Interviews

1. Japanese school

2. Daily life in his childhood

3. Sugar-beets farm in Alberta

4. Chose to go back to Japan

5. Getting a job at the British Army camp in Hiroshima

6. Redress Movement in Canada

Ito,Mitsuo

(b.1924) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Interpreter for British Army in Japan after WWII. Active in Japanese Canadian community

Chose to go back to Japan

And the war ended, and the Canadian government said, You can't go back to Mission or B.C. You'll either go to, east to Ontario, or we'll give you a free boat ride back to Japan. So my father wanted to go back to Japan to see the son that was living in Japan, 'cause he hadn't been back for a long time. So he took the offer of going back to Japan. And there were quite a few other people that took the offer to go back to Japan.

I*: And did you go, too?

And we all went.

I: You all went?

Yeah. That way we could all stick together, so we all went back. That was in 1946.

* "I" indicates an interviewer (Mary Ito).

Canada migration postwar World War II

Date: March 23, 2005

Location: Toronto, Canada

Interviewer: Mary Ito

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

Interviewee Bio

Nisei male. Born August 20, 1924, in Mission, British Columbia, Canada. Grew up in Mission, attending school and helping on family farm. Left home to work several jobs, including in a sawmill and on a sugar beet farm. After World War II, moved to Japan, worked as an interpreter for the British Army, and got married. Moved to Toronto, Canada, in the 1950s and raised two sons. Active in Toronto's Japanese Canadian community, and is involved with charitable foundations. (March 23, 2005)

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