biiding
lp across
I
race [nes
desDlte
.l
;.
.1,
..1.
.':
'6iii
]: '.,'-':
Enomob hotrs plcture of her family bken durlng lYorld War
-'i
.
BY
and those living in a remote,
valley tovrn facing the hard-
MIC}IELLE SHEPFTARD
Kffip'.*,rrH:'.fr
aPartment.
Scarborough
r, ..ii..
. ...,. . ,.i.:).
:.:i-
Iaugh and cry about."
please don'tgo away
Dear Kslc.-webveWu"we
wont),o4 to stdy.
But if you must go awcy to
Japan
Please tbmeback agatn iust
csyou c{rf|.
And oh, how we?l miss you
os soon
.fromnow untilthen
't
So Cd-We and goodluch,
fromTootie nd,Ben-
Kana Enomoto did leave
Canadg the land of her birth,
to go to Japanlftr the end of
World Whr tr. Br[fe is badt
now, Sfespite thEnjustice
ilil*:Hffi1?f;"iT:;
movie
forms the basis of the
Behleqt Us (Sun at 8
The story focusses on the
ielationship between two
shamt
sides of
women
- on opposite
who over'
the racial divide
come fear and diser:st to forst
a binding friendshiP. It also
"Canada's
.
38 srenwreKmagazne
tel beside two figures of elderly Japanese men under a glass
.30. 1946,"-,the dateline reads.
ing Worldwhrl.
Dear Kana, we love you,
hprnco $dpt tE&
and Japan. A stone sculpture
page. j'Slocan City, BC.,'July
cared for.while a JapaneseCanadian interaee in a remote
area of British Columbia dur-
explores the relationshiP
between JaPanese-Cansdians
- of Canada
by a oilrural blend
Memories of her interment
cane flooding bad< recently as
Enomoto watched The War
Between Us. The movie, she
says, "captures the period
well There is just so much to
,
is influenced
wornan herself
ships of warti.ne.
White, dralk-like letters fill the
.It's a 5O-year-old goodbYe
note, frod the two girls she
ll
of a griz)y bear sits on a man-
cover. Beside Enomoto's
Reebok running shoes are her
petite slippers.
lnTheWar Between Us, Aya
Kawashima (based on
Enomoto's experiences and
played by Mieko Ouchf , her
Fifty years ago, Enomoto
struggled to car4f all her possessions in one zuitcase. Many
have since been lost or
brothec mother and father are
forced from their Vancouver
destroyed. But she says she
doesn t miss her lost treasures.
home to the interior city of
Slocan Valley, leaving with tit-
There's one she's alwap kept
her pride.
- Now
76, she vividly recalls
the tigre she was forced from
her Vancouver
tle more than their dignity. The
Parnham family becomes a
neighbor to the lGwashimas
and are among the town resi-
home.
'taps"
Government officials called it
dents who find the
an act of "national security.l
intiguing, yet sinisten
Japanese Canadians called
Despite the tension between
the two groups, a bond forss
between Aya . and Peg
Pamham (Shainon Lawson)
and her young daugbter MaryJean (played by Jane Hancock
it
"shamefrd"
Eiromoto, then 26, said she
was suspected of being connected to the "enemy" in the
freDzied months following the
1941 Japanese attack of Pearl
Harbon But she was born in
Vancouver and had only visit-
and
ed Japan once.
' Despite the treatment she
received from her Canadian
of her late
she slowly flips
Brenda
-
known to Enonoto
as "Ben," one of the authors
the poem to l{ana
of
"My mother can't even look
at that note she wrote to IGna
through old ' when she was 8. She has srctt
photo albums and lefters talking about times in Canada that
she describes as "some good
and some sa4"
Her
grandmother,
Frances Hid<s, and her mother
government, Enomoto does
not appear bitter or any less
loyal to her aiunEytoday. And
is proud.
as ahvap
, Sitting -she
on her cloth couch,
Ikyla Hogue).
Vancouver-based Sharon
Gibbon, 33, wrote the screenplay drawing on recollections
apartment; like
the
;
great memories of her and
remembers how sad she was
when she left," says Gibbons
from herWest Coast home.'
The decades-old emotions
'
Gibbon's family, but also
touched the cast and ctew of
;lhc l(mslrlrner
the monie.
An eerie scene of 100 bewildered extras being transported
to the newtown in open bucks
:rcomforbblr
IftsM?, kfq b
abruptt
at the beginning of their
tpl rn
rainy morning, affected many
of the actors and extras. ThL
authenticity of the momenr
was overwhelming for those
who had been through the
nmob &C.
b
rnterDment, shot on a gray,
ln
mor!
b
ltn ltrr
th
rnterntrrent.
One extra brought a coat
wiUr him for the shot.
It was
thg same one he'd worn 50
years earliqr
the day he was
.,.
interned.ap.ayoungmio,.
Los .::r,i..r- Angeles-based,'
^
.lapaneseiCanadian actor ..,"As mqly as
,
l.S_ofi{fwoutd
f,o-bert Ito {he portrays Aya's . slee.p under on6ilos{i.rito-net,lr ,
and there weie so many.f.r..
_father., Mr. t<awashimi) was a
boy during the internnent and
fheftc
ca'thefts,"t'cha
she says.
remembers when his father
was forced to work at a
Japanese labor carrp. The vet-
eran actor
marked by tragedy. Fouri
a mainstay on . montls after arriving, a de'ras-,
- series
the_long-running
euincy
M.E.
.ts
j
_-x9i ro y"&-io r"p*
fitled with numemus jobs","r"
and.
tating earthquake hit. A fire
later daimed most of her fani- :.
.
said the experiencl
- "alotof ghosts.,' .
resurrected
fs
The movie
ends with Aya's
decision to move to Japan after
her aging par€nts sign a cruel
was the thought of coming tlclo
'back to'her own country i^ 0udrl fid
deal with the goverament to
Ieave Qanada They could stay
in Slocan until thC end of th!
war, only if they agreed to
possessions.
What kept Enomoto going,;
Canada
"oh no,
I never marriea'ih \
Japarl" she laughs. ':I knew
.
I
"repatrials" to Japan.
But for Enomotg &s nightmare continued long after the
was coming back here. Once
Ey parents had died, I just
shrck it out to get my retiremeDt benefits and I was back,'
every night for three years,"
Enomoto closes the weathered photo albt"n-
war.
"I cried in my pillow '
she says, searching the couch
for her glasses. ..[ missgd Ett
my friends
rny life at
home.'
Arriving in a'torcign-' coun-
try, Enomoto was herded with
500 Japanese Canadians off a
$anrn
Lilsort
star ln lYer.
&trcEl
Uq
$ad
p.n o;
8
grc
'.
-
'Theywere so good to me in
Siocan, so good," she says as
she looks at her booklhelf
filled with photos of friends.
- "Not all the Eemories are
painfut But ifs good that p*
pleknowwhathappened-',
.
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-
STARWEEKrnagazine
39
The Japanese Canadians
When Canada and Japan went to war in December of 794'J',
British Columbians feared a Japanese invasion. They felt that
Canadians of Japanese origin might assist in such an invasion. Many fapanese Canadians earned their living by fishing,
and it was feared that spies could easily pass secrets to
Japanese submarines, or cooPerate if an invasion should occur.
Over the years there had been a great deal of prejudice
against immigrants from Japan, China, and India' There were
restrictions on how many were allowed to immigrate to
Canada. They were not allowed to vote in British Columbian
or in federal elections. Even those born in Canada were not allowed to vote unless they were veterans of the First World
War. Japanese Canadians were also denied entrance to the legal and medical professions in B.C. Despite these restrictions,
lzooo Japanese Canadians had made their home in Canada'
Almost immediately after the dcclaration of war against
Japan, 38 Japanese Canadians were arrested and 1200 fishing
boats were seized by the government. All Canadians of
governJapanese origin were reguired to register with the
ment, regardless of where they were born. Many Japanese
Canadians were refused when they tried to join the Canadian Army. Those who were successful in joining up had to
leave British Columbia to do so. When conscription for home
defence began in 1940, Japanese Canadians were exempt.
This meant that after the war they would not have to be
given the veterans'right to vote.
Fb. rg11 Jrptncsc crnrdlenr lorced to leavc thelr homct on thc B.C. co.!t
350
F19.73-12 An Inlemmcnt
camp ,o,
Jap!n6!e Canldlans
There was no evi-de11e that
any Japanese canadians
were
aidingJapan' rnr942"u uJzooo'i,ilu"u"
born in canada or
had taken out citizen;.l,rn.-O"*;"
there were constant
demands that these citizens
b"'r;;;;"d.
In
prime Minister
ary tg4z
M".k""ri" K;.;;il;d thatFebru
all
persons
of
Japanese ancestrv be interned,
i.li
them in the interior of
British Columbia. fn.
"r
it. The Japanese C"r,"di"r,r;"r" away their property
rounded up and
rorced into camps' There were
few
ces in the camps. Some people
"r*r""r
_."i"J,o
send
;il
g"i"."*"ii',la
::t:,1
""jiJffi;all Japanese
"trTlt;:i:,t'#":ilFi;::::"'spoke".iii"i"i"rr
The story of MatsumiJVtitsui
is typical. He had come
to
canada.as a voung tn"".
worrd war he
joined the Canadi".l
and r+,as
ery at the battle of VimyRid-se. ei*r, medals for his brav_
started a farm at port coguitl-am.
rr"", v"r,.ouver. He married and raised four chirdi"".
tgez thegovernment
took away his farm.
the Security Commis_
sion, ex-sergeant Mitsui was
so
war medals on the floor and
""t*"0 that he threw his
The Mitsui family w"s,broLen"rt
to inrernmenr
camps. After the war they
their lost farm.
ouJ'i,iJirrr,
l*y
AJa'natur;il;;,r*;:;"
ii";;
S,r-',or,Jil;;
"a,,;ilt";r;J;;;il:,;;;;J:."t
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i
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361