My Grandfather

My Japanese grandfather, Sansuke Kawamoto, was lured by dreams of riches in Canada, traveled from Meiji Japan at the age of sixteen, destined for Victoria, BC. His intent was to send money back to his family of six in Yanai, Yamaguchi-ken. After hand tilling land in the Fraser Valley and building a shack in Haney, he felt ready to call over a picture bride from the same village in 1906. After a year of paperwork, my grandmother, Kiko Kawamoto, arrived in 1907 on the SS Keemun, just after an anti Asian riot on Powell Street in Vancouver.

Unfortunately, they discovered that along with potential wealth came much discrimination towards Japanese immigrants. They were not allowed to serve the country they were loyal to in the Second World War, and were displaced to internment camps when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

Yet the family bribed the BC government to live in Lilooet, and after the war, settled in Vernon, BC, watched over by a WW1 vet.

The True Meaning of a Name

My family name in Romaji is: 川本 (Kawamoto)

"Moto" in this context refers to a long thing, "river". So it may indirectly refer to life, since the word "moto" may mean "true" or "real".

My Japanese given name in Romaji is: 尚 (Hisashi)

"Hisashi" translates as the following: "{esteem} {furthermore} {still} {yet}", and may be related to "a long life" or "longevity".

Here are a list of ideograms "hisashi" returns: 永亀九恒寿尚庇弥亘壽廂廡彌恆梠檐簷龜

亀, 簷, and 龜 refer to "tortoise", which is a symbol of longevity.

So, "Kawamoto" can mean "the river which is true and real" which is a euphenism for "life" while "Hisashi" means "a very long time".

Indeed, Kawamoto Hisashi (川本尚) can mean "life which leads for a very long time", but may also symbolize "the wisdom of old age". Though, a simple translation from Chinese to English shows that it means "this is still", which may refer to one's life or one's heart.

Websites used to research Japanese names:
Kanji Romaji Hiragana: http://j-talk.com/nihongo
Romaji to Kanji: http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~danken/kanjidic.html