Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/406/

Interviews

Kutsukake,Rose

(1918-2004) Interned in Slocan during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community.

Why her parents came to Canada

I*: Rose...

Hai (Yes).

I: You know, do you know why your mother and father came to Canada?

Well, I guess they, they wanted to make money and go home, which, instead of making money, they got further and further into a hole, so they couldn't go back to Japan.

I: And what did they do in Vancouver?

Vancouver? Boarding house on Alexander, they call it Hiroshima, yeah. But if that had succeeded, we wouldn't have been rich, but at least we would have been able to go home to Japan to say that, well, we'll, here we are. But how can you go back to Japan in debt, right? Everybody's like that. So we stayed. [Interruption] [Inaudible], they'll think that.

*"I" indicates an interviewer (Peter Wakayama).


Canada immigration migration

Date: December 2004

Location: Canada

Interviewer: Peter Wakayama

Contributed by: Sedai, the Japanese Canadian Legacy Project, Japanese Canadian Cultural Center

Interviewee Bio

Rose Mieko Sato was born on May 28, 1918, in Vancouver, British Columbia, where her parents ran a boarding house. She attended public school and the Japanese Language School in Vancouver. Prior to the war, she worked in sales in a Japanese department store. When the Japanese were removed from the British Columbia coast during World War II, Rose was interned with her family at Slocan, in the British Columbia interior. The family relocated to Toronto, Ontario in 1948, where Rose worked at various jobs in the garment industry. Rose married Ken Kutsukake in 1953 and was married for fifty years. Her husband was a member of the famous Asahi baseball team in prewar British Columbia. Both Rose and her husband were active members of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and the community. Rose passed away in Toronto in 2004.

Akira Takashio
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Takashio,Akira

Immigration ship Brazil-maru (Japanese)

Shin Issei – owner of izakaya (Japanese-style tavern) and kappo (small Japanese diner) restaurant, Honda-Ya

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Great grandfather Asato was a sumo wrestler

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Grandfather loved to tell her stories of her great-grandfather Arakaki

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Parents leaving Peru to move to California

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Monica Teisher
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Teisher,Monica

Grandfather migrating to Colombia

(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

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Masato Ninomiya
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Ninomiya,Masato

What made your parents decide to move to Brazil?

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

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Vince Ota
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Ota,Vince

Moving to and living in Japan

Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan

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Bill Hashizume
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Hashizume,Bill

Japanese community in Mission

(b. 1922) Canadian Nisei who was unable to return to Canada from Japan until 1952

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Luis Yamada
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Yamada,Luis

A lucky man (Spanish)

(b. 1929) Nisei Argentinean

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Kazuo Funai
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Funai,Kazuo

Company in Tokyo burned down (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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James Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,James

Family interrelations between mother and father

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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Barbara Kawakami
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Kawakami,Barbara

Going back to Hawaii

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Kawakami,Barbara

Picture brides and karifufu

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Roy H. Matsumoto
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Matsumoto,Roy H.

Kibei schoolchildren in Hiroshima, Japan

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

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Marion Tsutakawa Kanemoto
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Kanemoto,Marion Tsutakawa

Mother's immigration to U.S. as a treaty merchant

(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.

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