuguo & Grace AraiMr. & Mrs. Mitsuyoshi & Keiko ArakiMr. & Mrs. Yoshiharu & Fumiko AuraMr. Frank A. BabaMr. Robert Banno & Ms. Cathy MakiharaMary Burke & Rod HaywardMr. & Mrs. Katsuji & Kuniko ChibaMrs. Sumika ChildMr. & Mrs. Michael & Ruth ColesMr. Christian Cowley & Elaine YamamotoMr. & Mrs. Shoichi & Ayako DeguchiMs. Anne DoreMr. Shigeyoshi EbataMr. Randy Enomoto & Ms. Lynn WestwoodMr. Dennis Y. EnomotoDr. & Mrs. Bruce & Vivian EttingerMr. & Mrs. Malcolm & Keiko Fitz-EarleMrs. Esther S. FreemanMr. & Mrs. Robert & Doreen FriesenMrs. Kyomi FujisawaMrs. Fumiko FujiwaraMr. & Mrs. Stanley & Masako FukawaMr. & Mrs. Frank & Vickie FukuiMr. Makoto FukuiMs. Tomoko GotoMs. Kiyoko HamadaMr. & Mrs. Roy & Kikuyo HamadeMr. & Mrs. Arthur S. Hara, O.C.Mr. Thomas H. HaraMr. & Mrs. Kazuji & Chieko HaraguchiMrs. M. Grace HarlingDr. & Mrs. James & Helen HasegawaMr. & Mrs. William T. HashizumeMr. & Mrs. Masao & Nobue HatanakaMr. Rodney Y. HatanakaMr. & Mrs. Mickey & Betty HayashiMr. & Mrs. Mitsuo & Emmie HayashiMrs. Amy HayashidaMr. & Mrs. Showney & Jean HigashiMrs. Fukiko HinatsuMr. & Mrs. Miki & Miyako HiraiMr. & Mrs. Shigeru & Akemi HiraiMr. & Mrs. Isamu & Masako HoriMr. & Mrs. Mikio & Midori HoriMr. & Mrs. Naotaka & Noriko IdeMs. Sanaye IkariMr. & Mrs. Gordon & Joan S. ImaiReverend Katsumi ImayoshiMr. & Mrs. Masayasu & Masako InoueMrs. Chiyoko InouyeMrs. Kimiyo InouyeMr. & Mrs. Roy & Betty InouyeMrs. May H. IshikawaMr. & Mrs. Noboru IshikawaMr. & Mrs. Klark ItoMs. Sumi IwamotoMr. Tak IwataMr. & Mrs. Richard & June KadonagaMr. & Mrs. Charles & Lillian Y. KadotaMr. Tatsuo KageLily Y. Kamachi

The list of new and renewing members of the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre from February 1, 2005 to April30, 2005.

Mrs. Sumiko KamachiMr. & Mrs. Shizuo & Kimie KamezawaMr. A. J. KapustaMs. Tomoko KatoMr. & Mrs. George & June KawaguchiMr. Masanobu KawahiraMiss Amy E. KawamotoDr. Tsuyoshi Kawasaki & Ms. Marja KatesMr. & Mrs. Kazuo & Mitsuko KawashimaMs. Suzue KimotoMr. & Mrs. John & Jean KitagawaMr. Gordon KobayashiMr. Kunihiko Araki & Ms. Hatsue KobukeMr. & Mrs. Masaoki & Reiko KodamaDr. May KomiyamaMrs. Kay KomoriMs. Amy Emiko KoyanagiMr. & Mrs. Min & Midori KoyanagiMr. & Mrs. Teruo & Kazuko KoyanagiMrs. Yoshiko KoyanagiMrs. Kazue KozakaMr. & Mrs. Seiya & Moko KuwabaraMr. & Mrs. Bernie & Ruby LofstrandKazuko Kameda MadarMr. & Mrs. Mamoru & Peggy MadokoroMs. Sharon Masui & Mr. Gwilym SmithMs. Josie MatsubaMr. & Mrs. Yoshiaki & Miyoko MatsumotoMs. Janice MatsumuraMrs. Shizuko MatsumuraMr. & Mrs. Hisao & Mariko MatsuokaMr. & Mrs. Mitsuyoshi & Lily MatsushitaMrs. Kay McBrideMr. & Mrs. Arthur & Keiko MikiMr. & Mrs. David & Kiyomi MinamataMr. & Mrs. Kaoru & Aki MinatoMrs. Frances Miyoko MiyashitaMr. & Mrs. Tak & Shizuko MiyazakiMr. & Mrs. Don & Rose MohorukMr. & Mrs. Kazuhiko & Toshiko MoriMr. & Mrs. Elmer & Sofia MorishitaMr. & Mrs. Steve & Shirley MorishitaMr. & Mrs. Masuo & Shigeko NagasakaMr. & Mrs. Toshio & Kazuko NagumoNAJC Kamloops ChapterMrs. Frances K. NakagawaMrs. Shoko NakagawaMr. Edward NakamuraMr. & Mrs. Ted & Yukiko NakashimaMs. Seiko NakazawaMr. & Mrs. Peter & Aster NimiMrs. Shigeko NishimuraDr. & Mrs. Nori NishioMs. Janet NittaMs. Alisa NodaMr. George R. ObaraMs. Michiko M. ObaraMr. & Mrs. Masao & Kazuko OdakaMrs. Joyce OikawaMrs. Sadako OikawaMr. & Mrs. Larry M. OkadaMs. Ruby OkanoMr. Hiroshi OkazakiMr. & Mrs. Ray & Michiko Ota

Mrs. Toshiko QuanMrs. Aileen RandallMr. & Mrs. Yoshiyuki & Masako SakaueMrs. Akemi SakiyamaMiss Joyce SakonMr. & Mrs. Arnold & Satomi SaperMr. Fred SasakiMrs. Virginia SatoMs. Yuko ShibataMrs. Eva T. ShihoMrs. Michiyo ShimamichiMrs. Utaye ShimasakiMr. & Mrs. George & Emiko ShimizuMr. & Mrs. Ralph & Chiyomi ShimizuMr. & Mrs. Ted & Shiz ShimizuMr. & Mrs. Yoshio & Norma ShimizuMr. & Mrs. Wataru & Barbara ShishidoMr. & Mrs. Darin & Susan M. SirovyakMr. Mike Sokugawa & Ms. Fumi HoriiMr. & Mrs. Roy SokugawaMr. & Mrs. Kanji & Yuriko K. SugaDr. & Mrs. George & Kuni SugiyamaMr. & Mrs. James & Mary SugiyamaSuki’s Beauty Bazaar Ltd.Mr. & Mrs. David & Kei TakahashiMr. & Mrs. Ken & Peggy TakahashiMr. Koji TakahashiMrs. Atsuko TakashimaMrs. Aiko TakedaMr. Tatsuya TakedaMr. & Mrs. Akira & Isabel TanakaMr. Kazuo B. TanakaMr. & Mrs. Masaru & Etsuko TanakaMr. & Mrs. Minoru & Miyoshi TanakaMr. & Mrs. Mitsuru & Yuki TanakaMr. & Mrs. Ryoji & Fusako TanizawaMr. Chuck H. TasakaMr. & Mrs. Shigeharu & Florence TeranishiMr. & Mrs. Willy & Evelyn ToblerMr. & Mrs. George & Hiroko TsuchiyaMr. & Mrs. Tomoaki & Yoshiko TsuchiyaMr. & Mrs. Takuo & Motoko UegakiMs. Marjorie N. UmezukiMr. & Mrs. Mutsumi & Michiyo UyedeMs. Kuniko UyenoVancouver Japanese Gardeners AssociationMrs. Akiko WakabayashiMr. & Mrs. Henry & Yvonne WakabayashiMrs. Michiko WatanabeMiss Sheena WilsonMr. & Mrs. Richard & Fumiko WoloshynMr. & Mrs. Fred & Linda YadaMr. Shiro YamaguchiMr. Harold YamamotoMrs. Hisako YamamotoMs. June YamamotoMr. & Mrs. Sam & June YamamotoMr. Tats YamamotoMr. Robert K. YamaokaMr. Shoji Peter YamauchiMr. Tom Y. YamauraMr. Akira YoshidaMrs. Marcia Masako YoshidaMr. & Mrs. Kenji & Joan Yurugi