Chris Hope

ChrisHope

Chris Hope is a Toronto-based lawyer, writer, and director of Hatsumi – One Grandmother’s Journey Through the Japanese Canadian Internment. His most recent film as producer, The Wrecking Crew, won the 2015 U.K. Music Video Award for Best Documentary.

Updated January 2016

sports en es

Celebrating 55 Years of Service and Self-Defence

By Chris Hope
14 Nov 2018

Earlier this year, I had the honour of presenting Shihan Kei Tsumura, founder of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) Karate Club in Toronto with the Don Valley West Community Service Award for outstanding volunteer contributions in the City of Toronto. It was yet another community service award for Tsumura’s collection, to mark his 55th anniversary as the founder and Master Sensei of the JCCC club. Shihan Tsumura is one of the highest ranked practitioners of Shito-ryu Itosu-kai Karate in the world. For more than half a century he has shared his passion for the art with generat…

media en

Internment Musical Makes Its Mark on Broadway But Is Set to Close on February 14, 2016

By Chris Hope
26 Jan 2016

All good things must come to an end, but this end is coming far too soon. At the end of October, I had the privilege of attending a preview of Allegiance at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. I was more than a little apprehensive about the idea of an internment musical, but after witnessing the approach the team behind Allegiance had taken with the show, I quickly developed the firm belief that the production had the potential to represent the greatest opportunity of my generation for the Japanese American (JA) community to deliver the internment story to the widest possible audience. Unfo…

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To Be Takei

By Chris Hope
15 May 2014

“A musical?” says Leonard Nimoy, “on that?” He bursts out laughing. “A musical about the internment?” asks U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, wincing, “no, I would have never imagined that.” Actor, activist, and media personality George Takei has had an interesting life, but the new documentary To Be Takei so unflinchingly sheds such light on the struggles he has triumphed over that audiences can’t help but to leave inspired. We all recall his days as Sulu at the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the original Star Trek TV series and film franc…

community en

Top Legal Award Re-dedicated In Honor Of Senator Daniel K. Inouye

By Chris Hope
16 Dec 2013

At the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association national convention in Kansas City on November 8, NAPABA’s highest honour, formerly the NAPABA Trailblazer Award, was re-dedicated as the Senator Daniel K. Inouye NAPABA Trailblazer Award to serve as an ongoing tribute the achievements of U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye (1924-2012). NAPABA represents over 40,000 Asian lawyers and judges in the U.S. and approximately 3,000 Asian lawyers, judges, and students in Canada, through the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL). NAPABA has been at the forefront of civil rights reform an…

politics en

70th Anniversary of the Japanese American/Japanese Canadian Internment: Redress, Remember, Relate – Contrasting the Japanese American and Japanese Canadian Internment Experiences in Washington D.C. - Part 2

By Chris Hope
27 Dec 2012

Read Part 1 >> In contrast to Kawakami and Minami’s discussions that focused on the fact that it was the incremental gains of specific legal victories that lead to the redress in the U.S., it was very interesting to learn from Justice Omatsu that the Canadian road to redress was, comparatively, much more collectivist and political in nature. In Canada we had no banner cases or new “bright line” precedents to turn to, but the fight for the hearts and minds of those with the power to acknowledge and make restitution for the internment was no less of a struggle. T…

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Discover Nikkei

Japanese migrants and their descendants

Chris Hope

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Nikkei Chronicles #11—Itadakimasu 3! Nikkei Food, Family, and Community

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書評：和泉真澄『日系カナダ人の移動と運動―知られざる日本人の越境生活史』

1992年渡米、目標は「アカデミー賞」— 俳優の井上英治さん

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第３部：金子正則知事の南米訪問とその主な見解

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Journal Entry #Lesson 3450: "Sharpen Your Pencils!"

Narumi Ogusuku Ubiquitous Nikkei Artist

Herald Salutes – Staff Sergeant Higuchi

The Morgenthau Diaries and FDR's Troubling Views of Minorities

Mercedes Luna: Thriving Within Her Rich Heritage - Part 2

Mercedes Luna: Thriving Within Her Rich Heritage - Part 1

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