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Migration Bibliography: Canada

Excerpt from Audrey Kobayashi and Midge Ayukawa, comps., "Japanese Canadians Annotated Bibliography," in Akemi Kikumura-Yano, ed., Encyclopedia of Japanese Descendants in the Americas: An Illustrated History of the Nikkei (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2002), 164-170.

Adachi, Ken. The Enemy that Never Was: A History of Japanese Canadians. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1976.

The most comprehensive history of Japanese Canadians to date.


Ayukawa, Michiko Midge. “Good Wives and Wise Mothers: Japanese Picture Brides in Early Twentieth Century British Columbia.” BC Studies 105-106 (Spring/Summer 1995): 103-118.


Ito, Roy. The Japanese Canadians. Toronto, Ontario: Van Nostrand Reinhold Ltd., 1978.

A short history of the Japanese Canadians for use in schools.


Kitagawa, Muriel. This is My Own: Letters to Wes and Other Writings on Japanese Canadians, 1941-1948. Vancouver, British Columbia: Talonbooks, 1985.

A passionate activist’s letters to her brother Wes Fujiwara, and her essays written during World War II.


Kobayashi, Audrey. “Migration as a Negotiation of Gender: Recent Japanese Immigrant Women in Canada.” In New Worlds, New Lives: Globalization and People of Japanese Descent in the Americas and from Latin America in Japan, edited by Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, Akemi Kikumura-Yano, and James Hirabayashi. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 205-220.


Kobayashi, Audrey. “For the Sake of the Children: Japanese/Canadian Workers/Mothers.” In Women, Work and Place, edited by Audrey Kobayashi, 45-72. Montreal, Quebec and Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994.

Describes the experiences of early Issei women.


Kobayashi, Cassandra, and Roy Miki. Spirit of Redress: Japanese Canadians in Conference. Vancouver, British Columbia: JC Publications, 1989.

Transcripts of workshops at the “Back to the Future” conference, May 16-17, 1987, held in Vancouver and the Internment Camp Bus Tour, which followed.


Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. Toronto, Ontario: Lester & Orpen Dennys Ltd., 1981.

A moving story of the Japanese Canadians during World War II as seen through the eyes of a child. Also published by Anchor Books (New York) in 1994.


Miki, Roy. Broken Entries: Race Writing Subjectivity. Toronto: Mercury Press, 1998.

A collection of essays written during the 1990s addressing issues of cultural and national identity, critical race theory, activism, and contemporary Asian Canadian writing.


Nakayama, Gordon G. Issei: Stories of Japanese Canadian Pioneers. Toronto, Ontario: NC Press, 1984.

Short biographies of over forty prominent Japanese pioneers.


Omatsu, Maryka. Bittersweet Passage: Redress and the Japanese Canadian Experience. Toronto, Ontario: Between the Lines, 1992.

Omatsu, a lawyer, relates her personal story and her involvement with the redress movement, interspersed with anecdotes of experiences of other Nikkei, based on oral interviews.


Sugimoto, Howard H. Japanese Immigration, the Vancouver Riots and Canadian Diplomacy. New York: Arno Press, 1978.

A thoroughly researched book on the early immigration of the Japanese in Canada, the events leading to the September 1907 riot, and its aftermath.


Sumida, Rigenda. “The Japanese in British Columbia.” Master’s thesis, University of British Columbia, 1935.

An invaluable source of information on prewar Japanese Canadian communities. Based on a social and economic survey by the Japanese community and many interviews.


Sunahara, Ann Gomer. The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War. Toronto, Ontario: Lorimer, 1981.

A groundbreaking book based on newly declassified government documents on the expulsion of Japanese Canadians from the West Coast in 1942.


Takata, Toyo. Nikkei Legacy: The Story of Japanese Canadians from Settlement to Today. Toronto, Ontario: NC Press, 1983.

A readable history, with many photographs. Thoroughly researched, but undocumented.


Ward, W. Peter. White Canada Forever. Montreal, Quebec and Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1990.

Ward has focused on the hostility of the whites in British Columbia towards the Asian immigrants, its psychological and sociological causes.


Bibliography in other languages: 日本語


Historical Overview: Canada

Additional Resources: Canada

Encyclopedia of Nikkei Migration

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