Fall Update
The Japanese Canadian Legacies Society heads into November overseeing a wide range of projects and initiatives across five legacy pillars: Community & Culture, Heritage Preservation, Monument, Seniors Health & Wellness, and Education. We provide this update as part of our responsibility and our promise to keep the community informed on our work every step of the way.
Community Fund 2 (Community & Culture)
Infrastructure and Legacy Infrastructure applications are set to close December 1, the final funding stream in Community Fund 2. Both categories are open to Japanese Canadian Organizations who own their building or property.
Legacy Infrastructure grants are specifically intended to ensure that the legacy of Japanese Canadians is kept alive through permanent, tangible projects that highlight the important contribution of Japanese Canadians to British Columbia from the 1870s up until 1942 and beyond. These projects will help shine a light on the strength and resilience that carried the community through those turbulent years when families were forced to rebuild from nothing following permanent dispossession. This is the legacy that we pass on to our children and grandchildren. Note that there are a limited number of infrastructure grants available. Priority will be given to Japanese Canadian organizations who are first-time applicants with the proven capacity to carry out projects of this scale within the stated timeline.
Community Projects and Legacy Community Projects applications are now closed and have gone to the Assessment Teams for evaluation. Thank you to the applicants who applied in both categories. We were pleased to see so many strong applications in Legacy Community Projects and anticipate a difficult and competitive adjudication process.
We continue to manage an incredible 1130 distinct projects in Community Fund 1 across six streams: Intergenerational Wellness, Community Projects, Infrastructure, Scholarships, Arts, and Sports. The funded projects are in various states of production and we thank the incredible work of the Community Fund staff led by Larissa Higo in managing these grants. We are grateful to the Advisory Teams and to the Assessment Teams that provide a clear, fair, and balanced adjudication process for all applicants.
Community Fund 1 (Community & Culture)
BC Heritage Sites (Heritage Preservation)
27 BC Heritage Sites projects are underway across British Columbia, stretching from the Southern Gulf Islands to as far north as Prince Rupert. While the sites in the interior of the province spotlight the Internment-era sites, the coastal heritage sites show how deep the pre-war roots of the Japanese Canadian community run. From fishing to farming to resource extraction, communities of varying sizes existed up and down the coast, with language schools, churches and temples, and businesses supporting burgeoning communities wherever they sprang up. We look forward to sharing the completed projects with the community over the next several years. Please watch our digital newsletter and social media as we make call outs for photographs and stories for the various sites. Your memories, stories, and photographs bring these heritage sites to life and provide a fuller picture of the pre-war community.
Japanese Canadian Monument Park (Monument)
As previously reported, a national design team has been chosen to design the Japanese Canadian Monument Park in Victoria BC. KMPB out of Toronto, led by founding partner Bruce Kuwabara in collaboration with Vancouver-based landscape architecture firm PFS Studio, represented by Kelty Miyoshi McKinnon.
The collaboration between east and west echoes the dispersal and destruction of the community when Japanese Canadians were given two stark choices after the war – move east of the Rockies or agree to be deported to Japan.
Yukon-based architect Jack Kobayashi of Kobayashi | Zedda Architects whose preliminary designs and consultant report – developed with the JCLS – helped produce the foundational elements of the project, has been engaged by the JCLS as the key advisor to the project.
With preliminary design work and research underway, the JCLS Database Team out of the University of Victoria led by Michael Abe has finalized the list of names that will be displayed on the Monument wall. The over 22,000 names of those displaced in 1942 will be listed according to pre-war place of origin, along with the names of over 3,000 children that were born after uprooting up until May 31, 1949, after which time Japanese Canadians were given full rights of citizenship, including the right to live anywhere in Canada. Thank you once again to the many Japanese Canadian survivors and descendants across the country who have quietly supported the Monument Database and Monument Project.
Japanese Canadian Survivors Health & Wellness Fund (Seniors Health & Wellness)
Since February 1, 2024, the Japanese Canadian Survivors Health and Wellness Fund team have received approximately 5,000 applications from Japanese Canadian Survivors. To date, 3,500 grants have been awarded to over 2,000 Survivors prioritized by age, health, and wellness needs. The Japanese Canadian Survivors Health and Wellness Society that oversees the fund thanks the Survivors and their families for their patience as they work through the many applications.
Teacher Education Resources (Education)
A team of teachers brought together from across BC is working with a core advisory committee of Masako Fukawa, Greg Miyanaga, Vivian Wakabayashi Rygnestad, and Connie Kadota, under the direction of Project Director Mike Perry-Whittingham to develop Teacher Education Resources. A digital learning hub dedicated to teaching Japanese Canadian history is being developed that will be open to educators as well as the public. We look forward to sharing the website with the community in the near future.
The work that we do across these legacy pillars is deep, grounded in a sense of responsibility to those that came before us, including our living elders who continue to inspire us. The history and legacy that we have inherited gives us purpose: keeping alive the stories of a community that was shattered and scattered across the country in the 1940s and building on that legacy across multiple initiatives. Through empowering community – from our elders to our youth – we build capacity, knowledge, and a sense of history so that we may strengthen community and our own understandings of who we are and where we come from. We are grateful to the community members who have engaged with us over the past number of years and who continue to ensure that we stay true to our purpose, vision, and approach to our work.