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1997, August, Powell Street Festival was full of entertainers who were Japanese Canadian, I especially appreciated the4 groups of taiko drummers. I talked to many people and this internee who was a POW from Angler talked with me from his retirement hotel. He collected "prize winning" letters in the mail that announced you won 5 or 10 million dollars. I hope he wins someday. In Vancouver I would wake up to the most incredible sunrises over the Pacific. |
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1996 June/July, the Kooteney's looking for the Japanese Canadian Internment Camps. The three of us, Fumiko Greenaway, and Millie Creighton, both from Vancouver. It was a 10 hour drive and 10 day trip through the Kooteney Mountains in search of a few of the Japanese Canadian Concentration camps. Fumiko took this picture of me as we were doing test shots of the Lemon Creek area where the camp used to be. We waited for the cows to go away and actually found renants from that camp time. |
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1997, September, visited Bryce Kanbara and his father, Tamio Kanbara, (interned at the Angler P.O.W camp). Bryce had visited the Angler P.O.W. site in August so he was very helpful in my search for directions to it. The Kanbara's were very helpful helping me xerox a copy of the Canadian apology letter. While visiting Toronto in Sept. I also took time out to take a taiko workshop in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It was the first time for me to try to play an instrument and quite different for me and very invigorating. |
1997, October, flew into Thunder Bay, Ontario, in the midst of moose mating season and the beginning of hunting season. Angler housed both a German Prisoner of War camp which later became the Japanese Canadian Prisoner of War camp. The forest was very thick, sutle colors of fall, and it was cold. I saw a bear the first day running around near the Angler area but no moose. Someone said that it was good luck. I thought it meant they were hungry. The Canadian camps are much harder to find. They have no markers. You have to find someone who has been there before to give exact directions and some one to guide you. Mr. Hibi in Thunder Bay told me how to get to Angler and showed me a video of their trip a few years ago. A wonderful couple , Cheryl Vosburgh, her husband, their two dogs were great tour guides. At the bed and breakfast in Thunder Bay the hostess did energy work and reflexology on me as well as served an incredible breakfast. It proved to be a spiritual journey as well, meditating in the middle of the lake on a rock, and searching in this incredible forest, what the locals call the bush.
1997, November, visited N.Y. City to talk to Mine Okubo and Yuri Kochiyama and photograph them. New York City has become a calmer city and felt almost safe to walk the streets. New York City for once seemed a liveable place for people.
1997, December, flew to L.A. to visit my family in Gardena. We were having a special Japanese New Year's day celebration with my uncle and Connie and her family and my sisters and brother. We said good by to my Mom's house. My mother had passed away in May. It was a sad time for us all and she will be missed. And we will miss the house too. Garrett Hongo and his two kids stopped by to visit with us and share the special New Years day.
