Interviews

1. Why her parents came to Canada

2. Experiences during World War II

3. Life after internment in Slocan

Kutsukake,Rose

(1918-2004) Interned in Slocan during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community.

Why her parents came to Canada

I*: Rose...

Hai (Yes).

I: You know, do you know why your mother and father came to Canada?

Well, I guess they, they wanted to make money and go home, which, instead of making money, they got further and further into a hole, so they couldn't go back to Japan.

I: And what did they do in Vancouver?

Vancouver? Boarding house on Alexander, they call it Hiroshima, yeah. But if that had succeeded, we wouldn't have been rich, but at least we would have been able to go home to Japan to say that, well, we'll, here we are. But how can you go back to Japan in debt, right? Everybody's like that. So we stayed. [Interruption] [Inaudible], they'll think that.

*"I" indicates an interviewer (Peter Wakayama).

Date: December 2004

Location: Canada

Interviewer: Peter Wakayama

Contributed by: Sedai, the Japanese Canadian Legacy Project, Japanese Canadian Cultural Center

Interviewee Bio

Rose Mieko Sato was born on May 28, 1918, in Vancouver, British Columbia, where her parents ran a boarding house. She attended public school and the Japanese Language School in Vancouver. Prior to the war, she worked in sales in a Japanese department store. When the Japanese were removed from the British Columbia coast during World War II, Rose was interned with her family at Slocan, in the British Columbia interior. The family relocated to Toronto, Ontario in 1948, where Rose worked at various jobs in the garment industry. Rose married Ken Kutsukake in 1953 and was married for fifty years. Her husband was a member of the famous Asahi baseball team in prewar British Columbia. Both Rose and her husband were active members of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and the community. Rose passed away in Toronto in 2004.