Victoria's Japanese community eager to greet emperor
The Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society sponsors many traditional Japanese arts groups including the Taiko drumming group, performing here at the fall cultural fair.
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First of a three-part series
When Japanese Emperor Akihito arrives in Victoria next month, 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.”
rholmen@saanichnews.com
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