Chuck Tasaka

I have written extensively on the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement’s Japanese Catholic Mission connection with the Japanese Canadians in Steveston and Vancouver’s Powell Street Japantown. Of course, they were the ones responsible for bringing the mostly Catholic Japanese Canadians to the first internment site of Greenwood in 1942.

The United Church groups were to be sent to internment camps in Kaslo, Tashme, New Denver, and Slocan area, however, the government decided to send the overflowing United Church members to various ‘camps’.

Esumatsu Nakatani, a Christian, who had lived in Grand Forks, a neighbouring town of ...

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1945-46 Yearbook

A message from Mayor W.E. McArthur Sr.:

Most of you are of Japanese origin, and although you are Canadians in every sense of the word, you had to undergo hardships which were caused by the hatreds which sprung up during the war. During the past four years, you have stood up under this burden in a manner which is very creditable. As the Mayor of the Town, I have found you to be very fine children indeed, and I will always be keenly interested in your future welfare. You have heard me say these ...

In my previous article, I wrote that Greenwood became the first ‘internment camp’ in British Columbia, thanks mainly to the collaborative effort of then Mayor W.E. McArthur Sr. and Franciscan Friar Father Benedict Quigley to bring mostly Catholic Japanese Canadians and their friends and relatives to Greenwood in 1942.

The Franciscan Sisters established Sacred Heart School when the federal and provincial government was debating as to who was responsible for funding education. B.C. government was a definite ‘no’. As a result, Greenwood had an early start for the Japanese Canadian students while other camps took about nine months ...

Former Nelson Star editor, Greg Nesteroff, on January 21, 2015, wrote an article on names of Japanese Canadians scratched on the wall of the old ‘Slocan Hall’ or Legion/Oddfellows Hall. This building was undergoing renovation to expand the kitchen. As the contractors were peeling off the asphalt of the building, they could see the names of Japanese Canadians who were probably young teens during the internment years around 1944 or 1945. Only a handful of names were legible. The clearest one was very stylish according to Greg, “Sam Miyashita, Popoff, Slocan”. Popoff was one of the internment camps south ...

In present day Canada, the high profile Nikkei we hear of so often are people like David Suzuki, Joy Kogawa, Muriel Kitagawa, Thomas Shoyama, Santa Ono, Raymond Moriyama, Art Miki, Mary and Tosh Kitagawa, and athletes like Paul Kariya (hockey), Nathan Hirayama (Rugby 7), Vicky Sunohara (Olympic hockey), Special Olympic skier Brian McKeever and the Hall of Fame Vancouver Asahi baseball team (1914-1941).

From 1942-1949, during the forced relocation from the B.C. coast beyond the 100-mile radius east to various internment camps, who were the unsung heroes? This is my list.

Nikkei Women:

When the federal government of Canada ...