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
Japanese Canadians Speak Up for Raymond Moriyama’s Iconic Toronto JCCC - Part 2
June 20, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> Lillian Michiko Yano, Newmarket, ON I know who I am because of 123 Wynford Drive… so long ago…48 years ago, in 1975. In 1952, my family came to Toronto after their forced removal to excruciating lives in Alberta sugar beet fields. My father had decided that the best way for our future was to assimilate into mainstream Canadian culture. But secretly, like all Japanese Canadians seeking a new beginning in Ontario, he was proud to be …
Japanese Canadians Speak Up for Raymond Moriyama’s Iconic Toronto JCCC - Part 1
June 13, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
On a sunny afternoon in June 1964 at 123 Wynford Drive in Toronto’s Don Mills area, Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson stood at the podium at the entrance of the brand-new building and officially opened the Japanese Canadian Centre (now Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre - JCCC) before hundreds of spectators, stating: “For me, this centre is a reminder of the multi-racial heritage on which our nation is being built, surely and strongly. It is a new living monument to …
History Lessons with Professor Masumi Izumi — Part 3: Postwar Community Revitalization and Redress Movement
April 18, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 2 >> As a historian, Izumi says that the ongoing use of euphemistic language to describe the WWII experience can be problematic. “I now use the term ‘internment/incarceration’ for the confinement of the ethnic Japanese in the camps in the United States and Canada,” she explains. “The reason is that the ethnic Japanese included both Japanese nationals and American/Canadian citizens at the time of World War II. Legally speaking, Nisei, Sansei, and naturalized Canadians of Japanese descent were …
History Lessons with Professor Masumi Izumi — Part 2: Japanese American vs Japanese Canadian Internment/Incarceration
April 11, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> Izumi first learned about the Japanese American incarceration experience in 1984: “I saw the NHK TV drama titled Sanga Moyu, a drama based on Toyoko Yamazaki’s novel, Futatsu no Sokoku. The story was about a Japanese American family, and in the story, one brother joined the US Army and his younger brother joined the Japanese Army. The family in the US had to go to Manzanar. I didn’t know about the Canadian internment/incarceration, until I read …
History Lessons with Professor Masumi Izumi — Part 1: Family Background
April 4, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I had the honour of interviewing History Professor Masumi Izumi earlier this year. Dr. Izumi is Japanese. Her scientist doctor father’s work took the family to Australia, where she attended elementary school. Years later, she returned to Kyoto and attended public school. She received her B.A. in Anglo-American Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and went on to attend Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, for her Master’s studies in Political Science and International Studies. She also studied at the …
Toronto Japanese Canadian Duo Releases Groundbreaking EP
March 2, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“Quiet now, there is not a thing besides the low, humming sound of the bodyIn my mouth, chewing on the wordsI cannot speak to them out loud until I’m ready….” From “Stone Between The Lips” by Brian Kobayakawa (aka Brava Kilo) and Annie Sumi Like stepping into a time machine, Kintsugi takes its audience back more than 80 years in time when we lived on Paueru Gai (Powell Street), up and down BC’s west coast, suffering through the injustices of …
40 Years of Toronto Taiko with Kiyoshi Nagata — Part 2
Jan. 12, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> Another career highlight came in 2005 when the group had two tours in Italy and one across the US, which evoked a feeling that ‘we made it.’ The reception they received was overwhelming: “The people welcomed us with open arms and the hospitality we received was incredible. We played in many old opera houses where the stages are slanted downwards which proved a very big challenge for us as all our drums are on wheeled …
40 Years of Toronto Taiko with Kiyoshi Nagata — Part 1
Jan. 11, 2023 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“I continue to practice and perform taiko because I feel it is a lifelong commitment as well as a way of living for me. Taiko has taught me many things about discipline, perseverance, and aiming to be the best person you can be as a performer but also as a human being. I am constantly learning which fuels my desire to keep on improving and continuing on this lifelong journey.” — Taiko master Kiyoshi Nagata Toronto’s Nagata Shachu founded by …
The Artistry of British Columbia’s Tsuneko Kokubo: Of Light Itself
Oct. 14, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“My true understanding of art began when I met Koko at the Vancouver School of Art so many years ago. By listening to what she had to say and watching her work, I learned that making art meant going beyond the obvious and searching for something more, and I’ve tried to stay on this path ever since. Amazingly, after all these years, her total dedication to dancing and to making beautiful art has remained undiminished, and has been an inspiration. …
Japanese Canadians Remember Internment 80 Years After — Part 2
Sept. 12, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> Masumi Izumi, Fulbright Scholar, 2004-2005; Professor, Faculty of Global and Regional Studies at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan) The courage of Japanese Canadians to break the silence about their World War II experiences of the uprooting forever changed the course of Canadian history. It revealed the ominous side of the Canadian past, which is filled with Anglo supremacy, racial violence, exclusion, and the denial that such a past is a part of Canada’s identity. The Redress movement …
