TO NAJC – October Update

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE & B.C. REDRESS UPDATE

B.C. REDRESS REPORT UPDATE (October 28, 2019)

Release of the B.C. Redress Community Council report has been delayed from October 16th as announced at the September 28th NAJC Community Council meeting to early November. Information will be posted here as soon as available. A Toronto NAJC community meeting will be held in mid to late November to answer questions about the report and next steps. Toronto NAJC Board members will be available to present the report and answer questions to organizations and their Boards.

Dear friends,

September was an action-packed month that found us involved in the following activities.

COPANI XX SAN FRANCISO

Four Toronto NAJC members attended this Pan-American Nikkei conference which took place September 20th to 22nd. Jun Cura-Bongolan was chosen as an NAJC Young Leader Representative and Board members Lynn Deutscher Kobayashi, Chapter President and Janet Sakauye, Membership represented the Chapter. Maryka Omatsu took part in the Social Justice workshop. Her video Swimming Upstream made a deep impression on the audience and helped tie together the wartime experiences of Nikkei across the Americas which affected close to 150,000 Nikkei. We learned more about the deportation of Latin American Nikkei to the U.S. with some sent to Japan in exchange for U.S. POW’s. This a complex story that is not fully known and was not resolved by the U.S. Redress agreement and apology for the 120,000 Japanese Americans interned.

The Keynote Speaker was Norman Yoshio Mineta, an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party who served under Bush and Clinton. He was in President George W. Bush’s Cabinet as the United States Secretary of Transportation, the only Democratic Cabinet Secretary in the Bush administration. He implored the audience repeatedly to get involved at the grassroots, community level in order to make a difference.

The weather was ideal especially for the welcome reception hosted at the Japanese Consul General’s residence. It was a festive and much appreciated gesture.

B.C. REDRESS

An NAJC community council call took place on September 28th. On that call the Toronto Board asserted the following to the NAJC Executive Board. If this campaign is to be in anyway meaningful those outside of BC, particularly Toronto, the largest city centre must be included in the process. As well, a significant apology must be accompanied by funds to enable most of the suggestions generated by the community through the consultation. An insignificant dollar amount is meaningless. We asked for transparency and community input as to the amount being requested by the NAJC.

The Toronto Board thanked Art Miki and Maryka Omatsu for their untiring and inspirational leadership and work ethic through more than four decades of seeking justice for our community.

The report is due to be made public on October 16th.

SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE

We want to thank Social Justice Committee member Stephane Hamade for bringing to the attention the misuse of an internment era photo by Maxime Bernier of the PPC. His FB posts on the matter also generated awareness and discussion of this deeply disturbing incident. Check the www.najc.ca to see the subsequent statement.

“A PLACE OF PRIDE” Raymond Moriyama and the Japanese Cultural Centre.

Project Director/Curator John Ota

This photo exhibit at the current Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) opened on September 22^nd to honour renowned architect Raymond Moriyama on his 90^th birthday. Mr. Moriyama designed the original Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) in the early 1960s.  Board member Ron Shimizu toured the original JCCC building as part of the opening during which Mr. Moriyama provided comments on the design and building process.  

Mr. Moriyama received the commission to design the original JCCC at 123 Wynford Drive early in his career at the age of 28. The commission came with severe budget restrictions and required careful planning.   He reflected that the JC community in the early 60s was not rich and had scraped together only enough resources to buy property on which to build a centre.  To find a suitable and affordable location Raymond and his wife Sachi researched records to see where most JCs lived in Toronto and found they were centred in the Spadina-Dundas area known as” the garment area”.  Organizers found an affordable property in the Don Mills and Eglinton area, considered “the outskirts” at the time. The purchase raised a lot of criticism from the community for because of it.

Since banks would only grant a building mortgage if there were guarantors. Raymond gave kudos to the 75 families who each mortgaged their homes for $3000, a lot of money in those days, to enable the project to proceed.   

He created a unique building design which reflected JC history as well as hinting at its Japanese roots and his respect for the natural setting.  He explained that the vertical wooden bars in the main auditorium’s tall upper windows represented the imprisonment of JCs in internment camps during WW2, but he purposely left the lower windows at eye level clear, without obstructions, representing JCs outward and forward looking views of freedom in the post war era.  He visited Japan to view Japanese design features some of which he adapted to the Canadian setting.  Further, he integrated the building design wonderfully into the unique ravine setting of the property so that visitors could enjoy the natural features of the property.   

Eventually, the JCCC had to move to accommodate growing programs and membership and building restrictions did not allow for expansion on this site. The building was acquired by philanthropist Dr. Hassanali Lakhani, for a Centre of Islamic Studies and was named the Noor Cultural Centre (NCC).  Fortunately, the late Dr Lakhani recognized the beauty and value of Moriyama’s “masterpiece” and retained Raymond to adapt the building to its new use.  These changes were carefully made to keep the essence of the place while adding suitable interior design features to accommodate Islamic religious practices.  As a result, the building stands as a wonderful statement of cultural bridging between communities of shared basic values.    

The exhibit will be on display until January 31, 2020.  The principal organizer of the exhibit is John Ota, artist and architect who is a member of the Board of Directors of the JCCC.   Funding assistance was provided by the Community Development Fund of the National Association of Japanese Canadians.                       

HOW JAPANESE CANADIANS SHAPED THE CONSTITUTION

Presented by the Toronto NAJC

Thursday, November 7, 2019 | 6:30 to 8:30 PM

University of Toronto, St. George Campus

121 St. Joseph Street (corner Queen’s Park), Alumni Hall 400

A couple of weeks past we celebrated the 31st Anniversary of Redress. Hurrah! In this spirit we invite you to attend a lecture by Dr. Eric Adams, Professor of Law, University of Alberta on Thursday, November 7, 2019 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Like the classic works on Japanese Canadian history; “The Enemy That Never Was” by Ken Adachi and the “Politics of Racism” by Ann Gomer Sunahara, this lecture is a game-changer for Japanese Canadians. Whether you need to be convinced of the rationale for B.C. Redress or you would like to be better informed of JC history you will learn much about how the old boys legal and political network of British Columbia was stacked against those with the courage to assert the rights of Japanese Canadians citizens.

While Dr. Adams has lectured on “Constitutional Wrongs: The Internment, Dispossession and Exile of Japanese Canadians” at Oxford University, as an academic visitor, he has yet to deliver a lecture on this theme in Toronto. The recipient of several awards for his research and teaching, Professor Adams publishes in the fields of constitutional law, legal history, and human rights. He leads the legal team of the Landscapes of Injustice, research project. We are grateful for the sponsorship support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation

Reserve your seat now. We are nearly halfway to our target audience and have begun releasing information to the general public.

We are grateful for the sponsorship support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.  

TICKETS: $5.00 buy online at www.torontonajc.ca/events

FREE: for Toronto NAJC Members but you must register at www.torontonajc.ca/events

JOIN the Toronto NAJC online www.torontonajc.ca/membership

Contact us at: torontonajc@gmail.com or 416-317-9726