Interviews

1. Father’s success in farm business

2. Yobiyose system in Canada

3. Japanese community in Mission

4. Father’s will to have Japanese education

5. Sent a letter to his brother in Canada after the war

6. Emperor as a living god

7. Liaison between the Americans and the Japanese

8. Laid off for being Canadian

9. Reason to come back to Canada in 1954

Hashizume,Bill

(b. 1922) Canadian Nisei who was unable to return to Canada from Japan until 1952

Japanese community in Mission

Well, it was quite united. Sure, there were factions, like Buddhist faction, Christian factions, and some didn't believe in the farmers association and weren't members, they were more or less independent. But all in all, they got together. After all, the majority of them were all members of the Japanese farmers association or nokai as they called it. And during the meeting, why sure, they got together and ironed things out and settled the thing. And if there's any (tragedies) to the family, why, there's mimaikin or condolence money given to them.

I*: Yeah, so you have the nokai, you have the different kenjinkais. How much socialization happened back then?

Well, most of the socialization was done between kenjins, kenjins. Well, you're from the same prefecture, why, there's a sense of intimacy or closeness. We were the only Wakayama-ken people in Mission, so we were pretty left out, but there, like I mentioned here in the book, there's Fukuoka-ken, there's Shiga-ken, there's Tottori-ken, Hiroshima-ken, Kanagawa-ken.

* “I” indicates an interviewer (Norm Ibuki).

associations Canada communities farmers association nonprofit organizations

Date: October 29, 2005

Location: Toronto, Canada

Interviewer: Norm Ibuki

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

Interviewee Bio

William "Bill" Tasaburo Hashizume was born on June 22, 1922 at Mission, British Columbia where he spent his early years. In 1939, after his father passed away, Bill's mother took Bill and his two younger sisters to Osaka, Japan for schooling. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bill and his family were stranded in Japan. Hashizume resumed his studies and graduated from Kobe Technical College in 1944. Facing conscription, he enlisted in the Japanese Imperial Navy soon after and served as an Officer until demobilization in 1945.

After the war, Hashizume joined the U.S. military police in Japan, serving as an interpreter. As the Canadian government imposed a ban until the early 1950s on the return of Canadian citizens of Japanese descent who had been stranded in Japan after Pearl Harbor and those who had been repatriated to Japan in the late 1940s, Bill was not able to return to Canada. In 1952, Bill's Canadian citizenship was reinstated by the Canadian government and he returned to Toronto, Canada to join his sisters.

Hashizume became a full-fledged Canadian engineer at the age of 55. He was employed at the Ontario Department of Highways as an engineer and retired at 65. He has also researched and written a book on Japanese Canadian history of Mission, British Columbia. He currently leads an active and healthy life in Toronto, Canada. (August 23, 2006)