Feature.

Connected
to the past

 

One mans experience living through

and beyond being int erned

 

By Joel MacKenzie,
Staff Writer

akoto Ikuta, a

Japan-born, retired
high school chemistry
teacher, sees the sun yel-
low. In other words, he
identifies as a Canadian.

People from Japan
see the sun as it is
reflected in their national
flag, ‘The Setting Sun.’
Mak, as Makoto goes
by, explains. “So if you
ask them ‘What colour
is the sun?’ and they say
‘Red,’ you know they
haven’t converted,”
he says, laughing.

Most of Mak’s life
has been in Canada; he’s
only been to Japan 10
times. But, while living
in Canada from 1942 to

1947, he did not share
the same rights as the
average Canadian
citizen. Under the
suspicion of espionage
and sabotage, his family,
and over 21,000 people
of Japanese descent were
deported inland, at least
100 kilometres away

66

from the west coast.

In 1941, after Japan’s
attack on the American
naval base Pearl Harbour,
the Canadian federal
government became
paranoid about the
Japanese people living in
coastal BC: many of them
worked in the fishing
industry, in close proxim-

in Canada

ity to the Pacific Ocean
coast that BC shares
with Japan. In 1942, with
Mackenzie King acting
as Prime Minister, the
government interned

all people of Japanese
descent in BC to loca-
tions at least 100 miles
from the west coast.

The people were
given the choice of
moving into camps or
inland workplaces, both
with a daytime curfew.
The internment camps
reportedly lacked decent
living conditions, like
adequate heating and
food. And the work was
mostly hard labour, like

railway construction and
farm work. Mak’s father
wanted him, his brothers,
and his sisters to con-
tinue their education, so
they moved to Raymond,
Alberta to work on
a sugar beet farm.

For Mak, the move
proved difficult because

In 1942, with Mackenzie King acting as Prime Minister,
the government interned all people of Japanese descent
in BCto locations at least 100 miles from the west coast.

he had never done any
farm work prior to the
relocation. As a 13-year-
old who was used to
schoolwork, the hoeing,
weeding, sorting, and
processing of sugar
beets was a big change.
“Rows and rows” of
sugar beets “seemed, at
the time, endless,” he

   

remembers, laughing.
And the work was “Cold,
too. Hands would get
really, really cold.”

But in a time when
his family was moved
and forced to work
labour jobs, Mak didn’t
become cynical. Rather,
he turned to his culture
for comfort. “The
Japanese have a saying:
‘shikata ga nai, shikata
ga nai,’ which means,
‘can’t be helped, can’t
be helped.’ In time of
war, it can’t be helped.”

This phrase might be
the epitome of the calm,
collectivist Japanese atti-
tude that allows its peo-
ple to maintain calamity
and dignity during times
of tragedy. Rather than

an admission
of defeat, the
| phrase
4 should