Norm Masaji Ibuki
@MasajiWriter Norm Masaji Ibuki lives in Oakville, Ontario. He has written extensively about the Canadian Nikkei community since the early 1990s. He wrote a monthly series of articles (1995-2004) for the Nikkei Voice newspaper (Toronto) which chronicled his experiences while in Sendai, Japan. Norm now teaches elementary school and continues to write for various publications.
Updated August 2014
Stories from This Author
Japanese Canadians Remember Internment 80 Years After — Part 1
Sept. 11, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Happy 80th Anniversary of the 1942 Internment? As I reflect on who to contact for this article about this auspicious anniversary, I think mostly about those who are gone: mom and dad, aunts and uncles, who were innocent kids back in 1942. My Ibuki grandparents who lost their Strawberry Hill farm. On a 2019 visit to that location, it pained me to see the Ibuki farm paved over at a busy Surrey intersection at Scott Road now occupied by BC …
Ottawa artist Norman Takeuchi: Long Division Exhibition
Aug. 31, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“Ever since we both attended the Vancouver School of Art back in the 1950s, I have always respected Norman. He is a creative, seriously dedicated, focused, hard-working and disciplined artist. His work, with many references to two cultures, is constantly changing and growing. It is wonderful that we are both still painting and showing our work in our mid-80s…. We were so young!” —Artist Tsuneko Kokubo (Silverton, BC) whose own Of Light Itself: RetroPERSPECTIVE is now showing at the Langham …
A Nisei and Yonsei: The Power of Art & Isshoni - Part 2
Aug. 24, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> Life After Internment in Edmonton “At age 14, I had no ambitions but once I left the internment camp, I had the good fortune to live in the Misericordia Hospital, as did my sister. We were relief elevator operators for which the nuns provided us with room and board for working on weekends. We were enrolled into Garneau high school, which was across High Level Bridge, a 2 km walk or 10 minutes, by streetcar. Another …
A Nisei and Yonsei: The Power of Art & Isshoni - Part 1
Aug. 23, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
The paintings of Dr. Henry Shimizu, retired Edmonton Nisei plastic surgeon, were presented in a show at the University of Victoria’s (UVic) Legacy Gallery entitled Isshoni: Dr. Henry Shimizu’s Paintings of New Denver Internment that brought together Nisei Dr. Shimizu, curators Yonsei Samantha Kuniko Marsh (Vancouver, BC), and Sansei Bryce Kanbara (Hamilton, ON). Well timed during this year, the 80th anniversary of the internment, one might wonder: How are we Japanese Canadians going to remember the internment and, importantly, how …
Vancouver’s Tonari Gumi: Keeping Jun’s Magnificent Dream Alive - Part 4
July 12, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 3 >> How might the future needs of the JC community be different from what they are today e.g., a Nisei senior versus a Yonsei senior? Ijusha? This is an interesting set of questions. While we are not yet discussing how we deal with Yonsei seniors, we are definitely discussing what the future holds for Sansei seniors. In order to usefully discuss these issues, it’s important to differentiate some of the characteristics of these different generations: Nisei: almost …
Vancouver’s Tonari Gumi: Keeping Jun’s Magnificent Dream Alive - Part 3
July 5, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 2 >> Who uses Tonari Gumi (TG)? What kind of services do you provide? The most frequent and loyal users of TG are Japanese-speaking seniors aged 75-plus. Although we do have some activities and programs that target English-speaking seniors, such as a Japanese conversation class and our craft club, most of our programs cater to Japanese speakers. In 2019, prior to the pandemic we started our Nikkei Social Club on Saturday afternoons where mostly English-speaking Nisei and Sansei …
Vancouver’s Tonari Gumi: Keeping Jun’s Magnificent Dream Alive - Part 2
June 28, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> What are some of the challenges of operating Tonari Gumi (TG) during a pandemic? From 2010 to 2015, I worked full-time as the executive director of the Japanese Community Volunteers Association, or Tonari Gumi, as it is popularly called in Japanese. Tonari Gumi had always had a positive image in the Japanese Canadian community ever since it started as a small group of young volunteers wanting to help poor and isolated Japanese Canadian seniors in the …
Vancouver’s Tonari Gumi: Keeping Jun’s Magnificent Dream Alive - Part 1
June 21, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
When I asked Takeo Yamashiro, a founding member of Vancouver’s Tonari Gumi community help group, about why young Nisei and Shin-Issei in the 1970s decided to help needy Issei, he shared the following experience: “Let me share with you a couple of encounters which totally blew my mind at the beginning of my involvement in the JC community: One day, I visited an old rundown rooming house in a back lane of Gastown (Vancouver). An old Issei man was …
Kyoko Norma Nozaki Sensei: “A Minority of Minorities” - Part 2
May 13, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> I am curious about what prompted you as a third year high school student to return to the US on your own? What was the reaction of your parents? Where did you go? Where did you study? Despite the tragedies my father had faced, he strongly believed that the USA had the best education system in the world and encouraged me to study in the country. In order to prepare for the goal, I was sent …
Kyoko Norma Nozaki Sensei: “A Minority of Minorities” - Part 1
May 12, 2022 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
“Mr. Commissioner….So when you tell me I must limitTestimonyWhen you tell me when my time is up,I tell you this:Pride has kept my lipspinned by nailsMy rage coffined.But I exhume my pastto reclaim this time.My youth was buried in Rohwer,Obachan’s ghost visits Amache Gate.My niece haunts Tule Lake.Words are better than tears,So I spill them.I kill this,The silence…” From “Breaking Silence” (for my mother) by Janice Mirikitani (1941-2021) If anyone knows about the struggles of living with the dual identity of …
