Canada’s Internment Era: A Field School
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Below are excerpts from Catherine Oikawa’s journal reflecting on her experiences in Canada’s Internment Era: A Field School. This field school is a two-week intensive experience open to Japanese and non-Japanese Canadian teachers to support them in bringing the history of Japanese Canadian internment into the classroom. Teachers spend one week on a bus tour, learning the history of internment in the places where it happened. Then, teachers spend a week in class in Victoria to consolidate their learning and prepare to teach this topic. Visit Past Wrongs Future Choices for more information.
July 2023
As I embarked on the Nikkei National Museum internment bus tour, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Being a fourth-generation Japanese Canadian (Yonsei), I often feel my understanding of the Japanese Canadian internment has limits. The stories shared were few and far between and my fear to ask questions, or ask the wrong question, continues to hinder me today. Many location names were familiar yet distant from the personal details I have heard from family members. I am continually trying to connect the dots (relating to oral histories from family members) while, at the same time, new dots are constantly appearing as I learn more.
At the PNE, Vancouver
The Pacific National Exhibition site was the first stop and, before there was any exchange of information, I noticed a Japanese Maple (momiji) that led to the Momiji Gardens. This was a grounding moment, and I knew what was about to take place was going to help me better understand what it means to be Japanese Canadian. Hastings Park was used to temporarily contain approximately 8,000 Japanese Canadians, until they could be sent to long-term camps. Women and children were separated from men and the living conditions were inhumane.
The effects of feeling less-than persists today, not only for the younger generations but also for other communities that have experienced similar mistreatment. Peeking through this broken window symbolizes how the incarceration fractured the once thriving Japanese community and brings into question how will the window be fixed? Replaced? Left broken? How long has it been broken and who has noticed?
In the Slocan Valley
The Slocan extension consists of four internment areas: Bay Farm, Slocan City, Popoff Farm, and Lemon Creek, which held over 4,800 Japanese Canadians. Pictured is the Buddhist Memorial that can be found in the Village of Slocan Cemetery. The memorial post has a similar feel to the homyos taken to Buddhist temples on the first Sunday of every month for Shotsuki-hoyo, to honour family members who passed away that month. Similarly, this memorial was erected in 2016 to honour the early deaths of Japanese Canadians in Slocan camps.
In Kaslo
Approximately 1,000 Japanese Canadians were sent to the Kaslo area, known as a ghost town once it was vacated after the mining boom. The Langham Internment Museum acknowledges the strength and resilience of Japanese Canadians and this image is of their garden Ten-Chi-Jin. Honouring the strength and resilience of the Issei (first generation) and Nisei (second generation) is a recurring theme. Likewise, the two leaning rocks (pictured below) represent humans helping and supporting one another and working together—and perhaps, the need to rebuild what was once taken away.
Conclusions
While I knew the bus tour would be profound, I couldn’t have anticipated the deeper understanding I now have for the intergenerational connections and the strength of community. When we are faced with adversity, we can turn the situation around if we take care of it with patience, love, and understanding. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of restoring pottery that was once broken by fusing the pieces together using gold to highlight the cracks and bring it back to its original beauty. If the Japanese community was fractured, I now understand that the gold needed to mend it is the generational connections, as well as the power and support of the community, both Nikkei (ethnically Japanese people) and non-Nikkei. Working together to preserve the history and learn from it will bring what was once fractured back to its original beauty. The pieces are there. Together, we are creating a legacy by mending the pieces.
