Grandmother convinced his mother to return to Canada

Building Japanese style fishing boats in Canada Japanese fishermen town in Steveston, Canada Grandmother convinced his mother to return to Canada No immediate impact after Pearl Harbor Treatment of Japanese fishermen in Canada during World War II Government's permission to publish Japanese newspaper in Canada during World War II Japanese newspaper supported by Canadian government during World War II Sneaking out of the Hastings Park camp during World War II Fire started by illegal sake still at the camp Building a Japanese rock garden inside an internment camp Government urged Japanese Canadians to go to Japan Japanese Canadians get the right to vote in 1949 Government sold Japanese Canadian properties for little money Developing senior housing for Japanese Canadians

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I think she (my mom) was homesick. She said that herself, she wanted to go home, and she wanted to have her second [child], she wanted to have, she was homesick for her mother, so she went, well, she was fairly young, of course, like I said before. Twenty-three, yeah, she would be still in her early twenties by then. And she went home, and she went back to Japan, and she had her second child. And we stayed there for, oh, over a year. And Papa was, used to, continued to work and send, send money back. And eventually, her mother said, "You know, you have to go back to Canada because your father is very faithful to you, sending you money every month and everything. He's put up his, he's doing his part, so you have to do your part." And she, her mother convinced her to come back to Canada. And so by the time we came back to Canada, my sister was a little over one year old, I think. So we were there for about two years, three years, two or three years. 'Cause by the time I came back, I was, I went back, I was almost five, I was four and something. So we were at least two and a half, two years in Japan, came back to Canada, and then of course, we stayed.

Date: July 25 & 26, 2006
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Canada migration