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Reflecting the Past in the
Present -- In the Present -- Imagining the Future
Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Japanese Canadian Redress
Settlement
(September 22, 1988)
Submitted March 31, 2009,
by:
Grace Eiko Thomson, Past President (President, 2006-2008), National
Association of Japanese Canadians
During the weekend of September
19, 20, and 21, 2008, a special Program was held in Vancouver,
by the National Association of Japanese Canadians, to celebrate
an event, twenty years ago--September 22, 1988--when the Government
of Canada acknowledged the injustices committed against Japanese
Canadians during and after the Second World War, and pledged
such events will not happen again in this country. The signing
of the Redress Agreement and Acknowledgement was an event of
national celebration for all Japanese Canadians. It was also
unprecedented in the history of Canada, and opened up possibilities
for other minority groups seeking redress for historic or other
injustices, to present their issues with hope of resolution.
What was great about anniversaries,
especially the 20th , is that it was still within grasp of the
collective memory of many Japanese Canadians, and such celebration
offers opportunity to visit the past, not to remain there, but
to review an envision the future.
Friday and Saturday morning
sessions were opened with First Nations welcome and blessing
by Gloria Wilson (Squamish Nation Elder) and Larry Grant (Musqueam
Nation Elder) respectively. Former NAJC President Arthur K. Miki
gave the opening plenary address. A welcoming message was offered
by Mayor Derek R. Corrigan, of the City of Burnaby, at the Saturday
evening celebration dinner, and a special message by His Excellency,
Ambassdor Tsuneo Nishida of Japan. Dr. Roy Miki's reminiscences
of the Redress Movement, followed by the keynote address by Chief
Robert Joseph (LLD, UBC, Special Advisor on Residential School
Issues, Indian Residential School Survivors Society) electrified
the banquet room and received a standing ovation.
Following are highlights of
some of the panel discussions and workshops submitted in reports
by the moderators:
The opening program, titled
Redress: Never Too Late, sponsored jointly by Canadian Race Relations
Foundation and the National Association of Japanese Canadians
was moderated by Arthur K. Miki, C.M., (former President of NAJC
who signed the Acknowledgement with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney).
Introduced by Albert Lo, President, CRRF, the program included
speakers from communities who had already achieved formal redress
settlements from the Canadian Government for past injustices
inflicted upon them through government actions and legislations.
The session addressed the terms of agreement, impact of the redress
settlement on individuals and on community, actions that will
be taken to ensure that the past will not be forgotten and issues
which remain outstanding.
Participants included a panel
of four, including Andrew Griffith (Director General, Multiculturalism
and Human Rights, Canadian Heritage). Chief Robert Joseph (Aboriginal
community) acknowledged the importance of the Japanese Canadian
Redress settlement in gaining redress for the Aboriginal victims
placed in residential schools by the government of Canada. This
action had a profound effect on his community as students were
deprived of their language and culture. Avvy Go (Chinese Canadian
community) spoke on the beginnings of the redress movement for
the Chinese Head Tax issue, making reference to the Court Challenge
program that resulted in the denial of legal claim made on behalf
of Chinese Canadians who had paid the head tax. Although the
apology and compensation were announced by the Prime Minister
in 2008, some members of the community feel that the compensation
did not go far enough. However, she pointed out that the issue
is now resolved for the elderly victims. Andrew Hladyshevsky
(Ukrainian Canadian community) shared his views on the extended
ongoing negotiations with the federal government over many years
and with many different ministers. He indicated that the change
of ministers was frustrating as they had to educate each new
minister on the history and experience of Ukrainian Canadians
interned during World War I, delaying the process. The final
detail of the redress settlement is still being worked out with
the present government.
David Divine (Afro-Canadian
community), spoke as a responder since there is no claim to the
Government for redress on behalf of the Black community at this
time. He talked about the experiences and also the diversity
that exists in his community that makes reaching a consensus
very difficult. Professor Divine however shared different ways
that redress may be addressed. Harbhajan Gill (Komagata Maru
Heritage Foundation) who spoke of the apology given by Prime
Minister Stephen Harper in a Park in Vancouver shortly before
the election was called. Mr. Gill indicated that the community
wanted the apology made in the House of Commons, but he felt
that it was a political decision by the Prime Minister to make
such announcement in the Park since Parliament would not be convening.
The second session on the first
day was presented by keynote speaker, Philomena Essed, Professor
of Critical Race, Gender and Leadership Studies, at Antioch University.
Moderated by Randy Enomoto, he offers that a central point in
Essed's keynote address, titled, Leadership Beyond Antiracism:
Aainst Humiliations and for the Dignity of Being, is that "beyond
antiracism there is the responsibility of honoring the dignity
of being, the whole human (or nonhuman) being, not only the racial
dimension of experience" and that "ethnic or racial
reductionism implies that human beings with unique life stories
and multiple layers of identity are boxed in terms of only one
trait or perceived identity: race-ethnicity. The act of ethnic
reductionism implies the temporary denial of the wholeness of
self, of the fullness of being. That is in itself a form of humiliation."
Responders (Audrey Kobayashi (Professor, Queen's University),
Monika Kin Gagnon (Professor, Concordia University, Raj Gill,
(Langara College), and Marcia Crosby (University of British Columbia),
and members of the audience, made some queries and challenged
some of Essed's points, especially her notion of liberation from
identity politics.
Building Partnerships and Right
Relations with Aboriginal Peoples was sponsored by the NAJC Human
Rights Committee, and organized by Committee members Judy Hanazawa,
Terumi Kuwada, and Kim Uyede-Kai, in consultation with Aboriginal
advisor participants, Lorna Williams (Assistant Professor and
Director of Aboriginal Education, University of Victoria) and
Gloria Wilson (Elder, Social worker, and former Director of Social
Development, Squamish Naion) to produce a Talking Circle format.
Lorna Williams and Mary (Murakami) Kitagawa presented personal
stories. The workshop encouraged strengthening of good relations
between Aboriginal Peoples and Japanese Canadian communities,
and in addition recommended future such events which could support
a healing and family story sharing process for Japanese Canadians.
Community development workshops
were presented by both youth and senior groups. Faces and Roles
of Young Japanese Canadians shared and reflected on stories by
some inspiring youths, who spoke about their entrepreneurial,
academic, artistic, and community activities, as they deal with
their own sense of identity with their Japanese ancestry. The
panelists consisted of a Documentary Filmmaker (Anne Marie Nakagawa),
Musician and Educator (Jason De Couto), Lawyer (Denise Nawata),
Entrepreneur and Powell Street Festival President (John Yamazaki),
and Owner of the restaurant, Hapa Izakaya (Justin Ault). Interestingly,
the stories they shared expressed lives which were learned through
understanding, embracing, rejecting and sometimes even financially
exploiting their Japanese ancestry.
Looking back, and forward into
the future, Envisioning the Future: Japanese Canadian Redress
Foundation, moderated by Katherine Shozawa, began with the screening
of a documentary by Mieko Ouchi, Saiki (Regeneration), and an
overview by Henry Shimizu (JC Redress Foundation Chair), regarding
the formation of the JC Redress Foundation, 1989, for the purpose
of allocating community redress funds, and a summary of grant
recipients by Tony Tamayose (JC Redress Foundation CEO).
Angele Thibault and Gayle Swanson
(Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre, New Denver), Kristen Lambertson
(General Manager and Programming Director, Powell Street Festival),
Rika Uto (President, Vancouver Japanese Language School &
Japanese Hall), Cathy Makihara (former CEO National Nikkei Museum
& Heritage Centre), and Jay Hirabayashi (Dancer and Executive
Director, Kokoro Dance), representing community organizations
which received Foundation funds, discussed their current works
and programs, toward an envisioning of a future which includes
not only programs, but funding challenges, as well as questions
about leadership.
Telling Stories, Questioning
Japanese Canadian Identities: Research, Writing, Visual Art as
Cultural Practices, was the title of a panel discussion moderated
by Scott Toguri McFarlane to mark the importance of the need
for contemporary JC literature and visual arts. The moderator
notes that the role of storytelling in the struggle for redress
cannot be underestimated, and remembers Joy Kogawa's Obasan repeatedly
being referenced and quoted in speeches by politicians on the
Redress Settlement day. He says, twenty years after Redress,
one of the exciting challenges for the community is to develop
new narratives, as well as visual representations, that give
meaning to the contemporary experience of being "JC."
A panel comprised of four key community storytellers was assembled
for the conference: Dr. Kirsten McAllister (School of Communications,
SFU), Hiromi Goto (author of award-winning Chorus of Mushrooms),
Dr. Mona Oikawa (York University) and Dr. Roy Miki, C.M. (poet,
writer, author of Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call
for Justice).
A panel discussion which focused
on Ijusha and Nikkei (Immigrants') Community, Past, Present and
Future, questioned the adaptation and integration of Ijusha or
postwar immigrants, through various phases, i.e., after the Redress
Settlement of 1988, and what the on-going issues are in looking
to the future. Moderated by Masa Kagami (NAJC Executive Board
Member), the introduction was given by Tatsuo Kage on the History
of Postwar Immigration and the Nikkei Community, followed by
presentations from panelists Alex Nagao from Calgary (Intermarriage
Families bring changes to the Community); Yumi Schoenhofer from
Ottawa (Female Immigrants in the Multicultural Society), Takeshi
Ogasawara from Campbell River, B.C. (Immigrants in a Small Town),
and Yusuke Tanaka from Toronto (Future of the Nikkei Community).
A second panel consisted of Leslie Komori (Sansei/Third Generation
Experience), Takeo Yamashiro (Intergenerational Cooperation through
Tonari Gumi), Naoko Takei (The Future of Heritage Language and
Culture), Etsuko Kato (ICU, Tokyo, Student Residents, Working
Holiday or Work Visa), and Mitsuo Hayashi (The Role of Nikkei
Place).
Throughout the conference,
video (looped) screenings were offered which included related
works by Lynda Nakashima, Rafael Tsuchida and Lyndsay Sung, The
Powell Street Revue and Rick Shiomi, Ruby Truly, Jay Hirabayashi,
Alejandro Yoshizawa, and Michael Fukushima, works spanning from
1980 through 2008.
There were two special performances:
One was performed on the rooftop of Sunrise Market, adjacent
to a building where Japanese Canadians registered for internment
in the heart of old `Japantown' on the Friday evening. Kokoro
Dance's Ghosts, featured twelve dancers, three bagpipes, one
drummer, and a wealth of inspiration. Ghosts pays homage to the
incarnations and past inhabitants of the Powell Street area.
The titular ghosts re Japanese Canadian, as well as the ghosts
of all immigrants, of lives past, and of the thousands who have
lived in the Downtown Eastside. Ghosts was co-commissioned by
the Dancing on the Edge Festival, the Powell street Festival,
and the NAJC.
The other was held on both
Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, sponsored by the NAJC, Chi
Kyuu No Stage/Frontline for Peace, is a multi-media performance
that screens images of conflict-torn countries, including Somalia,
Afghanistan, etc., with narrations and original music compiled
by Dr. Norihiko Kuwayama (Yamagata Prefecture, Japan). Intended
for diverse audiences with special focus on youth, the performance
has through the years toured all over Japan and this was their
first performance outside of Japan.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF JAPANESE
CANADIANS
The National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) was organized
to seek justice for Canadians of Japanese ancestry because of
their history of ethnic persecution, racial discrimination and
internment. Established on November 10, 1985, it went to to achieve
a historic and precedent setting Redress settlement from the
Canadian Government on September 22, 1988.
Although Redress was achieved
in 1988, the mandate of the NAJC to protect the best interests
of Japanese Canadians remains as necessary and relevant today
as in the past. The unique history of Japanese Canadians belongs
to those who are Canadian born and those who have immigrated.
This shared experience has forever shaped and bound the Japanese
Canadian community regardless of origin.
The primary aim of this Association
is:
" to enable all Japanese Canadians to work together on matters
of concern to the Japanese Canadian community and to individual
members who require support and representation;
" to work independently and with others to eliminate racial
discrimination and related intolerances, to work in close cooperation
with other organizations seeking redress for historic or other
injustices,
" and to take collective action to better the political,
social, educational and economic welfare of all Canadians.
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possible with the support of the
Department
of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy
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