Creating and recreating community: Hiroshima and Canada 1891-1941
Date
2018-07-31
Authors
Ayukawa, Michiko Midge
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Abstract
This dissertation covers the political, economic, and social circumstances in Japan that led to the emigration from Hiroshima prefecture, and the lives and communities of these emigrants in Canada. It traces the gradual conversion of a sojourner society to family-centred communities with social relationships modelled upon the Hiroshima village societies the immigrants came from. Ostracized by white workers, exploited by the British Columbia entrepreneurs in a “split labour market,” and denigrated to second class citizenship by institutional racism, the pioneers nevertheless persevered and reared their Canadian-born nisei children to be Japanese Canadians. That is, they “acculturated” their offspring with Japanese language and traditions so that the nisei would be able both to function within the Japanese communities in Canada and would be proud of their heritage. The degree of acculturation of the nisei varied and was dependent on many factors: family goals, environments, time periods, as well as individual inclinations. This study employed both English and Japanese language sources including oral interviews of over fifty Hiroshima settlers and their descendants residing in Japan and in Canada.
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Japanese Canadians