ONLINE SPECIAL: the following ran in the Saanich News as a three part series. You can read all of them here.

When Japanese Emperor Akihito arrives in Victoria this weekend, his trip promises to be quite different than his first to the city.

Relations between Canada and Japan were on the mend when the royal prince, then 19, toured Victoria in 1953.

While Akihito has fond memories of the city, it’s likely there wasn’t a single Japanese Canadian to welcome him. Only four years earlier, people of Japanese descent gained the vote in Canada.

The same year, the federal government allowed those exiled during the Second World War to return to their coastal homes. None of the 273 Victorians interned across the country came back.

This time around, however, an enthusiastic group of Japanese Canadians plan to greet him and his wife, Empress Michiko. They plan to meet at the airport both as they arrive July 10 and as they depart two days later.

Among them will be Mineko Matsumura, president of the Japanese Friendship Society of Victoria to which about 100 first-generation Japanese Canadians belong.

The club serves as a supportive group for immigrants who come together to speak Japanese and participate in a popular monthly karaoke party.

Although Matsumura’s lived in Victoria for nearly 30 years, she still has a strong attachment to the royal family.

It’s an attachment she can’t quite explain.

“I’ve never thought I’m one of those Japanese Japanese,” she said, laughing. Still, Matsumura said, it was a funny thing to swear an oath to Queen Elizabeth when she became a Canadian.

Japanese people feel very close to the emperor and empress, even the young and modern members of the society who are typically less traditional, she said. It’s like a little piece of home and many are asking for an opportunity to see the royal couple.

Only a select few, however, have received an invitation.

Among the invitees is Tsugio Kurushima, president of a different Japanese organization called the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society.

Although the two clubs sometimes organize events together, there is a gulf of language and experience between them.

The Nikkei Cultural Society brings together multi-generation Japanese Canadians, many of whose families lived through the internment.

The club serves to promote Japanese culture and it counts some non-Japanese among its membership of about 125.

Kurushima was born in Winnipeg the year after the Second World War ended.

While there was a small but tight-knit Japanese community there, Kurushima didn’t take part.

“You wanted to blend in; you wanted to be Canadian; you wanted to be white, really.”

Attitudes have since changed and Kurushima said he’s playing catch up with his own cultural traditions.

“For me, it’s a bit of coming out ... It’s important for the next generation to have access to their heritage.”

Part 2: Interned Japanese Victorian never gave up on home city

After all these years away, Yon Shimizu still thinks of Victoria as home.

It was 1942 and Shimizu was nearly finished Grade 12 when he and his family were forced to leave by the Canadian government.

During the the Second World War he worked in an Ontario labour camp and eventually settled nearby rather than risk returning.

“We married and had families,” said Shimizu from his home in Wallaceburg, Ont. “It was too big a risk (not knowing) whether we could be resettled.”

Still, his home city calls him back and he’s made the trip about eight times. Mostly to see friends from his Vic High class of 1942 but also, as he says, “to prove we were once there.”

To mark the 50th anniversary of Japanese internment, Shimizu organized a reunion visit with 67 survivors. They marked the occasion with a plaque in Centennial Square.

Shimizu remembers leaving his Government Street home to go to Hastings Park in Vancouver. There, he and all Japanese-Canadians waited to be relocated for weeks and months.

His family was housed in a cattle stall, but his memories of the time aren’t bitter.

“You had as much fun as you could make it,” he said.

Shimizu’s positive attitude isn’t unusual, said local historians Gordon and Ann-Lee Switzer. “The parents did not transmit their bitterness,” Ann-Lee said. Instead, they focused on moving on with their lives.

The Switzers are writing a book about the early Japanese community in Victoria. Shimizu, who wrote his own book detailing the internment camps, helped out by connecting them to relocated Japanese Victorians.

The history of Victoria’s pre-Second World War community is one that’s been passed over by academics until now, Gordon said.

The Switzers suspect it’s because the early Japanese Victorians were so well-integrated in the community. Without a distinct Japanese neighbourhood, there was no easy place to launch research.

The absence could also be explained by the fact that none of 273 Japanese Victorians exiled moved back to mark their place or care for the 152 graves of their ancestors. That job fell to the Nikkei Cultural Society, first formed under another name, and comprised mostly of Japanese-Canadians who moved to Victoria from elsewhere in the country.

Dick Nakamura has been involved as president, director or board member since retiring to Victoria in 1979.

Raised in Surrey, he was in Grade 11 when his family had to leave their strawberry farm behind and adjust to life as labourers on an Alberta sugar beet farm.

“The promise was that you’d get your farm back,” Nakamura said, adding he held on to the assurance for years.

Being torn from school was one of the hardest parts, he said.

His credits didn’t all transfer to the new school in nearby Magrath.

In summer he often had to miss days to help on the farm, and in winter he remembers his nose and ears blackened from frostbite during the seven-kilometre journey.

After the war, however, he found his place first as a Canadian Forces photographer followed by a government job.

For years, he fought for a government apology and when the redress was finally offered in 1988, he spent 12 years working to allocate the funds among recipient families.

“I learned a lot about the whole Japanese community ... Today I’m really happy about the way things went.”

Part 3: Emperor and empress will stay at Government House in two day visit

Enthusiasts of the Japanese imperial family will have a couple of opportunities to see the emperor and empress this weekend.

On Friday at 5:15 p.m., the public is invited to welcome emperor Akihito and his wife Michiko as they arrive at Government House from the airport.

The visit, which began in Ottawa on July 3, is part of a Canadian tour marking 80 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Emperor Akihito first visited Victoria in 1953, the year after the peace treaty with Japan took effect.

At that time, the 19 year old came as a representative of his father, Emperor Showa.

“The official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia in Victoria ... was, in fact, the place where I spent my first night ever in a foreign country,” wrote Akihito in a press release.

On Saturday (July 11), the public will get their second chance to exchange greetings with the royal couple as they tour the B.C. legislature.

After meeting Premier Gordon Campbell, Akihito and Michiko will leave the building out the main gate on their way to the motorcade. People are welcome to gather outside the main entrance at 10:30 a.m.

Next, the majesties head to Government House for lunch and a meeting with select members of the Japanese-Canadian community.

Finally, on Sunday the emperor will make his last stop at the Institute of Ocean Sciences near Sidney.

There, they’ll learn about the institute’s seafloor observatory, project NEPTUNE. They’ll also hear presentations by scientists.

“The emperor is quite interested in fisheries issues and sciences,” said Diane Lake, communications officer with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

After arriving at the airport, the emperor and empress will fly to Vancouver, which marks the last stop on their Canadian tour.

rholmen@saanichnews.com