Chuck Tasaka
@CharlesHachiroChuck Tasaka was born in Midway, B.C., but he spent most of his life growing up in Greenwood, B.C., the first Japanese Canadian Internment site. Grandfather Isaburo lived in Sashima, Ehime-ken, immigrated to Portland, Oregon in 1893, then to Steveston and came with his wife Yorie to settle on Salt Spring Island in 1905. They decided to return to Sashima permanently in 1935. Chuck’s father Arizo was born on Salt Spring Island but lived in Sashima during his youth. His mother was born in Nanaimo, B.C., but was raised in Mio-mura, Wakayama-ken. Chuck attended University of B.C. and became an elementary teacher on Vancouver Island. After retiring in 2002, Chuck has spent most of his time researching Japanese Canadian history and he is presently working on the Nikkei Legacy Park project in Greenwood.
Updated September 2024
Stories from This Author
Ema Lake: An Emerging Talent
Sept. 15, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
In the summer of 2016, I was in the midst of planning a major fundraising event to help finance the Nikkei Legacy Park project in Greenwood, BC. The family plaques for those who lived through the internment were paid for by donors. Sakura trees and Japanese lanterns were also donated by families. However, I needed funds for the World War I monument to honor the 12 Japanese Canadian veterans who came to Greenwood. Three were military medal recipients: Masami Mitsui, …
Iwasaki Family of Salt Spring Island
Aug. 14, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
Ray Torao Iwasaki was born in Ganges, B.C. in 1933 and he lived an idyllic life on Salt Spring Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. His father Torazo came to Vancouver in 1907. His mother, Fuku, from Shizuoka arrived on the Empress of Vancouver in 1918 to marry Torazo. Ray was surrounded by four sisters, Hideko (1920), Mitsuko (1922), Setsuko (1926), and Tsuruko (1931). The Iwasakis lived on Sunset Drive in a five-room house on a 640-acre spread. …
Nisei Story: Unexpected Friendship Lost and Found
July 21, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
Teresa Chizu Kurisu lived a normal Powell Street life as a child. She attended Strathcona Elementary School in East Vancouver and went to Japanese Language School soon after with her Japanese Canadian friends. Teresa’s parents were Catholic so she took in church activities with her parents. This was a time when Sister Mary Stella, aka Kathleen O’Melia, established the Japanese Catholic Mission (JCM) on Dunlevy and Cordova in 1926. The Kurisu family was one of the first converts. Teresa’s father …
No Time for ITADAKIMASU!
July 5, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
Itadakimasu. What’s that? I never heard of it when I was growing up in postwar Canada. Japanese Language School didn’t exist in Greenwood. The only word similar to that was “Itai!” or “Itai-na!” when your older brother or sister was shoving you aside to get the best seat at the kitchen table. Besides, we all wanted to be more “Canadian-ized,” that is Anglo-Canadian culture. At Sacred Heart School, we children learned to sing “Irish Eyes are Smiling” or “Loch Lomond.” …
Nisei Nicknames
June 22, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
In this day of hi-tech computer with iPhone, iPad, Galaxy, and so forth, whatever happened to the old fashion nicknames? Nowadays, you hear of famous athletes with nicknames like Burnsie, Burr, Marky, JJ, JR, or AJ. Quite vanilla, I think. There should be more “wasabi” injected into the present day nicknames. Nicknames back in the ’40s and ’50s were colourful, so much so that their real names were forgotten. In hockey, my favourites were: “Leaping Lou” Fontinato, Bronco Horvath, Rocket …
Nisei: When The Nisei-nts Go Marching In ...
May 26, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
When the saints go marching in, oh when the saints go marching in…. oh when the Nisei-nts go marching in…… There was Christian influence in Japan when missionaries had travelled there in the 1800s. Even before that Jesuit priests from Portugal were present. Tokugawa government tried to put a stop to Christianity. The recent movie Silence is based on that part of history. By the late 1800s, Christianity was viewed as modern and progressive. Therefore, when Japanese immigrants came pouring …
75th Anniversary of the Japanese Canadian Internment
May 5, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
What was to be a simple, casual get-together to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Japanese Canadian Internment, a Nikkei “Woodstock-like Love-in” occurred at St. Joseph the Worker School in Richmond on April 29th! The gym was packed and many people seem to enjoy seeing old friends, reconnecting with long-lost friends and meeting Nikkei from other camps. There were lot of smiles and heart-warming surprises. Erica Isomura who made the beautiful poster also ran the slideshow of ten internment camps …
Nisei: Nikkei Connection to McLean Mill
April 19, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
Did you know that there was a very small settlement of Japanese Canadians at the McLean Mill in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in the early thirties? Reading the Parks Canada backgrounder article and excerpts from Jan Peterson’s book, Twin Cities: Port Alberni, sent in by Maureen Hamagishi, R.B. McLean Lumber Company was a small family-run business that operated from 1926 to 1965. Robert Bartlett McLean operated a sawmill business in the Cloverdale and Fraser Valley area for ten years. …
Nisei: Yancha Kozo For All Seasons - Part 4
March 27, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
Read Part 3 >> WINTER: Winter fun almost equaled summer activities except for the below zero temperature. Skating, sleigh-riding, skiing, building snowman, igloo, shinny hockey, ice carnival and football in the snow kept the children busy. Looking out the window and the children seeing the snow that fell the night before, they joyously jumped out of bed to put their winter clothing on. That was the scene that repeated most days in the Boundary-Kootenay district of British Columbia. Back in …
Nisei: Immigration To Canada
March 24, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
Manzo Nagano is credited for being the first Japanese settler in Canada in 1877, though he was not the first to come to B.C. Japanese sailors were rescued from a shipwrecked whaling boat as early as 1834. In Ann-Lee and Gordon Switzer’s books Gateway to Promise and Sakura in Stone, they mentioned that the first recorded visit by a Japanese national to Victoria was in 1858. By 1860, goods from Japan arrived in Victoria. Charles Gabriel employed a number of …
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