Nima of the Month
Masaji (Ontario, Canada)
Masaji is a Canadian Nikkei writer who has been a Nima-kai member since 2008. He started sharing little known Canadian community stories on our site in August 2009. We asked him what he likes about Discover Nikkei and this is what he shared:
“You may know that here in Canada the homes, farms, businesses and personal possessions of all Nikkei living in coastal British Columbia were confiscated by our federal government and sold, despite their initial promise to return all property. Even after being imprisoned in internment camps, our parents, grandparents and great grandparents were prohibited by the government from returning to live and work in the BC communities where we first settled. Instead we were ‘dispersed’ to eastern Canada and exiled to Japan.
Even in 2010, the Nikkei community here is a widely scattered one of about 60,000 that is struggling to define issues of common importance; to find forums where we are able to discuss issues of ‘Nikkeiness’; our often times awkward relationship with Japan, its culture and history; and to be involved in the evolving process to find some deeper meaning in identifying ourselves as Nikkei, regardless of where our hearts now call home.
In the absence of so much (e.g., Vancouver’s pre-WW2 Powell Street Japantown), Discover Nikkei gives each one of us the opportunity to get reconnected with aspects of who we are. Over generations and continents of separateness, Nikkei of all generations can now interact in a ‘J-town’ of sorts that encircles the globe. It’s the beginning of so many wonderful relationships!
Kokoro kara kansha shite orimasu. Arigato gozaimasu!”