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Leaning ahead in her wheelchair to look over an enormous photograph album, Sue Kai delves into reminiscences from a long time in the past. Kai, 96, and her son, Brian, pore over snapshots of her previous, some courting again to the second her life was irrevocably modified.
Kai was 16 years previous, and residing together with her household within the downtown Vancouver dwelling her father constructed along with his personal two fingers, when it occurred.
“One Sunday all people goes loopy: ‘Bomb bomb bomb bomb,'” stated Kai. “I stated, what’s a ‘bomb bomb bomb bomb?’ Then they stated ‘Pearl Harbor.'”
From the title, Kai thought it was a flowery seaside, not the American naval base in Hawaii that had simply been bombed in a shock assault by Japan on Dec. 7, 1941. However warnings from the folks round her shortly advised her that wasn’t the case.
“Then I heard, ‘Now, you higher go inside as a result of they will shoot you.'”
WATCH | These Japanese Canadians who had been compelled into WWII internment camps now stay in the identical long-term care dwelling:
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/123/527/internment-japanese-survivors-nicholson-091121.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:* 510w")
[Warning: video contains offensive language] A number of Japanese Canadians residing in the identical Toronto long-term care dwelling mirror on having their lives upended after they had been compelled into internment camps throughout the Second World Conflict. 4:08
Shortly after Japan’s assault on Pearl Harbor, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzine King ordered the internment of Japanese Canadians residing in coastal B.C., citing fears of sabotage or co-ordination with Japan. Lots of them had been born and raised in Canada.
Practically 21,000 Japanese Canadians and their households had been compelled to go away their properties and livelihoods, and in lots of circumstances their, households. They misplaced most of their belongings and any sense of life they’d recognized.
Kai is amongst a number of of the final technology of internment camp survivors who now, a long time later, discover themselves reunited at Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care in northeastern Toronto. After the Second World Conflict, the federal authorities compelled the interned Japanese Canadians to go away the nation or re-settle additional east in Canada. Many selected to maneuver to Toronto, the place they rebuilt their lives from scratch.
Some, like Kai, by no means spoke a lot with their kids about what occurred again then.
“There have been occasions when my mother and father did not need to speak about it and when that occurred they spoke Japanese. Since I could not perceive it, that was kind of hidden to me,” Kai’s son, Brian, defined.
A thwarted life
Brian began interviewing his mom over the previous few years to create a report of her previous. However solely lately has she revealed the depths of her anger and the diploma to which the internment thwarted her life.
“I used to be mad. I used to be mad,” she admitted. “I deliberate to go to college.”
“I did not notice that college was a risk for her,” Brian stated, in shock. “I suppose due to the warfare I simply knew she could not go, however the truth that she truly entertained ideas of going is information to me.”
“That is the primary time I truly heard her say the phrase ‘mad’ to the truth that she needed to be moved into internment camps, so I feel I’ve realized just a few issues already,” he stated.
Separated from her household
After the assault on Pearl Harbor, Sue Kai, her mom, and her youthful brother had been shipped to Kaslo, B.C., roughly 200 kilometres east of Kelowna and 450 kilometres from their dwelling in Vancouver. They had been separated from the remainder of their household and lower off from the skin world.
“No newspaper, no radio, no nothing. We had been utterly … we did not even know what was occurring with the warfare. It is horrible to be lower out,” Kai stated, “After which all of the mail, when you obtained it, was censored. C-E-N-S-O-R … it is all black. So if I obtained a letter from my brother, half of it was all lower out, as a result of my brother complained.”
As a result of Kai was a highschool graduate, she was recruited to develop into a instructor in the neighborhood. Certainly one of her former college students, Yoshiye Suyama, 90, now lives in the identical Scarborough long-term care dwelling, and wasn’t shy telling her former instructor what she considered her.
“Oh, you was such a strict instructor,” Kai recalled being advised. “Properly, I did not notice it. However, I feel it is higher to be strict, and we at all times have giggle.”
“I used to be slightly brat,” Suyama stated.
Suyama was 11 when she was compelled to maneuver to Kaslo. Whereas she stated she has some completely happy reminiscences of residing within the city and taking part in within the woods, she remembers not wanting to go away her New Westminster dwelling.
“We left the whole lot,” she stated. “All I bear in mind is ‘I do not need to go.'”
“We solely moved as a result of they kicked us out. ‘J**s out!’ when the warfare began,” she stated, utilizing a racist time period that was generally used in opposition to Japanese folks on the time. “We needed to depart. We could not say ‘sure’ or ‘no.'”
Suyama’s daughter, Debbie Katsumi, says her mom did not communicate a lot about that point. However now she is studying extra in regards to the experiences from different households at her mother’s long-term care dwelling.
“I prefer to study as a part of the chit chat,” Katsumi stated. “It is enriching.”
Too painful to relive
Herb Sakaguchi, 97, additionally did not focus on his internment along with his kids. He was 17 when he was despatched to Slocan, B.C., an hour east of Kaslo.
Sakaguchi misplaced greater than his freedom — he misplaced his household dwelling in Kitsilano. The Canadian authorities sold the homes and companies of interned Japanese Canadians, together with the contents of their homes.
“What are you able to do? One man in opposition to a complete authorities,” Sakaguchi stated, slumped in his wheelchair. “It is simply accomplished. They did it. We obtained evacuated. I am nonetheless round. Mad as hell, however what can I do? It is completed now.”
“It was not one thing that we talked about,” stated his daughter, Jane Zielinski. “I simply assume that it was perhaps too painful for them to relive these reminiscences.”
“It is painful for me to consider what they should have gone by means of. If I put myself in that place and assume, ‘how would I’ve felt?’ Simply being advised to go away, pack a bag, depart the whole lot behind and relocate with plenty of different folks,” she stated.
In 1988, Canada formally apologized and compensated internment camp survivors $21,000 every.
“It was actually only a token as a result of they misplaced automobiles, the whole lot they owned, as a result of they may solely carry a lot,” Brian Kai stated.
“The household acquired a really small quantity for proudly owning a chunk of property in downtown Vancouver, which in all probability is price thousands and thousands of {dollars} now. It is very arduous to place a value on it as a result of it was a home that my grandfather constructed along with his personal fingers.”
Beginning over
Regardless of all of the loss they skilled, Sue Kai, Sakaguchi and Suyama spoke extensively about how completely happy they’re with how the lives they needed to rebuild turned out after the internment ended. All three are happy with the households they raised.
Whereas Kai laments not going to college due to the internment, she is proud that each her sons and all her grandchildren have college levels and had been capable of obtain what she couldn’t.
And, Sakaguchi believes had it not been for the internment and his compelled migration to Toronto, he would possibly by no means had met his spouse.
“It is the very best factor that occurred,” he joked. “Some guys would say, ‘you nut!'”
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