Norm Masaji Ibuki
@MasajiWriter Norm Masaji Ibuki lives in Oakville, Ontario. He has written extensively about the Canadian Nikkei community since the early 1990s. He wrote a monthly series of articles (1995-2004) for the Nikkei Voice newspaper (Toronto) which chronicled his experiences while in Sendai, Japan. Norm now teaches elementary school and continues to write for various publications.
Updated August 2014
Stories from This Author
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 4
April 7, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 3 >>This is a recreation of my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko told me.Continuation of Tomo’s email from March 15: Back to SendaiLife here: …shortage everything. But we have so much more than tens of thousands of others. We took turns standing in line at the local food store for two hours. Petrol for …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 3
April 6, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 2 >>This is a recreation of my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko told me.Tuesday, March 15 hi guys we R ok no hydro/denki some toyu and some food no gas bad connection here no internet, borrowing a computer at a school. Want to know more about the nuke. Senji…Astuko and Hikari OK ???see you …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 2
April 2, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >>I will try to recreate my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko tells me.Saturday, March 12We woke up exhausted from worry about family and friends in Sendai. Still no contact. *** I got mail from Judith, the sister of my pal Tomo. She was frantic about his whereabouts: Another message from Marnie from Australia, …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 1
March 28, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I lived in Sendai, Japan (1995 to 2003) where I worked as an English teacher and correspondent for the Nikkei Voice newspaper in Toronto, Canada. I travelled extensively throughout the Tohoku Region that has been devastated by the March 11th tsunami and earthquake. My wife, Akiko, is from Sendai where her family lives. I still have many friends that I correspond with who live in the affected area. I am writing the “Great Tohoku Disaster” with the intent to give …
New Canadian Leader Focuses on Human Rights and Heritage - Part 2
Jan. 25, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
>> Part 1 of interview with Ken NomaWhat does being Nikkei mean to you? How do you envision our connection with Japan? As Nikkei we are all “Birds of Passage” and each of us struggle to adapt and integrate as a minority within a predominant culture which has yet to embrace the practice of equity for all peoples. Equality without equity is simply the present status quo. I sincerely believe that once you leave your ancestral country, you are a …
New Canadian Leader Focuses on Human Rights and Heritage - Part 1
Jan. 18, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Sansei Ken Noma, 60, a well-known community activist whose involvement stretches back three decades, was elected as the new president of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) in October 2010. The retired Toronto high school teacher began his community involvement in the 1970s as a McMaster University student in Hamilton, Ontario. He’s been actively involved with the Asian and Nikkei communities since then, including the Redress movement in the 1980s, and has come out of retirement to become involved …
Human Rights Hero Yuri Kochiyama
Nov. 15, 2010 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“Study history. Learn about yourselves and others. There’s more commonality in all our lives than we think… There is so much that unites us, which we do not learn.” Malcolm X (from Heartbeat of Struggle)One of the most important human rights activists of the past 60 years is the 88-year-old American Nisei, Yuri Kochiyama, who is the subject of Heartbeat of Struggle, a compelling 2005 work by Diane C. Fujino, associate professor of Asian Studies at the University of California, …
Jack, MosAika and Being Canadian
Sept. 7, 2010 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
There really is no better place to contemplate what it means to be Canadian than in our nation’s capital, Ottawa. In the midst of news of the disastrous flooding in Pakistan that has displaced millions, when a shipload of about 500 Sri Lankans that landed on Vancouver Island is claiming refugee status, and when America is split on the discussion of building a ‘mosque’ close to the site of the 9-11 ‘Ground Zero’ terrorist attack, we took a road trip. …
Book Review: Looking Like The Enemy
Sept. 1, 2010 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“When I was seventy-four years old, I was invited to participate in a writing class and began writing about those war years. The damn broke loose when those emotions and tears I repressed for decades broke through, at times seemingly uncontrollable. At last, I was telling my story – a Nisei no longer willing to be silent.” Author Mary Matsuda Gruenewald (1925- ), Looking Like The Enemy (2005) I hope that you’ll forgive me for venting a little, but it …
Raymond Moriyama's Sakura Ball Speech - Part 3
Aug. 23, 2010 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 2 >>CHAPTER FOUR—AS A MAN DOING THINGS OTHER THAN ARCHITECTURESachi and I have covered the Seven Continents. What is the most important thing we were learning??? To listen to the world and know it is alive, not inanimate and dead to be exploited for Homo sapiens’ selfish benefit. Sachi and I are not leftists and/or heavy-handed greenies. If anything, I am a complimentarily and paradox of Roman Catholicism and Zen Buddhism. My involvement as a Chair of Environmental, Ecological And Human …
