Norm Masaji Ibuki
@MasajiWriter Norm Masaji Ibuki lives in Oakville, Ontario. He has written extensively about the Canadian Nikkei community since the early 1990s. He wrote a monthly series of articles (1995-2004) for the Nikkei Voice newspaper (Toronto) which chronicled his experiences while in Sendai, Japan. Norm now teaches elementary school and continues to write for various publications.
Updated August 2014
Stories from This Author
An intimate conversation with “Torn Apart” author Susan Aihoshi
April 4, 2012 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
This year, all Canadians, especially those of us of Japanese descent, should take a special moment to meditate on what happened to our community just 70 years ago when our right to be Canadian was challenged in ways that are unimaginable for anyone born after we were “Enemy Aliens.” On February 24, 1942 the lives of 21,000 Japanese Canadians who lived within British Columbia’s coastal 100-mile “exclusion zone” were shattered by Order-in-Council 1486. The order authorized the federal government to …
“Kizuna” One Year Later
March 28, 2012 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I’ll never forget the morning when I heard about the earthquake and tsunami that happened on March 11, 2011. It was a school day. I had just turned on the TV at around 7 as is my morning habit. It wasn’t long before I saw images of what looked to be an earthquake in Japan and, most shocking of all, in Sendai, the city where I had lived for eight years. The pictures were frantic, hysterical: the numbers on the …
Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi
March 5, 2012 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Friday, December 12, 1941“We’ve heard about some awful things happening to Jewish people in Germany because of the Nazis. That sounded so far away until now. I keep telling myself at least we live in Canada and those things can’t possibly happen to us.” —Susan Aihoshi, Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi One of the great challenges that the Nikkei community, particularly in Canada, has faced since the Redress victory (1988) is to educate our young people about …
Volunteerism: My New Year’s Resolution
Jan. 31, 2012 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I can’t imagine coming through a more turbulent year than 2011. On March 11th, everything changed and nobody that I know in the Tohoku area of Japan is unscathed. Friends there still have an unease and certain sense of disbelief in their voices as though surviving the cataclysm was some sort of miracle, which it was. The volunteerism that called many friends to help in Japan throughout 2011 planted the idea for this article some months ago. Another reason why I …
Finally... Retribution for 1942 University of British Columbia Nisei
Dec. 20, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Seventy years ago, 76 University of British Columbia students were not able to complete their degrees simply because they were of Japanese descent. On Wednesday, November 16, 2011, the University of British Columbia’s Senate Tributes Committee issued the following press release: The committee chair, Sally Thorne, wrote, “The University has taken seriously the need to find meaningful ways to provide solemn recognition of historical events.” “To acknowledge the 70th anniversary of the provincial internment policy in the spring of 2012, …
Linda Ohama’s Message of Hope for Tohoku
Nov. 8, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I am very proud to say that my friend film maker/poet/artist Linda Ohama of Vancouver has spearheaded some of the most ambitious relief efforts for the Tohoku tsunami and earthquake victims in Japan. Immediately after the March 11th catastrophe, Linda was organizing a fundraising concert that took place at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre that raised over $200,000 and featured classical pianist Jon Kimura Parker and the many other Vancouver and Lower Mainland artists. After that, she immediately launched a nationwide …
5 Months after the Disaster & So Much Yet To Do…
Oct. 11, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
After the disaster on March 11th, the narrative then takes on a life of its own. The stories are raw, shot-in-the-stomach visceral, agonizing; they ripped through the soul. We Nikkei around the world were scrambling to help in whatever way we could. The pain and suffering of the victims and the survivors was palpable and, personally, with so many friends in Sendai, which was spared the worse of it, the connection is there. There are so many stories. Tomo and …
70 Years After the University of British Columbia Nisei ‘Expulsion’
Oct. 4, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
The story of the Nisei who were “expelled” from the University of British Columbia in 1941-42 has struck a strong chord with our Nikkei community. Thanks largely to the efforts of retired B.C. high school teacher Mary Keiko Kitagawa, there is now a Canada-wide effort to right this 70-year-old wrong. On the surface, anyway, resolving this issue seems simple. The committee at UBC that is studying this should recommend that honorary degrees be given to the few Nisei survivors and …
Book Review: Adios to Tears
Sept. 21, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Adios to Tears is the remarkable story of a Japanese immigrant to Peru who lost his home and business and joined thousands of other innocent Japanese immigrants in Central and South America who ended up interned in American concentration camps during World War Two. What makes this autobiography, Adios to Tears: The Memoirs of a Japanese-Peruvian Internee in U.S. Concentration Camps by Seiichi Higashide (1909-1997) such a compelling read is that it traces the determined journey of his life from …
A Eulogy for Mom
July 12, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
My mother, Sumiko ‘Sue’ Ibuki (nee Hayashida) passed away suddenly on June 22, 2011. I’ve been meaning to write about her life for a while since the stories of our Canadian Nisei are quickly disappearing from the community coffers, as well, so, I hope that you will indulge me if I make some small amends for this at this time. Mom was born in New Westminister, British Columbia, on September 6, 1934, despite her birth certificate saying “Oct. 6th”. The …
