Resilience and resources: JC Legacies at the 2026 OLA Super Conference
The theme of the 2026 OLA Super Conference, held January 29–30 in Toronto, was “We Persist.” For the Japanese Canadian community, these words carry historical weight, echoing the endurance of the issei and nisei through wartime exile and internment and the long road to rebuilding that followed.
As Canada’s largest continuing education event, the Ontario Library Association (OLA) conference provided an important platform for JC Legacies to engage with over 4,500 delegates and promote JapaneseCanadianHistory.com, a new web-based resource designed to bring authentic Japanese Canadian narratives into classrooms across the country.
Toronto: site of postwar rebuilding
Attending the OLA conference in Toronto was a symbolic nod to the post-war “scattering” of the community. Following the forced exile from the BC coast, thousands of Japanese Canadians were pushed eastward, eventually finding a new home and building a community in Ontario.
The first Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) opened in 1964, on land purchased by 75 community members who, in an act of faith, mortgaged their own homes and businesses to ensure future generations would have a place to gather. By bringing JC Legacies to Toronto, our BC-based society honours that foundational spirit of self-determination and the community that rose from the ashes of exile.
Literature as legacy
Education Brand Ambassador Jeff Chiba Stearns handed out signed copies of Tomey: The Unyielding Spirit of Tomekichi Homma. Written by Stearns and illustrated by Ally Adachi, and funded in part by a Community Projects grant, the book chronicles the life of Canada’s first social justice activist.
Stearns, who has reached over 50,000 students in the last three years through school talks, reminded us that these stories are most powerful when imparted personally. “By having someone whose family has been affected by this history speak, it comes from an authentic place,” he said. Jeff also promoted his other books, including graphic novel On Being Yukiko, a collaboration with Ontario’s Lillian Michiko Blakey and his soon-to-be-released historical fantasy graphic novel, Ojiichan’s Dragon, funded by a JC Legacies Arts grant.
Also sharing the booth was Toronto’s Lara Okihiro, who gave out signed copies of Obaasan’s Boots, cowritten with her cousin, BC teacher librarian Janice Bridger. Okihiro emphasized the urgency of this education: “If there was a time where this history needed to be talked about more than any other since WWII, it would be now.”
Toronto NAJC President Lynn Deutscher Kobayashi stopped by with advance copies of The Japanese Canadian Book of ABCs, illustrated by Kellen Hatanaka and Mia Ohki. This whimsical book, funded by a Community Projects grant, offers an accessible entry point into JC history; readers should stay tuned for news on the pending book launch.
New resource for secondary social studies
A new lesson package on JapaneseCanadianHistory.com is Andrea Phillpotts’ Patterns of Injustice. This three-lesson unit looks at the common patterns of injustice observed with Japanese Canadian history, how these patterns can be observed in today’s world, and what we can do to confront injustice in the present and future.
Big sounds and big ideas in the IdeaHUB
For JC Legacies, a rare taiko duet opened the first of two JC Legacies IdeaHUB sessions. John Endo Greenaway, a founding member of Vancouver’s Katari Taiko (Canada’s first taiko group), and Kiyoshi Nagata, a former member of Toronto Osuwa Daiko (Canada’s second taiko group), performed at the exhibition hall as the intro to the IdeaHUB presentation of Jeff Chiba Stearns.
Nagata reflected, “My parents lost a lot, they didn’t have the opportunities we had. I feel like through my art form, taiko, I am able to speak on my parents’ behalf.”
On Friday, a cross-generational collaboration featured John Greenaway opening the second IdeaHUB session with his daughter, Emiko Newman, a Toronto resident who has performed taiko since age 9.
