The Canadian Sansei (Heritage)

With 66,000 members the Japanese-Canadian community is one of the smallest ethnic communities in Canada. Originally concentrated on the West Coast, their population was dispersed following the expulsion and internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. In 1988 the redress of injustices to citizens interned during the war marked the end of a long fight that had united Japanese Canadians. The community has sensed a weakening of ties ever since.The Nisei, or second generation of Japanese Canadians who lived through the war, suffered massive discrimination. Scattered across the nation, their children, the Sansei or third generation, have little contact with other Japanese Canadians and have been fully integrated into mainstream society. Tomoko Makabe discovered in her interviews with thirty-six men and twenty-eight women that, in general, the Sansei don't speak Japanese; they marry outside of the Japanese community; and tend to be indifferent to their being Japanese Canadian. Many are upwardly mobile: they live in middle-class neighbourhoods, are well educated, and work as professionals. It's possible to speculate that the community will vanish with the fourth generation. But Makabe has some reservations. Ethnic identity can be sustained in more symbolic ways. With support and interest from the community at large, aspects of the structures, institutions, and identities of an ethnic group can become an integral part of the dominant culture. The Canadian Sansei is much more than an account of third-generation Japanese Canadians. Makabe's explorations reflect on aspects of history, culture, and identity in general as they relate to ethnic minorities in Canada and throughout the world.

The Canadian Sansei

Politics & Social Sciences

Makabe, Tomoko

Social Sciences

Univ of Toronto Pr

With 66,000 members the Japanese-Canadian community is one of the smallest ethnic communities in Canada. Originally concentrated on the West Coast, their population was dispersed following the expulsion and internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. In 1988 the redress of injustices to citizens interned during the war marked the end of a long fight that had united Japanese Canadians. The community has sensed a weakening of ties ever since.
The Nisei, or second generation of Japanese Canadians who lived through the war, suffered massive discrimination. Scattered across the nation, their children, the Sansei or third generation, have little contact with other Japanese Canadians and have been fully integrated into mainstream society. Tomoko Makabe discovered in her interviews with thirty-six men and twenty-eight women that, in general, the Sansei don't speak Japanese; they marry outside of the Japanese community; and tend to be indifferent to their being Japanese Canadian. Many are upwardly mobile: they live in middle-class neighbourhoods, are well educated, and work as professionals. It's possible to speculate that the community will vanish with the fourth generation. But Makabe has some reservations. Ethnic identity can be sustained in more symbolic ways. With support and interest from the community at large, aspects of the structures, institutions, and identities of an ethnic group can become an integral part of the dominant culture. 
The Canadian Sansei is much more than an account of third-generation Japanese Canadians. Makabe's explorations reflect on aspects of history, culture, and identity in general as they relate to ethnic minorities in Canada and throughout the world.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

University of Toronto Press

In the early twentieth century, many Asian women married men they met the first time at their weddings. The marriages were arranged by showing the prospective bride and groom photographs of each other. These women became known as picture brides.This is the story of five young Japanese women who came to Canada as picture brides in the 1920s. These strong-willed, 20-year-olds arrived determined "to work hard to make a lot of money". And, they did work hard - as domestics and as labourers on farms, in mines, and in lumber and fishing camps. None, however, ever became materially rich.Picture Brides is written in the oral tradition. The author, Dr. Tomoko Makabe, provides a two-chapter introduction and then lets Maki Fukushima, Hana Murata, Yasu Ishikawa, Tami Nakamura, and Miyo Hayashi speak for themselves.

Picture Brides: Japanese Women in Canada (Ethnocultural Voices)

History

Americas

Multicultural Historical Society of

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Books by Makabe, Tomoko