Kitsilano Japanese community at Buddhist Church on First Avenue.ca 1930.| Photo by NNM Maeda Family Collection.

Remaining faithful to traditional ways while maintaining a new lifestyle through forced assimilation in a new land is a common struggle for new immigrants. Recounting a long and complex past, the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre presents a walking tour of Kitsilano’s pre-war Japanese Canadian community on
Sept. 12.

“It’s a completely virtual tour,” says Linda Kawamoto Reid, retired nurse and volunteer research archivist for the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre. “The whole community was split up because of the internment and forced to either go back to Japan, or move east of the Rockies.”

Virtual tour into the past

From 1904–42, Kitsilano, or “Ki-Chi-Ra-No,” contained the second largest Japanese Canadian community in Vancouver. At its peak in 1941-42, the enclave was home to over 1,000 people, consisting of entrepreneurs and local industry workers. Reid explains Japanese Canadians lived in tenements near where they worked: Kitsilano’s lumber company and saw mill.

“Once people congregate, they start to need things – a bathhouse, barber, garage,” says Reid. “That’s how Kitsilano started building up.”

Children attended Henry Hudson Elementary, but many parents also enrolled their children in Japanese Language School, which ran after school and on Saturdays. The community also built a Buddhist Church. However, the only building that remains of the pre-war Japanese Canadian community is the former National Biscuit Factory. Japanese Canadians did not work there, but parents would send their children with 25 cents to buy broken biscuits.

A story of determination

Yakura, Kobayashi & Mura, gardeners
living and playing in Kits. ca 1932.| Photo by NNM Maeda Family Collection.

Japanese immigration to Canada was high in the late 1800s, says Reid, because Japan had just switched over from the Shogun era to the Meiji era. This meant the end of the samurai’s feudal and agrarian way of life, replaced by a more constitutional government with modern infrastructure and an imperial army.

“Essentially it was a revolution and the reason it happened was because there was threat of other countries trying to take over Japan, so the Japanese had to modernize,” says Reid.

In order to transform the system, the Japanese were taxed heavily. Consequently, many Japanese left the country for North America. The resulting influx of Japanese migrants into Canada fuelled an anti-Asian riot that took place in Vancouver in September 1907. Canada then limited immigration of Japanese males to 400 per year. Thereafter, most immigrants were women, joining their husbands or betrothed to Japanese Canadian men.

“In a lot of ways it was good because it brought women, families, communities and children into Canada. It changed the landscape of what was there before, which was men, hard, maybe drinking, maybe gambling, maybe up to no good,” says Reid.

Arranged marriages were common in Japan, but most Japanese Canadian workers could not afford to return to Japan to meet their spouse, explains Reid. Instead, their families arranged a marriage by proxy. Men exchanged photos with their overseas prospective brides before sending them over in what was called the “picture bride system.”

“One of the salient features of the Japanese community is that they organized themselves to be efficient and they worked together as a group,” says Reid.

Japanese Canadian workers excelled in their limited labour positions: farmers perfected the art of growing berries and fishermen revolutionized the fishing industry, and were excellent boat builders.

“Anything they did, they did to perfection,” says Reid.

Prevailing under pressure

However, their willingness to work for lower wages caused controversy and racism was rampant, explains Reid. Pre-war Japanese Canadians did not have the right to vote. In 1931, Japanese Canadian veterans of WWI finally won the right to vote, but it would not be until 1949 that all Japanese persons could vote in a BC provincial election.

“Racism was here and it prevailed,” says Reid. “Japanese Canadians were accused of not assimilating, but they were kind of forced to assimilate because there was so much racism.”

The events put on by the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre provide a way to learn about the history and culture of Japanese Canadians.

“It’s also a really good opportunity to bring two groups together- the Japanese community whose families have been here forever and the new immigrants,” says Reid.

For more information, please visit: centre.nikkeiplace.org/ki-chi-ra-no