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
The Hamilton Nisei Baseball League in Canada - Part 2
June 20, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >> George Masuda was born in Vancouver in 1928. After completing Model Elementary school, he went to King Edward High School and was in grade 9 when the war started. The family was first interned in New Denver then Tashme. The family settled in Hamilton in 1946. After finishing high school, George worked as a metallurgist with Stelco Steel. Married to Carol, he has two daughters: Kathy who passed away young and Marcia who lives in Port …
The Hamilton Nisei Baseball League in Canada - Part 1
June 13, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Whenever I get together with Nisei these days to recollect the “old days” that invariably mean the years of internment and immediately after the war, the names, dates and places are, like the sepia-tone pictures, beginning to fade and brown around the edges. The details of our collective story are beginning to be forgotten before they have even really been told, really. When you look at this team picture from Hamilton, are any of the faces familiar? Do any of …
The Essence of “Kizuna”: One Month after the Tohoku Disaster
May 11, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
I am writing this on April 24th, more than a month after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the coastal and inland areas of Tohoku Region in eastern Japan. Many thoughts are running through my mind at this point: the “incomplete” media coverage of this issue; the sudden jump from Level 5 to Level 7 at the Fukushima nuclear plant and my friend Shogo Horiuchi who lives 35 kilometers away from there; my friend Senji Kurosu in Sendai who continues …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 9
May 3, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 8 >>This is a recreation of my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko told me.Ambassador of Canada to Japan – Message to Canadians in Japan The massive earthquake and tsunami, and resulting destruction of major energy and other infrastructure, is a tragedy of monumental proportions. All Canadians share the shock and grief of Japan’s people, …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 8
May 2, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 7 >>This is a recreation of my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko told me.Wednesday, March 23 Norm, Looting in Sendai! Got any details? What looting? Yes we have some people going in there and some lights are on. but I guess if someone wants to loot us, they will. The police are often slow …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 7
April 30, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 6 >>This is a recreation of my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko told me.WEEK 2Saturday, March 19 Hi Yuri, My friend Tomo and his family are in Tokyo now and trying to get to Vancouver. He just bought a house in Sendai in 2010 and has nothing here. His sister is living in Vancouver …
The Great Tohoku Disaster: Christopher’s Story - Part 2
April 21, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 1 >>Reaction from family back homeMy family were also incredibly understanding and supportive for me throughout, saying that although they were worried, they would understand whatever decision I chose to make with regards to staying or going. They also very sensibly took my advice to ignore the dreadful sensationalist news reporting on the nuclear plant, sticking to the fact-based reporting that I directed them to, which calmed some of their worries. I’ll admit that it’s been very hard …
The Great Tohoku Disaster: Christopher’s Story - Part 1
April 20, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
As I write this latest entry to the Great Tohoku Disaster (there is a lot more to come), I do so after the 7.1 magnitude aftershock of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami that has changed the Tohoku Region of Japan forever. “How much more can those people take?” I wonder. Getting new news about Japan is becoming more and more difficult as the possibility of a nuclear disaster diminishes and the attention deficit-suffering media shifts its focus on to …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 6
April 16, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 5 >>This is a recreation of my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko told me.Thursday, March 17Hi Marnie, Got the following from my friend’s sister in Vancouver: Hello everyone:Tomo called about 1/2 hour ago. Foreign Affairs finally came through and called them—they have reserved 3 seats on an Aussie bus and they are making their way …
The Great Tohoku Disaster - Part 5
April 11, 2011 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 4 >>This is a recreation of my personal experiences from the e-mails that I sent to friends in Canada and Japan, TV news reports in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and from what my wife Akiko told me.Wednesday, March 16 Hi Norm,My name is Marnie and I was reading your article re: returning to Sendai that you wrote for Discover Nikkei.I am particularly interested in story about Kurosu Senji. Many years ago I lived in Sendai as a …
