Kelly Fleck
Kelly Fleck is the editor of the Nikkei Voice, a Japanese-Canadian national newspaper. A recent graduate of Carleton University's journalism and communication program, she volunteered with the paper for years before taking on the job. Working at Nikkei Voice, Fleck has her finger on the pulse of Japanese Canadian culture and community.
Updated July 2018
Stories from This Author
Cousins Janis Bridger and Lara Jean Okihiro Share Their Grandmother’s Story in New Children’s Book
Dec. 7, 2023 • Kelly Fleck
For authors and cousins Janis Bridger and Lara Okihiro, family stories and history were shared in bits and pieces at their grandparents’ dining room table. This is how their new children’s book Obaasan’s Boots begins, with Charlotte and Lou full of questions and hungry to learn more about their family history after dinner at their grandparents’ home. A chapter book for 9 to 12-year-olds, Obaasan’s Boots is told through the perspectives of cousins Charlotte and Lou and their grandmother, Hisa, …
Darcy Tamayose on Exploring Hauntings by Ghosts, Grief, and Guilt
Aug. 31, 2023 • Kelly Fleck
LETHBRIDGE — In award-winning author Darcy Tamayose’s new collection of short stories, Ezra’s Ghosts, the people in the prairie town of Ezra are haunted. In four fantastical and interconnected stories, Tamayose explores the multiple meanings of haunted—not just by ghosts, but by grief, guilt, and loss. While Tamayose explores and experiments with storytelling pace, density, and flow, each story is linked with the characters’ comings and goings in the fictional town of Ezra. Ezra takes influences from the prairie landscapes …
The Spaces In Between: Artist Elysha Rei's Intricate Hand-Cut Paper Art
July 16, 2023 • Kelly Fleck
While the sakura were in full bloom outside the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, inside, a different kind of sakura blossomed, Japanese Australian artist Elysha Rei’s new installation called Strength in Sixty Sakura. Part of the JCCC’s new anniversary exhibit, 60 Years of Friendship Through Culture, the piece is constructed entirly of intricately cut paper, using kiri-e, a Japanese paper-cutting practice. Two sakura branches reach out from opposite ends of the wall, adorned with 60 sakura, commemorating each year of education, partnership, …
Finding Forgiveness: Director Stafford Arima on Bringing the Award-Winning Memoir to the Stage
March 21, 2023 • Kelly Fleck
CALGARY — When author Mark Sakamoto’s memoir, Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents, won CBC’s Canada Reads competition in 2018, its themes of resilience and forgiveness through adversity, racism, and war connected to Canadian readers, even though the book was published four years earlier and covered historical events from decades ago. In Forgiveness, Sakamoto explores the lives of his grandparents and their traumatic experiences during the Second World War. His maternal grandfather, Ralph MacLean, was a Canadian soldier who spent …
Celebrating a Century: Nisei War Veteran and Esteemed Journalist Frank Moritsugu Turns 100
Feb. 9, 2023 • Kelly Fleck
TORONTO — There are not many centenarian journalists, and even fewer who continue to actively and regularly write, but Frank Moritsugu is the exception. Moritsugu, a Nisei war veteran, esteemed journalist, and beloved Nikkei Voice columnist, celebrated his 100th birthday on Dec. 4. “Becoming 100 years old is very strange. I’m very happy I did it, but it’s not something I ever dreamed of,” Moritsugu tells Nikkei Voice during an interview in his Etobicoke condo. Moritsugu’s journalism career has spanned …
Monarch Butterflies Connect Seniors To Nature And Memories
Dec. 11, 2022 • Kelly Fleck
TORONTO — On a hot summer afternoon, in the cool shade of the gardens at McCowan Retirement Residences, a group of seniors gathered, buzzing with excitement as they prepared to release newly-hatched monarch butterflies. One at a time, they held the butterflies carefully by the wings, and when they let go, they flew up into the sky and out of sight. When it was her turn, Pat Adachi delicately let go of the monarch, where it decided to rest on …
Contemporary Dancer Takako Segawa listens for the Echoes of Ancestors in New Dance Film
Nov. 2, 2022 • Kelly Fleck
OTTAWA — Performed to haunting music and set in the melting, snowy landscape of Petawawa’s Heritage Village, contemporary dancer Takako Segawa‘s new dance film honours the legacy of the Japanese Canadians sent to the prisoner of war camps 80 years earlier. As a first-generation Japanese immigrant, Segawa pays tribute to the Japanese Canadians who arrived before her, the hardships they faced, and offers healing in her own way. Called Sho ga nai – It can’t be helped, Segawa was inspired …
Rediscovering an Incredible Story of Community and Resilience in New Westminster
Sept. 27, 2022 • Kelly Fleck
In creating a children’s book about their grandmother’s life, cousins Lara Okihiro and Janis Bridger have uncovered their family’s prewar life in New Westminster, B.C. But while digging through archives, directories, photographs, documents, and family files, and with the help of their parents, aunts and uncles, second cousins, and their great uncle, Isi Nakazawa, the cousins also uncovered an incredible story of resilience and community from Japanese Canadians in New Westminster and their family’s part in that story. Rediscovering a …
Journalist Mary Ito’s Dive into the World of Podcasting
May 31, 2022 • Kelly Fleck
Toronto broadcast journalist Mary Ito never planned to jump into the podcasting world, but now listeners can catch her on two new podcasts, The CRAM Podcast and Passage to Wonderland. The former connects listeners to bold new ideas, and the latter invites listeners to put away their busy days and unwind with passages from exceptional pieces of literature. Ito’s dive into podcasting began with the endless delays from the pandemic on the second instalment of CRAM, a festival she launched in …
Past and Present Collide in Artist Kellen Hatanaka's Exhibit SAFE | HOME
April 7, 2022 • Kelly Fleck
STRATFORD — In artist Kellen Hatanaka‘s installation SAFE | HOME at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre is sculptures of sports memorabilia for the legendary Asahi Baseball Team. A teapot with the team’s colours and ASAHI name emblazoned across the front. An action figure with dark hair under a red striped baseball cap. An Asahi ’93 Championships commemorative bottle opener. But of course, the Vancouver Asahi never won a 1993 championship. The club disbanded in 1941 when Japanese Canadians were …
