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20140216

BC Government and Vancouver Owe Japanese-Canadian Community a Lot (satire)

Currently I am reading Frank Maikawa's memoirs.

Basically the Maikawa's owned Japtown. That would actually make them the Big Boss of Japtown.

The BC government stole the Maikawa fortune, which probably was worth over $1 million ($10 million in 2014).

It was the theft by the BC government at the time that hit the Japanese community hard. Combined with the "repatriation or go East" edict by Ottawa, that destroyed Japtown.

Overall, I would estimate Japanese-Canadians lost $100 million in 2014 dollars of property and confiscated money in banks.

In short, the symbolic $21000 per surviving internment camp Japanese was cheaper than actually compensating the Japanese community.

Any apology by Ottawa, the BC government and the city of Vancouver is hollow because there actually wasn't a heartfelt effort to compensate the community. Indeed, neither the BC government or Vancouver even offered a compensation package. This is mainly because supposedly it was the federal government's responsibility.

This is a fallacy: a BC government agency stole property and money from the Japanese Canadians. This means that the BC government is responsible for creating that compensation package, even if it means a Japanese-Canadian whose deceased parents and/or grandparents were in the internment camps, then they get a BC government grant for post-secondary education. Instead, Victoria MLAs pass the buck onto to Ottawa.

Apparently the BC government and the city of Vancouver only want to attract Japanese who can afford to live in the Oppenheimer area e.g. make money from them.

Therefore any attempt to revive Japtown is for heritage purposes because that brings in tourist dollars. Furthermore, most Japanese-Canadians probably do not even know Vancouver wants to revive Japtown. That's because for them, Japtown died in 1942.

Vancouver is still shafting the Japanese-Canadians as is the BC government.

Reference:

Frank Maikawa's Evolution of a Canadian Enemy Alien: http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2013/3/6/frank-maikawa-1/

Possible proof Japtown business associations might have been like Yakuza: http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2013/04/17/frank-maikawa-7/

"When the internment time came upon us, the J-town business association organization that they belonged to (certain individuals in there) apparently made arrangements with the government, not having to go to the government’s set up internment camps but instead go to partially vacated ghost towns just beyond the 100-mile limit zone from the coast.

Thinking that the war would end quickly, father chose to go to Bridge River where we had to support ourselves without government help. Some of the organization’s leaders went to Minto, another internment camp which was just over the mountain from us. Although we were not allowed to own cars and were confiscated, once in awhile they came to Bridge River in a black limousine, five men dressed in dark suits with fedora hats to visit all households. I saw my father coming out from his room to hand them some cash. I was always snooping around and seeing gangster type movies before, to me it appeared as if they were collecting protection money like the Mafia or the equivalent Japanese Yakuza — who knows, just my thought at that time."

Respecting your elders: http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2013/03/20/frank-maikawa-3/

"Respecting Your Elders

As for showing respect to elders, it was an old Japanese traditional way of teaching for the oldest one to always be a good role model and the younger ones to follow and Mr. Hayashi was just that so had the respect. I can attest to that as I saw it all the while he was around us. Even my mother made Amy call me “ni-chan” and would correct her always if Amy called me by name (and here I knew that I wasn’t a good role model but it made me try at least, so I guess that’s the main reason behind this tradition/culture).

I’ve never seen my father address his brother as Tomekichi and always called him “ni-san” whenever he visited us from Japan. Tokio-san and Sadao-san (another Maikawa from the fish store side) were father’s nephews but they were more like Dad’s little brothers and had special close relations and ties together and they called Dad, Bun-chan. Dad called them Tokio and Sadao as he was older.

Everybody worked in harmony with each other like brothers (even if they were non-blood related) and I didn’t notice any friction at all. Everybody close called my father “Bun-chan”. Anybody listening would notice that they were close without being told. There’s more to it with this old Japanese traditional value system that meets the present day eyes of our children who might think what I’m saying doesn’t make sense in this present age."

Any Japanese in the diasphora who disagrees with this kind of thinking isn't really Japanese anymore.

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