Return: a commemorative yearbook

a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 1942 RETURN

In 1942, 76 UBC students of Japanese ancestry were told that they would not be allowed to finish their studies. They would be forced to move 100 miles inland, a “precaution” during a frantic military mobilization. These students, most of whom had spent their entire lives in Canada, were now “enemy

aliens.”

70 years later, the feelings these students hold for the university that ignored them are as complex and varied as the individuals themselves.

In her memories for this book, Mary Nagata asks whether she felt any anger during the events following December 7.

Beyond being told that she would not be able to finish her degree, Nagata experienced other traumas. Her father was taken away by the RCMP the night of the attack on Pearl Harbor. No explanation was given, and the family wouldn’t see him again until 1943. They were herded into an animal pen in Hastings Park, and forced to move to Edmonton.

But her answer is more complex than one might expect.

“There must have been some anger somewhere in me,” she writes. “But it wasn’t obvious.” We chose Return for the title of this book because we think it captures that complexity.

For one, the relationship these students have had with this university is complicated. While today’s ceremony marks the first time many of these students have returned to BC, it is not necessarily a homecoming. Some students felt so betrayed by the university and the province that they had no desire to return. UBC was not home to these students.

And the road to redressing this wrong was anything but simple. Had it not been for the efforts of Mary Kitagawa, it may have been too late for UBC to recognize this part of its history. Her story shows how difficult it was to tease justice out of the UBC machine.

But Return also leaves room for the happiness felt by everyone gathered here today. For Mits Sumiya, whose likeness is featured on the cover, it’s a day 70 years in the making.

“There was always the feeling that [UBC] was my home,” he said. “But it never really felt as welcoming as it does now.”

—May 30, 2012

• • •

This book was produced by The Ubyssey, UBC’s student newspaper. It is dedicated to the Japanese-Canadian students of 1942, and to the memory of those who could not be here.

ISBN 978-0-88-865011-5

Library and Archives Canada cataloguing in process.

AcknowledgementsTHE UBYSSEY would like to thank Mary and Tosh Kitagawa for compiling the biographies found within these pages, and The University Tributes Committee.

Edited by:Jonny Wakefield, Jeff Aschkinasi, Andrew Bates, Laura Rodgers , Will McDonald, Natalya Kautz, CJ Pentland, Karina Palmitesta, Collyn Chan , Indiana Joel, Colin Chia, Justin McElroy

© 2012 THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE UBYSSEY PUBLICATIONS SOCIETY

a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 1942

UTHE UBYSSEY

RETURN

4 RETURN a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 1942

On the morning of December 7, 1941, first-year UBC student Mits

Sumiya was sleeping peacefully.“I had worked Saturday

night quite late, after midnight,” he said. “My friend phoned me saying, hey, Japan just bombed Pearl Harbor, and that’s the first I heard of it.

“It didn’t shock me that much, but I felt a little uneasy because I wasn’t sure what was going to take place next.”

The Japanese attack and American entry into the Pacific theatre of World War Two rapidly changed the tone at UBC, into what Ubyssey associate editor Lionel Salt called “the khaki session.” The 1942 Totem Yearbook described a campus that was increasingly militarized.

By the end of the year, 76 Japanese-Canadian students, including Sumiya, were removed from the BC coast and prevented from continuing their studies.

The Canadian Officers’ Training Corps (COTC) had conducted training on campus since 1939, during the “phony war” portion of World War One. The next year, the federal government under Mackenzie

King had passed the National Resources Mobilization Act, which made military training mandatory for all male university students.

But it was Pearl Harbor that brought the possibility of war home to Vancouver. In the aftermath of the attack, the city went into blackout, cutting power and covering lit windows with drapes to hide the locations of buildings.

“That really brought home the feeling that we were in a war,” Sumiya said. “Until then, the war in Europe was just a war in Europe. It didn’t really involve us that much.”

Japan had joined the Axis in September 1940. Tension between the nations lead to a recommendation against military training for persons of Japanese descent, but UBC decided not to end compulsory COTC training unless ordered to.

“Probably the only place in Canada where the Japanese-Canadians were getting military training was in the university campuses, because the university decided they’re not going to discriminate, which was great, you know?” Sumiya said. “I swore allegiance to the Crown. I was prepared to put in my By Andrew Bates

UBC’s “khaki session” Mits Sumiya and others recall the uncertainty of a wartime UBC

RETURN a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 1942 5

efforts for the army and go to war for Canada.”

On January 2, the UBC Military Education Committee moved to discontinue training of Japanese students. The students were required to turn in their uniforms and leave the program, their military serial numbers struck off the roster.

“That [serial number] was supposed to stay with me for the rest of my life,” Sumiya said. “Technically, that made us not...full university students.”

Three Japanese-born students were required to leave the university right away, with the remainder of the Japanese-Canadian students allowed to continue studying, although UBC imposed a curfew on them. “[It] was so confusing and stressful that it was impossible to even try to study,” Douglas Arai, who was studying physics and chemistry, wrote in his autobiography. “We merely attended lectures in the daytime like automatons, then hurried back home to beat the sun.”

According to Sumiya, a friend offered him a badge given to Chinese-Canadians to get them past curfew. “I said, no, no, I’m going to break curfew. Which I did. And they never bothered

me! I used to get up before the sun was up, take a streetcar down to UBC.”

Though the deadline for leaving the “protected area” on the Pacific coast was April 1, students with exams could stay until they finished their programs. “When eventually we were told senior students may stay to write the final exams, we crammed the whole year’s work into those precious two weeks,” Arai wrote. “We felt we couldn’t let it all go down the drain, come hell or high water. It’s miraculous that all the affected seniors graduated.”

Arai’s mother and father attended his graduation. “This ceremony raised a big irony when the band struck up and sang ‘Land of Hope and Glory,’” he wrote. “Was there hope for us...graduating and stepping out into exile at once?”

Once deferment for exams was over, Japanese-Canadians were forced to leave for internment camps in “ghost towns” like Kaslo, BC. Others were sent to road-building camps. “I said no. My feeling on the road camp was it was a form of slave labour camp,” Sumiya said. “So of course that meant the RCMP just picked

me up from there and took me over to the immigration building, which was a military establishment. That was the end of my Vancouver days.”

Sumiya, along with curfew breakers and dissenting community leaders, was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Angler, Ontario, where he was held alongside Japanese nationals. “I would think that probably very few there understood the implication. I was quite aware of it,” Sumiya said. “We had shifted from a civilian control to a martial law, military control, and we had lost our civil rights.

“We Canadian-born had no Geneva convention protecting us.”

Arai was separated from his family for refusing to work for the BC Security Commission as a teacher, and was sent to Northern Ontario to a labour project. When his mother passed away due to asthma, his movement permit arrived too late for him to attend her funeral. Eventually, he received an offer from a fellow campmate to go to a private farm in the King township.

At the conclusion of the war, selective service was kept in

effect until 1949. Sumiya was released from the PoW camp in 1946 and got as close as he could to Toronto: a mushroom farm in a port town 15 miles away.

“We were pretty well on our own. When I left the PoW camp, they gave me a ticket...and $12 spending money for food on the way. That’s it,” he said. “That’s a nice start. You can’t go down, you can only go up.”

The right to vote was extended to Japanese-Canadians in 1949 and the Bird Commission awarded $1.2 million ($11.9 million in 2012 dollars) in 1950 as restitution for selling property seized before the evictions. In 1984, a campaign began to reopen the restitution process.

Redress and compensation wasn’t achieved until September 1988, when the Canadian government published an acknowledgement of unjust treatment and offered redress payments of $21,000 per person interned, $27 million for community activities and a Race Relations Foundation. The provincial government apologized in the legislature in spring 2012. U


For Mary Kitagawa, it’s been a long three years.

Though ultimately successful, the road

has been rough through Kitagawa’s quest to have UBC grant honorary degrees to

Japanese-Canadian students forced out of the university in 1942.

Chance brought the prospect of such a tribute to Kitagawa’s attention. In 2008, she saw that the University of Washington was awarding honorary degrees to Japanese-American students

who were interned during the Second World War.

With more research, Kitagawa discovered that several schools along the American Pacific Coast were granting similar honorary degrees. She saw plenty of parallels between the American and Canadian situations, and started to consider the possibility of UBC granting degrees to the 76 interned Japanese-Canadian students.

“I thought, well, since the Americans are receiving it—why not for UBC?”

A fourth-generation Japanese-Canadian, Kitagawa has long been active in the Japanese-Canadian community, including serving on the Human Rights Committee of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association.

“My interest has always been to find justice for whatever wrongs have been done.”

The more Kitagawa looked into the issue, the more she realized how hard it would be to make the university recognize this dark part of its history.

• • •Tetsuden Kashima is a professor of American ethnic studies at the University of Washington

(UW). Through his department, Kashima was directly involved in organizing the honorary degrees granted at his institution.

Kashima felt many at the university were unaware of Japanese-American history.

“[University officials] didn’t know how many people were involved, they didn’t know that our students had been affected in this way. That’s why, up until 2008, no one ever talked about this.”

Kashima said once a tribute to the interned students was proposed, support at UW was immediate.

“When people realized what had gone on, that’s when the registrar and the provost and the president,and the dean and the board of regents said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

The reaction at UBC, however, was not as encouraging.

In May of 2008, Kitagawa contacted UBC President Stephen Toope about following the example of American universities. Toope passed along her inquiry to UBC’s Senate Tributes Committee.

The committee decided that the Japanese-Canadian students’ situation fulfilled the usual criteria for granting honorary degrees, which are traditionally bestowed for

Without Mary and Tosh Kitagawa, the University of British Columbia may have never recognized this dark part of its history. By Natalya Kautz

“I felt that an injustice was done, and I wanted to find justice for them.”


“distinguished achievement or outstanding service.”

It was then that Kitagawa realized how difficult it would be to navigate UBC’s bureaucracy.

“At that time I thought to myself, ‘I don’t think [the university] understands what I was asking for,’ because this was not about that type of honorary degree,” said Kitagawa. “It was a special [degree], for a special group of people.”

She felt the university was misinformed about the situation. “I received a letter saying that UBC had Japanese-Canadian people on faculty and staff [in 1942],” said Kitagawa. She pointed out that this was impossible. as at that time, Japanese-Canadians had been forbidden from holding professional jobs for many decades.

Like Kashima, Kitagawa felt ignorance of the events in 1942 hindered the process of granting the honorary degrees.

“If I didn’t bring this issue to UBC, it would have been a forgotten issue. I don’t think anything would have been done.”

Kitagawa tried to better inform administrators. But the next year was marked with little to no communication from the

university, during which time Kitagawa was told keep the issue confidential. Finally, Kitagawa used a more aggressive tactic: a petition.

“The petition went all the way across Canada, and I got hundreds and hundreds of signatures from people who agreed with us.”

Despite the public support, the Senate Tributes Committee remained silent.

“Since nothing was happening, I decided to go to the media,” said Kitagawa.

Kitagawa contacted Patricia Graham, editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Sun at the time. In August of 2011, a half-page article was published.

“As soon as that article hit the paper, I got requests for interviews from many different papers, media and from the radio. It was amazing how this began to move forward.

“[UBC] needed a lot of prodding, and without the prodding I don’t think it would have happened.”

The Senate Tributes Committee set up a task force to examine the logistics of Kitagawa’s request. Ultimately, it decided to create a new type of honorary degree to fit the

extraordinary situation, similar to those awarded to Japanese-American students at the University of California in 2010.

In late 2011, three years after she first contacted Toope, Kitagawa was finally informed that UBC’s Senate was to vote on granting the degrees. The result was unanimous approval.

“After the meeting on November 16, I got an email from the president’s office saying that my request had been granted,” said Kitagawa. “That was a really joyful time for me.”

• • •Despite the success, Kitagawa’s work was not yet finished.

Starting in January 2012, Kitagawa and her husband Tosh took on the task of locating and notifying the 76 students and their families.

“[Tosh] was on the phone and email for six or seven hours a day, starting from six or seven in the morning because most of the students live in the east.”

With the help of the Japanese-Canadian community, the months-long process was also a success.

“When I notified the students and relatives that we could find, they were just so happy. They said to me, ‘I did not think that

this would happen in our lifetime.’ In other words, they were waiting for UBC to perhaps do this on their own without being pushed to do so.”

Despite UBC’s initial reluctance, both Kashima and Kitagawa believe the honorary degrees reflect the ethics of the universities on the Pacific coast.

“I think that [the University of Washington] realized that it was our moral imperative, as an institution of educational endeavours, to correct something that had been unjustly committed back in 1942,” said Kashima.

Kitagawa agreed. “A university is a place of higher learning, where you expect decisions such as these to take on higher moral standards.”

Ultimately, Kitagawa felt the degrees allowed for a deeper understanding and respect for Japanese-Canadian history.

“We have to move forward, don’t we? We can’t keep looking back all the time. But you can learn from what you went through.

“It was never about myself. My focus was always on the students. I felt that an injustice was done, and I wanted to find justice for them.” U


Ted AokiBORN 1919OCCUPATION Educator

TED T. AOKI was born in 1919 in Cum-berland, BC, a mining town on Vancouver Island. He graduated from Vancouver’s Brittania High School and Meiwa Garuan in 1938, moving right into UBC. He completed his Canadian Offi cers’ Training Corps exams, but received an honourable discharge instead of a commission.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce, and was two years into getting a Master’s degree when the War Measures Act was passed. His family moved to southern Alberta in April 1942 as sharecroppers in Monarch and Iron Springs, with Ted supporting the family income through grain harvesting and winter logging.

Starting in 1943, a severe shortage of teachers in Alberta lead to an acceleration of the Normal School training program. Ted got his qualifi cations to teach from the Calgary Normal School, but he required special permission from Calgary City Council to live within city boundaries. After a close vote, he was granted permission.

Despite plenty of openings in Calgary, schools weren’t prepared to commit to hiring

a Japanese-Canadian teacher. However, the principal of Ted’s Normal School connected him to a one-year position at Hutterite Calgary School in Rockyford, Alberta.

After fi ve years teaching in Loremost and Taber, Ted got a post in Lethbridge, Alberta as a “test case” to gauge how parents and students would react to a Japanese-Canadian teacher. Ted taught in Lethbridge for 13 years at Hamilton Junior High, and was also a vice-principal of the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute.

Through that time, he got his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Education from the University of Alberta, and joined their faculty in 1964. He helped start the school’s Centre for the Study of Curriculum and Instruction and was the director of secondary education from 1978 to 1983. He also earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oregon.

Aoki is a professor emeritus of the University of Alberta and holds honorary degrees from UBC, Western, Alberta and Lethbridge, and has also received a number of professional awards.


Douglas AraiBORN 1922 DIED 2008

OCCUPATION Chemist

DOUGLAS KIMIMICHI ARAI, eldest son of eight chil-dren of Yukie and Sadakichi Arai, was born in Ocean Falls, BC in 1922, where he lived his fi rst ten years. When the Great Depression crippled the one-company town, his father’s job at the paper mill was reduced and they moved to Vancouver, then to Kennedy (now part of Surrey), to start a chicken and strawberry farm. Doug and his brothers and sisters worked with their father on the farm.

Being the oldest brother, Doug took on many family responsibilities from the time he was very young, looking out for his brothers and sisters. In orderly fashion, he made

sure things were taken care of down to the last minute detail. He was a perfectionist and they looked up to him. Doug began his schooling in Ocean Falls, went on to Strathcona Public in Vancouver, to Kennedy Public and Cloverdale High School. He was a brilliant student, skipping two grades. He entered UBC at the age of 16 and graduated in 1942 with double honours in physics and chemistry. This was a year he would never forget. During World War II, all people of Japanese descent were evacuated, shipped 100 miles or more inland and interned by the Canadian government. Doug was separated from the rest of his family and was sent to Empress Camp near

Jackfi sh. There he worked as a cook and bottle washer. He went to King City to work on the Umehara farm, then moved to Toronto where he pushed a broom at Fine Chemicals.

The rest of his family was interned in Kaslo, BC. It was a diffi cult time for the whole family, but especially for his mother and for Doug. Living conditions took a toll on her and she succumbed after a very short illness. Doug always regretted that he was unable to be at her side during her illness and unable to attend her funeral in 1943 as he waited for a permit to travel.

After years at Fine Chemicals, Doug became a respected chemist, working there until the company

was bought out. He worked for Micro Chemicals and then worked for the Ontario government until his retirement in 1987.

In 1953, Doug married Tomiko Suzuki and they had three daughters. Doug enjoyed his many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, whom he saw at family picnics and Christmas get-togethers. Doug was active in the United Church, in the Toronto Japanese Language School, enjoyed fi shing with his brother, camping, and was a great fan of Toronto’s sports teams. He passed away at home in 2008.

DOUGLAS KIMIMICHI sure things were taken care of down


Roy HandaDIED 2002OCCUPATION Tradesman

ROY HANDA WAS born in Naas Harbour, BC and moved with his family to Vancouver before starting school. It is very diffi cult to speak on behalf of our uncle and brother. He never spoke of these days to us. Perhaps he never wanted us to think negatively about education in any way so never told us that he had been expelled by UBC. My mother (his sister) remembers him being very angry when asked to leave UBC as well as leave his home and his family.

Before the Japanese entered the fray of war in 1941, Roy was experiencing the typical life of a university student. When the war began and the War Measures Act was put into place, his life was to forever change.

At this time, Roy had completed his fourth year at UBC and was on the cusp of graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. In place of attending convocation that spring, Roy was forced to go to work in the road camps in Schreiber Ontario. A diploma would never be forthcoming.

During this time he had little contact with his two sisters and mother who had been sent to Greenwood internment camp. His family didn’t know where he

was going when he left and they had very limited communication throughout their separation.

From Schreiber, Roy then was sent to Chatham, Ontario to work on the sugar beet farms and fi nally ended up in Toronto. Toronto was not friendly or welcoming to anyone of Japanese descent. People did not want to hire nor rent space to them. Racist sentiments ran strong all the way from BC. Roy was fi nally able to get work with a paper company and found a small space to live for his family.

Knowing he would need a trade or skill to ensure work for the future, Roy took a college course to learn sign painting. Eventually he got a job with the K&S Sign Company (on Adelaide in Toronto) and rented a house on River Street.

Many years later, he would go to BC for the fi shing season and then return to Toronto. He married later in life and moved back to Vancouver permanently for the fi rst time since the war.

Roy and his wife lived for a time in Richmond, BC until they moved to 110 Mile House, BC. He lived there until he passed away in 2002. —As remembered by his family


Teruo Ted HaradaBORN February 17, 1921

OCCUPATION Construction

TED HARADA was a second-year commerce student in 1942. Born in Cumberland, BC on Febru-ary 17, 1921, Harada grew up at the Royston Lumber Company as the third-eldest of 11 children.

Harada felt fortunate that his parents sent him to UBC after graduating from Cumberland High School. He was smaller compared to his elder brother, so his parents didn’t think he’d be well-suited for labour intensive work. He still worked during the summer to raise his tuition for school. Harada lived with his sister the fi rst year and in a hotel the second year. Because there wasn’t much of a social life at the lumber company, he wasn’t entirely used to university life. COTC training was a new experience for Harada. “I felt that because I was born in Canada I was supposed to be a citizen,” he told the Nikkei Voice. “It felt kind of awkward.”

Harada was able to fi nish out his exams under curfew, and didn’t experience problems with his Caucasian friends. He was forced to go to the Hastings Park holding

facility, where his family was, and from there sent to Slocan. Though assigned to be a teacher when sent, he mainly cut wood when he was in the camp.

He applied to the University of Manitoba and was accepted, but couldn’t complete his studies with the money earned cutting wood in the camp. Eventually he married Michiko Kinoshita and moved to London, Ontario, where he lived with a friend from UBC. When he got to Toronto, he worked in a nickel plating plant for six months, until he developed an allergy. He tried to fi nd a better job in construction, eventually landing a job as a plasterer that he maintained into the 1970s.

Harada has two children, two grandchildren, and great grandchildren. He told the Nikkei Voice that the honorary degree doesn’t mean too much to him at his age, but the recognition has led him to pull out his 1942 yearbook and wonder where he would be now if he had been able to fi nish his degree.


Jim HasegawaBORN April 26, 1916OCCUPATION Entrepreneur

JIM HASEGAWA was born in New Westminster on April 26, 1916. He spent the early part of his childhood in Vancouver, where he started school at Mount Pleasant Elementary, but the rest of his life was spent in New Westminster.

He was attending the Waseda University in Japan when all foreign students were advised to leave. He enrolled at UBC and was in the Canadian Offi cers’ Training Corps, but when war was declared, he was asked by the senior offi cer to discreetly remove his shoes so that the news would not spread out to the campus.

He taught the children in Hastings Park and then went to Kaslo, BC and taught there. When an opportunity came to leave the confi nement, he went to Hamilton, Ontario as a house-boy. That job did not go well, as he had no

experience in anything domestic, so he left by mutual agreement and worked for Massey Harris. He then enrolled at the University of Toronto. He terminated his education there as he was unable to get into dentistry, as his priority was given to the military.

Since then he joined Yee On Trading in Toronto and brought in products from the United States and various places to supply the needs of the Japanese across Canada. He then came back to British Columbia to join his family in Lillooet, who had purchased a motel. He has been more or less self-employed in various businesses until his retirement. We were married in Vancouver on April 18, 1949 and have a wonderful family of four children and seven grandchildren.


Hideaki Robert HikidaBORN 1922 DIED 1985

OCCUPATION Tomato researcher

HIDEAKI ROBERT “BOB” was born in 1922 in Ocean Falls, BC, where his father worked at the pulp and paper mill. In 1927 the family moved to the farmland they had purchased in Strawberry Hill. Bob attended Strawberry Hill Elementary School and Cloverdale High School and was president of the Aero Club. In 1940 he regis-tered at UBC, where he aspired to

study aeronautical engineering. Bob was in his second year at UBC when the evacuation order was issued in 1942, and it forced him to relocate to a sugar beet farm in Homewood, Manitoba with his par-ents and three sisters. The family worked at the farm for the harvest, and then Bob moved to Winnipeg along with two of his sisters. He worked at McKenzie Seeds and

also enrolled at the University of Manitoba.

Bob graduated from the University of Manitoba with an MS in Agriculture in 1948. He married Shizue Susanne Oseki in Vancouver in 1955 and they had three children together. After earning a PhD in plant pathology from the University of Oregon, he joined the Campbell Soup

Company, where he conducted tomato research in Canada, the US, Peru, Brazil and Mexico. Bob was living in Davis, California when he died from a stroke in 1985 at the age of 63. He is remembered as a hardworking, dedicated father and husband who was passionate about photography, education and cultural exchange.


Toshio HiranoBORN 1920 DIED 1981 OCCUPATION Metal analyst, entrepreneur

TOSHIO HIRANO was born in 1920 and resided in the east end neighbourhood of Vancouver. He was attending UBC during the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. His father was a successful businessman in Vancouver, but like many others, had to give up his possessions and relocate to the interior of BC. His parents, sister and younger brother settled in Bridge River for the duration of the war. At his parents insistence to continue his education, he went to Winnipeg to attend the University of Mani-toba, where he graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Physics. He then settled in Toronto and began working for the Canada Metal Company as a metal analyst.

In 1956, he and a workmate moved to Hamilton and started a business manufacturing auto body solder and lead weights. He retired from the successful business 15 years later. Unfortunately, Toshio was unable to enjoy his retirement as he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in his early fi fties, and bravely fought the disease for almost a decade. He succumbed to the disease in 1981.

Toshio is survived by his wife Marie (Marnie) and his fi ve children, David, Lauren, Doug, Steven and Tami, and nine grandchildren, and all still reside in the Toronto area.


George Ritsusaburo IdeBORN July 2, 1923 DIED January 27, 2011

OCCUPATION Salesman

GEORGE RITSUSABURO IDE was born on July 2, 1923 in Vancouver. He attended Queen Alexandra Public School and King Edward High School before enter-ing UBC.

In 1942, he was registered in fi rst-year Arts and Science and the COTC.

Following Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor, George was sent to Taft, a road camp in BC, for a

short time. Later he was moved to London, Ontario, where he worked at Imperial Fuels and Johnson’s Jewelry.

He then moved to Toronto, where he became a salesman for Kingsway Lumber Company and worked there until his retirement at the age of 70.

George passed away on January 27, 2011 in Toronto.


Lucy Mieko IkataBORN 1923 DIED 2010OCCUPATION Stenographer, educator

LUCY MIEKO IKATA was born in Vancouver in 1923. Her parents were from Tokushima, Japan. Their house was near McGill Street in Vancouver. She skipped a grade while in public school. In 1941, she entered UBC as an Arts and Science student. When the Canadian government invoked the War Measures Act to move all people of Japanese descent beyond the 100-mile restricted zone, her family moved to Edmonton, Alberta, but she never talked about her life there with her family. They feel that life was diffi cult there for her. Later, she enrolled at the University of Alberta and graduated. She became a stenographer at a Live-stock Company. After the war, she moved to Tokyo, Japan with her mother. Her father moved there earlier. She married her husband soon after settling in Japan. In

Japan, Canadians had to have a job in order to live there. She became an employee of AIU Insurance Company and worked there until she had her fi rst child. After having three children, she began teaching English at many places including Logos conver-sation class, TOFUL academy, telephone conversation class and so on. She got a lot of joy teaching English.

When she was 83 years old, she fell and hit her head. She had a cerebral hemorrhage and was bedridden for fi ve years. She passed away in November of 2010.

She loved Canada and always was saying that she would like to return to Vancouver. Although she did visit several times, she remained in Japan until her death.


Yotaro IkebuchiOCCUPATION Machinist

IN 1942, Yotaro was in his sec-ond year at the University of British Columbia, studying agriculture. He was very disappointed when he was expelled from UBC and had to leave so much behind, as each person was allowed only two pieces of lug-gage. The Ikebuchi family did not go to an internment camp as they vol-untarily relocated to Picture Butte, Alberta, just north of Lethbridge. Yotaro’s family moved to a farm, where they gained employment in the sugar beet fi elds. He often said how fortunate he was during the war years that his family relocated to Alberta, instead of experiencing internment. In 1948 the Ikebuchi family moved to the nearby town of Taber, Alberta.

Yotaro was fi rst employed at the McIntyre Ranch in another nearby Alberta town called Magrath. He also later worked at Broder Canning Company and Empress Foods in Lethbridge,

as well as Diamond S. Produce in Taber. He was very dedicated to his work, fastidiously making sure that the machinery he maintained was kept in good working order.

On November 14, 1953 Yotaro married Helen Shimbashi in Taber. They made their home in Lethbridge where they had their son Wayne and daughter Brenda. In 1966, the family moved once again to Taber.

Yotaro enjoyed traveling and playing on a fi ve-pin bowling team during his time in Lethbridge. He was also member of the Alberta Chapter of Tottori-Ken Doshi-Kai.

Thanks to Tosh and Mary Kitagawa for their dedication in making this honorary degree from UBC possible to those students who were expelled when the Japanese Air Force attacked Pearl Harbor.

—as remembered by his wife, Helen Ikebuchi


John Susamu InouyeBORN August 1, 1922 DIED February 14, 1960OCCUPATION Mechanic

JOHN WAS BORN August 1, 1922 in Ladysmith, BC. He lived in Duncan, BC, where he graduated from high school. He applied to UBC and was accepted. When evacuation started, his family (mother, father, John, Jack and Hana) were sent to Slocan, BC. When Japanese-Canadi-ans were once again allowed to return to BC in 1949, John chose to return to Vancouver. He was employed in a garage as a mechanic, eventually owning his own garage.

The last time the family was

together was in December 15, 1959 at his mother’s funeral. Unfortunately, on February 14, 1960, John was in a car accident on the Hope Princeton Highway on his way back to Vancouver. He died shortly after in the Vancouver Hospital.

John loved sports; with his brother Don as the pitcher and John as the catcher, they played on a Japanese-Canadian team called the Giants. He was a high-spirited, fun-loving young man. His family feels that he would have been very successful at UBC.


Charles KadotaBORN May 15, 1922

OCCUPATION Entrepreneur

CHARLES HIROSHI KADOTA was born May 15, 1922 in Swanson Bay, BC, the fi fth child of Kantaro and Shigeno Kadota.

He attended elementary school in Englewood and Duke of Connaught High School in New Westminster, where he was one of the top three students in his class, class president and vice-president of the Student Council. After

graduating from high school in 1940, he enrolled at UBC.

At UBC, Charles was part of the Canadian Offi cers’ Training Corps. His studies were cut short by the war and he completed his second-year exams in the spring of 1942 before being sent to road camp near Schreiber, Ontario.

After a short period at the camp, Charles was sent to work with his father at a nearby mill.

He moved to Toronto in late 1942 and worked in a number of factory jobs until 1946. In 1946, Charles moved to Montréal to work at Clevermaid Factory.

Charles and Lillian were married in Montréal on August 9, 1947, and they had four daughters together.

In 1950, Charles moved from Montréal to Vancouver, where he opened fi ve ladies’ wear retail

stores called Modiste.In 1955, at the age of 33, he

took night school to get his CGA and graduated in 1961. He also left Modiste and started his own business, Hiro Distributors, in 1961.

Charles was very active in the Japanese-Canadian community, serving as president of the Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association.


Akiko KagetsuBORN November 22, 1922 DIED January 30, 2008OCCUPATION Stenographer

AKIKO KAGETSU was born in Vancouver on November 22, 1922. She was the fourth young-est in a family of 10 children. Akiko attended Kerrisdale Public School, Point Grey Junior High School and Magee High School.

She became a student at the UBC during the early 1940s, but unfortunately, after the war broke out, her family was evacuated from their home and they were forced to move to the interior of BC to an old mining town called Minto.

She and her family eventually moved to Toronto and she was able to obtain a job working on an assembly line at the Imperial Tobacco Company. Later, she worked at the United Welfare Council as a stenographer and fi nally ended up working at Wilkening Piston Company.

During her spare time, she participated in the Badminton Club and the United Church Fellowship Club, and it was here where she met her future husband, Henry Ide. They were happily married on August 27, 1949 and had three daughters, Donna, Carolyn and Valerie.

As well as being a great cook, some of her hobbies included bowling, knitting, crocheting, ballroom dancing, playing bridge and other card games, golfi ng and travelling the world. For many years, she enjoyed working as a volunteer at the Momiji Kai Seniors’ Club, the Royal Winter Fair and Meals On Wheels.

Sadly, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 2007 and passed away on January 30, 2008.


Hajime KagetsuOCCUPATION Salesman, entrepreneur

HAJIME WAS BORN and lived in Vancouver for most of his early life.

He attended Lord Byng High School, and was destined to help run his father’s timber business, so he attended UBC. In 1941 he earned a forest engineering degree, but was not allowed to attend convocation ceremonies due to the war.

Immediately after earning his

degree, Hajime was accepted to Queen’s University for graduate studies in engineering. But upon arrival in 1942, the university withdrew their acceptance because he was of Japanese decent. He moved to Fort William, Ontario with his wife and worked for Marathon Paper Company as a forestry engineer. His son, Stanley, was born in 1948 and his daughter was born

in 1952. He eventually moved to

Toronto to be close to his father and managed a family gift shop, which sold imported Chinese goods from Japan. He also became a salesman who sold chinaware wholesale to some retail stores in the surrounding area.

Hajime was restless, and he left the family giftware business

to start a drycleaning business in Scarborough and managed it for about 30 years. In 1960s, the cleaners were sold and Hajime worked for a steel fabricating company as a steel estimator.

My dad loved to dance and took several dance lessons with my mother. While at a dance, my dad suffered a heart attack at 67 and passed away.


Kiyoshi ShimizuOCCUPATION Social worker

I RECEIVED A SCHOLAR-SHIP for my fi rst year at UBC by having the highest average in the city of Vancouver. I wanted to become a librarian and worked with the reference librarian, and in my third and fourth years took general courses in sociology, history and psychology.

In May 1941, after receiving my BA, I met J.S. Woodsworth of the CCF party. The two hours I spent with Mr. Woodsworth changed the course of my life!

The UBC department of social work took me on as a student, but the evacuation orders made it very

diffi cult to complete my fi eld work. I received special permission to leave the Kaslo camp to take the summer course in 1942 to complete the requirements for a diploma in social work.

From September 1942 to March 1943, I was assigned to set up welfare offi ces at three other evacuation centres.

In April, I left the camps for Toronto, where I initially settled for a job as a lowly camp assistant in an Ontario Farm Services Camp in the Niagara area. In September, I was referred to the University Settlement House in Toronto as a

group worker and stayed there for four years, leaving to have my fi rst child. After her death in Ottawa at the age of seven, I was a case worker and assistant supervisor at the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society, but then resigned to have three more children.

When the youngest child was three, I was persuaded to take a position as intake social worker in a daycare centre. I also helped set up a research project with a psychology professor at Carleton University in early childhood development. After two years, this led me to a job in the social

services department as coordinator of day care services, when more provincial funds became available to subsidize the cost of care, and to set up Headstart Nursery Schools. Eventually, I became coordinator of community service centres in the social services department, and retired in 1985 as one of four district directors.

On April 18, 2005, the Caring Canadian Award was given to me by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson for my community contributions in Victoria, where I lived for about ten years after retirement.


Yoichi KatoBORN April 4, 1921

OCCUPATION Engineer

YOICHI KATO was born on April 4, 1921 in Vancouver.

In the 1941-42 year at UBC he was ranked third in the Faculty of Applied Science to become an electrical engineer. He was a member of the Basic COTC unit and his ID number was K577007. When he was forced to leave UBC, he was hired as a surveyor’s assistant in a Slocan internment

camp. His family was moved to Lemon Creek.

Later, he enrolled at the University of Manitoba, where he lived with a home-stay family. After graduation, he moved to Ottawa and then to Montréal, where he worked for an aluminum company. He then became the power engineer for the company and oversaw the Kitimat project

and started to travel a lot. After that, he oversaw the Arvida project in northern Quebec.

He retired at the age of 62 but was immediately rehired as a consultant by the same company and sent to Atlanta, Georgia to oversee a project there.

Kato now lives at the Momiji Home in Toronto.


Jack KawaguchiBORN 1922 DIED 1976OCCUPATION Surgeon

JACK KAWAGUCHI was born in Van-couver, BC in 1922. His father, Kiichi, owned a drugstore where Jack worked while attend-ing school.

He became a UBC student after graduation from Britannia High School. When the Pacifi c war began, he was in second-year Arts and Science. As a COTC member, he was stripped of his position and exiled from UBC to a prisoner of war camp in Angler, Ontario. When he was released after the war, he moved to Kingston, Ontario and enrolled

in Queen’s University. He earned his medical degree there.

After graduation, Jack moved to Japan, where he met and married a woman who was also a doctor. Jack was fl uent in both English and Japanese. He became a well-known surgeon in Tokyo, enabling him and his wife to live a very affl uent life. They lived in a two-storey, fi ve-bedroom house tended by two live-in maids. They had no children. Jack passed away in 1976.


Hideo KawaharaBORN May 5, 1920 DIED February 21, 2011

OCCUPATION Business management

HIDEO KAWAHARA was born in Chute Lake, BC on May 5, 1920.

Hideo attended UBC for two years until he was told to leave in 1942. He was sent to Hastings Park and held there for several months, living in the stables without any privacy in an unsanitary, cold environment. Since he was a university student, he was allowed to travel to his

family home in Kelowna, BC and was given permission to apply to the University of Manitoba to continue his studies.

Hideo graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1945 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He moved to Montréal and was hired as a purchasing agent for Johnson & Johnson Company. There, he married his fi rst wife, May Yada, and they had

a daughter, Sarah. When Johnson & Johnson moved their “brushes” department of manufacturing to Toronto, Hideo moved with them and worked for them until the company was sold. The new company became Tek Hughes, and Hideo became a shareholder and manager of manufacturing for Tek tooth brushes.

After his wife passed away, he remarried in June of 1969 to

Nellie Idenouye. They retired in 1984 and moved to Kelowna. During retirement, Hideo enjoyed skiing, fi shing, boating and golfi ng. They also belonged to the Mycelium Club, where they studied mushrooms.

He passed away on February 21, 2011.


Jack KobayashiBORN February 7, 1922 OCCUPATION Communications technician

JACK HIROYOSHI KO-BAYASHI was born on February 7, 1922 in Langley, BC. He was the sixth of eleven children. His par-ents, Tomoaki and Matsu, arrived in Canada in 1907. His family lived in a small farmhouse in a remote area where most of his older siblings were born. As the family grew, it was decided they should move closer to town. The older children worked the new farm while the younger ones at-tended school.

When Jack was eight years old, a crop failure required the family to move to Vancouver, where Jack enrolled in Henry Hudson Public School. His family moved often, so Jack attended a number of schools. Eventually, he returned to Henry Hudson School but due to the switch of his fi rst and middle names, he was henceforth known as Jack instead of Hiroyoshi.

It was in Kitsilano High School where Jack developed an interest in electronics. He joined the radio club and at 16 years of age, he had his own amateur radio operating station.

In 1941, Jack enrolled at

UBC. When the removal order was announced in 1942, all persons of Japanese racial origin had to relocate at least 100 miles inland from the coast. Naturally, Jack was disillusioned by the injustice of being forced to relocate and abandon his studies at the university.

Resisting a move to road camps in the BC interior, Jack’s older brother made arrangements for the family to settle in the Kamloops area, where they, together with other families, built houses and a steam-powered saw mill and thus became self-supporting. After working as the fi reman on the sawmill for about a year, Jack departed BC on a one-way rail ticket.

In 1943, a close friend of Jack’s arranged for him to work at a radio repair shop in Montréal. At 21 years of age, Jack began his career in the cable wiring harness department of RCA Victor in Saint-Henri, Montréal.

With the war raging, Jack worked on two-way radios for the military. In New York City he helped build speech inverters which

“garbled” messages for security. When SPAR Aerospace purchased the communications department of RCA, Jack continued his career with Spar in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

Jack stayed at rooming houses upon his arrival in Montréal but reunited with the rest of his family in a Verdun apartment, where they lived since having to leave BC. When the restrictions were lifted from Japanese-Canadians in 1949, Jack’s older siblings returned to BC while the younger ones settled in Ontario and Quebec.

In 1957, Jack married Ayako Ono in Montréal. Born in Victoria, Aya had been interned in Sandon, where she taught school children before moving to Montréal. By now, Jack and his younger siblings were living in a house in Verdun. Aya joined him there and they soon had four children. The family of six then moved to Papineau, where Jack operated his amateur radio station once again. A few years later, the family settled in Chomedey, Laval.

The Spar Aerospace microwave division developed and installed

a new system which carried more than 600 telephone and television channels across the country. Jack was often in the fi eld upgrading the system and performing repairs.

In 1974, Spar was contracted by the US Air Force to install a microwave system from Turkey through Pakistan and Iran. Jack travelled extensively working on the microwave system.

In 1988, Jack retired after 44 years of service at RCA/Spar. When Jack and Aya relocated to a Toronto townhouse in 1991, Jack was reunited with his younger siblings, who were now all residing in Ontario. Jack pursued his love of fi shing by purchasing a 21-foot cabin cruiser to ply the waters of Lake Simcoe.

In early 2009, Aya’s failing health necessitated her moving to a nursing home. Sadly, less than two years later, she passed away. In late 2009, Jack moved to a retirement home, where he enjoys a very active lifestyle. Earlier this year, he celebrated his 90th birthday with family and friends, including his grandson Casey.


Alice KudoOCCUPATION Librarian, editorial researcher

ALICE KUDO was born in Mis-sion City, BC. She enrolled in fi rst year at UBC for the 1941-42 winter session. From 1942 to 1945, during the internment years, her family went to southern Alberta to work on a farm.

From 1945 to 1947, she took two summer school courses at the Calgary Normal School to earn a teaching certifi cate in Alberta for grades 1–10. In 1950 she earned a BA from Queen’s University in mathematics and physics.

In 1974 Alice received an M. Biblio (MA in Library Science) from the University of Montréal. She was employed by the Canadian National Railway in both Toronto and Montréal from 1953 until 1962.

She was then a librarian for the Financial Times until 1972. Starting in 1974 she was a freelance librarian. Finally, from 1975 to her retirement in 1989, she was the editorial researcher for Reader’s Digest in Montréal.


Richard MatsuiBORN July 8, 1921 DIED January 2010OCCUPATION Screenprinter

RICHARD MATSUI was born in Vancouver on July 8, 1921 and at-tended Powell Street Sunday School, Strathcona Public School and Britannia High School.

He was accepted to UBC in 1940 and anticipated earning a science degree. “Dick” was a second-year and was also an Offi cer Training cadet when he was discharged from the army as well as from the university.

Dick went to Kingston to Queen’s summer school, hoping to continue his education. Faced with this rejection, Dick decided to try the University of Manitoba, and he graduated from there with a Bachelor of Science in 1944.

From Winnipeg, Dick went to Montréal to fi nd work at Saint Luke Industry and learned the art of silkscreening and dye work. While in Montréal, he met Mae Watanabe and

they married on April 3, 1947. The opportunity for work in St.

Catharines, Ontario prompted them to move, and their two daughters were born there in the early 1950s. Shortly after, they moved to Scarborough and had a son in 1958.

In the late 1950s, his company produced screenprinted novelty items like T-shirts and towels. The adoption of a new distinctive Canadian fl ag in February 1965 meant a boom in business.

After retiring, Dick was interested in photography and bonsai. He also worked for the benefi t of Japanese Isseis. He served on the board of the Momiji Health Care Society, raising funds for their facility in Scarborough, which opened in 1992.

Dick passed away in January 2010.


Koei MitsuiBORN July 31, 1920 DIED 1969

OCCUPATION Engineer

KOEI MITSUI was born on July 31, 1920 in Dollarton, BC. He graduated from King Ed-ward High School and enrolled in UBC in 1941 in the Applied Science program. He was a member of the COTC at UBC, but was dismissed from it with-out cause when the Pacifi c War began. He moved to Manitoba after being sent away from Brit-ish Columbia during the forced expulsion of all Japanese-Cana-dians.

He enrolled in the University of Manitoba, but did

not complete his degree there. When the University of Toronto began accepting Japanese-Canadians, he went to Toronto and entered their mechanical engineering program. After he got his degree from there, he became a consultant to architects who built large structures.

Unfortunately, he passed away in 1969 after suffering from a heart attack. He and his wife, May, had two children.


John Hideo MiuraBORN 1922 DIED 2003OCCUPATION Engineer, consultant

JOHN WAS BORN in Woodfi bre, BC in 1922, where his father Sobei Miura worked in a saw mill. When John was six years old and his younger brother Tad was three, their father took them to Japan to be raised by their grandparents, but he did not have the heart to leave them there. On their return to Canada, the family moved to Vancouver, where Sobei continued to work in a saw mill and their mother Sei designed and made patterns for clothes. Similar to many other Japanese-Canadian children growing up in Vancouver at that time, John and Tad went to Strathcona Public School and continued on to Vancouver Technical School. John then began his university career at UBC.

John was unable to continue his studies at UBC when his parents and his brother were moved to the Tashme Relocation Camp in 1942. He then moved to Hastings Park with many other Japanese-Canadians and taught schoolchildren.

Eventually he moved east and was able to apply to other universities, and was accepted to Queen’s. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering with honours in 1945 and received the Bronze Medal for Excellence.

Despite having trouble fi nding a job at fi rst, John was able to have a successful career. His professional career can be divided into two parts. The fi rst half—over 30 years—was as an engineer, responsible for design and quality control of transmissions and gears for large companies.

The second and more satisfactory part of his career began in the mid-80s and continued until he passed away. He set up his own company, and with our mother Toshie’s help, he worked as an expert consultant and liaison between Japanese (Nikkyo Sangyo and HIC), Canadian and American companies.

John also took great interest in the Japanese-Canadian community in his adopted city and was a great supporter of the building of its fi rst cultural centre in the early 60s.

Through sheer determination and intelligence, John overcame all possible obstacles posed for Japanese-Canadians of his generation.

John passed away on September 17, 2003 at the age of 81.


Hisatoshi Moriyama

MY FATHER’S HISTORY IS LOST. I was told that the Mori-yamas came from the southern part of Japan.

My grandfather was a worker at the Ocean Falls mill. My dad’s family had fi ve boys and one girl: Steve, Hisatoshi, Takue, Mits, Seibi and Mary.

Somehow his mother died on the ferry heading back to Ocean Falls from Vancouver in or around 1933.

The children were orphaned when the father left Ocean Falls and went back to Japan, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. My dad was the second oldest—12

years old at the time. He helped raise his younger siblings. He and his older brother did a lot of fi shing to feed the family. I am told that the Japanese community in Ocean Falls also helped to care for them.

When Tosh graduated from high school, he moved to Vancouver and stayed in the Japanese church in Japantown. That was where he was living when he entered UBC. After being relocated several times, he ended up in Ontario and on to Toronto. He met my mother Yoshiye in Toronto and they married in 1949.

My father was very close to my mother’s family. My mother’s mother was Masuye Isezaki, born Dec.

11, 1895 in Hachijojima, Japan. She divorced her fi rst husband and married a second, Tokuye Kameoka, on October 11, 1897. She had one boy (Kiyo) and two girls (Yoshiye and Aiko) with Esezaki, and four boys (Yuki, Ken, Terry and Akira) and one girl (June) with Kameoka.

Before 1942 my grandmother owned a dress shop and variety store on Granville in Vancouver. My grandfather Kameoka was the editor/publisher of the Japanese New Canadian newspaper. I am told he and my uncle Kiyo were some of the fi rst Japanese-Canadians incarcerated.

After the war they also settled in Toronto and opened their house to the new Japanese-Canadian community. My grandfather Kameoka had a Japanese bookstore on McCaul St. in Toronto. It was here that a lot of Japanese Canadian families regrouped. My grandmother and grandfather Kameoka and my uncle Henry Okada (UBC honorary) were also instrumental in founding the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre here in Toronto, along with many great Japanese-Canadians.


Fusako Ruth NagataOCCUPATION Businesswoman

MY PARENTS EMIGRATED from Japan to Canada and resided in Vancouver, where all their children were born. I attended and graduated from Hastings Public School, Templeton Jr. High School, Britannia High School and in September 1941 I enrolled in fi rst-year General Arts at UBC.

On February 8, 1942, there was a devastating announcement that all schools would be closed to all persons of Japanese descent. On February 20, 1942, another crushing announcement that all people of Japanese descent were to be rounded up and detained

in a building located in Hastings Park. My mother and her children were detained there for a few months. I was absolutely numb with shock and disbelief that this was actually happening here in Canada. Realizing our father was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp somewhere in Alberta, my mother decided to relocate the family to Edmonton.

My mother and her children left Vancouver to our new home in Edmonton and stayed there until sometime in 1943. I enrolled at the University of Alberta and took a few courses from September

1942 to May 1943. During our stay, my mother received a further communication that my father was not in Alberta but somewhere in Ontario. My mother decided to send my older sister Shinko and I ahead to Toronto to fi nd a home for the family, which we fi nally were able to do. My mother and remaining children moved to Toronto and settled down in their new house. I enrolled and attended Trinity College at the University of Toronto and graduated in General Arts in 1948.

From 1949 to 1984, I was employed at Perlmutter Orenstein,

a fi rm of chartered accountants. This organization was very memorable for me. When I was being hired my nationality was of no concern. I worked as a clerk and was eventually promoted to a responsible managerial position.

After my retirement, I decided to further my knowledge of the Japanese language and culture and attended the Japanese Language School from 1994 until 2006.

On May 10, 1957, I married Les W. Cezar and have two sons, a granddaughter and grandson.


Shinko Mary Nagata

IN 1900, my parents emigrated from Japan to Vancouver. They made their home in a quiet and pleasant neighbourhood along the Burrard Inlet, where their children were born.

I attended Hastings Public School, Templeton Junior High School and Britannia High School. In June of 1940, I joined the Canadian Red Cross to help out during the war year. I attended University of British Columbia in September 1940, enrolling as a General Arts student.

But in the years to come, a number of traumatic events loomed for all Japanese-Canadians. On December 7, 1941, RCMP offi cers came to our home and asked to speak with my father. When he appeared, they immediately took him away without any explanation about where he was going or when

he would return. We didn’t see him again until late 1943.

My parents’ greatest desire was that their children should have a good education, so I felt privileged to be the fi rst one in the family to attend university. Suddenly, all my parents’ hope for their children’s education came to an abrupt end as people of Japanese descent in Vancouver were displaced from their homes and placed in a building in Hastings Park normally used to house domestic animals.

Was there anger? There must have been some anger somewhere in me, but it wasn’t obvious. There was no room for resentment or anger because there were more urgent priorities. I had to look after my mother and help fi nd my father.

My mother was frantic, but certain that we could no longer stay in Vancouver to wait for the

decision that would displace all of the Japanese people.

In late spring of 1942, I left Vancouver for Edmonton, Alberta. By late summer I found a suitable house to rent in Edmonton, and my family followed there. I got a job at the Oliver Mental Hospital.

With future job opportunities limited in Edmonton, my mother decided to relocate us in Toronto.

Trying of fi nd a house to rent in Toronto was diffi cult. Landlords’ objections to us were usually subtle; we would often fi nd that places were suddenly “rented” upon our arrival. Finally fi nding a house to rent on the last day of September was one of my greatest delights of my life.

I enrolled in the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, in General Arts, on October 1943, and graduated by 1946. After

graduation, I went on to work at U of T, and later at the T. Eaton Company.

In 1950, I married William T. Kato. We raised a family of two daughters and a son. My father enjoyed his grandchildren and we often refl ected that visits with the children slowly helped him recover from the time he had been interned in prisoner-of-war camps.

In 1958, we bought 12 acres of farm land near the small village of Fordwich, Ontario—population 100. My children attended a one-room school of only a dozen students.

Today, at 90 years of age, I believe my parents taught me well. Education brings forth understanding to face life’s challenges. My parents’ sacrifi ces to send us to school will never be wasted. I thank them forever.

BORN 1922


George NakashibaBORN July 1, 1921 DIED August 21, 1998OCCUPATION Educator

GEORGE WAS BORN in Vancouver on July 21, 1921. He and his family lived in Kitsilano and he commuted from there to UBC. When the War Measures Act was invoked and all UBC students were exiled, he went straight to Hamilton, Ontario.

Later he went to the University of Manitoba and earned his Electrical Engineering degree. He returned to live in Hamilton for a short time and then moved to Toronto, where he taught for 29 years at the Toronto Technical School.

In 1968, on a tour to Japan, he met Miwa Tada; they were the only young people travelling with a group of seniors. On August 16, 1969, they were married in Summerland, B.C., where Miwa lived. They had no children.

His love of fi shing saw them travel each weekend to a lake three hours from Toronto.

Both George and Miwa were very active members of the Buddhist Church in both Hamilton and Toronto.

George passed away on August 21, 1998.


Akira NambaBORN June 1, 1920

OCCUPATION Accountant

I WAS BORN on June 1, 1920 in Haney, BC and attended the English Public School, the MacLean High School and the Japanese Language School before attending UBC.

As a student at UBC, I enlisted into the Canadian Offi cers’ Training Corps and would have become a second lieutenant upon graduation. That did not happen when Japanese-Canadian students were discharged from the Canadian army. Although I was living in Vancouver at this time, the family farm was in the Fraser Valley. This area was one of the last to be evacuated, so during the interim I was able to keep attending UBC until I wrote my fi nals. I got my degree in May 1942.

I was ordered to register into the Hastings Park Manning Pool immediately following the convocation ceremony to await further dispersion into the BC interior. While there, I got involved with the ongoing educational program. I taught Grade 8 students until I was dispersed to a ghost town in the Slocan Valley. Upon arrival, I was assigned to the baggage crew, and then promoted into the payroll and welfare department. After my position closed, I started teaching high school children through the Anglican Church. Suddenly in 1946, orders came from the government to clear out the ghost towns and head east. When my

order to leave came up, I went to Montréal.

I was eventually hired by Aboosamara Kouri Inc., and from there I moved on to work at Confederated Wholesale Grocers. After that company went bankrupt, my best option was to start my own service company. I incorporated a company, Quebec Accounting Services Inc., and started calling businesses offering a variety of services such as record keeping, payrolls and fi nancial statements. Within two months I had booked in excess of double my prior salary. I got married, bought a home in Laval, Quebec, started a family, went into synthetic textile fabric

knitting as a second business and took a partner into the accounting business.

In 1990 I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but early diagnosis, care by a most competent cancer specialist and chemotherapy started within a period of two weeks surely saved me from a potentially deadly situation. In June 2004, we moved to Pickering, Ontario in order to be closer to my daughter.

So here we are; my wife and I after 61 years together, resettled in Pickering, Ontario. All cozy in our new condominium, we have two wonderful daughters and three delightful grandchildren.


Geri T. ShiozakiBORN November 14, 1922OCCUPATION Early childhood educator

GERI WAS BORN Taka Ni-kaido on November 14, 1922, to Mr. Yoshi and Mrs. Kimi Nikaido. They emigrated from Fukushima Prefec-ture in Japan. Geri was the youngest, with three older brothers.

Geri attended Dawson Public School and King George High School in Vancouver. Her father had a dry cleaning store. She did not live in the Japanese community and did not speak Japanese.

In 1942, this shy student was in second year at UBC. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she felt hurt, confused and betrayed by the government, UBC and her friends and neighbours, who ostracized her. With the evacuation in effect, Geri’s family was broken up. Her brothers, Frank and Sadao, were sent to

Ontario, where they were forced to work manual labour.

Her father convinced the RCMP and government to allow him to remain with his wife and daughter. Eventually the brothers were allowed to join the rest of the family. Geri’s father opened Town Cleaners, a dry cleaning store. The family lived over the store at 1232 Danforth Avenue in Toronto. When her father bought a house at 18 Linsmore Crescent around the block, Frank took over the dry cleaners.

Geri tried to enroll at U of T, but the university did not want the Japanese Canadian evacuees. An administrator at U of T’s Victoria College said that Victoria was a degree-granting university in its own right and would accept Geri.

She could take all her courses there. Eventually, U of T accepted Geri and she graduated in 1944. She then went on to fi nish her early childhood education degree from the Institute of Child Studies in Toronto. She became the supervisor of the West-end nursery. When the City of Toronto fi nally accepted Japanese-Canadians on staff, she became the manager of the Kimberley Nursery School.

Through the UBC Japanese Student Club, Geri heard that David Shiozaki’s younger brother Richard was coming on campus in 1941. She married him in 1951 after he graduated. When their daughter Karie was born in 1952, she retired to focus on her children. More children followed—Ian, Nancy and

Brian. The family moved out to

Etobicoke. There were two more children and plenty of kids on the new subdivision street. With their history, Geri and Richard made sure that their children’s education expenses were provided so that they could concentrate on their studies. They all graduated from university: a BA, a doctor, a Master’s in library science, and a degree in business.

Richard and Geri moved out of their house after 56 years, in late 2011, to be closer to their daughter. Their younger son, wife and three children now live in the house. Geri and Richard are very proud of their seven grandchildren, born from 1988 to 2012.


Nori K. NishioBORN September 1923

OCCUPATION Dentist

NORI K. NISHIO was born in September of 1923 in Japan. His family lived in the Kitsilano area before the war. He and all of his siblings—two brothers and a sis-ter—attended Kitsilano Second-ary School. When the order came for all of the Japanese nationals to leave the coastal area, he was given 24 hours to pack and be at the train station.

He went to Calgary and stayed for a day with the Kuwahara family, friends of his family. He then found a place to stay and went to write his fi nal UBC exam that was sent to an educational institution. His family had an import-export business, so they had enough funds to enroll him in the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Every summer, he found a job to fund his tuition and books. He worked at the Swift packing plant, a chick hatchery and a sign company.

In 1947 he became of doctor of dentistry. His fi rst practice was

in the Peace River district in a community called High Prairie. He then went to Whitehorse where he practiced for nine years. It was here where he met and married an English woman. They had two children: a son who is now a chartered accountant and a daughter who is married and is a medical doctor.

While in Whitehorse, Nori took up fl y fi shing and became quite good at it. He was once asked to take Prince Phillip out fi shing on a small boat. They were successful in catching many trout. He also took Prime Minister John Diefenbaker out fi shing twice. They were surrounded by an armada of RCMP boats while on the water. In 1961 the family moved to Nanaimo, where Nori practiced until he retired. Now, when the weather is good, he golfs six days a week and curls fi ve times a week in the winter. His other hobby is trading in stocks, which he fi nds very profi table.


Tomi-taro Nishio

TOMI-TARO NISHIO was born in Vancouver in 1921 and lived in Kitsilano. In 1942, he was a second-year Commerce student at UBC and also played on the school’s rugby team. His family was forced to move to Bridge River when the government order came to move Japanese-Canadians away from the coast. He was not able to continue his studies for a year.

After a year and half, UBC professor E.H. Morrow, the head of the Commerce department, made arrangements for him to register at the University of Western Ontario. Western gave him credits for the two years that he attended UBC.

During his second year at Western, he volunteered to become a recruit in the British Intelligence Corps to be trained as an interpreter against the Japanese army in Asia. Within two weeks, he was shipped over to London, and within a month and a half they were on their way to India. When they reached India, they were sent to the Assam region and became frontline transmitters of information. After one year there he returned to Western and graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Upon graduating, he worked for Henry Morgan and Company, a

high-end ladies’ wear store. He was the fi rst Japanese-Canadian to be hired by them. Starting off in the complaints department, he moved his way up through the company. After fi ve years, he was transferred to Ottawa, where he became a supervisor in many departments. He was later promoted to the high fashion department. He stayed with Henry Morgan and Company for eight years.

His father, Ippei, sent him and his younger brother, Kaz, to New York many times to seek out opportunities for starting a family business. When his mother and Kaz went to New York, they met

two Japanese-American sansei women who were looking for someone to distribute Mikasa dinnerware in Canada. They took this offer and became their sole Canadian distributors, naming their company Mikasa Canada: Import and Domestic Trading Company of Canada. Their warehouse was located in Montréal. They were very successful there, but when the French-Canadians began to seek separation from Canada, the Nishios decided to move their business to Toronto. Most of their customers were in English Canada. Ten years ago, they sold their company to a French company.

BORN 1921OCCUPATION Interpreter, Businessman


George NishiokaBORN 1920

OCCUPATION Doctor

DR. GEORGE NISHIOKA was born in February of 1920. His father, Shigeki, came to Vancouver from Japan in 1908, and George’s early years were spent on the fam-ily’s farm in Surrey.

In 1942, his mother Kameju, father Shigeki, sister Emy and brother Hiro were the fi rst Japanese-Canadian family relocated to Winnipeg, where they worked on a sugar beet farm in Bird’s Hill, Manitoba. The family was forced to leave the family German shepherd, Princess, behind.

George went to Edmonton in 1942, where he went on to complete his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Alberta. He then enrolled at the University of Michigan in a Master’s of Science program where he also worked as a lab assistant. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1952.

His post-graduate internship and residency program in general surgery were completed in Flint,

Michigan at the Hurley Hospital.Licensed in the state of

California in 1959, he practiced as a surgeon in Long Beach and then in Huntington Beach, California until his retirement.

His wife of 40 years, Deloris, passed away in 2011. They had no children.

His sister Emy Ozamoto was the fi rst Japanese-Canadian to graduate from Manitoba Commercial College in 1943 and ended her career at

the University of Manitoba Medical College; she was the post-graduate education coordinator of the department of medicine until her retirement.

His brother Hiro was the second Japanese-Canadian to graduate from the University of Manitoba Medical School in 1954, and completed his post-graduate training in Cleveland, Ohio. He stayed to practice neurosurgery in the US.


Kiichi George NoguchiBORN 1919 OCCUPATION Chemist, entrepreneur

IN 1919, Kiichi George Noguchi was born in Seattle, Washington to parents Mitsu-jiro Noguchi and Kiku Noguchi. Kiichi’s father worked as a peanut importer and exporter to England and Japan. The family moved to Vancouver in 1920. Mitsujiro’s siblings Yoshio, Shinkiichi, Kuni, Ayao and Seigo were born in Vancouver. The fam-ily originally lived on Triumph Street and later on Pandora Street.

Between the ages of 13 and 18, Kiichi delivered Canada Shimbu to the downtown area and outskirts of Vancouver and worked on Mr. Koyama’s fi shing boat in the summer. From 1937-42 he attended UBC, specializing in chemistry. Kiichi had planned to become a doctor, but his hopes were dashed due to the war and evacuation of the Japanese-Canadians from the coast of BC.

His family was interned at Christina Lake for six months, and it was there that Kiichi received his Bachelor of Science degree in the mail from the UBC. After the family moved to the internment camp at Slocan Valley, Kiichi worked as an orderly in the hospital. It was there where he met his future wife, Makiye Nakamura.

In 1945 he was permitted to move to

Toronto. He then married Makiye and took a menial job making brooms at the Gibson Broom Company.

From about 1945-60 he worked as a chemist for Flo-Glaze and later at Dupont Canada for about fi ve years. He also developed his own business, Clearmount Plastics, which was later sold to George Nakamura. After Dupont, Kiichi started as a chemist at Aerosol Packaging and worked his way up to vice president. Around 1970 he started K.G. Packaging and was president until he retired in 1982.

In 2010, Kiichi and Makiye moved to the Momiji Health Centre. They have two children, Louise and Vincent, and two grandchildren, Samuel and Mitsuko.


Roy Hiroshi NoseBORN 1920 DIED 1982

OCCUPATION Financial analyst, stockbroker

ROY HIROSHI NOSE was born in Vancouver, BC on July 10, 1920 to Seihachi and Misao Nose. Seihachi was a partner in a suc-cessful dry goods and clothing store on Powell Street that catered to the needs of Japanese-Canadians. They were known for renting tuxedos for formal functions.

The Nose family, along with many in the community, resided in the Hastings Park area close to Nanaimo Street and East Hastings. They attended the Powell Street United Church, and as a youth Roy sang in the choir along with boyhood friend Roy Shinobu. Growing up, Roy had an interest in tennis and he played at the Nippon Tennis

Club but initially learned to play at Pandora Park.

While attending UBC, Roy carpooled to campus in Tets Sanmiya’s car, along with lifelong friends Roy Shinobu, Fred Sasaki and Kichi Noguchi. The car would become more than just transportation for the young men, as each day they would meet back at the car to eat their bag lunch in an effort to save money. Fred Sasaki claims he never ate at the cafeteria on campus during his time as a student at UBC.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Roy and his parents managed to make their way to Montréal, where Roy was able to

secure a job as a fi nancial analyst. Roy remained employed throughout the war. As the war came to a close, he made a bold decision. Supported by his father and the registrar at UBC, Roy applied for the MBA program at Harvard University. Roy was subsequently accepted into Harvard as part of the fi rst post-WWII class and graduated in 1947.

During his time at Harvard, Roy met his future wife Emery Yamanaka. Legend has it she tagged along with her sister Michi, an acquaintance of Roy’s, during a social visit to Harvard. Roy and Emery were married in Toronto in 1949. Following the wedding, they settled in Toronto, where Roy

commenced work as a fi nancial analyst and part-time columnist for the Toronto Telegram, answering reader’s questions about stocks.

Roy would work his entire career in the investment industry, fi rst as an analyst with Watt and Watt and subsequently as a stockbroker with A.E. Osler, where he would eventually become a partner.

In 1982, Roy passed away at the age of 62 but is survived by Emery, who will be 89 this year and still resides in Toronto. Roy and Emery had two children: Barbara Misao Nose (Peters) in 1952 and Donald Roy Nose in 1955. Roy and Emery have a total of three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.


Arthur ObokataBORN March 8, 1919 DIED October 30, 1997 OCCUPATION Cost accountant, track and fi eld athlete

ARTHUR OBOKATA was born in Vancouver on March 8, 1919. In his early 20s he enrolled in the Arts and Science program at UBC, but in1942 he was forced to move to an internment camp in Slocan, BC.

After his internment in Slocan and some time in a lumber camp, Art left BC for London, Ontario. He found work in nearby Port Stanley, shovelling coal for Imperialle Fuels. He later worked for Leonard’s Foundry in London.

In 1952, Art married Kazuko Kagawa and together they raised three daughters in London. By the 1950s, he was working as a cost accountant. After his retirement in 1984, he volunteered in the audiovisual department at H.B.

Beal Secondary School.Throughout his life, Art was

involved in sports, especially track and fi eld.

Art began competing—and winning—track and fi eld events in the masters category. His most spectacular win was in 1985, when, at age 66, he won a gold medal in the 400-metre hurdles at the World Masters Championships in Rome, Italy. He was thrilled when the London-Western Track and Field Club named him 1985 Track Athlete of the Year.

Art died in London, Ontario on October 30, 1997, at age 78. In 2010, he was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Masters Hall of Fame.


BORN 1921 DIED 2005OCCUPATION Farming

GEORGE OHAMA was born on November 30, 1921 in the small rural community of Welling, Alberta. Well-ing is located in southern Alberta near Raymond, south of Lethbridge. His parents came from Kagoshima, Japan. His father was a newspaper journalist and his mother came to Canada as a picture bride.

My dad came from a large family of six brothers and two sisters.

He was the only one of his siblings to enter university, so it represented a signifi cant achievement and dream for his whole family.

Staying in school and graduating from high school was a tough thing to do for him in those days.

He went to elementary school in Lyalta, Alberta. His father had died and his mother was busy working to earn enough money to raise her children. She had a vegetable stand in Calgary in those days, but the family was very poor and they had to move many times.

My dad told stories about how

he and his brothers walked to school in Lyalta in the cold Alberta winter without boots, wrapping their shoes with newspaper to keep from freezing. They often went without a lunch, but he was proud (or embarrassed) and always tried to pretend to his classmates and teachers that he had a lot to eat, and was full like everyone else.

He often remembered the kindness of his teacher at the Lyalta School, who gave him a piece of her fried chicken for lunch sometimes. All his life, the “special treat” for our family when we were growing up was a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken from Dad. He treated two generations of our family to KFC when we went to town or out to eat.

Later, Dad went to school in the city of Calgary. His mother moved the family many times after her husband died.

They eventually ended up in Vancouver, where my Dad and uncles attended Lord Strathcona School on Jackson and Pender Streets in

Chinatown. Later the family moved out to Strawberry Hill. This is where my Dad lived and traveled from to go to UBC.

Going to university was a big deal. He rode a bike from New Westminster to UBC in all types of weather to get to classes, and a few times he said he even walked. But he loved being a university student.

He entered the Faculty of Agriculture and proudly kept his UBC AG 41 sweater all his life.

He was also in the Offi cers’ Training Corp at UBC.

He dreamed of going into law, but that was not an option for students of Japanese descent during that time.

Few faculties were open to Japanese-Canadians, but agriculture was one.

After Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan, the rest is history.

To his dismay, my dad had to leave UBC and resign from the Canadian Offi cers’ Training Corp. He had no choice. In his own words, he said he was “shocked” by having to

leave.“They told me to leave, so I left,”

he said. He ended up in southern Alberta

during the war years on a farm with his mother, brothers and sisters. And he never left that farm until he became ill in 2005 and passed away a few months later in Calgary.

After the War Measures Act was lifted in 1949, my Dad and brothers stayed together with their mother and eventually established a large potato growing farm and operation.

My Dad was a reader, a learner, a debater and a good farmer.

Now he will join others in getting an honorary degree from UBC on May 30, 2012.

He would be proud and happy, with some deep regret that he could not have lived those years himself and achieve what he set out to do in 1941. But he would think that the convocation was the right thing to do.

—As remembered by Linda Ohama, one of his six daughters.

George Ohama


Henry Yukio OkadaBORN June 14, 1923 OCCUPATION Engineer

HENRY YUKIO OKADA was born on June 14, 1923 in Clayoquot, BC. He attended elementary school in Clayoquot, then went to Vancouver to go to Templeton Jr. High and Bri-tannia High.

In 1941 he started attending UBC, but was relocated to Kaslo, BC in 1942 and separated from his family.

While in Kaslo, he taught woodcraft to

elementary school students. He was relocated again to Hamilton, Ontario in 1943 and worked as a domestic aid to a doctor and family.

In the fall of 1943 he was accepted into and enrolled in the University of Toronto School of Engineering. He graduated in 1947 with a BAsc in electrical engineering.

Okada married Aiko Isezaki in 1949 and started a family in Toronto. They had three

daughters and one son together.He worked many jobs during his life, most of

them being important positions in engineering. He moved his family to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1971, and then moved back to Toronto in 1976 when he became vice-president of Crothers Ltd.

He worked there until retirement in 1991.


Shigeharu OkumuraBORN April 15, 1919 DIED December 30, 2009

OCCUPATION Laundry operations manager

SHIGEHARU OKUMURA was born in Vancouver, BC on April 15, 1919. He had two brothers, Art and Dick, and two sisters, Maude and Faye.

Shigeharu met Fumi Toyama in New Denver in an internment camp during World War II. They were married in the summer of 1945.

After the war they moved to Manitoba and worked on the farm in McCreary and later at the local hospital in Neepawa. After a couple of years, they moved to Winnipeg. Shigeharu was the oldest child of the family and he took it upon himself to work and support his brothers and sisters. He also believed strongly in education and he attended the University of

Manitoba and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1949.

Shigeharu’s career was primarily in the laundry industry. He worked at Perths and Quintons for many years. He fi nished his career as the manager of the laundry operations for the Health Science Centre.

Shigeharu’s true passion was sports. He enjoyed watching all sports and played baseball, tennis, bowling, golf and curling. He was a long-time member at the Civic Caledonian Curling Club and the Charleswood Golf Club.

Shigeharu was a long-time member of Harrow United Church. Religion was important to Shigeharu and Fumi. He strongly believed in

having faith in God and he made sure that his family was given the opportunity to practice this faith.

Shigeharu had two sons, Ron and Neil. Family was very important to Shigeharu and he enjoyed doing many family activities together. Going to the beach with family and friends was a regular activity when the kids were young. Going on a family vacation at least once a year was very important.

After his retirement, Shigeharu and Fumi really enjoyed traveling. They took this opportunity to really start to see the world. They made visits to Europe and Asia on many occasions, and the trip back to Japan was particularly special. Eventually the trips became a

retreat from the winter conditions, heading south to Hawaii and sometimes Mexico.

Shigeharu had two grandchildren, Chad and Ciara, children of Neil and Irene Okumura. Shigeharu and Fumi really enjoyed being with their two grandchildren, and like most grandparents spoiled them completely. He enjoyed hearing about all of their activities and would often be there cheering them on until he became ill.

On December 30, 2009, Shigeharu Okumura passed away peacefully at the Riverview Health Centre at the age of 90. Left to cherish his memory is his wife, Fumi, sons Ron and Neil and grandchildren Chad and Ciara.


Matthew S. OkunoBORN January 2, 1920 DIED April 7, 2003 OCCUPATION Entrepreneur

MATTHEW SHIGEKAZU OKUNO was born at home on January 2, 1920. His parents, Mosa-buro and Mitsu Okuno, had emigrat-ed to Vancouver from Osaka, Japan. Three younger siblings, Toshie, Ken and Joyce, soon followed.

As a young man, he played soccer and other sports, swam in the river, and ran around in Vancouver with his Japanese-Canadian friends. In addition to attending Strathcona Public school, where 60 per cent of the students were Japanese-Canadians, and Brittannia High School, he attended the Vancouver Japanese Language School every day after classes.

Matthew had wanted to study medicine at the University of British Columbia, but opted out because of the length and fi nancial strain of the degree. His parents felt that education was important, although many Japanese-Canadians felt that university was futile because

they would not be able to use a degree. Matthew chose a new four-year undergraduate program called the Bachelor of Commerce.

Matthew felt that his university days were some of the best times in his life. He felt a feeling of inclusion amongst the students and teachers, and life seemed promising. Matthew was fi ercely patriotic and he joined the Canadian armed forces offi cer training program at UBC. But when Japan became an opponent in World War II, Matthew was stripped of his status as an offi cer in training. He was treated as an enemy alien, even though he was born in Canada. As he was just weeks away from graduation, he was given special permission to delay his relocation until he fi nished his exams.

In April of 1942, like all adult men of Japanese descent, he was separated from his parents and younger siblings. He was granted permission from the security commission to work at Premier

Mitch Hepburn’s farm in St. Thomas, Ontario, earning just $1 a week.

He moved to Ontario in 1948 holding various jobs in London and the nearby towns of Alymer and Grimsby. Matthew later settled in London, Ontario with his parents and siblings. He worked at a steel mill and noticed that the working conditions were unsafe: the workers in front of the furnace were not outfi tted with proper protective equipment. He started a union, following some of the social principles of the CCF, a precursor party to the NDP who had tried to voice concerns about the unjust treatment of Japanese-Canadians.

On September 4, 1948, he married Polly Fujiye Nishimura, and the couple then moved to Toronto, Ontario.

On April 1, 1960, Matthew partnered with a brother-in-law and a cousin to start a company called All-Metal Machine Specialties. The

company, which became a prominent auto parts manufacturer, remained family-owned for two further generations and was sold in 2005.

When the National Association of Japanese-Canadians (NAJC) formed as the group representing Japanese Canadians who sought compensation and apologies from the Canadian government, All-Metal would serve as the offi ce and meeting place of the Toronto chapter.

On May 3, 1988, Matthew Okuno, some fellow UBC alumni and other NAJC members went to Ottawa to protest the federal government’s lack of acknowledgement of the issue.

Matthew Shigeharu Okuno served as All-Metal’s president until his death on April 7, 2003. He was a quiet, reliable and steady man of principle whose education in Commerce had served him well.


Frederick Shigeo OnizukaBORN July 19, 1920

OCCUPATION Gardener

FREDERICK WAS BORN in Vancouver on July 19, 1920 to Suekichi and Tokue Onizuka. He had three brothers: Seiji, Toshio and Yuki. They all went to Simon Fraser Elementary School, Mount Pleasant Elementary School and then King Edward Secondary. It was during his last year at King Edward that my dad met Kimiye Sugamori and began dating her, continuing to maintain a long-distance romance with her when they were apart.

After high school my dad attended UBC, majoring in economics with the intention of becoming an accountant. He was

forced to leave school in 1942 and went to a road camp outside of Revelstoke, BC.

Despite being a good infl uence on his fellow workers, Frederick did not see eye to eye with everyone and eventually moved to Ontario in 1943. When he fi rst came to Toronto, he took a job working as a cook for a wealthy family. This lasted only a very short while, and he was later able to get employment at a tiling company.

Frederick eventually left tiling and went to work in a restaurant as a short order cook. It didn’t

last long and he soon took a job at Mr Tanaka’s gardening business. Eventually this became his own business in the early 1950s and his company, renamed F.S. Onizuka Landscaping, lasted until the mid-1990s.

In 1947, after Kim and her family had come east to Toronto, they wed on May 23, 1947. My older sister, Diane, was born in 1950 and I was born in 1952, the year they bought their fi rst home.

In later years I asked dad if he ever regretted not fi nishing university and becoming an

accountant, especially since he was so insistent that my sister and I attend university. He said that although he knew the importance of school and having a good career, he really loved to garden and felt he had found his true calling. He never regretted not being able to return to university, something he felt was very diffi cult for him to do considering his circumstances, but only because he found a career he really enjoyed.

—As remembered by his family


Peter YamadaBORN 1922 BORN 1982 OCCUPATION Businessman

PETER FUJIYOSHI YAMADA was born in Vancouver, BC in 1922. He was the second eldest of 5 boys. The surviving brother is Joshua Tsunekatsu Yamada who now lives in Dugald, Manitoba. Peter’s father, Masanori Yamada, was an offi cer in the Salvation Army and his mother, Asao Yamada (nee Fujiwara), was a homemaker.

At UBC in 1941 he received two degrees, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce. Peter was studying to become a lawyer and was accepted to study at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, but never realized his dream due to the implementation of the War Measures Act. Peter’s family, like all Japanese–Canadians, were relocated to the town of Iona in the interior of British Columbia and subsequently sent eastward to the town of St. Thomas to work on a sugar beet farm. Peter became embittered and resentful due to the Canadian government’s forced internment of Japanese-Canadians. He was a proud Canadian, but the government’s treatment of Japanese-Canadians alienated him.

Peter later traveled further east to Toronto, where he would pursue a series of careers over the course of his lifetime. He worked for Levy Auto Parts for twelve years,

where he successfully established their overseas operations. He had an importing- exporting business and he was also a salesman. During the latter part of his life, Peter taught business subjects at Mohawk College in Hamilton.

In his personal life, Peter met and married my mother, Mary Elizabeth Suzuki (now Nishio) in 1946. In 1947 they had their fi rst daughter, Victoria Anne Yamada (now Shefman), followed by a second daughter, Heather Gene Midori Yamada in 1951.

Peter passed away from complications of esophageal cancer at the age of 60 in 1982. Unfortunately, Peter never lived to receive the individual compensation provided by the Canadian government to the Japanese-Canadians who were incarcerated during World War Two and in addition, he did not receive the formal written apology from Prime Minister Mulroney in 1988.

Peter F. Yamada is survived by his youngest brother, Joshua Tsunekatsu Yamada; Peter’s wife, Mary, remarried to Mr. Tom Nishio; his two daughters, Victoria Shefman and Heather Yamada; as well as two grandsons, Joshua Shefman (25) and Zachary Shefman (22).


Shigeyuki Juko OtsukiBORN September 26, 1921 DIED August 4, 1988

OCCUPATION Engineer

SHIGEYUKI JUKO OTSUKI was born on September 26, 1921 at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, BC to parents Nihei and Hisa Otsuki.

We don’t know much about his life while he attended UBC, as he never spontaneously talked about school or the war. We gleaned that he had been a member of the Offi cers’ Training Corps and that this was of no consequence in protecting him from the fury of the war.

Dad eventually graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics. Soon thereafter he received a Master’s degree from

the University of Toronto. He dreamed of becoming a physician, but Japanese-Canadians found it diffi cult to gain admission to Canadian medical schools at the time.

Dad married Michi Yamanaka in 1951 in Toronto. Around this time he was admitted to a PhD program at Stanford University, but he decided to forgo the opportunity. Early in his career he co-founded Triad Instruments, which was a relatively short-lived venture. Subsequently he worked at Sangamo Company and Avro Aircraft as an engineer.

He eventually moved to the United States in 1963 for career

opportunities and the health of his son. His career included a job near Boston at Polaroid as an instrumentation engineer, and at Martin Marietta near Orlando, Florida as an optical engineer. He retired in 1987 to the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Juko had a daughter, Moira Hallowell, and three sons, Alan, John and David. His children remember him most as a loving but strict father who insisted that they do well in school.

Dad had his own drive to learn and experience the beauty of nature, and over the years took classes in glass blowing, telescope-making and watercolour painting.

We recall his work areas at home, which consisted of a potpourri of geologic specimens, functioning oscilloscopes and electronic or mechanical devices in various states of repair. He also dabbled in furniture-making and auto repair when needed. His greatest passion was gardening, which included working with fl owers, Japanese maples, azaleas, fruits and vegetables. Of these, he had the greatest devotion to and expertise in growing rhododendrons.

Shigeyuki died on August 4, 1988 in Atlanta from complications of multiple myeloma.



Frederick SasakiBORN July 28, 1918 OCCUPATION Senior executive at Canadian Tire

I WAS BORN on July 28, 1918 in a rural area of Hiroshima Ken, Japan. My father, Shuichi Sasaki, came to Canada in 1907, when he was 16 years old. My mother brought me to Canada when I was nine months old.

I had one brother and six sisters, all born in Vancouver. My only brother, Tetsuro, was born in November 1922, and passed away in November of 1926.

We moved to East Vancouver, near Hastings Park. I attended Strathcona Public School from grade one to four. After our move I attended Hastings Public School for grades fi ve and six and Britannia High School in grades 10 and 11.

After working almost three years at the bank and going to night school, I was able to write my exams for junior matriculation and

I passed and applied to UBC. My chief delight at UBC was to

attend soccer practices on a beautiful autumn day. I played on the senior varsity soccer team in my fi rst year and played until my fi nal year. I was awarded the Big Block Sweater for each year I played for being an outstanding player.

During my fi nal year, the Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, and Prime Minister Mackenzie King signed an Order of Council that all people of Japanese origin had to leave the 100-mile coastal zone. My father was arrested by the RCMP later that day. I was fortunate to be offered to live in Calgary by the Kuwahara family, who ran a business which specialized in chinaware.

Due to the kindness of Professor Morrow, head of the

commerce department at UBC, I was able to fi nish my degree by correspondence. I studied every day in the Calgary Public Library, and in late April, I wrote my fi nal exams at the University of Alberta. In May, I was informed by Professor Morrow that I had passed my exams with fi rst class honours.

In the meantime, in April of 1942, my mother and sisters were sent to a relocation camp near Kaslo, BC. My father was transferred from Seebe, Alberta to a prisoner of war camp in Petawawa, Ontario, and from there to the prisoner of war camp in Angler, Ontario. Conditions at the camp gave my father a heart condition, which allowed him to be reunited with his family in Kaslo.

My goal was to get my family together. I tried to fi nd work on a fruit farm on the Niagara Peninsula

for my sisters and I, but they would not hire us. We moved to Toronto. I eventually found a job as a receiver at Hunt’s Limited, a chain of stores in Toronto that sold baked goods and chocolates.

After a year, our family was reunited again. One day, I noticed that Canadian Tire was hiring. I was taken on in the stock room, but was eventually promoted to offi ce manager and accountant. In my 45-year career at Canadian Tire, I was made secretary-treasurer and vice-president of fi nance. I retired from Canadian Tire in 1989.

I was married in 1950 to Naka Suzuki. We have been blessed with three children and three grandchildren. My only regret is that my lifelong partner Naka, who passed away in 1994, is not here with me.


Mitsuru SasakiBORN January 2, 1924 DIED February 15, 2009

OCCUPATION Pharmacist

MITSURU SASAKI was born in Eburne, BC on January 2, 1924. He entered UBC in the fall of 1941 with the intent of becoming an engineer, and was registered in science courses when he was forced to pull out due to the internment of the Japanese-Canadians who lived along the BC coastline.

Mitsuru was interned in

northern Alberta and made to work in the logging camps and then later at a sugar beet farm. Not being able to do manual labour in the logging camps or sugar beet farms because of a bad back, he and his older brother were allowed to go to Toronto to seek employment.

Mitsuru and his brother were only able to fi nd work in a car wash

and spent that winter washing cars. He wanted a new job, though.

Finally he was hired by the pharmaceutical company J.F. Hartz. He worked there for many years.

In 1950, Mitsuru was accepted into the pharmacy program at the University of Toronto. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy in 1953.

Mitsuru married Grace Sasaki soon after graduating and they raised four kids. He worked as a pharmacist all his life, initially in manufacturing and then in the retail end.

He passed away on February 15, 2009.


Coby Yutaka KobayashiBORN October 30, 1920 DIED August 10, 1999OCCUPATION Businessman, investor, fi nancial advisor

52

COBY YUTAKA KOBAYAS-HI was born October 30, 1920, in Steveston, BC to Torano and Kamekichi Kobayashi. He was the youngest of six children.

He learned English when he went to Lord Byng Elementary School. While a student at Richmond High School, Coby was chosen by the school to go the coronation of King George VI.

In 1940, Coby started at the University of British Columbia. He was the fi rst in his family to attend university, and he began in the Bachelor of Commerce program.

While he was in second year, all persons of Japanese ancestry were uprooted from the West Coast under the War Measures Act. Coby and his family chose to go to Manitoba, where they were able to stay together. They left behind a number of fi shing boats, a newly-built house and all of their land.

The family was put to work on a sugar beet farm. They lived in a tool shed and stuffed newspaper in the wide cracks in the walls to keep warm during the harsh prairie winter. By June of 1943, Coby obtained permission from the BC

Security Commission to move to Toronto.

Kobayashi found work at the Alpha Aracorn Radio Company, owned by a Mr. A. Applebaum.Starting as a shipper earning just $25 per week, Kobayashi was later promoted to work at the front desk. Coby lived in a nearby apartment without hot water, and rented a typewriter to send letters to family and friends.

On November 1, 1947, Coby married Yone Matsui and the couple used her savings to buy an empty residential lot. Kobayashi didn’t know much about construction, but could see that there was money to be made in the Toronto housing boom. It took him a year to fi nish the fi rst house, which he learned to build by watching builders on the surrounding lots.

In 1952, Coby and Yone moved into a house on a quiet suburban crescent, where they lived for the next 47 years. The crescent was full of young families, but no other Japanese-Canadians. The couple had three children, one girl and two boys. They opted not to teach

their children Japanese, fearing that it would impede their fl uency in English.

In the early 1960s, Coby started speculating on real estate, and he went on to work as a realtor. Later, he owned the fi rst Toronto company to inspect sewers using video cameras, and in the mid-1960s he began a career in mutual fund sales and fi nancial planning.

Coby and Yone joined other Japanese-Canadians to build the Toronto Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC), which opened in 1963. The centre offered in everything from judo to ikebana fl ower arranging, and also held festivals and events.

At home, the neighbours contacted Coby for help with everything from hanging pictures to fi xing bicycles to fi xing a burst hot water tank If someone had a skunk in the window well, he’d take a board from his collection and nail bacon on it to lure the skunk out. He sold tickets to JCCC dances to the neighbours and they would all dress up and go out together. He was also an active member of the Yorkminster United Church.

Coby encouraged us to pursue our education, saying, “They can’t take knowledge away from you.” He was happy that all his children went to university.

Coby and Yone travelled widely to Europe, Egypt, the Caribbean and Asia. They continued their support of the JCCC, which named the auditorium in their honour.

During the two-week hospitalization leading to his death in 1999, Coby couldn’t bring himself to stop working. Seeing how many visitors came to see him, he called up his son Marty from his hospital bed and said, “You’d better bring down some business cards and pamphlets—there are a lot of people here!” On Coby’s last day, a young doctor who knew him came to offer tearful condolences, saying Coby was a remarkable man.

He died on August 10, 1999, and to that day, his UBC yearbook with his fi rst-year photo rested on the credenza in his offi ce.


Katherine Setsu ShimotakaharaBORN June 1920 DIED September 1970

KATHERINE SETSU SHI-MOTAKAHARA was born on June 4, 1920 in Burnaby. She was the fi rstborn of Toryaryu and Hideko Shimotakahara and sister to Lillian, Lloyd, Margie and Hazel. Japanese was her fi rst language. Katherine at-tended Gilmore Elementary School and Burnaby North High School. At UBC, she completed a degree in science.

As a young child Katherine contracted polio, which signifi cantly limited the use of her right arm. Piano lessons were de rigueur in the Shimotakahara home. Having

mastered the left-hand-only piano repertoire, Katherine turned to singing. In her teens and early twenties, she sang in music festivals and was often a soloist at church.

Katherine married Hajime “Jimmy” Suzuki on December 22, 1942 in Montréal. Their fi rstborn, Larry, was born in 1944 in Verdun, Quebec. The family of three moved to Vancouver in 1947. Three more children followed: Karen, in 1949; Chris, in 1952; and Kirk, in 1963.

With one girl and three boys in the family, Katherine and Jimmy decided that all children would

have “equal access” to, and/or exemption from, domestic duties. Jimmy and Katherine decided not to send their children to Japanese language school, because Katherine remembered that girls were not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities. The Suzuki children took full advantage of the time to participate in a variety of sports and activities at their elementary and high schools.

Katherine was an avid gardener and lover of all things botanical. The family home abounded with plants. She had a reputation of

being a very meticulous grocery shopper. Katherine was known for her culinary skills and every year prepared a New Year’s feast for family, friends and neighbours.

Katherine was a dedicated listener and supporter of the CBC. “Live at the Met” was one of her favourites. One of her fears was “brain rot.” She contemplated returning to UBC to become a teacher after Kirk, the youngest child, entered school. Sadly, she died in September, 1970 at the age of 50 and was not able to pursue this aspiration.


Lillian Yuriko ShimotakaharaBORN 1922 DIED 2006

LILLIAN YURIKO SHIMO-TAKAHARA, the second daugh-ter of Toraryu and Hideko Shimo-takahara, was born in Vancouver on March 7, 1922 and grew up on Keefer Street in North Burnaby. She attended Gilmore Elementary and Burnaby North High School. She took classes at the Japanese Language School on Alexander Street and was active in Vancouver’s Japanese United Church. Her fa-ther, Toraryu Shimotakahara, was a successful businessman, operating several Vancouver women’s clothing stores.

From 1940 to 1942, she attended the University of British Columbia, where she met her future husband Charles Kadota. Lillian kept a diary from 1939 to 1943, in which she wrote this account shortly before her family and other Japanese-Canadians were forced to leave Vancouver:

“March 30, 1942: Things are working fast now. Rumours, absurd and real, are fl oating around...the Nisei (second-generation Japanese-Canadians), fi rst bunch, fi nally consented to go and left for Ontario last night. At university today, some students were getting fussed about this. We might not be able to write fi nal exams now. The Nisei boys are registering tomorrow when they fi nd out their ‘cold-blooded’ fate. Daddy received a notice to leave for camp on April 7.”

In order to avoid the internment order, her family moved to Montréal, Quebec in 1942.

Lillian was able to continue her university at the newly established Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) in Montréal, where she graduated with a degree in sociology. After Charles moved to Toronto in 1942, he and Lillian soon

started dating again. Charles moved to Montréal and the two were married there on August 9, 1947. Their fi rst daughter, Jennifer, was born in Montréal in 1949.

The family returned to Vancouver in 1951. Soon after, they moved into their home at 57th and Oak Street, where they lived for 53 years. Three more daughters, Constance, Diane and Shelley, were born in Vancouver between 1951 and 1961. All of their daughters, as well as their grandson, later graduated from the University of British Columbia. Lillian was one of the original charter members of the Japanese Canadian WIMO (Wives and Mothers) group and was active in the English-speaking congregation of the Vancouver Japanese United Church. Lillian, Charles and their daughters also worked to gain redress for the

wrongful internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War. In 1988, a formal apology was issued by the Canadian federal government, and reparations were made to the Japanese-Canadian community and those affected by the internment.

Lillian and Charles were active world travelers during their retirement years, enjoying trips to Asia, Europe, South America and Africa. They were also active patrons of the arts, attending many concerts and performances in Vancouver. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997.

Lillian and Charles have three grandchildren: Gareth Madoc-Jones, Sian Madoc-Jones and Kiyoshi Kadota.

Lillian passed away in 2006 at the age of 84.


Lloyd ShimotakaharaBORN August 6, 1923 DIED January 7, 2004

OCCUPATION Businessman

LLOYD SHIMOTAKAHARA was born on August 6, 1923 in North Burnaby, BC. He attended both elementary and high school in North Burnaby, and then attended UBC in 1945, completing one year in Arts.

The family then moved directly to Montréal, and did not go to an internment camp. Lloyd completed his studies in Montréal

and graduated from Sir George Williams College, now called Concordia University, with a degree in science and commerce in 1945. After graduating he worked in the family business until retirement.

Lloyd married Donalda (Donnie) Tsuyuki, and they have fi ve children and fi ve grandchildren. He passed away on January 7, 2004 at the age of 80.


Royhei (Roy) ShinobuBORN September 7, 1920 OCCUPATION Doctor, psychiatrist

ROYHEI (ROY) SHINOBU was born on September 7, 1920 in Ishinomori, Miyagiken, Japan. At the age of two, his parents brought him to Vancouver in 1922. He became a naturalized citizen. His schooling was spent at the Hast-ings East Public School, Temple-ton Junior High School and Bri-tannia High School. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia and received his BA in honours chemistry in 1942. He was also in the COTC.

When the Japanese-Canadians were sent away from the BC coast, Roy and his family were sent to Kaslo, an internment camp in the interior of BC. They stayed there from 1942 to 1944, when they relocated to Toronto, Ontario. He enrolled at the University of Toronto in 1945 and graduated with a medical degree in 1949. From 1949 to 1950, he was a junior intern at the Ottawa Civic General Hospital. His fi rst general practice was in Carlton Place,

Ontario from 1950 to 1952, with more in Bloor/Sherbourne in Toronto from 1952 to 1956. From 1956 to 1960 he had a general practice in Don Mills, Ontario.

In 1960 Roy enrolled again at the University of Toronto and earned a FRCP Psychiatry in 1964. From 1964 until 1968, he practiced at the North York Mental Health Centre. At the North York General Hospital from 1968 to 1998, he was with the department of psychiatry. From 1970 to 1980,

Roy was a psychiatric consultant at the Toronto Rehabilitation Centre. He was chief of the department of psychiatry at the North York General Hospital from 1978 to 1983.

Roy retired from practice in 1998. He was a board member of the Momiji Health Care Society in Toronto from 1976 to 1998.

Roy is married to Maki (Toguri) and has two children, Leslie and Doug.


David Fumiaki ShiozakiBORN 1921

OCCUPATION Manufacturing

DAVID FUMIAKI SHIO-ZAKI was born on June 13, 1921 in New Westminster, the eldest of three children. David attended Strathcona Public School and Britannia High School. He gradu-ated from UBC earning his Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1942. He had permission to stay to fi nish his fi nal exams, but was not allowed to

attend graduation. David did social work in the ghost towns of BC before moving back to Greenwood to his family. They were then forced out and moved to Toronto. David then spent fi ve years in Montréal work-ing at Crown Waterproof, a raincoat manufacturer. It was there that he met Emiko (Emy) Koyanagi, and they married in 1954.

In Toronto, David worked at Garfi eld’s Limited for 16 years. He then became the controller at Star Bedding Products, where he worked until he retired at the age of 68.

His family was his life. His son became a dentist with his own practice in Scarborough. David did the accounting, well past retirement age. He and Emy travelled to visit

her family, still living in BC. There were many visitors from Japan and relatives in Canada. All were welcomed and treated royally. David loved his daughter-in-law, Pearl, and his two grandchildren, Michael David and Kristen Emiko. He was very proud of them.


F. Richard ShiozakiBORN 1924 OCCUPATION Draftsman, engineer

FUMIHARU RICHARD Shiozaki was born on Feb. 5, 1924 to Mrs. Tomiko and Mr. Bunshichi Shiozaki in Yakayama Prefecture, Japan. He was christened Richard and had an older brother, Fumiaki David, and a younger sister, Kimiko.

Richard attended Strathcona Public School and Britannia High School. He had a newspaper route which paid for his university fees.

It was in his fi rst year that Pearl Harbor was bombed and he was not allowed to continue at UBC. The government asked for student volunteers to teach English at Hastings Park, where many Japanese-Canadians, children included, were being held pending evacuation. Richard volunteered.

He was only there about a week when he heard that the government wanted people to leave BC voluntarily. He and his friends paid their own way to Ontario. The Premier of Ontario, Mitchell Hepburn, found work for them and others, at farms and businesses. Richard went to Archie Blue’s beet farm near Iona Station. He was there three months during the summer and then paid his way to get to Toronto to look for work. He joined the Toronto Equipment Manufacturing Company in the machine shop. Then he became a foreman at A & W Machine, where his good friend Tom Takashima worked. Tom, John Miura and Richard were like the Three

Musketeers. They were close friends for life, even buying a car together.

When the war ended, the machine shops were no longer needed to produce parts for the war, so many of them closed. Richard could not fi nd work as so many veterans were also job hunting. He decided to go back to school. His fi rst two years studying engineering at the University of Toronto were in Ajax, as the university was overcrowded. Like many Japanese-Canadians who had some university already, they had to do extra years at university. He graduated in 1950 as with a degree in engineering. Richard joined the Massey Ferguson fi rm as a draftsman. He went to see them every Monday for

fi ve weeks before they recognized his perseverance and hired him. He eventually went to work for Canada Packers. He designed feed and fertilizer mills. He retired in 1987 after 32 years of service.

Richard met and married Geri Nikaido in 1951. She had been at UBC in her second year when she was told to leave the university.

In 1952, they had their fi rst of four children. Geri had graduated form the University of Toronto in 1944 and completed her early childhood education at the Institute of Child Studies. She worked as a nursery school supervisor. Richard took the family on many car vacations. Geri and Richard traveled extensively.


Henry Norihiko Shoji

HENRY SHOJI went to Strathcona Elementary School and graduated from Vancouver Tech High School. In 1940, at the age of 17, he entered UBC in the pre-

engineering faculty. Due to the evacuation, he left UBC and went straight to McMaster University in Ontario.


Mits Michiyoshi SumiyaBORN November 22, 1922 OCCUPATION Engineer, entrepreneur

MITS SUMIYA planned to be an engineer while he was a fi rst-year general studies student. He took a long, winding route, but he got there.

Sumiya was born in Bowen Island on November 22, 1922. His family followed the logging route with their father: Barkin to Gray’s Creek to O’Brien’s Bay. In 1929 they moved to Vancouver, where Sumiya went to Strathcona Public School and Vancouver Technical School, where he gained technical skill and joined the Air Cadets.

He entered UBC in 1941, living with his family, working and commuting to classes. His main interaction with campus culture

was with the COTC, where he swore allegiance to the Crown and undertook compulsory military training, only to be stricken off the roster after Pearl Harbor.

Sumiya deferred eviction from the coast until he fi nished his exams. When he had nothing left to write, he refused to go to road-building camp on the basis that it constituted slave labour, a stand that saw him handed over to the military and housed in a prisoner of war camp in Angler, Ontario.

After the war in 1946, Sumiya was released from the PoW camp. As an undergraduate student, he had his sights set on establishing himself in Toronto. After his

release, he made it as close as they’d let him go: a mushroom farm fi fteen miles away in Port Credit. He was given a bus ticket and $12 for food and sent on his way.

After a short time as a farm labourer, Sumiya’s skills with mechanics gained from Vancouver Tech helped him apply for a chauffeur’s licence, which let him drive the farm truck.

Sumiya bought a house in Vancouver with his two brothers in 1950, and got a job with Mitchell Manufacturing in fl uorescent lighting, which he saw as the way of the future. His work in research and design got him an invitation to join Wilson Lighting’s PR division in

1959, the same year he married his wife Gloria.

Sumiya served as an R&D manager, product development and engineering manager for a number of fl uorescent lighting companies, including Wilson, Donn Canada, Thomas Industries and Gypsum. After retiring in 1989, he ran a consultancy company for fi ve years. He has two sons: Yoshio, a lawyer in Red Deer, and Kiyo, a specialist in de-icing planes at Pearson International Airport. Kiyo and his wife Linda have a daughter named Kelly.


Goji (George) SuzukiBORN November 1920 DIED April 2010

OCCUPATION Contractor, educator

GOJI (GEORGE) SUZUKI was born in Vancouver, BC in November 1920 to Sentaro Suzuki and Shika Nemi. He was a second generation Japanese-Canadian, born to a fi sherman’s family of seven children. Goji attended UBC from September to December of 1940, and was asked to leave along with the other Japanese-Ca-nadians when war was declared.

After the war, the Japanese-Canadians were informed that their homes, businesses and belongings had been sold for next to nothing. They were given some of that money and ordered to move east or go to Japan.

Goji was not invited to continue his education at UBC, and it was not until his children were older and he had worked his way up to the level of an

independent contractor that he applied to the University of Western Ontario. He obtained his BA there, taking classes at night and also at Althouse Teacher’s College, and after graduating applied to Fanshawe College, getting hired to teach construction and surveying. He retired in 1980 and decided to build a house on Vancouver Island.

Goji, known by his Christian name of George by many, was a devoted provider and loving father to myself and my siblings. He was a humble man and drew much satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from teaching and coaching.

My father died in April of 2010.



Roy Noburo OshiroBORN 1921 OCCUPATION Teacher, minister, missionary

ROY OSHIRO was born in Bran-don, Manitoba in 1921 and had two younger brothers, George and Aki.

However, the Great Depression created hardships for them, and the family made the difficult decision for his mother, Masako, and the three children to return to Okinawa, Japan.

The family returned to BC in 1932 and Roy attended Templeton and Britannia high schools. The virulent racism that attended the war with Japan brought years of trials and tribulation for the family. Roy recalls that his dad had mixed feelings and said to the family, “Dou shiyou?” (“What should we do?”). That decision was soon made for them, as the King government forced the uprooting of all Japanese-Canadians.

His father, Kamasuke, and his family left BC for the sugar beet farms of Alberta, eventually settling in Coaldale. During the uprooting and dislocation, BC Wood and Coal was sold out from under

them and the family struggled to make ends meet. Roy, then in his 20s, was able to take teacher’s training in Alberta in 1943 due to labour shortages during the war. He began teaching in a Hutterite community in Alberta and went on to teach in other public schools. Roy had been greatly impressed by Christians who had helped people during the hard years. This led him to becoming a minister. He was ordained and in 1955 went to Okinawa as a missionary. He remains there today. Roy told us, “I’m an Okinawan, but I’m a Canadian too.” He returned to Canada on a number of occasions, including in 2000 for the 100th anniversary commemoration of the arrival of Makishi Anson, the first Okinawan to come to Canada. An Okinawan-Canadian elder, Roy is a living symbol of those whose life trajectories spanned the East China Sea across the Pacific to Canada.


Saburo TakahashiBORN 1919 DIED 2008

OCCUPATION Engineer, journalist

SABURO “SAM” TAKA-HASHI was born in Ibaraki, Japan in 1919. When he was fi ve months old, his mother brought him to Victoria, where his family was residing.

In 1936, Saburo enrolled at Victoria College. After a couple of years there, he moved to Vancouver to begin studies in the mechanical engineering program at UBC. Saburo was a member of the Class of ’42, but his education was interrupted in April of that year by the Security Commission’s evacuation order.

After a short stay in Hastings Park, Saburo headed to Edmonton, where he planned on writing his fourth-year exams at the University of Alberta.

Following an incident with the RCMP on his way to Edmonton, Saburo’s father requested that

he immediately join the family in Toronto. He did, and was eventually able to complete his fourth-year engineering studies and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1945.

As a mechanical engineer, Saburo had a passion for aerospace projects, and over his career he contributed to the design and development of a variety of military and civilian aircrafts.

He and his wife, Toshie, were active volunteers at the Japanese Canadian United Church, the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre and the Nikkei Voice, a Japanese-Canadian newspaper. They also dedicated many hours to the pioneering of what is now the Momiji Health Care Society.

He passed away just before Christmas of 2008 at the age of 89.


WILLIAM HIROSHI TAKEDA was born August 1, 1921 in Vancouver, the eldest of fi ve children. He grew up with his family in Woodfi bre, BC. He enrolled in the Science program at UBC in 1941. With the onset of the war in 1942, he was sent to an internment camp in the interior of BC. Along with many other Japa-nese-Canadians, Bill later moved east to Ontario. There, he briefl y served in the Canadian Army Infantry Corps from July 1945 until his discharge on December 22, 1945.

Bill then worked as a labourer on farms in Leamington, Simcoe and Delhi, before moving to Toronto, where he became an insurance agent for Dominion Life. In Toronto, Bill met and married Kiyoko Kay Yamashita in 1947,

and they raised a family of four children. Bill subsequently started his own successful insurance agency.

He enjoyed fi shing, travelling with the Nisei Vets group, and playing golf at Cedarbrae Golf Club with Kay.

Active in the Japanese-Canadian community in Toronto, Bill served as treasurer for the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre from 1958-1961, and was one of the original 75 guarantors of the1962 debenture loan to complete the building of the fi rst JCCC on Wynford Drive in 1964. He also served as a director of the JCCC on and off through the late 60s and 70s. Bill passed away prematurely in 1979, just before his 58th birthday.

William Hiroshi TakedaBORN 1921 DIED 1979OCCUPATION Insurance broker


Luke TanabeBORN October 20, 1920 DIED November 16, 2009

OCCUPATION Entrepreneur

LUKE TANABE WAS already a well-known UBC Commerce graduate in 1941, and his hard work after the war spread his clothes around the world.

Tanabe graduated from UBC after taking classes in business and fi nance, and was elected the head of the Seikokai Anglican Young People’s Association in October of 1941, according to an issue of the the New Canadian.

Born on October 20, 1920, Tanabe was one of three children in a family that ran a watch repair shop, where Tanabe learned his father’s technical skill and his mother’s gift for sales. With the onset of the war, the Tanabes lost their shop and were moved to an internment camp. Luke accepted an offer to work for the Ontario Farm Service Force near St. Thomas, Ontario. “Family members say that the experience changed him,” reads an obituary in the Globe and Mail. “After the war, he preferred to think of himself

less as a Canadian and more as a citizen of the world.”

Tanabe got a job as a salesman with a glove company in Toronto, where he married Ruby Miyake, who had also been interned during the war, in 1948. This led to him working for a trading company importing clothing from Japan, an experience that helped him launch Ports International in 1966. Ports imported and designed blouses using polysilk, a new fabric designed in Japan. The blouses caught on and were sold in Eaton’s, Simpson’s and high-end retailers around the world. Later, Tanabe started Tabi International, an affordable clothing line.

He passed away on November 16, 2009 in Toronto, leaving his wife Ruby and his daughters Midori, Mariko, Lee, Emi and Miki, the latter of whom became a fashion designer in her own right.—With fi les from the Globe and Mail


Samuel George Toshitoki ToguriBORN July 25, 1921 DIED September 11, 2009 OCCUPATION Civil engineer

SAM TOGURI was a second-year arts and science student in 1942. Born in Prince Rupert on July 25 1921, Toguri and his seven siblings grew up learning to play music, fi nd edible food in the forest and debate each other at the dinner table.

When the War Measures Act was passed, the family was taken to Hastings Park, a stable at the PNE racecourse used as a holding facility used for Japanese-Canadians that were being evacuated from the coast. The family was moved to a ghost town in Slocan where they were housed fi rst in tents and then tarpaper shacks. Sam was permitted to leave the family and go east,

where he found construction work in Montreal. Sam volunteered for a Japanese-Canadian community centre donated by a priest named Claude Labrecque, buying ice cream for events, wood for building projects and, after he began working for a land developer as a civil engineer, his expertise in building a new centre bought with restitution money from the Mulroney government. Sam died of cancer on September 11, 2009, leaving fi ve siblings, his daughter Tokiko and son James, who learned their father’s credo: “You have to know where you came from in order to know where you’re going.”


Kenryu T. TsujiBORN 1919 DIED 2004

OCCUPATION Buddhist minister, fi lm director and producer

REVEREND KENRYU TAKASHI TSUJI was born in Mission City, BC, and graduated from the University of British Columbia. He at-tended Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, as part of his effort to enter the Shin Buddhist ministry. He earned a black belt in judo and received religious ordination from the Nishi Hongwanji sect just before the start of World War II.

He was appointed the minister of Hompa Buddhist Temple in Vancouver, BC. However, like all Canadians of Japanese ancestry who lived on the West Coast, in October 1942 he was forced into an internment camp. The 23-year-old Bishop Tsuji was sent to the camp at Slocan, BC, where he was appointed principal of Bayfarm Elementary School.

In 1945, after the camp was closed, Tsuji was unable to reclaim his father’s 35-acre berry farm, so he settled in Toronto. He worked on a mushroom farm, washed dishes and worked in a chemical factory to support himself. As other Japanese-Canadians moved to Toronto, Tsuji and others formed the Toronto Buddhist Church, the largest Buddhist congregation in Canada. The next year, he formed Hamilton Buddhist Church and later Montréal Buddhist Church.

Tsuji was appointed national director of Buddhist education for Buddhist Churches of America in 1958 and moved to San Francisco.

In 1968, Tsuji was elected the fi rst Nisei, or second-generation Japanese North American, bishop of the national Buddhist Churches of America and became president of the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. He became a fi lm director and producer and created several Buddhist fi lms.

He started congregations in Canada and California and, in 1981, at an age when many others would have retired, moved to Virginia and organized the fi rst Shin Buddhist temple in the southeastern United States, Ekoji Buddhist Temple in Springfi eld.

Tsuji was the fi rst Buddhist to be president of the US affi liate of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, serving from 1983 to 1989. He was a guest at an interfaith breakfast at the White House with President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Tsuji retired in the fall of 1999, was named Buddhist Churches of America minister emeritus and moved to Foster City, California.


Koichi TsujimuraOCCUPATION Engineer

KOICHI TSUJIMURA was a fourth-year student at UBC in 1942. He was in the Faculty of Applied Science, studying chemi-cal engineering. After being forced to leave UBC, the University of Toronto accepted his previous credits, so he was able to graduate as a chemical engineer. He then worked for Strato Flex Canada until he retired. After becoming vice-president of sales, he travelled

extensively around Europe and the United States. The company was eventually bought out after he retired. He lived with his wife in Etobicoke, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.

Koichi’s wife, Ruth Hirano Tsujimura, was unable to provide information on his time in Vancouver or his university experience; she said that he was a very quiet man and did not talk about himself very much.


Lily Yuriko UyedaBORN January 28, 1922 DIED February 12, 1987

OCCUPATION Associate minister

LILY YURIKO UYEDA was born in Vancouver, BC on January 28, 1922. Lily was the youngest child of Bunjiro and Kimi Uyeda, both of whom had emigrated from Japan.

While a student at UBC, Lily became interested in the work of the Student Christian Movement. In 1943, after the Uyeda family had moved to Montréal, Lily took a secretarial job with the Quebec Religious Education Council. Her time there sparked an interest in working for the church, and she moved to Toronto to attend Emmanuel College and Victoria University at the University of Toronto. Lily graduated as a deaconess (now diaconal minister) of the United Church of Canada, working at Olivet United Church and Melrose United in Hamilton and St. Luke’s in Toronto. She

took a year to study at the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York, and in 1977 she became associate minister at Knox Church in Brandon, Manitoba. She remained there until retiring in 1982.

Lily was a passionate supporter of Amnesty International, and with her soft-spoken determination, fought all her life for justice and peace.

Lily had many lifelong friends to whom she was deeply committed, as they were to her until the end of her life. Lily, like her older sister Mariko, was a wonderful role model for her niece and nephews, and a much loved member of our family.

We cannot recall any conversations with Lily about the events of 1942. She died of cancer on February 12, 1987.


Mariko UyedaBORN May 3, 1920 DIED 2006

MARIKO UYEDA was born in Vancou-ver, BC on May 3, 1920. She was the middle child of Bunjiro and Kimi Uyeda, both of whom had emigrated from Japan.

Mariko attended Lord Byng High School in Vancouver and then went on to UBC. She completed her degree at Queen’s University, and went on to become a teacher in Montréal. She began teaching in the elementary grades and fi nished her career as department head of business at Verdun High School.

Mariko always loved classical music; she studied voice with the renowned Pauline Donalda and sang with the Montreal Bach Choir for many years. She also helped her niece and nephews with their music lessons as they were growing up in Montréal. Our aunt was an inspiring role model for us.

Later in life, Mariko married Winston Curry, a movie theatre manager in Montréal.

They lived in Montréal for several years before moving to Oakville, Ontario. Mariko spent many happy hours there in her back garden. She and Winston travelled extensively and attended concerts in Toronto and plays in Stratford.

Mariko was a beautiful, elegant, intelligent woman. She appreciated beauty and accomplishment in the world, and was a generous supporter of many arts and culture organizations. Mariko had many friends throughout her life. She loved her friends, and they were intensely loyal to her.

Mariko said very little about the internment and having her education taken from her. She did reveal to us once that the imposed curfew was a terrible humiliation. She never wanted to return to Vancouver, and other than to board a cruise ship, she never did.

Mariko died in 2006. We miss her.


Michiyo NaruseBORN May 19, 1917 DIED March 1, 1998

OCCUPATION Nurse, entrepreneur

MICHIYO NARUSE WAS born in Vancouver, BC on May 19, 1917.

In 1941 she had received her Vancouver General Hospital Diploma on completion of a three-year course in the theory and practice of nursing, which was required study leading to her six-year BASc. The next year, Mikkie completed her fi nal year of study at the UBC.

Mikkie remained in Vancouver

after the evacuation to complete her nursing degree. In early May she received permission to attend her graduation exercises at UBC.

By December, Mikkie had moved east to Montréal and worked at Children’s Memorial Hospital as a surgical teaching supervisor.

In May 1950 she married Henry Kanao Naruse and they moved to Trail, BC.

While raising her children, Mikkie was also heavily involved

in the community. Of note was her involvement as ethnic group co-coordinator in the annual Folk Festival events.

The 1970s were spent transitioning back into the workplace. Refresher courses at BCIT led to a position at the Trail Regional Hospital. The data she collected while working at the hospital became content for her thesis, leading to a Master’s in Health Care Planning from UBC in

1981.Soon after, she made a

complete career change. She obtained a diploma in Fashion Design and Merchandising at Blanche Macdonald School, and in 1987 she opened a new business in Vancouver, Leg-A-See Fashions.

She spent her remaining days in Trail and died on March 1, 1998.


Teiso UyenoBORN March 31, 1921 OCCUPATION Scientist

TEISO UYENO was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on March 31, 1921. His parents were Ritsuichi and Kuye Uyeno, immigrants from Japan. He went to Strathcona Public School and the Vancouver Japanese Lan-guage School. When he fi nished elementary school, he went on to Britannia High School. In the fall of 1940, he started his fi rst year at the University of British Columbia.

In September 1942, he was forced to evacuate to a detention camp near New Denver in the BC interior. In the spring of 1943, he was hired by the BC Security Commission, the provincial body managing Japanese-Canadian internment, to teach science to interned elementary school students. He also taught physical education classes for boys in grades four to six. In the fall, he was transferred to teach at another internment camp in Kaslo, BC.

After teaching enthusiastic pupils, Teiso was inspired to continue his education at the University of Toronto. He became interested in psychology, and after receiving his BA in 1947, he

earned his MA in psychology and statistics in 1952.

With a dissertation titled “The Effects of Heredity and Environment on the Dominance Behavior of the Albino Rat,” he was granted his PhD in experimental psychology and education in 1958.

He was informed by a post-graduate student from Stanford University that Drs. Leon Festinger and Douglas Lawrence of Stanford needed a qualifi ed PhD in experimental psychology as a research associate for testing dissonance theory in albino rats. Teiso applied for the position and was accepted. In 1961, he began his employment at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as a behavioural psycho-pharmacologist. He continued to work there until his retirement in 1994.

Teiso is an author or co-author of over 100 scientifi c publications. Six National Institute of Health gratis provided funding for approximately sixty of his publications. Today, he is a member of the SRI Alumni Association.


Saburo WatanabeBORN April 24, 1922 DIED August 10, 2007

OCCUPATION Engineer

SABURO WATANABE was born April 24, 1922 in Surrey, BC.

Saburo attended Britannia High School in East Vancouver and graduated in 1940. After high school he studied engineering at UBC.

In 1942, he was notifi ed that he had to leave UBC, because he was a Japanese-Canadian and considered a risk to become a “spy” for the Japanese government.

Saburo was eventually accepted by the University of Manitoba and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1946.

He started off working for a large engineering fi rm and then moved on to work independently as a consulting engineer.

He worked with Roland Kilborn and SNC, the largest engineering fi rm in Canada, where

he was promoted to the position of chief electrical engineer. He stayed with SNC until his retirement in 1975 at age 53.

Saburo met his wife Kinue in Montréal in July of 1979 and moved to Richmond later that year. Saburo and Kinue married on November 1, 1979 in New Westminster.

He continued to work after retirement for PBK Engineering in

Vancouver and did power systems engineering for BC Place.

In 1983, his daughter Nicole was born, and in 1984, his son Marc was born.

On August 10, 2007, Saburo passed away peacefully at Rotary Hospice in Richmond at the age of 85.


Nana TamakiBORN July 1, 1920 DIED 1977OCCUPATION Nurse

NANA TAMAKI was born on July 1, 1920 in Vancouver, BC. She grew up in Vancouver but unfortunately very little informa-tion could be found about her time at UBC other than it was there that she met her future husband, George Tamaki. She completed her nursing training in Alberta but returned to BC to be with her fam-ily at the Slocan internment camp.

After her marriage to George

in 1945, she lived in Regina from 1945-50 and in Montréal from 1950 until her death in 1977 at the age of 56.

She will always be remembered by her children, Paul, Alan and Kathy, and other family members and friends for her kindness, optimism and love of life.


George YamashitaBORN November 6, 1919 DIED November 12, 2002

OCCUPATION Accountant

GEORGE SHOJI YAMASHITA was born on November 6, 1919 at Blunden Harbour, British Columbia to Mr. and Mrs. Isoji Yamashita.

He grew up in Vancouver, BC and attended UBC, pursuing and fulfi lling study in the faculties of Arts and Science. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree on May 14, 1942.

During his years at UBC, he spent his free summers working at the pulp mills at Port McNeil and Ocean Falls. After graduating from UBC, he left Vancouver with the other Nisei graduates from UBC to work on a farm in Fingal, Ontario.

George said that in the employment situation at that time,

no good choices were available, and there was also discrimination towards Japanese-Canadians. He made the reluctant but necessary choice to go into farming.

Professor Morrow, the head of UBC’s Commerce department, was the benevolent father to the Nisei students. He continued to look after the graduates and forwarded advice to his graduates who now were back east. His determination, encouragement and advice encouraged George to seek employment in his chosen profession.

After several months of farm work, George decided to look for a job as an accountant in Montréal. There were no jobs at fi rst, but shortly thereafter George

was accepted with Margolese and Margolese, Auditors and Accountants. George was very grateful that he was accepted for the white-collar job for which he was trained; he had achieved a major milestone.

George was accepted into the chartered accountant program in 1944. He was also happy to be able to vote in the Canadian elections as a Canadian citizen in 1944. Shortly thereafter, George’s parents joined him in Montréal, along with his sister Elizabeth and brothers Tom, Bruce, David and Gordon.

In Montréal, George was involved with Japanese-Canadian community work. He also worked

with the Montreal Japanese United Church and was a church elder for many years.

He was also a fi fth dan in judo and was the principal instructor for the junior division of the Seidokan Judo Academy in Montréal.

He married Joanne Sakiye Takashima on October 16, 1948.

George passed away in Montréal on November 12, 2002. Joanne passed away in Montréal December 3, 2007.

Their ashes are interred in Valleyview Memorial Gardens in Surrey, BC.


Minoru YatabeBORN September 15,1922 OCCUPATION Engineer

I WAS BORN on September 15, 1922 in the Kitsilano district of Vancouver to Japanese parents. I attended Henry Hudson School and then Kitsilano High School.

After I wrote the junior matriculation exams, I was awarded a one-year bursary scholarship to UBC. I enrolled in engineering, which commenced after the 1940-41 year. That summer, I decided to work and earn enough for all my remaining years. My plans fell apart when Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7 of that year, and I returned home shortly afterwards.

I was fortunate that I was able to go to Ontario instead of going to a road camp, thanks to the actions of my father and one of his clients. In

the spring of 1942 my brother and I arrived in St. Thomas to work for Premier Mitch Hepburn, and the rest of our family joined us several months later.

After working on the farm for a year and a half, I left to seek other work in London, Ontario. I was hired as a printing ink technician by the branch offi ce of a large printing ink company.

After many years of offi cial exclusion of any person of Japanese parentage from enlistment in the Canadian military forces, Canada yielded to outside pressures in January 1945 and agreed to allow enlistment with several conditions. In March 1945, the doors opened and many of the

boys joined, including myself. My draft went overseas in January 1946 as sergeants in the Canadian Intelligence Corps. I became attached to the British Intelligence Corps and served in the South-East Asia Command. I was discharged from the army on July 1947.

Shortly after my army discharge, I went back to my former workplace and worked for a year. I felt a need to fi nish my education, so I enrolled in the University of Toronto Chemical Engineering Class of 5T2. After my graduation in 1952, I worked briefl y for a Kingston company, and then I took a research position in sanitary engineering at Queen’s. After three years there, I was asked to join a prominent

sanitary engineering consulting fi rm in Toronto. I spent 35 interesting and fruitful years with this company.

In 1952 I married Lydia Nakamura from Edmonton and we raised a son and two daughters. We have fi ve grandchildren.

We did volunteer work for many organizations, including seniors’ groups, the United Church, Boy Scouts, the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre, the S-20 and Nisei Veterans Association and the Royal Canadian Legion.

We now live in a seniors’ retirement residence.


Edward YoshiokaBORN January 28, 1923 DIED February 2, 1990

OCCUPATION Pastor

EDWARD SHUMPEI YOSHIOKA was born in Vancouver on January 28, 1923.

Ed entered the UBC in 1941. In January 1942 he was struck from the ranks of the Canadian Offi cers’ Training Corps and ordered to turn in his uniform. When he was forced to leave BC, he was able to transfer to the University of Toronto due to the intervention of sympathetic offi cials within Victoria University.

An outstanding student, Ed was awarded the Prince of Wales Gold Medal and several scholarships. He earned his BA from the University of Toronto in 1944 and a diploma in theology from Emmanuel College in 1947. He obtained an MA in Semitics from U of T in 1950.

Ed’s fi rst wife was Jean Preston, and he

was married to her until she passed away in 1956. After serving a congregation in Invermay, Saskatchewan, he studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York and earned a Bachelor of Divinity.

In 1959 he married Alison Andrews and had two sons with her, Andrew and Alan. In 1961 he was pastor to the Nisei of the Toronto Japanese Church and in 1963 undertook two years of clinical pastoral training at Dalhousie University.

He worked until he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1988.

Trusting that the sufferings he had undergone from his illness could have redemptive value, he died in Toronto on February 2, 1990.


Thomas Iowa YamashitaBORN June 3, 1921 DIED September 10, 2005OCCUPATION Nurse

TOM WAS BORN on June 3, 1921 at Blunden Harbor, B.C. to parents Isoji and Etsu Yamashita.

He went to the Central Public School and King George High School in Vancouver and then enrolled at University of British Columbia. While at UBC in 1941, he enrolled with the university’s Canadian Offi cer Training Corps.

A month later, because of the Pearl Harbor attack, he was ordered by the university’s senate to turn in his uniforms.

In 1942, when Japanese-Canadians were forced from their homes on orders from the B.C. and Canadian Federal Governments, Tom went on his own to Toronto while his family was sent to the interior of B.C. to Bay Farm. He was denied entry into the College

of Optometry in Toronto because Japanese-Canadians then were barred from universities.

In May 1945, offi cers of the British Army came to Toronto specifi cally to recruit a unit of Japanese-Canadians to serve overseas. Tom, then 24, and several of his friends decided to join up. After basic military training, they spent one year in Vancouver, attending the required S-20 Japanese Language School.

In 1946, Sgt Tom Yamashita’s unit, Canadian 6th Division, traveled briefl y through England and then India, ending up in Singapore. From there, they separated and were sent to different places.

For over a year, Tom worked as a war crimes investigator for

the British Army, South East Asia Command, in Penang, an island north of Singapore. He was the only Canadian stationed there. He spent about four hours every day at the prison, questioning Japanese war criminals who had surrendered when the war ended and also some Japanese civilians.

Tom felt very comfortable among the local people of Penang and he made several good friends there. In fact, he continued to correspond with them for years. When he was discharged in September of 1947, it was with mixed feelings that Tom returned to Canada and settled in Montreal where his family relocated.

Tom received eight service medals, including those for the Canadian Infantry, the British

Army and the Canadian and British Intelligence Corps.

Tom moved to Montréal when he was discharged to rejoin his family and worked for Transport Canada and Environment Canada in Dorval until his retirement in 1993.

Tom was a quintessential volunteer, quietly and responsibly giving his time in the Montreal Japanese-Canadian Community. He was a weekly driver for seniors attending the Thursday Drop-In at the Cultural Centre, and the Sunday School treasurer at The Montreal Japanese United Church for more than 20 years.

He married Lil (Imai) in June 1959, and had a daughter, son-in law and two grandsons.

Tom passed away September 10, 2005.


INDEXAoki, TedArai, DouglasHanda, RoyHarada, Teruo TedHasegawa, JimHikida, Hideaki RobertHirano, ToshioIde, George RitsusaburoIkata, Lucy MiekoIkebuchi, YotaroInouye, John SusamuKadota, CharlesKagetsu, AkikoKagetsu, HajimeShimizu, KiyoshiKato, YoichiKawaguchi, JackKawahara, HideoKobayashi, JackKudo, AliceMatsui, RichardMitsui, KoeiMiura, John HideoMoriyama, HisatoshiNagata, Fusako RuthNagata, Shinko MaryNakashiba, GeorgeNamba, AkiraShiozaki, GeriNishio, Nori K.Nishio, Tomi-taroNishioka, GeorgeNoguchi, Kiichi GeorgeNose, Roy HiroshiObokata, ArthurOhama, GeorgeOkada, Henry YukioOkumura, Shigeharu

Okuna, Matthew S.Onizuka, Frederick ShigeoYamada, PeterOtsuki, Shigeyuki JukoSasaki, FrederickSasaki, MitsuruKobayashi, Coby YutakaShigei, HideoShimotakahara, Katherine SetsuShimotakahara, Lillian YurikoShimotakahara, LloydShinobu, Royhei (Roy)Shiozaki, David FumiakiShiozaki, F. RichardShoji, Henry NorihikoSumiya, Mits MichiyoshiSuzuki, Goji (George)Oshiro, Roy NoboruTakahashi, SaburoTakahashi, YoshitoTakeda, William HiroshiTakimoto, KimikoToguri, Samuel George ToshitokiTsuji, Kenryu T.Tsujimura, KoichiUyeda, Lily YurikoUyeda, MarikoNaruse, MichiyoUyeno, TeisoWatanabe, SaburoTamaki, NanaYamashita, GeorgeYamashita, Thomas IowaYano, Fred S.Yatabe, MinoruYoshioka, Edward

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*The following individuals are also

receiving honourary degrees.

However their biographies could not

be found.

RETURN a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 1942 81 RETURN a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 1942 81

82 RETURN a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 194282 RETURN a commemorative yearbook in honour of the Japanese Canadian students of 1942

CorrectionsThe Ubyssey regrets the following errors that were printed in the May 2012 release of Re-turn: A Commemorative Yearbook in Honour of the Japanese Canadian Students of 1942.

Page 33 – The wrong picture of Mary Nagata was printedPage 47 – The picture of Frederick Shigeo Onizuka was ommittedPage 57 – The wrong picture for David Fumiaki Shiozaki was printedPage 58 – The picture of Fumiharui Richard Shiozaki was omitted

In addition, The Ubyssey regerts the omission of Thomas Iwao Yamashita.

A revised copy of Return may be found online at ubyssey.ca/return. Additional copies of the book may be purchased via our printing partner, Issuu. Details can be found at the link above.


UTHE UBYSSEYOn the cover: A portrait of Mits Sumiya by Indiana Joel

ISBN 978-0-88-865011-5

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