A category dedicated to the history of Japanese immigrants to Victoria and the west coast.
Researchers can be contacted by telephone or by email as follows:
Djuna Nagasaki 250.217.4342 djunalou@gmail.com and/or djnagasaki@uvic.ca
Jennifer Iredale 778.350.3602 jeniredale@hotmail.com
Kesia Nagata 778.202.7714 kesia.nagata@gmail.com
The deadline is June 30, 2024
Join us on August 6th to celebrate peace, launch lanterns, and enjoy Japanese culture! Reserve a spot and get the map link here on Eventbrite.
Honouring Peace is a free, family friendly event that will be held outdoors at the beautiful Japanese-style Gorge Park Pavilion, on the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Each year, peace is celebrated and its importance remembered through music, poetry, dance and drumming that moves and inspires us.
Lantern-making will begin at 7:00 pm on the outdoor porch of the Pavilion (all materials provided), and an educational display will be available indoors. The program will begin at 7:30 pm and end with the launching of the lanterns in the Pavilion reflecting pools at 9 pm. Among the performers and presenters will be:
People are asked to bring lawn chairs or a blanket if possible; for others, seating will be provided. A donation bottle will be passed for those who would like to contribute to the cost of the event.
Honouring Peace is supported by the Greater Victoria Peace School (GVPS), with support from the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society (VNCS), the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada (IPPNWC) and the Victoria Multifaith Society (VMS).
On Saturday October 29th, the Ucluelet & Area Historical Society is holding a round-table story-telling event, bringing together families of all three ethnic groups affected when the Japanese Canadians were removed from the coast, and particularly from the fishing village of Ucluelet where they made up one half the population, while First Nations plus White settlers were the other half.
Continue reading Remember – Recount – Reconcile
To register for this free event please see the Eventbrite details here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/honouring-peace-tickets-377660521787
If you are a survivor or a survivor family member of Mr. Gordon Goichi Nakayama’s abuse you are eligible to apply for healing funds. Counselling support is being offered immediately and we have a counsellor available who is able to help you with your application, whenever required.
Education grants will be collected and reviewed every semester. Education grants are valued at up to $10,000 and can be applied for retroactively to June 15, 2015. If you were undertaking postsecondary education on or after June 15, 2015, and are a survivor or survivor family member then you are eligible to apply for an education grant.
Pre-registration is required to attend our National Outreach Meeting. We will be discussing Healing Fund application forms and our other supports moving forward. Please Join us for this important meeting!
Guest Speaker Dr. Nicholas HarrisonDr. Harrison will speak on his personal experience with abuse and the lifelong act of healing from this trauma.
For more information his book Safe Space: A True Story of Faith, Betrayal, and the Power of the Force is for anyone who wants to understand how abuse continues to affect victims and their families long after the act.
Please join us on July 10, 2022 at the 80th Anniversary of Internment Luncheon taking place at the Hotel Grand Pacific from 1:00 to 4:30. We are gathering to honour the few remaining seniors who experienced first hand the internment, dispossession and forced dispersal of Japanese Canadians during WW II. The theme of gathering is “Okagesamade” – We are who we are because of you. It is because of their strength, perseverance and stoic efforts in overcoming the hardships they endured, that we are here today. The cost of this Anniversary Luncheon will only be $15 (JC survivors are guests at no charge). This highly subsidized price is because of the generous grant we received from the JC Survivor Health & Wellness Fund. Tickets for this event can only be purchased through Eventbrite.
https://vncs-internment-luncheon.eventbrite.ca
Please join us in honouring our JC survivors on July 10, 2022.
The Grand Opening of the new Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavilion will take place on June 18, 2022 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM. Come see this beautiful Japanese inspired building which includes a historical display in the lobby which honours the Japanese Canadian history of the Gorge Park. In addition to the ribbon cutting ceremony, there will be tours of the building and the VNCS Heritage Committee will be conducting tours of the Japanese Garden. Also on hand will be representatives from the Landscapes of Injustice Project to give information about the historical display. The Grand Opening is open to the public.
The BC provincial government will be making an important historic announcement with the Japanese Canadian community on May 21, 2022. The announcement is in collaboration with local BC Japanese Canadian communities and the National Association of Japanese Canadians.
The VNCS is organizing a viewing gathering. We believe that this significant historic announcement is an event to be shared together with other members of the Japanese-Canadian community. Please join us at:
University of Victoria
David Strong Building, Room C130
Saturday, May 21, 2022
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
August 6th and 9th, 2020.
Communities are invited to join in Bell ringing and “making a righteous noise” at the time of dropping of the bombs.
Individuals are invited to set a reminder and take a moment to reflect… “Set a chime for those times”
On Thursday, August 6 and Sunday, August 9 church bells, hand bells and other appropriate devices are to be rung across Vancouver Island at the time the bombs exploded: 8:15 AM on August 6 and 11:50 AM on August 9.
The Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society will ring the Morioka Friendship bell on David Foster Way.
Please join us. COVID-19 protocols for safety will be followed.
If you are planning on coming please email tsugkurushima@gmail.com.
All are invited to take part in the online educational event:
Thursday, August 6 at noon, a live Zoom presentation with a question and answer period on the current nuclear weapons threat, nuclear weapons and religious faith, and the public health and the environmental consequences of nuclear weapons. Register here to receive the Zoom Link.
Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford is past President of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, winner of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. She has twice been awarded the Governor General of Canada Award and has participated in humanitarian missions to North Korea.
Magritte Gordaneer from Victoria is a student at McGill University. She founded McGill Students for Peace and Disarmament, the university’s only student peace group. Magritte travelled to Hiroshima to participate in the Academy on Nuclear Weapons and Global Security presented by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr. Jonathan Down is President of Physicians for Global Survival. He is a pediatrician at the Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health in Victoria and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia and University of Victoria.
Moderator for the program is Bill Geimer, US army veteran and Professor of Law Emeritus, Washington and Lee University.
Send any questions to Bill Geimer at peacevetcanada@gmail.com
The week of 2-9 August, 2020 is to be designated as Hibakusha Remembrance Week honouring the survivors of the bombings.
Find out more about the VNCS.