From Mio Symposium
From Mio Symposium, August 23, North Island College
by Lisa Domae and Sachiko Kawakami, co-directors, From Mio Project
On a sunny Saturday in August, over 150 Japanese Canadians gathered in-person at the Courtenay campus of North Island College and online to celebrate their shared ancestry from Mio, Wakayama, Japan. Mio a tiny, remote visiting village on the shores of Wakayama was one of the largest Japanese emigrant villages prior to World War 2. This one-day, JCLS-sponsored symposium provided Japanese Canadian attendees with knowledge about the lived experiences of the issei of Mio.
The event was held by the From Mio Project, a Canada-Japan public history group that works to revive the historic connections between Mio and coastal British Columbia. Three Japanese Canadian yonsei/gosei university students who have travelled to Mio study their roots opened the symposium by sharing what Mio means to them. Scholars of Mio from Japan, Canada and the United States followed with presentations on the story of Mio, the history of emigration from Mio, Mio Primary School, Japanese Canadian fishers of Ucluelet, the Matsunaga family of Campbell River and correspondence between Japan and Nanaimo during World War 2.
The From Mio project would like to thank William Domae-Garbutt, Nevin Alexander, Trinity Clark, Takae Mio, Sachiko Kawakami, Etsuko Higashi, Norifumi Kawahara, Masumi Izumi, Paul Kariya, Stan Kirk and Ian Baird for volunteering their time and knowledge to the symposium. Saturday’s event marks the third From Mio symposium, the first two were held in 2024 in Steveston and Mio, Wakayama respectively.
