Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Japanese Canadian Family

Japanese Canadian: What was it like growing up as a sansei — third-generation Japanese Canadian — in Toronto in the 1950s I grew up in the suburb of Willowdale, now known as North York, according to Toronto Star. We were the only Japanese Canadian family in an otherwise very Caucasian community. The financial adviser and former president of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre is recognized for his outstanding contributions to promoting friendly relations between Japan and Canada, introducing Japanese culture to Canadians and unifying the Japanese Canadian community. There was personal humiliation that we felt growing up.I remember other kids taunting me in kindergarten with rhymes like, ‘Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, what are these ’ and making slitty eyes with their fingers. We were taught to be honest, study hard, do your homework and be good kids.I remember Mom always said it was important to get a good education, because ‘no one could take that away from you.’ I didn’t realize until much later in life that she was referring to the British Columbian government action of confiscating all homes, businesses, cars, fishing boats and the livelihoods of all residents of Japanese descent on the West Coast and selling that for a pittance. Did you have any identity crisis as a child of parents who had been through the forced internment and resettlement by the Canadian government My parents, like most Japanese Canadian parents, never talked about their internment experience during World War II. They wanted us to be Canadian, so much so that they never even gave us Japanese middle names. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.