Explore every episode of the podcast Sounds Japanese Canadian To Me

The Nikkei Women series introduces you to Mary Kitagawa who is an educator, human rights crusader, and Order of BC recipient.

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Margaret Lyons broke down many barriers for Japanese Canadian women with her successful career in broadcast journalism.

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Midge Ayukawa earned degrees in chemistry and later became a Japanese Canadian historian.

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Marie Katsuno was one of almost 4000 Japanese Canadians deported to Japan after the Second World War.

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Japanese Canadian classic A Child in Prison Camp was written and illustrated by Shizuye Takashima.

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Hide Hyodo Shimizu was an activist and teacher in the Japanese Canadian community.

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Muriel Kitagawa was an eloquent voice for the Canada-born nisei generation.

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Hanako Sato immigrated to teach at the Vancouver Japanese Language School.

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Kinori Oka was a picture bride from Japan.

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Irene Uchida was a renowned down syndrome researcher.

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Tune in weekly for stories of amazing Nikkei women on Sounds Japanese Canadian To Me.

The post Introducing the Nikkei Women series appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Community stories of Japanese Canadians who lived in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver tended to intermingle more with non-Japanese.

The post Marpole Monogatari – Community appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Work experiences of Japanese Canadians living in pre-War Marpole told by former residents, their descendants and associates.

The post Marpole Monogatari – Work appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Conversations with former Marpole residents shed light on pre-War Marpole as a home to Japanese Canadians - from celebratory stories of birth and marriage to tragedies of illness, accidents, and abuse.

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We present stories of Marpole (Vancouver, British Columbia) where Japanese Canadians lived, worked, and built a community before they were forcibly uprooted and relocated in 1942.

The post Introducing the Marpole Monogatari appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

The harmonica was the musical instrument of choice for young nisei Japanese Canadian men in the 1930s and 1940s. Raymond and Carolyn look at some reasons why it became so iconic for this generation, some of the more prominent players, and story of the Lemon Creek Harmonica Band.

The post Episode 23 – Harmonicas appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

It's not alien, it's utopian! In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss the history, the social politics, and the experience of having mixed heritage. From the reasons for so many Japanese Canadians being of mixed heritage, to describing yourself as "half", "mixed", or of course "hapa", even to the level of your own name, having mixed heritage is a complicated experience. This double-sized episode of Sounds Japanese Canadian to Me is just one part of a huge and continuously evolving conversation.

The post Episode 28 – Mixed Heritage appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

It's not all fun and games at The Fair. In this episode, Raymond is joined by guest Erica Isomura to talk about Hastings Park in East Vancouver, better known as the PNE Fairgrounds, and its role for Japanese Canadians from up the coast and Vancouver Island in internment.

The post Episode 27 – Hastings Park 1942  appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn explore the fascinating history of Japanese taiko drumming, from its ancient roots in folk culture to the emergence of taiko ensembles in both Japan and North America after the Second World War. Taiko ensembles first began in North America in the 1970s, and were closely tied to Asian American and Asian Canadian political activism.

The post Episode 26 – Taiko appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Sewing was an important occupation for Japanese Canadian women before and during the Second World War, not only to clothe themselves and their families, but also as one of the few professions which was not barred to them in the racist climate of the time. Many pre-war issei and nisei women were skilled technicians, attending schools to learn how to draft their own patterns. In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss some of what they learned about this history from the Nikkei National Museum's online exhibit, Our Mother's Patterns.

The post Episode 25 – Dressmaking (Our Mothers Patterns) appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Just what is it with Japanese Canadian cultural centres, anyway? This episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss this phenomenon, from the JCCC in Toronto to centres in Montreal, Steveston, and even the Nikkei Centre which they're recording out of. Different centres across Canada have unique and interesting origins related to varying histories of postwar Japanese Canadian settlement, and today continue to provide space for their local communities in many ways. Many were built with the help of the redress settlement, and are important venues for celebrating multiculturalism and Japanese heritage today.

The post Episode 24 – Cultural Centres appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Join Raymond and Carolyn as they discuss figures in ancient Japanese folklore, botanical attractions in Vancouver and across Canada, and...mutants and clones? The Japanese ornamental cherry tree is all of these, not to mention a feature of spring in Japan and many places in Canada.

The post Episode 22 – Cherry Blossoms appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss the Japanese Canadian favourite of baseball. While the Vancouver Asahi are the most famous Japanese Canadian baseball team, there were many Nikkei teams and leagues throughout BC before the forced removal, in the camps during internment, and even some established east of the Rockies in the 1950s and beyond.

The post Episode 21 – Baseball appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

For our twentieth episode, Raymond and Carolyn look at the fascinating history of Japanese Canadians in the village of Cumberland on Vancouver Island. Coal baron Robert Dunsmuir began importing workers from Japan and elsewhere to Cumberland in the late 19th century. Labour disputes and racism were rampant, but the Japanese immigrants were also able to build lives there, moving from mining to logging and service industry work, and even bringing over their families and establishing a Japanese Language School. After the community was forcibly removed in 1942, efforts have been made by Cumberlanders in more recent years to uncover, preserve, and celebrate the multicultural history of the village.

The post Episode 20 – Cumberland appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss the who, what, where, when, and why of Japanese place names in Canada, from Ikeda Bay in Haida Gwaii to Bonsai Street in Vancouver, and even "Matane" in Quebec. While some are named in honour of early immigrants from Japan, others are more like tributes from afar to the idea of Japan and Japanese culture, or arrived at their names through a variety of interesting and surprising occurrences.

The post Episode 19 – Place Names appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss the samurai way of life - from the Satsuma clan to Inazo Nitobe's Bushido - and its possible influence on Japanese Canadian history and culture. While the figure of the samurai has been popularly mythologized in Western culture by the likes of Tom Cruise, many real-life samurai emigrated from Japan in the late 19th century to build new lives for themselves in places like Canada.  Some went on to become Canadian citizens, and fight for their adopted country in the First World War.

The post Episode 18 – Samurai appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss the Buddhist holiday of Obon, and how it is celebrated in Japan and Canada. Obon is a summer festival held in remembrance of deceased ancestors, but rather than being a sombre occasion, it is seen as a time to celebrate and show gratitude to those who came before. It is one of the major holidays in Japan, and an important cultural occasion for Japanese Canadian communities across Canada.

The post Episode 17 – Obon appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss some of their favourite Japanese (Canadian) cuisine, sharing stories and interesting facts about different dishes. Do you have a favourite Japanese or Japanese Canadian food that we didn't mention in the episode? Tell us about it!

The post Episode 16 – Japanese (Canadian) Food appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this super-size episode, Raymond and Carolyn discuss various experiences of Japanese Canadians in Japan, from the kika-nisei, to the war years and the difficult experience of deportees after the war, to their own stories of living there as Canadians.

The post Episode 15 – Japanese Canadians in Japan appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Raymond and Carolyn share the story of Aiko Saita, an international music star and Cumberland-born Nisei. Saita's studies in Italy were funded by the Japanese Canadian community, who formed the "Saita Aiko Kouenkai" (Aiko Saita support group) to pay for her world-class training. Although she passed away in Japan in 1954, Aiko Saita maintained a deep connection with the Japanese Canadian community: her third North American tour was cut short by the illness which took her life. Even today, many Nisei still remember going to hear her sing.

The post Episode 14 – Aiko Saita appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In light of the recent federal election, Raymond and Museum Intern Carolyn Nakagawa discuss Japanese Canadians' long fight for the right to vote, from the British Columbia government's ban against Japanese Canadians being added to the voters' list in 1885, to the lifting of all restrictions on citizenship rights for Canadians of Japanese descent in 1949.

The post Episode 13 – Franchise appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Raymond, Scott, and special guest Momoko Ito took some time this past spring to tour the museum's Magic Hour exhibit, admiring the treasures of the collection quirkily curated by the Instant Coffee collective and sharing background stories on some of the items. Now, their conversation is an archive of this unique exhibit.

The post Episode 12 – Magic Hour appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Strawberry farming the the lower mainland was an industry pioneered by Japanese Canadians in British Columbia. At one point, Japanese Canadians were responsible for as much as 83 percent of strawberry production in the province.

The post Episode 11 – Strawberry Farming in the Fraser Valley appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

At 18 years of age, Hide Hyodo Shimizu was the first Japanese Canadian teacher to teach in British Columbia's public school system. She was part of the delegation sent to Ottawa in 1936 to campaign for voting rights for Japanese Canadians, along with Samuel Hayakawa, Edward Banno and Minoru Kobayashi. She was responsible for organizing schools in the internment camps in British Columbia and later moved to Ontario to attend art college.

The post Episode 10 – Hide Hyodo Shimizu appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In March, 1941, the RCMP, under the orders of Prime Minister King, began registering Japanese and Japanese Canadians.  Afterwards all people above the age of sixteen carried registration cards with them at all times.  But wait this was nine months before Pearl Harbour?!  Join Raymond and Alexis as they talk about the what, why and how of registration cards.

The post Episode 9 – Registration Cards appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Join Raymond and Alexis as they talk about their favourite Japanese folklore creatures, characters and folks including daruma, kitsune and tanuki.

The post Episode 8 – Japanese Folklore (and its Creatures) appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

A day after Pearl Harbour, a large handful of Japanese Nationals were rounded up and shipped to Prisoner of War Camps in Canada.  Later they were joined by Japanese Canadians.  Over the course of the war, around 800 issei and nisei were sent to POW camps.  In this episode, Raymond and Alexis look at the camps and the men who were put inside them.

The post Episode 7 – Prisoner of War Camps appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this quick and casual episode, Raymond and Alexis look at the mixing of the Japanese and English languages - sometimes called pidgin.  We had hoped to tell you more about Japanese-Canadian Pidgin but sadly no sources, besides Raymond's brain, were found.  So instead, we cobbled together some historically interesting mixes between English and Japanese along with Raymond's recollections.  Enjoy.

The post Episode 6 – Pidgin…Bamboo English…Japlish? appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

On the night of March 29, 1931, Naokichi Watanabe was murdered in Japantown.  The suspects were Shinkichi Sakurada, Tadao Hitomi and Bunshiro Fujino.  The murder weapon was a hatchet.  The motive was insurance money. The Japanese Canadian community was in an uproar - fueled by Japanese newspapers' headlines.  What happened next?  Dooo dooo dooooooo.

The post Episode 5 – The Murder of Naokichi Watanabe appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Thomas Shoyama was the Editor of the New Canadian during the internment period and later went on to become one of the most powerful public servants in the Canadian Government.  But throughout his life, it is important to note, that this thoughtful man always took time to water the plants.

The post Episode 4 – Thomas Shoyama appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Picture brides were the early twentieth-century's version of extreme online dating.  Japanese men living in Canada would exchange pictures with a Japanese woman back in Japan. Once a match was struck, the woman would marry the man by proxy in Japan and then sail to Canada to meet her husband for the very first time.  Talk about intense.

The post Episode 3 – Picture Brides appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

In this episode, Raymond and Alexis look at the three points and six sections of the Redress Agreement and unpack the meaning behind the stuffy wording.

The post Episode 2 – Redress appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

The British Columbia Security Commission was created by the Canadian Federal Government through Orders in Council PC 1665 and 1666 on March 4th,1942.  Its main role was to organise and supervise the uprooting and relocation of approximately 23,000 Japanese Nationals and Japanese Canadians.  In addition, it was to set up housing and welfare programmes including employment, education for children and medical services for the sick.

The post Episode 1 – British Columbia Security Commission appeared first on Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.