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https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/425/

Choice to move east or go to Japan

The government said, I think United States and Canada knows Japan's gonna be... so before that, if you want to stay in Canada, move to east. Unless if you're gonna go Japan, you stay in Tashme. So the family in Tashme, we're the one family moved east. We're the first one, because when we moved, that day, it was a German was... so we were scared if a soldier saw us in the train, what... so Bob said, Just keep quiet, what they say everything, just keep quiet. Don't talk to them. But they didn't bother us. You know, they think we're Indian or something. [Laughs]

I*: How, how was the decision, because you could go to, I mean, the government will pay you to go to Japan, or move east. There was, how was that decision made?

Oh, yes, my father-in-law wants to go back to Japan. Of course, he was the oldest in the family, but I thought the younger one -- of course Miyoko speak Japanese and English both. But the others doesn't know how to speak Japanese. So I said, How could you take these girls to Japan? Well, good thing we didn't. Afterwards, we heard that they haven't got enough food, even the oldest family, my father-in-law was. You know, we haven't got the money. If you have lots of money to take to Japan is a different story. But those days, who got it, that kind of money? Especially we have to evacuate from their hometown and everything. So well, good thing we moved.

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


Canada migration postwar World War II

Date: February 14, 2005

Location: Toronto, Canada

Interviewer: Peter Wakayama

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

Interviewee Bio

Nisei female. Born September 29, 1920, in Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada. Went with parents to Japan in 1930, and attended school there. Returned to Canada in 1940 and married before being removed to Hastings Park and then Tashme, in Canada's interior. After leaving Tashme, moved to Toronto, where husband worked for the consul-general's office. Adopted two children. Became involved in the Ikenobo Society, and went to Japan to study ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging. Involved along with husband in the establishment of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto in the 1950s. (February 15, 2005)

*The full interview is available at Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki
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Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki

Grandmother's influence on decision to go to Japan

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

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George Ariyoshi
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George Ariyoshi

Prom during the war

(b.1926) Democratic politician and three-term Governor of Hawai'i

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Henry Shimizu
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Henry Shimizu

Grandmother convinced his mother to return to Canada

(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.

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Jean Hayashi Ariyoshi
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Jean Hayashi Ariyoshi

Day Pearl Harbor was bombed

Former First Lady of Hawai'i

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Kazuo Funai
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Kazuo Funai

First work in America (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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Kazuo Funai
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Kazuo Funai

Japan vs. the United States (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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Masako Iino
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Masako Iino

Interest in Japanese migration studies (Japanese)

Tsuda College President, researcher of Nikkei history

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Masako Iino
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Masako Iino

Learning from Nikkei (Japanese)

Tsuda College President, researcher of Nikkei history

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James Hirabayashi
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James Hirabayashi

Life in camp as teenager

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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Venancio Shinki
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Venancio Shinki

We go to America (Spanish)

(b. 1932-2016) Peruvian painter

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Steve Kaji
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Steve Kaji

FOB's

Hawaii born Nikkei living in Japan. English Teacher at YMCA.

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Robert Katayama
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Robert Katayama

Being ordered to keep a diary that was later confiscated, ostensibly by the FBI

Hawaiian Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Barbara Kawakami

Bombing of Pearl Harbor

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Barbara Kawakami

Helping soldiers

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Mas Kodani
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Mas Kodani

Fun at concentration camp

Senshin Buddhist Temple minister and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko.

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