Redeeming the War on the Homefront: Alberta's Japanese Community During the Second World War and After
David ]. Goa
Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher of For King and Country: Alberta in the Second World War;)
Two themes are apparent in this brief sketch of the conditions among the 2664 Japanese who were moved to southern Alberta in 1942. They were faced with the strenuous labour in the sugar beet fields, and the need to build an interim environment which provided the stability necessary for a decent life. For the Japanese the challenge was enormous. They had to make their way in an entirely new circumstance. They had lost their homes, possessions, livelihood and community. For many, it must surely have seemed that they had also lost the nation of their birth or the nation they had adopted. Despite the clear fact that they were faithful citizens, war had pitted their nation against their ancestral homeland.19 Links with Japan were cut off, and they were called upon to rethink their place in Canada and their relationship to Japan. Another striking theme emerges from this period. The coming to southern Alberta of 2664 Japanese people to work in the sugar beet industry in the midst of the war was for the local population an extraordinary event. Virtually overnight the social and cultural environment of this part of the province was transformed. Such a large influx of unwelcorned people would be a challenge. However, the coming of the Japanese under such adverse circumstances, under suspicion of being national enemies during wartime, was a challenge to the region like none other. When we consider the challenge to the Japanese people who came and to the local community which “hosted” them during wartime, we are forced to ponder the values that made it possible for both communities20 to remake a social world in a healthy and nurturing way.
The evacuees who came to Alberta were fortunate to be entering a context where the local reputation of the Japanese was excellent and where there already were several Japanese community institutions established. The Alberta Japanese community played an important mediating role in the resettlement process. Within a short time of their arrival in Alberta the Reverend Shinjo Ikuta and the Reverend Yutetsu Kawamura helped the evacuee communities establish Buddhist Churches under the auspices of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Church of Canada. Churches were established in Picture Butte, Taber and Coaldale. Along with the church, a Kobai Kumiai or cooperative store was established to import Japanese food for local consumption. The church became a centre of religious life as well the centre for the social and cultural life of the Japanese community, providing clubs for teaching kendo and judo as well as other forms of education and entertainment for children and adults alike.
Contributions to Civil Life
In the five decades following the war, the Japanese communities which have remained in southern Alberta have both built their own strong institutions and worked diligently within the civil life of the region. A number of local residents have served on the town councils,21 in the local service clubs22 and on the marketing boards for the sugar beet and potato growers23 in the region. Many families have developed fine farms, established businesses, and made professional contributions in virtually all fields.24
At the civic level, southern Alberta has benefited enormously from the contribution of its Japanese citizens. Two examples stand as vivid reminders of a community which sought to transform the terrors of history into the building of a wholesome public life in cooperation with its neighbours. In the 1960s, the town of Raymond established a Cemetery Day complete with a non-denominational service in memory of the deceased in the community. The Town Councillors decided to establish this day because of what they had for years observed within the Japanese Buddhist community. A major Japanese and Buddhist festival day is called Obon, a day set aside for remembering and honouring one's deceased relatives and friends.25 The Japanese at Raymond occasionally went in procession through the streets to the cemetery on the edge of the town, held their service of thanksgiving in the cemetery, and danced the Obon odori back through the streets to the Buddhist Church on main street for the festive gathering. Members of the Town Council observed this ritual of regard for the fleeting character of life and respect for all those who have clothed us in life and bequeathed the world to us. Their questions about the meaning of Obon led to a inquiry to see if it would be appropriate for the town to adopt this festival as a civic cemetery day. As a consequence, the town of Raymond regularly goes to the cemetery on Obon, Japanese and others alike, and spends the day remembering and honouring relatives, friends and ancestors.
A second remarkable response to the war, internment, and evacuation, is the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, a Canada-Japan friendship garden built for the Canadian Centennial in 1967. This jewel adorns the City of Lethbridge and invites all who enter to experience the deep sense of interdependence of all nature and the beauty and wonder of nature and of the work of human beings cultivating nature. The garden was developed through the initiative of Alberta's Japanese community, led by Reverend Yutetsu Kawamura and the civic leaders of Lethbridge. It is dedicated to the friendship between two nations, Canada and Japan; however, many who visit the garden would never know about the communal experience that lies just below the surface and provided the ground for the creation of Nikka Yuko. The garden exists, not because of the friendship between our two nations, although thankfully that friendship has also come, but because the Japanese Buddhist sensibility looks to bring forth something of gentle beauty even from hostility and hardship. The lotus blossoms, the dearest of Buddhist symbols, capture this sensibility in the garden at Lethbridge. The roots of much human experience are to be found in the mire of history; in some circumstances, tragedy and terror are the ground for beauty, the blossoming of new life. In the experience of the Japanese community of southern Alberta, this is anything but a sentimental image.
Notes
19. In a number of interviews with members of the Japanese community in southern Alberta I have explored their memory of Canadian propaganda about the Japanese, endeavouring to understand how this affected them. Since they were not allowed to have radios or subscribe to newspapers, they were curiously insulated from the media campaigns to mould wartime Canadian perceptions of their community.
20. The author is currently exploring both the values which formed the bases of the Japanese response to the evacuation, and those that informed the southern Alberta farming community which "hosted" the evacuees. The hypothesis of the study is that the need for labourers in the sugar beet fields is only one reason this potentially volatile circumstance remained peaceful. A set of religious and civil values were also at work within the southern Alberta farming communities as a stabilizing force.
21. Muneo Takeda and Mac Nishiyama have both served on the Raymond Town Council.
22. The Lions Club has been quite popular within the Japanese community. From the early 1950s various members of the community have held offices of significance, including Mac Nishiyama, who rose to Deputy District Governor, and Hiede Karaki, who held provincial office. Reyko Nishiyama served as Division Commissioner and on the Provincial Council of the Girl Guides of Alberta, as well as on the Board of the Raymond and District Museum.
23. Norris Taguchi, long-time President of the Picture Butte Buddhist Church, served on the Potato Growers' Marketing Board for a number of years.
24. There are far too many contributions to mention. The work of Robert Hironaka, research scientist with the federal Agricultural Station, Lethbridge, stands as an example of local commitment of national significance.
25. For a complete study of the ritual life of the Japanese Buddhist community of southern Alberta see David J. Goa and Harold G. Coward, “Sacred Ritual, Sacred Language: Jodo Shinshu Religious Forms in Transition”, in Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses [Vol. 12, No. 4 1983], pp. 363-379.