Portraits of the Community - Japanese Canadians
Hide Hyodo Shimizu
The Internment Camp Teacher
TORONTO STAR ARCHIVES/TORONTO STAR "HIDE HYODO SHIMIZU HIDE HYODO TEACHING CHILDREN DETAINED AT HASTINGS PARK, VANCOUVER, IN 1942. WITH HER ARE MIDORI JANE, AGE 6, AND NAOMI, AGE 10"
Hide Hyodo Shimizu was a second generation born Japanese (also referred to as nisei) Canadian schoolteacher in British Columbia. Shimizu was one of the first nisei to become a teacher in British Columbia, others had become teachers before her, but not in British Columbia, where anti-Asian sentiments were highest.
Shimizu received her first teaching job at Lord Byng Elementary School. The government appointed her because they though she could speak Japanese, the previous teacher having resigned due to the fact that she could not communicate with her majority Japanese class. Despite being born to Japanese speaking parents, Shimizu herself could not speak the language, there were few Japanese Canadians in her neighborhood, and no language school.
When war with Japan broke out in 1941, Shimizu, among countless others was required to register with the RCMP. She was brought with many other Japanese Canadians to Hastings Park, where Japanese Canadians from the greater Vancouver area were kept until the government decided to move them further inland. Shimizu taught many of the children at Hasting’s Park, before eventually quitting at Lord Byng to teach at Hastings full time.
Her and many others had their belongings confiscated. They were forbidden to own radios, firearms, and boats. The sale of gasoline was also restricted. This of course is just the official list; sources report the confiscation of many other personal items. The taking of boats was particularly harmful to the fishermen who of course needed their vessels to support themselves and their families.
Shimizu found herself moved inland where she worked to train teachers and set up schools inside the internment camps. Around 130 people were trained by her to be teachers in the internment camps. She would travel between the camps every month to oversee and supervise the education.
The government kept a close eye on her as she worked under close supervision. The government provided almost no support, relieving itself of the responsibility entirely in 1943. They were provided with no textbooks or other educational supplies, yet they still managed to have their students do well on government tests. Shimizu had to source and supply all the necessary school equipment for the many different classes herself.
Later in life, Shimizu was involved in petitioning the government for a formal apology which finally came in 1988 under the leadership of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a formal apology, as well as $21,000 was offered to the survivors of the internment camps. Shimizu also became the president of the Ghost Town Teachers Historical Society, which works to document the personal experiences of the teachers in the internment camps.
Tomekichi Homma
The Man Who Fought for the Rights of Japanese Fishermen
YOSHIMARU ABE COLLECTION, NIKKEI NATIONAL MUSEUM, 2013.54.4 TOMEKICHI HOMMA
Tomekichi Homma was a Japanese Immigrant and naturalized citizen living in Stevenston, British Columbia around the turn of the century. He arrived in Canada in 1883 and was naturalized by 1896. Homma was one of the leaders of the Japanese Fisherman’s Benevolent Society in Stevenston. The society was formed in order to represent the interests of the Japanese fishermen in the province, as the White-run fishermen’s unions would not accept the Japanese fishermen.
Groups to represent fishermen were essential at this time, as canneries had switched their models, no longer did they pay a fixed rate, but per fish. This disrupted the fishermen greatly, as fishing in BC is a highly seasonal industry, dependant on the spawning of salmon. In 1900, before the 1901 season, canneries took measures to reduce the amount they would pay fishermen, with canneries banding together to fix prices. This prompted an alliance of fishermen to strike against the canneries, demanding higher rates. Indigenous, White, and Japanese groups all campaigned together.
Homma himself fought for suffrage in 1900, attempting to register himself to vote. When he was denied his right, he promptly sued the Provincial Government of British Columbia. Homma was able to take his lawsuit all the way to the top, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the then highest court in Canada. They ultimately ruled against him, ruling that provinces had the right to determine who could and could not vote in elections.
Homma would later find himself swept up along with countless other Japanese Canadians in the internment camp system brought about during the Second World War. He would die in one of these detention camps in 1945, never living to see the right to vote that he fought so hard for granted to Japanese Canadians.
Homma would later have an elementary school in Steveston British Columbia named in his honour.