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
3-11 Remembered: A School Principal’s Story—Part 2
March 12, 2025 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 The Tsunami struck Arahama at 15:55, 69 Minutes after the Earthquake. What did you see from the school window? While I was directing residents at the entrance on the first floor, a member of the local fire brigade called out to me, “Principal, it’s dangerous. A tsunami is coming. Please come out!” I couldn’t see the tsunami. I was pushed by the firefighters into the corridor in front of the principal’s office on the second floor. At …
3-11 Remembered: A School Principal’s Story—Part 1
March 11, 2025 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Even 14 years after 3-11, there are surreal images from that disaster that I can’t forget—countless pictures of death and destruction that I doubt even the surrealist Salvador Dali could have conceived of: the huge fishing boats tossed onto highways, clogging streets wedged between buildings, cars and entire houses bobbing like toys, that inky black, ominous wall of water that rolled with shocking ease over retaining walls, deluging entire fishing villages and towns. The panic and horror of it all …
To Grace, With Love and Gratitude—Part 2
Jan. 20, 2025 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 “Ensuring history is remembered” Reflection by Lorene Oikawa, Past President, National Association of Japanese Canadian, Vancouver When Grace lived in Vancouver we would meet up for lunch and conversations or at events. Often the conversations were about art, JC history, and the Vancouver Asahi. Grace was often asked to speak about the Vancouver Asahi baseball team. Her research led to the Levelling the Playing Field exhibition at the Japanese Canadian National Museum in 2004. In 2018, she …
To Grace, With Love and Gratitude—Part 1
Jan. 19, 2025 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
The passing of Grace Eiko Thomson (née Nishikihama), 90, on July 11, 2024 came as a shock to the entire Japanese Canadian (JC) community, particularly amongst our artists. Grace was a revered Nisei artist, curator, writer, community advocate and, perhaps, most importantly to many, a dear friend: she was a generational leader who recognized the importance of listening to and supporting the JC artists, always urging the JC community onward, evolving, towards something that could be better. Grace, more than …
Art Miki and the Fight for Canadian Redress: A Review of Gaman
Oct. 24, 2024 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“Art Miki’s sansei reticence, his slapshot, unassuming diligence, devotion to the JC community, sense of humour, background as an educator, love of soba noodles, Winnipeg address, and his ability to draw in and count on the talents of others, made him the perfect leader for the JC Redress Movement.” — Bryce Kanbara, member of the NAJC Redress Strategy Committee Way back in the 1980s, the Japanese Canadian community was connected to the past in intimate ways that may be unimaginable …
30th Anniversary Celebration at New Denver’s Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre
Sept. 22, 2024 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
New Denver in World War II At the behest of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950) and BC Premier John Hart (1879-1957), the internment of some 22,000 Japanese Canadians remains the largest mass exodus in Canadian history. In April 1942, expulsion began to internment camps in the BC Interior, with the first arrivals in the Slocan Valley and Kaslo in May. Camps were set up in Kaslo (about 1,200 internees), Sandon (933 internees), the Girl Guide camp near Hills, …
Art Miki Talks About New Memoir Gaman—Part 2
July 4, 2024 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> Ibuki: How should our historical experience as Japanese Canadians be remembered by the broader Asian Canadian community? Miki: I would like to have the broader Canadian community remember how a small minority community was able persevere through the setbacks they encountered from the government officials and some Canadians to eventually overcome those obstacles in achieving a just and meaningful redress settlement from the Canadian government. The Japanese Canadian redress settlement of September 22, 1988 was to …
Art Miki Talks About New Memoir Gaman—Part 1
July 3, 2024 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
As I flip through the pages of Justice In Our Time (Talonbooks, 1991) by Roy Miki and Cassandra Kobayashi, I realize just how out of touch with the Japanese Canadian community I was in 1988. Concurrently, as I read through Art Miki’s new memoir, Gaman: Persistence: Japanese Canadians’ Journey to Justice (Talonbooks, 2023), I’m reminded of his passion for justice and tenacity. Whenever I have had the good fortune to meet Art, I am always taken aback by his grace …
The Art Gallery of Ontario Honours Japanese Canadian Artist, Kaz Nakamura—Part 2
May 6, 2024 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> Akira Yoshikawa, Artist, Toronto My first encounter with Kazuo Nakamura’s artwork was at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I was still a teenager trying to decide what direction to take after my graduation from high school. I knew I had strong interests in design and architecture. As I was roaming around the gallery, one painting in particular caught my attention. The painting depicted stacked architectural blocks in a minimal modernist landscape. The artist had only used …
The Art Gallery of Ontario Honours Japanese Canadian Artist, Kaz Nakamura—Part 1
May 5, 2024 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto is featuring an exhibition of the works of Japanese Canadian artist Kazuo Nakamura (1926-2002), one of the giants of the Canadian art scene. The exhibition is scheduled to be up for the next two years. You can view it on Level 2 in Gallery 225 (Bovey Gallery). “Kaz,” as he was affectionately called, is celebrated for his abstract paintings that engage with the geometric forms and universal laws of nature. Distinguished by …
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