Chuck Tasaka
@CharlesHachiroChuck Tasaka is the grandson of Isaburo and Yorie Tasaka. Chuck’s father was 4th in a family of 19. Chuck was born in Midway, B.C., and grew up in Greenwood, B.C. until he graduated from high school. Chuck attended University of B.C. and graduated in 1968. After retirement in 2002, he became interested in Nikkei history. (Profile photo courtesy of Nelson photographer)
Updated October 2015
Stories from This Author
75th and 76th Anniversary of the Greenwood Nikkei Internment Ceremony
Sept. 19, 2018 • Chuck Tasaka
Back in 1971, then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau declared that Canada would adopt a multicultural policy that recognizes and respects a diversity of languages, customs and religion. In 2015, Trudeau's son Justin, who also became Prime Minister, stated that “Diversity is Canada’s Strength” and over the past few years, there has been a push to encourage inclusion of all ethnic communities. In British Columbia, the provincial government initiated a project to recognize the accomplishments of once marginalized ethnic groups, …
Canadian Nikkei’s Pilgrimage to J.A. Internment Camps - Part 3
July 27, 2018 • Chuck Tasaka
Read Part 2 >> TOPAZ MUSEUM-DELTA, UTAH After Moab, we drove straight west to Delta where the Topaz Museum is located, although to our disappointment the museum appeared to be closed. We stopped next door at the Delta Historic Museum where two ladies assisted us. Apparently, a volunteer there got her schedule mixed up. Again, luck was on our side and the lady opened the door to the Topaz Museum. I didn’t expect Topaz Museum to be so complete, with …
Canadian Nikkei’s Pilgrimage to J.A. Internment Camps - Part 2
July 20, 2018 • Chuck Tasaka
Read Part 1 >> NEXT STOP: PORTLAND Our next stop was in Portland, Oregon to visit their magnificent Japanese Garden. When Nobuo Matsunaga, the former ambassador to Japan to the U.S. visited this garden, he proclaimed it to be, “The most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan.” The garden is twelve acres and nestled in the West Hills of Washington Park overlooking the city. Designed in 1963, this garden has a Flat, Tea, Strolling Pond, …
Canadian Nikkei’s Pilgrimage to J.A. Internment Camps - Part 1
July 13, 2018 • Chuck Tasaka
I have always been intrigued by and curious about the Japanese American internment history for years and have watched Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) programs religiously to learn about the wartime incarceration experience. Since there are many documentaries about Japanese Americans, and only a few films on the Japanese Canadian internment experiences on the local Knowledge Network, I know more about the Japanese American history. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) history had a huge impact on me. I admire their …
Happy Hockey Hapas’ “Dream Season”
June 1, 2018 • Chuck Tasaka
Every team across Canada dreams about winning it all, and in 2018, Richmond’s Seafair Islanders Bantam hockey club’s young U-15 (ages 13-14) finished the season as winners of the Pacific Coast Tier One regular season with a record of 19-1, and moved on to the play-off series to qualify for the B.C. championship. In Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, the Islanders went undefeated in round-robin play with wins over Yukon 13-2, Racquet Club of Victoria 6-0, and Prince George 4-1. In …
Mystery Album - Part 2
Feb. 13, 2018 • Chuck Tasaka
Read Part 1 >> Excerpts taken from the 1946 SHS Yearbook Mayor McArthur’s speech to the 1946 grads: 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. I have found you to be very fine …
Mystery Album - Part 1
Feb. 12, 2018 • Chuck Tasaka
How this ‘mystery album’ fell onto my lap is, in Japanese, fushigi or in English, ‘surreal.’ To top it off, this album belonged to a young lady in Greenwood, my former hometown! My cousin Yvonne phoned me to say that she received this photo album from her former colleague at Capilano University. They were both art instructors. The lady’s partner who was also an artist, passed away and she was cleaning out his accumulated collection. The partner apparently collected old photo …
First Lady Plumber in Canada Is a Nikkei
Nov. 23, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
Anna (Fujimura) Higashi grew up in Woodfibre, B.C. Her grandfather Isaburo Fujimura and son Taichiro, seventeen years of age, came to Canada in the early 1900s. Isaburo was a caretaker of a community bath on Powell Street (Japantown). Taichiro worked for a railroad company that took him to the province of Ontario. Once finished, he returned to Vancouver, but soon after Taichiro left for Powell River to work at the pulp and paper mill. Later, he found work at Woodfibre …
Canadian Nisei! You Know You’re Old When…
Oct. 24, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
The Nisei—the group who suffered the most during the World War II incarceration of Japanese Canadians and Americans—is now heading into the twilight of their lives. They survived and succeeded because of their resilience, perseverance, and determination. Now, they can enjoy the fruits of their labor as they proudly look back and reminisce about that period in time when they had to overcome great adversity. I was a very young Sansei growing up in Greenwood, British Columbia, where I had …
Ema Lake: An Emerging Talent
Sept. 15, 2017 • Chuck Tasaka
In the summer of 2016, I was in the midst of planning a major fundraising event to help finance the Nikkei Legacy Park project in Greenwood, BC. The family plaques for those who lived through the internment were paid for by donors. Sakura trees and Japanese lanterns were also donated by families. However, I needed funds for the World War I monument to honor the 12 Japanese Canadian veterans who came to Greenwood. Three were military medal recipients: Masami Mitsui, …
