Chuck Tasaka

Post-war babies born in the internment camps should be considered the ‘Lucky Ones’? These children didn’t suffer the whole forced removal ordeal beginning in 1942. They were born in Greenwood, New Denver, Kaslo, Slocan City or Lillooet where there were hospitals. There were several Nisei doctors serving in those areas.

As for myself, I didn’t know that I was living in an ‘internment camp’. Greenwood was the first internment site and the Nikkei families were placed mostly in old hotels right downtown. Slocan-New Denver area camps were segregated. Kaslo’s situation was similar to Greenwood. Our parents never ...

Whenever you hear of Mio, a poor, small fishing village south-east of Osaka in Wakayama-ken, the name ‘Amerika Mura’ comes to mind. To the villagers, Amerika was Canada and U.S. Gihei Kuno’s name became synonymous with Mio-Steveston connection. He was a master carpenter who was trying to raise fund to build a breaker in Mio. By coincidence, he met up with a friend in Kobe who encouraged him to go to Canada. Mr. Kuno arrived in Steveston in 1888 and he was pleasantly surprised by the abundance of salmon along the Fraser River and beyond. He returned home ...

Nisei growing up on Powell Streets in the ’30s didn’t have that many toys so they had to improvise. Some boys picked chestnuts off the ground and pierced them with a needle with string threaded through to the other side and made bolos. The girls played hopscotch and skipping. Traditional games like Hide and Seek, Kick the Can, Red Rover, and Ball Over were popular then.

In Steveston, Harry Imai told me that they played Katana Kiri. That activity became very popular with Greenwood boys. Playing by the Fraser River and dikes, children’s playground must have centered around ...

Discover Nikkei published my article titled, You Are Canadian Nisei If . . . on December 9, 2015. There were more Nisei traits uncovered to add to this article. I wonder if there are any more hidden gems regarding Canadian Nisei identity?

1. Mothers always placed their brooms at the corner of the front door on the porch.  It was a daily routine to sweep the floor.
   
   
2. Every Saturday was wash day in the fifties and sixties. Mothers hung sheets, underwear and shirts on the clothesline. One unique observation that kids made was when 7-day panties were in vogue back then, so they checked ...

The famous Vancouver Asahi baseball teams have been well-documented and the latest, a movie made in Japan called Asahi was the “icing on the cake”. Pat Adachi was the first to write the history of the Asahi franchise in her book titled Asahi: A Legend in Baseball. Jari Osborne followed with a documentary called Sleeping Tigers. Ron Hotchkiss (Diamond Gods of the Morning Sun), Ted Furumoto (More Than a Baseball Team), Norio Goto (Japanese version of Vancouver Asahi), and Ellen Schwartz (Heart of a Champion) continued the Asahi legend with their books.

In 2003, the Vancouver Asahi club was inducted ...